You're tired of your wallet getting screwed over
by greedy GPU manufacturers.
So you get mad at me.
For what?
Not crying hard enough on your behalf?
That's not how this works.
That's not how any of this works.
If prices are out of control,
it's because gamers keep paying them.
So if you're not happy, do something.
Here, allow me to demonstrate.
Ooh.
Oh, bravo, Linus.
You patronizing Canadian.
You have more GPUs than any man could hope to use
in a lifetime.
Your performative little boycott means nothing.
That's true, but yours means a lot.
And you don't even have to put off
your next system upgrade to do it.
All you need is a little bit of scrapyard war spirit.
Thanks to a combination of factors,
whether it's the GPU mining crash
or pandemic gamers who are no longer finding time
for the hobby, there's a veritable abundance
of secondhand GPUs out there.
So let's do some deal hunting, shall we?
Oh, and some sponsor hunting.
I begged Paradox.
Their hit 4X strategy game Stellaris
is free to play this weekend.
Check it out starting on the 22nd on Steam
or at the link down below.
The main advantages to buying new
are that it's fast, convenient and covered by warranty
in the event that something goes wrong.
So secondhand shopping is not for everyone,
but by following some simple guidelines,
it is a great way to save money.
Rule number one, if it seems too good to be true,
it probably is.
Look at this, a 6,900 XT for just 300 bucks.
Oh wait, parts only.
Parts only is just another way of saying e-waste.
It is possible that with the soldering skills
of Lewis Rossman you could salvage it,
but even then it wouldn't be a guarantee
and you are not gonna be getting your money back
if you fail.
So look closely at every listing and use your common sense.
Rule number two is to trust your gut.
If a seller gives you any indication,
I mean at all, that they're sketchy, bail hard.
There are plenty of other fish in the sea.
Common examples of sketchy behavior,
at least for in-person pickups,
include things like refusing to send you a picture
of their car or what they look like
to facilitate meeting up,
or if they refuse to meet in a well-lit public place.
And then probably the biggest red flag
for an online transaction would be trying to move the deal
off of the platform where it's advertised,
say for example eBay, and then demanding payment upfront.
Now eBay does have high transaction fees,
so I can understand why even a legitimate seller
might wanna try to avoid paying them.
But the thing is, those transaction fees
are for your benefit in the form of extremely strong
buyer protections.
And as soon as you send the money off platform,
it's basically up to the honor code of the individual seller
to put your order in the mail.
So good luck with that.
Which isn't to say that you have to buy on eBay.
In fact, the best deal that we tracked down
was on a classified site, Facebook Marketplace to be exact.
And we're on our way there right now.
Though I realize I've gotten ahead of myself
a little bit here.
First, we need to decide what to buy.
With current GPUs, it's pretty easy because recent reviews
will contain performance numbers
across a wide range of games.
The 6700 XT, for example, looks really good
in our recent coverage of the 4060 Ti.
Where it gets tricky is comparing across generations.
Very few reviews of the 4070, for example,
include comparison numbers for the 2080 Ti,
even though these cards perform
within about 20% of each other.
I mean, I get it.
Publications can't be expected to test cards forever,
but wading through garbage results from user benchmark
and fluff pieces like this one with no actual testing
can be a challenge when secondhand shoppers or upgraders
are looking to understand how much benefit they'll get
from the latest shiny.
Now, our intention is to solve this in the longterm
with the upcoming labs website,
but that's gonna take us some time.
For now, we can bridge the gap
by comparing each new generation to the last.
So we can see the 4070 is pretty close to the 3080.
Then we compare the 3080 to the 2080 Ti.
But at its best, this is an inexact science,
even if we have the know-how to find reputable sites
with consistent test methodologies.
So I'm gonna do the work for you.
For enthusiast gamers, the deal to beat right now
is a secondhand 3080 10 gig.
It's got enough GPU grunt and VRAM for the latest titles.
It supports most of Nvidia's latest AI tomfoolery,
and it can be had for around $400
or even less if you're patient.
Then there's the 3070.
This is a really solid runner up
if you don't need the performance of the 3080.
And obviously, if you can score a sweet deal
on a 12 gig 3080 or a 3080 Ti,
well, then that's great too.
But I didn't really see anything that caught my eye.
Dropping down to the 3060 range, we do save some money,
but you're not getting the same kind of bang for the buck.
I really wanna see these going for more like 220 to $230.
And if we go back a generation,
the RTX 2080 Ti is still a very capable card.
It just seems like sellers are kind of deluded
as to what these things are worth.
I found one attractive deal,
but most of them were well over $300.
Come on, guys.
I know your GPU is only two generations old,
but it came out nearly five years ago,
which means that even if we ignore downsides
like much worse ray tracing performance
and extra power draw,
it's a lot closer to losing driver support
than a 30 series would be.
With that said, if I was on a bit of a tighter budget,
I would say that the 20 series
has some very attractive bargains,
namely the 2070 Super and the 2080,
or there's the RX 5700 XT from Team Red.
All of those can be had in the 150 to $200 price range
if you're patient.
Speaking of AMD,
normally Team Red cards are great fodder
for secondhand shoppers,
but that just doesn't seem to be the case at the moment.
If I had to guess,
I'd say it's a combination of two things.
One, they aren't as popular,
so there aren't as many flooding the market right now,
and two, AMD has implemented
some serious price drops recently
that don't seem to really be reflected in the used market.
On the lower end, look at these prices for 6650 XTs.
It literally costs more than just buying a brand new one.
And then on the high end,
look at this 6800, just under $500 brand new.
I mean, sure, it could be had for about $100 less used,
but the new one is new and it comes with a game bundle.
That's kind of a no brainer to me.
We're gonna have some choice AMD cards linked down below
if you must have a brand new card with a warranty.
On that subject, I've got a great pro tip
for you savvy shoppers out there.
Pretty much every RTX 3080 comes with a three-year warranty.
And since the 3080 came out less than three years ago,
as long as the seller gives you the original receipt,
you should still be covered by the manufacturer warranty.
Now, some of them are gonna try to weasel out of it.
Oh, it only applies to the original buyer,
but if you want my advice, don't give them a chance.
Just submit your support ticket
with whatever name's on the invoice.
How can they prove my name isn't Gaben McLovin?
Ship the replacement to my new address then, please.
Got it.
Now, there are a couple of things
that I forgot to mention earlier.
Some cards are gonna come with accessories
that you will want to make sure are included.
For example, this 12-pin power adapter
is needed to connect a 30 series card
to an older power supply.
Oh wait, this card doesn't have a 12-pin.
Well, if you buy a founder's edition,
you are going to need the adapter.
Oh right, and we actually saw a 3080 Ti
that was only a little bit more than this 3080.
And the only reason we didn't jump on it
was because I felt it wasn't really representative
of the kind of deals that you guys could expect to find.
And it's a good thing we skipped it
because we just came across this post
warning other users about that scammer.
This is a really common move
where people will ask for a deposit to hold the card
and then just keep your money and ghost you.
Never pay a deposit.
Only exchange money once you have the item in your hands.
In the old days, I would even take it a step further.
I would ask sellers if they could put the card
in a working system so that I could see it in action
or even let me bring my own test bench
and hook it up to that.
But that's not always possible
and I'm a lot less worried about a card
that I still have warranty on for a full year.
Time for the moment of truth.
I've talked a pretty good game so far,
but is this actually faster
than what I could have gotten brand new?
To find out, we're gonna be drag racing it
against the brand new 4060 Ti
in Returnal, F122, and Far Cry 6
using our new and improved workflow
with our automated Markbench software.
Ooh.
Well, that's not the smoothest fan I've ever encountered.
She's a little on the loud side, boys.
And we're gonna have harnesses for games
that don't support in-game benchmarking
like Flight Sim soon, right?
Yeah.
Sick.
Test parameter.
1080.
Games for...
1080?
This is a 3080, sir.
Yes, but this is also a pathetic card.
Oh, right.
And then do I need to tag for it?
3080, maybe?
No?
Nope, it automatically saves that data when it pulls it up.
Sick.
Okay, now I get to drag race them?
Yeah, you can just hit run selected and go at it.
Three, two, one.
Oh, I clicked that one a little later, don't worry.
Not thrilled about that crusty fan.
But while we were on our break,
I found out that replacement fans are a lot easier
to get your hands on these days than they used to be.
Like, they're in the neighborhood of 10, 15, 20 bucks.
Wow.
That is not even close.
See you later, 4060 Ti.
Sure, I've got to replace this fan,
but guys, I am 20 plus percent faster at 1080P
and that performance gap only widens
as I increase the resolution that I'm gaming at
or as I run games that have heavier demands on my VRAM.
So I'm freaking thrilled.
I won the game.
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If you guys enjoyed this video, what the hay?
Why don't you go watch an old series of Scrapyard Wars?
Those were a lot of fun back when we could do them.
Do we need to bring it back?
Like now that there's actually deals to be had?
Yeah, okay.
It'll be Gary versus Tim.
Scrapyard Wars Battle of the Labs team, you win.
Oh, oh, oh, oh, what, what?