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The ongoing state of the GPU market is a topic we've returned to repeatedly in the past few months. Prices have come downward somewhat — the cheapest GTX 1080 is now "just" $619 compared with its $500 MSRP, but they remain substantially elevated. Gamers are besides probable aware that new cards from Nvidia are expected after this year, which dampens enthusiasm for dropping so much greenbacks on a brand-new card.

Nosotros've discussed the use of used graphics cards every bit stand-ins for new ones earlier, and TechSpot has done an in-depth comparison of a whopping 44 cards to bank check how well they perform in mod titles. The comparing is unproblematic: Take 3 games (Battleground one, Rise of the Tomb Raider, F1 2022) and compare how well they run on an entire suite of older cards with a 1080p resolution target and Medium item settings. Cards that can't evangelize fifty-fifty this modest level of functioning wouldn't really be worth buying, so it serves as a solid entry-level window into overall operation characteristics.

Nosotros're not going to share all of the results, but the Radeon benchmark averages are shown below.

Radeon_FPS3

TechSpot has some commentary on which GPUs make the most sense based on their relative prices, but in terms of the raw performance figures it's easy to run into how things break down. The Fury derived cards are nonetheless excellent performers, as are some older models. The 2022-era R9 290X maintains a i percentage frame rate of 92fps, for instance. Even the R9 380 manages to keep a minimum frame charge per unit higher up 60fps.

AMD'southward results are dominated by the summit-end 28nm GCN cards from 2022, followed by the RX 580, followed by older cards from the 2022-2014 period. Some of these GPUs were markedly more efficient than others — the R9 390 and R9 390X are both power hogs, even by GCN standards — but if you're buying a used GPU, you've plainly decided to balance these factors against lower overall prices. And the good news is, there'southward plenty of elbowroom to residue with.

The bigger question is, should y'all pull the trigger on a used card at all? TechSpot notes that these GPUs are nevertheless selling used for college prices than they were before the cryptocurrency boom kicked off, and that ways yous'll exist paying a premium for a product you won't be able to resell for the same value a few months later. Our proposition is this: If you're considering a used card, either purchase something for an corporeality of money you won't miss if the market cools down and you tin can buy a newer carte du jour later this yr,or grab a card with secondary value equally a GPU for a different PC under the same circumstances. Newer cards volition tend to exist more power-efficient, all else being equal, but depending on how much horsepower you want the gap may not practically matter all that much relative to your electric beak.

Whatever ownership conclusion y'all brand, get in with the knowledge that new cards volition launch this year, that they'll be both faster and more power efficient than annihilation you'd find on eBay today for a reasonable price, and that ane might reasonably expect to come across launches within three-6 months. That way, no affair how things turn out, you won't be left chewing on buyer's remorse. And as nosotros've said before, in the era of mining, approach used GPUs with caution.