[RndTbl] HW question

Kevin McGregor kevin.a.mcgregor at gmail.com
Wed Jan 27 08:37:31 CST 2021


I'd be happy enough with a used card, but they're in short supply as well.
Probably most used cards are going for the same price as new ones!

Does anyone have a lead on a used NVidia 1660-level card? They're roughly
$300 new -- if you can find one.

I'd prefer to have a new computer with a AMD 5900X, 32 GB ECC RAM, M.2 1 TB
SSD and an NVidia 3060-level video card... but supplies are tight on video
cards and CPUs especially so I thought I'd just get a 'decent' video card
to stretch my current system's life out a little longer.

My use case doesn't involve more than 2 monitors, but it does include video
editing/transcoding and 3D drawing & rendering so I'd like to have
something fairly snappy. One card should do. I think most 1660-level cards
have an 8-pin power connector; ~125 W is a typical total power draw for the
card.

On Wed, Jan 27, 2021 at 7:16 AM Alberto Abrao <alberto at abrao.net> wrote:

>
>
> On January 27, 2021 5:18:56 a.m. CST, Trevor Cordes <trevor at tecnopolis.ca>
> wrote:
> >1. Newer cards have much higher slot power draw requirements and many
> >old boards (esp PCIe v1) won't provide that much power.  It was a big
> >problem for using v2 cards on v1 boards.  Symptom: no display, system
> >dead or beeping.
>
> Did happen back on PCIe v1 days. So far I have not experienced that with
> PCIe v2. A good point nevertheless.
>
> >
> >2. Even worse is older cards often had the 6 pin PCIe supplemental power
> >connector to make up for lackluster slot power.  Most new cards that
> >aren't crazy high-end solely use slot power, making the power situation
> >in #1 more of a problem.
>
> Not sure, but I don't think that's the case for the 1660, as it should
> have its own power connector. Don't quote me on that, though.
>
> AM2/AM3 boards such as the one he linked have beefy power everything
> because, well, that's Phenom II-era AMD. It was not yet on
> "bring-your-own-power-plant" territory like Bulldozer, but getting there.
>
> >As for the (if it does work) it'll be overkill argument already put
> >forth: depends.  If you're just trying to get 2D / desktop (no games)
> >and you're mostly interested in the massive-multi-monitor capability,
> >do like I did and get the lowest-end card that does the newer DP spec
> >and daisy-chaining.  Then you only need 2 digital-out ports on the card
> >to get 3 (maybe 4) monitors.  1 DP can drive 2 monitors daisychained.
>
> All true.
>
> Then again, if that's the case, I would throw a gazillion (read: 3) older
> GPUs with two video outs each and call it a day. Six monitors! POWAH!
>
> He does have plenty of PCIe slots on that board.
>
> Speaking of which... is that the case, Kevin? If yes, let me know, because
> I may be able to help you here.
>
> >
> >If it's gaming, then better/faster vid card will help, but like they
> >said, you'll start seeing diminishing returns as your CPU/RAM become
> >the bottleneck, not the VC.  But I wouldn't say it's completely
> >useless, assuming it works.  Getting a $700 card for an old box is
> >probably silly, but $200-$300 doesn't sound horrible, especially if
> >you're getting other features you want.
>
> Not completely useless, but still... If it were me, I would try to find an
> used GPU to get by and purchase the new one when the time for a whole new
> machine came.
> >
> >And make sure your PS is a good one (Japanese caps) with enough juice
> >leftover.
>
> That's always a good thing to do, no matter what.
> --
> Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.(nah
> not really)
>
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