NVIDIA Deals & Offers

Agree with pretty much every point raised in the discussion. The only reason I am still gaming on PC is for the higher frame rates but with PC gaming costs rising and Console cost decreasing, it's harder to justify paying the premium. Graphics have improved so much that the difference between the two are narrower than it's ever been, looking at comparison videos between console and pc graphics it's not night and day like it used to be. There becomes a point where you're engrossed in the gameplay that you don't even notice the minor differences (I know I don't). PC still has a sector that it dominates: VR. PSVR doesn't even come close to what the Vive & Oculus can offer and the momentum is there to keep it pushing forward. I love my Oculus but it really needs higher resolutions along with beefier cards to drive it and when they do arrive I'll be picking them up. From this mining craze, I'm most dissapointed with the retailers cashing in on the GPU shortage though. Gouging the enthusiasts that have supported them for so many years when nvidia themselves are selling at msrp has left a bad taste in my mouth. Fortunately I already upgraded to 1080Ti before the mining craze but if any of these price hikes put people off pc gaming I wouldn't blame them.

Yep, agreed. They're essentially pricing their own customers out of the hobby. Once all the muppets stop mining, there will be a much smaller customer base. If it carries on like this we'll see the decline of PC outlets like Overclockers, Scan etc. I disagree about framerates - The difference between my 60Hz display and my 2 165Hz ones is phenomenal. It's really something when you get a full lockout of 165Hz, especially with GSync.

I think this is not the case, unfortunately. I'm a member of a large gaming forum that regularly features threads on new graphics cards etc. In these, I always see posts from members along the lines of 'hope I have a job in the summer to afford this (premium graphics card)' or 'I've been saving up for months/years to upgrade to this (premium graphics cards).' Nvidia have got people by the knackers with their marketing, making it seem as though these expensive toys are an absolute must.

It's true, 'premium' graphics cards (which really starts from anything above a 1060 now because of Nvidia's continual price hikes) are essentially a massive con if higher framerates than 60fps and/or 4K resolution are things you can live without. I can. And the later you can get with a £260 PS4 Pro for all intents and purposes with that console's 4k checkerboard upscaler. I'd challenge anyone to notice the difference from sitting distance. The problem is, AAA PC games are tethered by the specs of the weakest console out there (Xbox One), so mostly everything is built from the ground up with the lowest common denominator specs-wise in mind. Those PC games that are PC-exclusive are not given the budget or time to offer boundary pushing graphics either. What I'm trying to say is that its absurd Nvidia charging £500+ for graphics cards that essentially are used to power games that can run with good settings on much cheaper hardware. You are now, more than ever, paying a monumental premium to enjoy a tiny improvement in visuals. Subjective opinion of course, but framerates above 60fps I don't notice nearly enough to justify a few hundred pounds more of GPU power. 60fps is perfect for me.

Lol normally this isn't an 'either or' situation and let's be honest if you have £500 spare for a graphics card you don't tend to be short short on money

I know. I have my monitor plugged into a laptop. I need something soon aswell. But I dont want to pay £13/1400 on a graphics card that is nearly 2 years old. Thats why I got the asus GTX1070 deal for £800 but the 2 computers they sent wouldnt turn on so laptops direct refunded me. They have taken them off their website now and only have the i7 models for sale. They said there was a production problem with them. Now I am hungry for a new desktop. I didnt really consider this deal for myself. I just thought it might be useful for somebody. I wouldn't have posted it if I knew about the CPU as it kind of beats the purpose of having that card.

At the moment GPU, RAM and SSD prices are all very inflated. There is a global shortage on solid state memory and new factories are not due to start production until 2020. RAM and SSD prices are nearly twice what they were 18-24 months ago. GPU’s are not only impacted by the shortage of memory but also the massive demand put on them by crypto-miners. I have money aside to build my new pc but I cannot bring myself to do it at these prices. It’s a gamble, prices could go up before coming down. It’s a terrible time price wise for building/buying a pc ;(

Fair enough. You seem to know what your talking about. I guess these days there really is no cheap way of getting a desktop. I think I will wait until the new cards are released and try and get one direct. Thanks for responding.

Unfortunately no, it’s a socket released in 2013 and there has been FM3, FM3+ and now the current FM4. Even the best FM3+ processors struggle to hold 60fps in the latest AAA games. CPU’s on FM2/FM2+ were average performing when new. The other problem is this system uses DDR3 so even if you wanted to upgrade to a modern platform you also need to buy new DDR4 RAM.

Is there a processor that you could upgrade to with that board? That would handle aaa games?

Ohh nice so it did indeed come with a xb1 controller. It did say in the feature list Other features: Xbox One Controller, Steam-enabled but I just thought that meant it was compatible with XB1 controllers so I didn't bother including it in the description.

Arrived today , includes a mini keyboard and a windows Xbox controller, happy days, running sweet as nut , Fortnite getting downloaded the now !

When Sony or Microsoft go to AMD, they tell them "We want you to design us a custom motherboard with graphics, CPU, memory etc. we're looking at paying $XX for each chip" AMD can go away, look at their CPU and Graphics technology and build custom chips for them that strip away features that will never be used in a console. They can solder the chips straight into the board so don't have to provide features and connectors that ensure it will plug into thousands of different motherboards. Lots of little things they can trim off in a specialized custom console that'll save them lots of money. Then you've the fact that they can sell 75 million of these things. That's a dedicated factory line that can just keep churning out units nonstop without expensive retooling and downtime you get when switching between products. That's more money saved. Finally they sell these chips direct to the console manufacturers who themselves then sell the consoles at a tiny markup (or even a loss). Game stores also have a very tiny markup on consoles, making most their money on games. Compare this to a graphics card where AMD sell the chips to someone like Gigabyte who build the graphics card, sell it at a heavy markup to Ebuyer, who slap on their own markup. Lastly, these PCs are many times more powerful than games consoles but there are a few factors which may not make this clear in direct comparisons: -Compressed youtube swallows up a lot of fine detail. -There is diminishing returns in graphics, it takes increasing amounts of power for slighter visual upgrades. -Most games are designed for console limitations then ported to PC nowadays. PC gets better resolutions, frame rate, better textures and some nice graphical effects but it doesn't change it being designed for weaker systems so it doesn't take full advantage of the extra power. "PC First" games like The Witcher 3 look significantly better on PC but Assassins Creed or FIFA generally get a frame rate and resolution boost but not much else.

Absolutely spot on. I have a Xbox one x and also a Alienware alpha r2 with a gtx960 graphics card. The Xbox games are more expensive and also not as many games come out for the Xbox as they do PC. Pc always gets the updates and dlc first although Xbox are starting to enhance some older games for Xbox like red dead redemption which I think is great. As for the graphics there isnt really any difference between both but I like that I can adjust the graphics and update the alpha when it gets old.

I am guessing a 1070 can't play many modern games at 4k 60fps though. My rx vega card can barely hit 60fps on far cry 3 with ultra settings at 4k. A 6 year old game.

why expired? it is still instock. RE overclockers customer service i have only had good service from them, and i know of 2 mates who got free warranty upgrades from them. OCCUK went above and beyond. I have heard about the racism thing many years ago, but hasnt the company changed hands since then?

Worse cooling, more fan noise, less overclocking room, plus with the way that GPU Boost 3.0 works this often translates into lower sustained boost clock speeds. If you are spending this much on a GPU, you might as well buy the one with the best/quietest cooling solution that will fit in your case. If you have limited space then the mini might be for you.

Sorry to ask a stupid Question but what's the difference between a mini and a normal one?

I bought from them 10 years ago and swore that I'd never use them again. Sounds like they've not changed.

will never buy from OCUK again, due to their their distinct lack of customer service, racist forum and price gouging

All gone

About the price I'd expect for a 1050. Decent if you're looking to do some light gaming. Voted hot :-)

It's labelled as a gaming laptop and the GPU is bare minimum in that regard. For general laptop with odd bit of gaming it'll probably be fine.

2GB DDR5 I believe

Voted hot i think its a cracking deal

Gotta agree with others. The 1050ti is a lot worse than the 1060. Maybe 100 quid less and would be heat from me.

Needs more 1060

That's expensive. Just yesterday someone posted Asus laptop with 1060 for less than £900

I'll be honest at the price I'm expecting at least at 1060. I know if that was the case there may not be a i7 7700Hq.

Eh

Just buy second hand

It'll probably have the marginally better i5-7400 in it, not the advertised i5-6400.

I used to have one of these...ended up having to return it because the power on button kept breaking. Got a pcspecialist one instead.

Pretty much not upgradeable unfortunately :(

Yes it does! I know GPU prices are coming down but still...