[kwlug-disc] What happened to all the video cards?

[Chris Irwin]

On Wed, Mar 24, 2021 at 12:18:49PM -0400, CrankyOldBugger wrote:
>
>So I've been shopping online for a new graphics card.  I was thinking of
>getting 8gb or 12gb until I saw the prices, so now looking in the 4-6gb
>range.  Apparently none exist anywhere..  I've never seen the shelves so
>empty before.  Canada Computers' website was embarrassing bad.  Amazon has
>next to nothing useful.  Newegg isn't much better.

Linus Tech Tips just posted a video discussing the shortage that was 
pretty informative.

https://youtu.be/3A4yk-P5ukY

Basically, production capacity is purchased based on forecasts often >1 
year out. They seem to actually be making roughly the same number of 
cards as they were before. However, demand appears to be higher than 
ever due to people actually staying home more often (and playing games).

There's a twitch channel somewhere that live-updates stock as it gets 
put online, and it often sells out before you can even add the card to 
your cart, let alone check out. I tried off and on for a few weeks in a 
fruitless effort.

However, apparently not all stock is going straight on the websites.  
Some stock is going straight to stores and being sold over the counter.  
That's how myself and two friends recently got our new cards, from 
physically going into Memory Express.

Granted, it was still just luck that one of us was buying an SSD when 
they had the stock in the first place.

>All I want is Linux support (obviously), at least two DisplayPorts
>(preferable v1.4 or better), and at least 4GB RAM.  And costing less than
>my house.
>
>I'm leaning towards the GIGABYTE Radeon RX 5500.. which is weird for me as
>I usually go with Nvidia, but apparently AMD is better for Linux (I didn't
>know that before).

I've had AMD for a few generations now at home and work, and absolutely 
recommend them for Linux compatability. Unless you need a specific 
nvidia feature (CUDA, I guess) then it's just so much nicer to not deal 
with a binary driver.  Downside is the driver depends on what 
kernel/mesa your distro ships (Fedora is typically pretty up to date)

>But to say that shopping this morning has been a very frustrating
>experience..  just, wow.

I entirely gave up on trying to get a card online.

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-- 
Chris Irwin

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