I need to build TWO new PCs, one for gaming and one for my Son for his Engineering Software but the price of GPUs (Video Cards) is fucking outrageous and I refuse to spend 100% or more of MSRP to get one. Fuck.That.
Yup. Try sniping on Ebay to get the best deal possible on used cards. Granted, you're not gonna get latest, cutting edge GPU but you can get something decent that'll run most games at ore near 60fps. I just picked up another AMD RX 480, but just the 4gb version, for $150. Since I started this thread I've assembled or upgraded 6 PC's. Two were the SFF HTPC's that I assembled, so no GPU's were needed. One was a "family use" PC that i set up in the kitchen nook area. That one turned out amazingly well for using an ITX board with an older i5 4460 in it. I use it a lot when I'm downstairs. I put 16gb's of RAM, a 1TB SSD and a low profile Gigabyte GTX 1650 (with DDR6 RAM) that runs Fortnite @ 60+ fps @ 1080p with all the bells and whistles turned on/up.
I didn't upgrade my PC as much as I replaced just about every component in it. Running an i7 4790K 4GHz (OC's to 4.7Ghz stable on water), 16gb's of 2133Mhz DDR3 RAM, 1TB SSD, 4TB HDD, and a GTX 1660Ti. I can run Fortnite @ 90+ fps with nearly all the bells and whistles turned up to max @ 1440p. Very happy with it.
Upgraded my son's PC to nearly the same specs (same CPU and RAM), except without the OC (on air only) and with a GTX 1660 Super.
I have one "extra" i7 4790K set up I'm finishing now, with 16gb's of 2133Mhz DDR3, 1 TB SSD and a GTX 1660 Super. haven't run it yet, but I expect it'll OC to at least 4.5Ghz with the cooler I have on it (Noctua NH-U12S with an extra fan)
I have two AMD systems, both with Athlon X4 860K's, both OC'd to 4.2Ghz with one running 16gb's of 1866Mhz DDR3 and the other with 8gb's of 2133Mhz DDR3. The one with 16gb is gonna run the Sapphire Nitro RX 480 and the one with 8gb's is running a Sapphire RX 580 nitro.
Last, but not least I have a spare Intel socket 1150 mortherboard (MSI H81M-P33) with an i5 4430 (3GHz) and 8gb of 1600Mhz DDR3 RAM lying about. I have another set up with the same board and memory, paired with an i5 4460 (3.2GHz) and an old 2GB GTX 960 GPU that I just gave to my son's best friend's brother so that he and his brother don't have to share PC's anymore. You'd think I gave the kid keys to a new car he was so happy
All of this for far less than a new Ryzen system with a new GTX3XXX or even 2XXX card in it, or an RX6XXX card.