Idiotic tariffs, indifferent retailers, depraved flippers and AI mania are making the simple act of buying a graphics card the defining misery of PC gaming in 2025.
Yeah, I bought my 3090 used in 2022 for $600USD. It hasn’t had a single issue yet. Knock on wood
People really shouldn’t sleep on buying used. I know it can be risky, but if you do it through platforms that offer some amount of buyer protection for the first 30-90 days, I think the risk is greatly reduced. If your card doesn’t die in that early window, the chances of it dying in the next year or so are pretty low.
You can always buy used. Even a 2080 TI would be a big step since you can use dlss with it, and prices for them are better now.
I would look for a used 3060 ti because it has 12 gb and has about the same performance as a 2080 ti or 1080 ti.
The 3060 TI is 8GB IIRC, the base 3060 is 12 but somewhat slower, probably not a worthy upgrade over a 1080 TI.
I forgot nvm
Yeah, I bought my 3090 used in 2022 for $600USD. It hasn’t had a single issue yet. Knock on wood
People really shouldn’t sleep on buying used. I know it can be risky, but if you do it through platforms that offer some amount of buyer protection for the first 30-90 days, I think the risk is greatly reduced. If your card doesn’t die in that early window, the chances of it dying in the next year or so are pretty low.
Look at it this way:
Many (most?) defective GPUs ship that way, and fail early. If you buy used, it’s already lasted that long.