New 6900XT ouch

[Darkpriest667]

So I paid the piper and upgraded to a 6900XT for 1407 with taxes and shipping. The DAY it got here (Friday) Microcenter sent me an add for another variant (I bought mine off of newegg) for 1000 dollars. YIKES..

 

 

Well either way I've upgraded and I'm happy to be the hell away from NVIDIA and their proprietary driver nightmare on Linux.

[ArchStanton]

Many of us plop details of our acquisitions down here:  

[ENTERPRISE]

  On 19/03/2022 at 15:38, Darkpriest667 said:

So I paid the piper and upgraded to a 6900XT for 1407 with taxes and shipping. The DAY it got here (Friday) Microcenter sent me an add for another variant (I bought mine off of newegg) for 1000 dollars. YIKES..

 

 

Well either way I've upgraded and I'm happy to be the hell away from NVIDIA and their proprietary driver nightmare on Linux.

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Out of interest, how are Nvidia drivers on Linux then?

[J7SC_Orion]

  On 19/03/2022 at 15:38, Darkpriest667 said:

So I paid the piper and upgraded to a 6900XT for 1407 with taxes and shipping. The DAY it got here (Friday) Microcenter sent me an add for another variant (I bought mine off of newegg) for 1000 dollars. YIKES..

 

 

Well either way I've upgraded and I'm happy to be the hell away from NVIDIA and their proprietary driver nightmare on Linux.

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There are lots of different variants (XTX, XTXH) and custom versions of the 6900XT - which one did you get vs which one did Microcenter advertise?

[Darkpriest667]

  On 19/03/2022 at 17:11, J7SC_Orion said:

 

There are lots of different variants (XTX, XTXH) and custom versions of the 6900XT - which one did you get vs which one did Microcenter advertise?

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Great question. I got this one -- 

ASRock Radeon RX 6900 XT PHANTOM GAMING D Graphics Card 16GB GDDR6, AMD RDNA2 (RX6900XT PGD 16GO) - Newegg.com

WWW.NEWEGG.COM

---

Buy ASRock Radeon RX 6900 XT PHANTOM GAMING D Graphics Card 16GB GDDR6, AMD RDNA2 (RX6900XT PGD 16GO) with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

 

 

Microcenter was advertising this one --

 

MSI AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT Gaming X Trio Triple-Fan 16GB GDDR6 PCIe 4.0 Graphics Card - Micro Center

WWW.MICROCENTER.COM

---

Get it now! The latest iteration of MSIs iconic GAMING series once again brings performance, low-noise efficiency, and aesthetics that hardcore gamers have come to recognize and trust. Now you too can enjoy all...

 

 

Now, the MSI one has gone back up to 1399 and the one I bought has gone back up to 1299, but still.

 

I probably wouldn't buy MSI again anyway once their CEO was murdered the company has been different.

[Darkpriest667]

  On 19/03/2022 at 17:03, ENTERPRISE said:

Out of interest, how are Nvidia drivers on Linux then?

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A complete pain in the butt. To the point that, because they are closed source, they can cause the kernel to bork out when the kernels update and black screen on boot. 

 

Drivers are a windows thing. In Linux there are no drivers, just kernel code, so you're compiling CLOSED SOURCE code into your kernel and that can cause bad things to happen. Since the people who write and compile Linux distros don't KNOW what is in the NVIDIA code they sometimes have to make guesses. Nvidia refuses to share the code with anyone.

 

 

[pio]

Stahp it!  Last time I checked 6900XT's were $1500-1600.  Seeing them at $1299 is only making me want to buy one!!!!

 

IMO, you got the card at a fair enough price.  It's a good card.  The other one is also a good card.  You didn't do "wrong".  Enjoy your ASRock card.    Personally I like the MSI one better because less rainbow puke and I'd assume a better cooler by a tiny margin.  I'd assume the lights can be disabled or changed using proprietary ASRock software, just a hunch.  If it works with other software though that's even better.  I've debated on buying that same exact card from ASRock several times myself.

[Sir Beregond]

Well there's a reason Linus flipped Nvidia the bird lol.

[ENTERPRISE]

  On 20/03/2022 at 01:32, Darkpriest667 said:

 

A complete pain in the butt. To the point that, because they are closed source, they can cause the kernel to bork out when the kernels update and black screen on boot. 

 

Drivers are a windows thing. In Linux there are no drivers, just kernel code, so you're compiling CLOSED SOURCE code into your kernel and that can cause bad things to happen. Since the people who write and compile Linux distros don't KNOW what is in the NVIDIA code they sometimes have to make guesses. Nvidia refuses to share the code with anyone.

 

 

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That makes sense. I guess then when considering Linux, you have to do your homework to make sure your hardware doesn't have to use closed source drivers, if you are looking for a more trouble free experience.

[Darkpriest667]

  On 20/03/2022 at 08:02, ENTERPRISE said:

That makes sense. I guess then when considering Linux, you have to do your homework to make sure your hardware doesn't have to use closed source drivers, if you are looking for a more trouble free experience.

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I'm telling you, Nvidia is THE WORST company we work with (in my professional life) and that's pretty bad because Intel and Microsoft are pretty piss poor. I will give Intel this (and AMD too) if we ask for something they will usually get it to us, sometimes it takes a while (weeks or months) but through the right channels they will. With Nvidia. It's ALWAYS "no"

 

[ENTERPRISE]

  On 20/03/2022 at 15:21, Darkpriest667 said:

 

I'm telling you, Nvidia is THE WORST company we work with (in my professional life) and that's pretty bad because Intel and Microsoft are pretty piss poor. I will give Intel this (and AMD too) if we ask for something they will usually get it to us, sometimes it takes a while (weeks or months) but through the right channels they will. With Nvidia. It's ALWAYS "no"

 

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That sucks to hear. I guess Linux will come second priority to something like Windows or even MacOS until the market shifts 

[J7SC_Orion]

  On 20/03/2022 at 01:31, Darkpriest667 said:

 

 

Great question. I got this one -- 

ASRock Radeon RX 6900 XT PHANTOM GAMING D Graphics Card 16GB GDDR6, AMD RDNA2 (RX6900XT PGD 16GO) - Newegg.com

WWW.NEWEGG.COM

---

Buy ASRock Radeon RX 6900 XT PHANTOM GAMING D Graphics Card 16GB GDDR6, AMD RDNA2 (RX6900XT PGD 16GO) with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

 

 

Microcenter was advertising this one --

 

MSI AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT Gaming X Trio Triple-Fan 16GB GDDR6 PCIe 4.0 Graphics Card - Micro Center

WWW.MICROCENTER.COM

---

Get it now! The latest iteration of MSIs iconic GAMING series once again brings performance, low-noise efficiency, and aesthetics that hardcore gamers have come to recognize and trust. Now you too can enjoy all...

 

 

Now, the MSI one has gone back up to 1399 and the one I bought has gone back up to 1299, but still.

 

I probably wouldn't buy MSI again anyway once their CEO was murdered the company has been different.

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You got a nice 6900XT at a very good price...if it would have been the MSI Gaming Trio 'Z' at Microcenter, it would have been a slightly different ballgame... In any case, depending on your overall cooling (!), do check out 'MPT' via Igor's lab

 

 

Edited March 20, 2022 by J7SC_Orion

[Darkpriest667]

  On 20/03/2022 at 16:15, ENTERPRISE said:

That sucks to hear. I guess Linux will come second priority to something like Windows or even MacOS until the market shifts 

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Which is hilarious because the REAL money is in servers and EVERYONE uses RHEL on their servers. So they SHOULD get priority.

 

  On 20/03/2022 at 17:14, J7SC_Orion said:

 

You good a nice 6900XT at a very good price...if it would have been the MSI Gaming Trio 'Z' at Microcenter, it would have been a slightly different ballgame... In any case, depending on your overall cooling (!), do check out 'MPT' via Igor's lab

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I typically dont do any radical overclocking or mods so it runs stock most of the time.

[Fluxmaven]

It's always the second you pull the trigger on a deal a better deal shows up lol.

 

I'm happy with my 3090 but I was tempted to grab one of those 6900xt's to compare. 

 

Every time I've been to Microcenter recently they have had plenty of AMD cards in stock but they prices were astronomical. 

[J7SC_Orion]

I use both w-cooled 3090 and 6900XT on work-play systems...for older titles, 6900XT is great, for ray traced and 4K, I prefer the 3090. Either one is plenty, though...

[Minotaurtoo]

at least you didn't bid on one on ebay at 2:30 in the morning like I did Actually I don't regret it.... but did surprise me that no one outbid me on it.

[Sir Beregond]

  On 20/03/2022 at 22:52, Fluxmaven said:

It's always the second you pull the trigger on a deal a better deal shows up lol.

 

I'm happy with my 3090 but I was tempted to grab one of those 6900xt's to compare. 

 

Every time I've been to Microcenter recently they have had plenty of AMD cards in stock but they prices were astronomical. 

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They tried to talk me into getting a $1200 3080 12GB while I was in Micro Center yesterday because it was marked down from $1300. I told the guy I was just looking. The AMD shelf was rather full, but the prices were still dumb. They are coming down. The 3070 Ti's they have are now sub $1k. I asked the guy what the ratio of AMD to Nvidia cards sold was right now and he went on to say Nvidia basically still has the mindshare and the marketing. i.e. They sell way more Nvidia cards.

[Fluxmaven]

  On 21/03/2022 at 02:28, Sir Beregond said:

They tried to talk me into getting a $1200 3080 12GB while I was in Micro Center yesterday because it was marked down from $1300. I told the guy I was just looking. The AMD shelf was rather full, but the prices were still dumb. They are coming down. The 3070 Ti's they have are now sub $1k. I asked the guy what the ratio of AMD to Nvidia cards sold was right now and he went on to say Nvidia basically still has the mindshare and the marketing. i.e. They sell way more Nvidia cards.

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Lately I've made a point to dress like a bum whenever I go into Microcenter. Everyone ignores me while I browse around, it's great. If I'm there to actually buy something that requires them to pull it out of the case, I just flag someone down. 

[Sir Beregond]

  On 21/03/2022 at 03:00, Fluxmaven said:

 

Lately I've made a point to dress like a bum whenever I go into Microcenter. Everyone ignores me while I browse around, it's great. If I'm there to actually buy something that requires them to pull it out of the case, I just flag someone down. 

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Ah, good idea. This is my mode for car shopping as well.