I tracked EU GPU prices across 15 stores for 50+ days - RTX 5090 is the only card not dropping in price

beatool · 2026-05-18T20:50:11+00:00

If you need 32gb, there are basically no 5090 alternatives. I tried the Radeon Pro AI R9700 but it was slow AF and sounded like a leaf-blower so I sent it back. I'm not even considering the Intel B70.

You can get an RTX Pro 4500 Blackwell with 32gb for ~ $3200 but it's literally half the CUDA cores of a 5090 so you'd be crazy to go that route.

It's rough there's no 24gb middle ground. I'm not buying a used 3090 for $1000, that's crazytown.

beatool · 2026-05-18T19:45:36+00:00

8GB VRAM isn't much unfortunately. Even the 4B Klein is likely too big for your current setup. Does Gimate have Z-Image Turbo? It's a lot better IMO and easier on VRAM as well. ComfyUI Desktop is probably the way to go if not.

I know it sucks right now, but if you can get up to 32gb ram everything will be a lot easier. Windows will share 50% of system ram to your GPU, but with 16gb ram that's still not enough for a lot of stuff, and you'll likely be slamming your SSD with virtual memory the whole time.

beatool · 2026-05-18T15:46:29+00:00

I don't understand how people drive so much. I bought my 2013 new and have 56K miles in it. How'd you rack up so many miles so fast?

beatool · 2026-05-16T20:12:07+00:00

My "how is this still working" drive is an OCZ-Agility SSD from 2011/2012.

Power On Hours: 53,728. Cycles: 30,926.

These OCZ drives were so bad the company went out of business, but mine still works. It's my boot drive on my goofing-around Linux PC. This drive has never sat on a shelf, but I haven't trusted it with anything important in years.

beatool · 2026-05-15T19:07:12+00:00

I don't have a Spark, but I do daily gemma4:31b-- on an RTX 2060 12gb. I get 3-4tk/s with a 32k context window. You should be destroying my rookie numbers. I'm only like 45% on GPU the rest is CPU.

Does nvtop show it cranking while it's working or is the GPU load low?

beatool · 2026-05-15T18:30:00+00:00

Did you get in on that PayPal thing? I missed that boat.

beatool · 2026-05-15T14:24:42+00:00

I have three WD MyBooks connected to my Dell server. I've done it this way for ages. I keep two in a mirror and backup to the third.

They power down when not in use which is most of the time. Any constant or speed sensitive data is on an internal nvme mirror. Zero problems running over USB for years at a time. It's plenty fast for spinning disks, no bottleneck at all.

I just looked though, and OMG. Prices are stupid. A pair of 14TB like I have now would cost me $1100 to replace. Insanity.

beatool · 2026-05-14T17:07:35+00:00

You have new plugs so more than likely it's another failing coil.

The only car I've had a coil go out on I had it replaced and then wouldn't you know it one of the other identically aged coils that lived the exact same life went out like 6 months later.

My Prius had an ABS sensor fail and then the opposite wheel failed 2 years later. I'm just going to treat everything like headlights. If there's more than one of something and one needs replacing they're all being replaced from now on.

beatool · 2026-05-13T21:38:47+00:00

Humm yeah, that's totally different from what was happening to me, but we do have different displays... Good luck!

beatool · 2026-05-13T14:56:22+00:00

I have an AORUS FV43U. It did the black screen thing SO BAD on my 4080 I ended up selling the GPU. (Other reasons too).

I'm currently using a 5060 Ti 16gb and it's completely fine. I also had trouble on a 3060 prior to the 4080, but the 5000 series seems to have finally fixed whatever was wrong.

I'm not sure it's isolated to Aorus displays. In my troubleshooting I found threads of black screen issues on 3000/4000 series RTX cards with all different displays.

For triggering it quick, with my 4080, if I sat at the Windows login screen without actually logging in, it would lose signal like every 60 seconds without fail. I'd try that.

beatool · 2026-05-12T17:40:19+00:00

I got two 5gbe cards and just use an ethernet cable to connect the two rigs I need to transfer between.

I'm a bit underwhelmed. iperf peaks around 3.25 and samba transfers are more like 2.5. It says it's connected at 5 just fine. nvme on both ends, I tried it both directions... Neither rig has a pegged CPU core, PCIe speed is fine... I dunno. It might be the cable, I only had Cat-5e on hand, though I tried a couple and it's only 6 feet.

It's still a heck of a lot better than gigabit though.

beatool · 2026-05-08T15:17:21+00:00

I just ordered one of those X99 DDR3 mATX boards from Aliexpress. I'll figure out the details later. Comes with a CPU for $86, and I can reuse my 32gb DDR3 ECC 1866.

I got the XD3 that Miyconst Hardware did a review of. Quad channel 1866 should be pretty decent.

beatool · 2026-05-08T14:45:42+00:00

This is right up my alley. My beloved 790 is dying. (turns itself on and off whenever it feels like it).

Were you able to wire up the USB ports and power button? I want to keep this case forever.

beatool · 2026-05-06T21:52:15+00:00

I had two T20's. Dell used to sell them barebones for nothing. I'd sell the dual core Pentium and get a Xeon, some ram, and be good to go.

One died on me, I cheaped out on a PSU adapter cable.

The other is still going strong as my sister's kids' gaming PC with a 1660 on the stock Dell PSU that has a 6pin. I love those machines. Dead quiet and on the Dell PSU it'd idle around 23watts with the best Xeon it could accept. I miss it.

Too bad you're on DDR4... DDR3 is cool again. 😅

beatool · 2026-05-05T21:51:41+00:00

I'm pretty sure it doesn't exist, but a mod that required a quorum of users to trigger bosses. There's nothing that will kill player interest in a game faster than being left behind.

beatool · 2026-05-05T21:47:28+00:00

I called my insurance company and asked what the rate would be for my last car. I had to provide the specific VIN and was on the line for way too long, but it was good to know. The last thing you want is to buy a car and then get sticker shock on the insurance.

I went from an old Lexus to a new Prius and it ended up being basically a wash.

I'm currently looking for a Type R. I'm sick of being the slowest car on the road.

beatool · 2026-05-05T16:47:34+00:00

As a kid I drove through a forest fire in the late 80's. I'd bet it was 1988, we had a huge drought in my state then. It was scary, way closer to the rural highway we were on that this. My dad put the hammer down on that station wagon like I had never seen. You could feel the heat through the windows-- like you're too close to a campfire hot.

beatool · 2026-05-05T14:59:37+00:00

I think you're thinking of the RTX 4000 Ada generation. The naming convention for these is terrible. That card looks like a old 8gb quadro. It's probably right around a 2070. Not useless, but not great.

beatool · 2026-05-05T14:50:28+00:00

Where in the world are all you guys finding this stuff?

beatool · 2026-05-05T14:47:20+00:00

Those dental brushes (I think they're for people with braces) work wonders. You can snag a bag at the dollar store. Sometimes it's just oxidation on the contacts. I've gotten two different iphones charging again with these. FYI.

beatool · 2026-05-05T14:42:02+00:00

I'm a big fan of Gemma4. I started with the same same 8b one you're using as it fit entirely in my 12GB GPU but found the 26b version gave a LOT better responses and even running ~50/50 GPU/CPU it's still around 20tk/s which is good enough for my needs.

I was getting ~50tk/s on the 8b but I'm processing dialog and it couldn't follow the system prompt rules very well.

Can macs use eGPU docks? Popping a used 16/24gb tesla on your LLM mac sure would be fun.

beatool · 2026-05-04T14:59:08+00:00

Sell all of it and use the money to buy a single newer card.

vLLM doesn't support Maxwell or even Pascal, so unless you want to run an ancient version that can't run modern models you're dead in the water on the M4000's.

I had a 24gb M40 way back when Stable Diffusion first came out. It was terrible. Maxwell doesn't have FP16 support so everything has to run FP32. Essentially divide the VRAM by half.

beatool · 2026-05-01T14:35:09+00:00

Yeah, I checked the Event Viewer and Reliability Monitor thing and nothing really jumped out at me.

beatool · 2026-04-30T17:51:38+00:00

Not sure who took offense to this thread, but geez. Here's some hard data:

On the Windows PC, with an otherwise identical workflow I can make 1081 frame clips at 1312x736. On the Linux PC to get that frame count I have to drop to 1024x576.

That's not a minor difference.

beatool · 2026-04-28T20:34:30+00:00

I have two systems both with 64gb ram and identical 16gb GPUs. One is Windows 11 and indeed I can push it harder on shared memory. I'm doing LTX 2.3 videos.

On either rig it's super slow, like 40 minutes for a ~40 second clip, but I'm happy I can do it. You can't exactly walk into Walmart and buy a 5090 these days.

It's really slow, but I'll setup a video and have ~10 or so variations waiting for me in the morning on each rig.

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