ONLIX Blog » @tech (Last update: Wed 21/12/2022)

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ONLIX' Hardware Guide

Beware - high chip demand & insane high prices (2020-2022)

Update October 2022: GPU prices are low as of right now!

Update 2023: This could potentially change soon (if China decides to attack Taiwan)

Because of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic and its regulations, a huge amount computer chip manufacturers had problems producing and shipping their chips. In addition to that, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies got famous which lead to even more chip shortage. All of this leads to high demand and high prices. [source]

Of course, I'll take this into account in my article.

(Most important) Technical terms & abbreviations

Click on a term to view it's Wikipedia page to learn more!

• CPU = Central processing unit = processor

  • Needed to run programs like web browsers or Microsoft office smoothly

  • Look out for:

    • cores and threads, e.g. 6 and 12 always more or same threads as cores, needed for activities such as rendering, streaming, multi-tasking
    • GHz per core, especially for gaming - you usually don't need a huge amount of cores/threads if you just game (without streaming/recording)

    [source]

  • Examples:

    • AMD EPYC 7282 (server)
    • AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X (workstation)
    • AMD Ryzen 5 3600X (desktop)
    • AMD A8 9600 (old, desktop)
    • Intel Core i9 11900K (desktop)
    • Intel Celeron J1900 (old, desktop)

• GPU = Graphics processing unit = Graphics card > If your processor already has a APU (accelerated processing unit)/iGPU (integrated graphics processing unit) and you don't need to render a lot of 3D (e.g. for gaming/video cutting/3D designing) efficiently, you don't need a GPU! [source]

  • AI/machine learning, 3D rendering (games, video cutting programs), crypto mining

  • Look out for:

    • clock speed (at least 1100+ MHz)
    • large video memory (at least 8GB for newer games)
    • new video memory (GDDR5)
    • supported technologies, e.g. DLSS or ray tracing
    • supported rendering APIs and its versions (DirectX, OpenGL)
    • if you're a gamer, you might also want to check if your games are optimized for your graphics card manufacturer (don't worry, I'm not speaking of supported as usually newer games support newer graphics cards)
    • cooling and temperatures
    • power consumption (Watts, W)

  • Examples:

    • AMD Vega 64
    • AMD Radeon RX 5700XT
    • NVIDIA RTX 3090
    • NVIDIA GTX 2070
    • NVIDIA X

• RAM = Random-access memory > Not to be confused with hard drives (SSDs/HDDs) or GPU memory (GDDR!

  • Caching program data
  • Examples:
    • Crucial Ballistix
    • G.Skill Ripjaws
    • G.Skill Trident Z Royal
    • G.Skill Aegis
    • Corsair Vengeance

GPU

Retailers

Maybe you've seen how other companies such as ASUS, MSI, GIGABYTE, XFX, EVGA, ZOTAC, PowerColor, Sapphire, and many more sell their own versions with other cooling, lighting, case, clock rates and design in general. This can lead to better or worse performance and temperatures, or product/material quality so make sure to investigate which retailer sells the best one - or just go with the original one.

NVIDIA

Just offering GPUs

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A huge benefit of NVIDIA's graphic cards are new technologies like RTX (ray tracing) for better lighting and DLSS (deep learning super sampling) for a huge performance boost, especially on higher resolutions. [source]

In addition to that, there are more games supporting custom optimization settings for NVIDIA GPUs than there are for AMD. [source]

AMD

Selling both CPUs and GPUs

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AMD is known for it's cheap, but efficient products. Obvioulsy, its GPUs don't support NVIDIAS technologies such as DLSS and RTX, but there is something called Radeon Super Resolution, which pretty much does almost the same. [source] [source]

See

Intel

Primarily producing CPUs

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Intel is great for office applications such as workstations, but not really for servers or systems that require a huge amount of threads (AMD Threadripper would be a great choice in that case). Intel actually has budget CPUs, too, and the newer generation can actually be worth it if you want a cheap CPU.

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