No 1080/1080 ti

I was looking to upgrade my PC through PCS, but I am confused and a little surprised to see that the option of buying a GTX 1080/1080 TI has been removed.
Instead PCS seem to be pushing the 2070 - 2080/TI versions instead which is an insane decision as those cards are just ridiculously priced, and dont give the price to perfomance gains over the 1080 series.
I just dont get it, I would rather of given my money to PCS rather than a third party vendor (amazon, ebuyer), and it seems an odd decison to make us do this.
 

polycrac

Rising Star
It would be nice to have more options though I think a lack of access to stock might be an issue, rather than solely a deliberate choice. I hear the 2070 isn't too badly priced and sits between the 1080 and 1080ti in terms of performance.
 
That is true but if your only running 1080p monitor it makes no sense to buy 2070/2080 card.
Also NVIDIA has a massive surplus 1080 cards atm, so I cant understand this.
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
Graphics cards are a bit weird in terms of buying gaming systems from PCS in that they are the only component that you don't need to buy from them. You need some kind of RAM, you need some kind of storage, and while you could buy and fit your own CPU cooler, extra fans, etc, if you're having someone build a system for you rather than self build you'll usually just pay them to fit the H100x even if you can get it a fiver cheaper elsewhere. Some people will occasionally buy a PC with only the cheap 4gb RAM and add their own from elsewhere, but that's quite rare as it's generally cheaper and easier to just buy from PCS than buy 4gb RAM + 16gb of your own. People do add their own SSDs or HDDs, but more usually to compliment what storage they buy from PCS, not to entirely replace it, probably for the same reason.

And unlike things like the CPU, RAM, mobo, PSU, where there is always a base option and so you can't tell exactly how much a given component 'costs', you can see exactly how much GTX 2000 adds versus no GPU, etc.

That's actually a bit deceptive because it leads you to think that PCS's GPUs are relatively expensive as you can always find X model at least a little cheaper, sometimes a lot cheaper elsewhere. Whereas that's will almost certainly be true of all the components and you can probably self-build a custom PC cheaper than buying one made for you. The extra that you're paying for is for someone else to assemble, test, and ship the complete thing to you.

...

That's not what you're saying, but I detail the above as a preface to address what you are saying :) :

As Polycrac says, Nvidia are trying to offload the last of their 1000 series stock.

1) PCS haven't stocked the 1080 now for a couple+ weeks basically because of stock. I assume they buy in a huge number of GPUs at a time and either their suppliers don't have that available or can't offer a contract is makes business sense for PCS to accept. Unlike Shop X that sells 10+ SKUs, PCS will probably only order 1 SKU at a time, and in far larger quantities.

2) Other stores are definitely seeing a reduction in the 1080 SKUs they offer. Which to me indicates that supplies are indeed being used up. (There are ~130+ models of GTX 1080 that have been released. Store X I just checked is selling 6 models, 1 of which is out of stock... Store Y is selling 7 SKUs)

3) The GTX 2070 actually makes a lot of sense versus the GTX 1080 most of the time. On both stores X and Y I just checked, the GTX 2070 was, at its cheapest the same as the cheapest 1080s - including models with twin fan coolers, not just blowers. For the (presumably) better driver support going forward, the slightly better out of the box performance, and optionally the RTX features - plus the fact that it's new where you'd expect a bit of a markup and the 1000 series is old and Nvidia are trying to shift them - seeing them at the same price makes the 2070 a fair option.

4) That applies at PCS too. They don't stock the 1080, but they do stock the 1070 ti. Their 1070 ti is £504, their 2070 is £532. So actually the 2070 is slotted exactly where the 1080 ought to be in the pricing hierarchy at PCS.

5) If you think those prices are too high, it's not because PCS is pushing 2070 over 1080, it's because that's just what their GPU prices are (this is where the long preamble in my post fits in...), and if you want a cheaper GPU then buy the PC without one and install your own.

That's advice I give very often to people looking at Vega GPUs... check the prices there to see what I mean...

6) They were stocking the 1080 ti until very recently. It might be a temporary stock issue or it might not, the 1080 ti SKUs are drying up a bit elsewhere now. The 1080 ti and 2080 of do have a much bigger price difference across the market and it's a shame PCS aren't stocking it. But same advice as for Vega GPUs - source your own and add it to your system.

As above, if you're buying a 1080 for 1080p... you might as well get the 2070... whether from PCS or another shop, the point is the same.
 
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