Lemmy.blahaj.zone

I feel like this whole issue is getting overblown, but I do agree with the take that a blatant troll should not be humored, and that shouldn’t make one a bigot.

A lot. I don’t work for the government, but I work for a nonprofit which supports immigrant groups to connect to various resources and assistance. Just about everything we do is in some way affected by government policies: the immigration process, the state-sponsored aid programs that many of depend on, setting up public health insurance plans, and even a chunk of our own budget. These are factors that are always in flux so part of the challenge is just figuring out how to make the numbers work and making the most out of it to help people.

Previous gen is going for 1.5-2x as much as current gen due to shortages, even for used cards. They are at least available if someone has a dire need for a replacement GPU, but I am patient, not willing to pay current gen prices for older hardware, and not willing to pay more than MSRP at that.

I expanded elsewhere in this post, but basically it’s a combination of:

1. I do own a laptop I bought in the pandemic which has a 2070 mobile GPU, and between that and my PS5, I am not truly in a rush.

2. Older hardware is also being price gouged. If I do buy something, I don’t want it to be more than 1 gen old, but at current prices I’d be paying more than the new stuff goes for at MSRP.

3. I budgeted to be able to buy something good, not just good enough. Since I’m not in a rush, I’m willing to wait and keep trying to buy something closer to top-of-the-line. I can afford scalper prices, but I just refuse to support scalping out of principle.

The secondary rules also do say no AI generated content, just as an FYI

It’s not possible to only uplift one marginalized group without uplifting them all. There should be no push for equity that excludes someone else just because their need is greater.

https://youtu.be/jn3YjQSvDzA

I agree, but feel it should be clarified that having bills to pay is not a disqualifier for bootlicking. More a motivator for it, in many cases. “Just doing my job” and all.

Woah now, think of the poor algorithm!

Absolutely, I have been. I was looking at some last-gen AMD cards, but used 7900 GREs and XTs are going for almost as much as an MSRP 5080, and unopened ones are going for the same or more.

If I had an immediate need for a card, I’d likely settle for that, but I’m still willing to be patient while keeping an eye on in-stock listings. I’m fortunate enough to at least have a PS5 and a decent laptop that can run newer PC games on modest settings, so I’m not in a rush.

Nice to see the overall trajectory, but still just a bit sad to consider that the US is barely in a better place today than Sweden was 20 years ago.

And even then, I’m not entirely convinced the number of bigots hasn’t started rising back up in the US given that the data stops at 2022 and the anti-LGBT rhetoric has been dramatically increasing lately.

I’d like to go back to Fuzhou, but geopolitical tensions are making international travel less viable by the day.

To add a bit to the story, I did spring for a gaming laptop in 2021 because my 2013 MacBook was starting to show its age, and the model I bought came with a 2070 mobile GPU which has been fine playing newer games at modest settings at 1080p.

Laptops and prebuilts were basically the only affordable option in the pandemic, and I had a laptop need at the time. But for a while now it has still been a goal of mine to put together a good desktop. The last desktop I built was in 2010 (I snagged a GTX 580 GPU and felt like such hot shit then).

It is very tempting. Would definitely recommend for anyone who needs something.

My current laptop that I bought during the pandemic shortages has a 2070 mobile chip which still works fine-ish for newer games. I’m tempted to look at basically anything better, but I’m not truly in a rush to upgrade just yet and want to make sure whatever I upgrade to is worth the price.

The main reason for my impetus at present was to try to get ahead of the Trump tariff price hikes, but I’ve basically accepted that as unavoidable at this point.

And if you do really well, you might even be able to get Clarence Thomas to look up to you!

I actually had thought of that too, but see my reply to someone else further below:

https://lemmy.world/comment/15537041

I had thought of that, but the 4080’s/4090’s were going for significantly more than the next gen cards were going for at MSRP.

I mean, look at this, the 5080 is MSRP $999 but here’s Newegg’s 4080s:

And looking at the “Buy it Now” prices for used models on eBay isn’t much better:

Yep, this basically sums up my experiences a couple months ago. I’ve been telling myself since about 2016 that I would save up to go all in and build a solid gaming desktop.

But then there were floods in southeast Asia hindering supplies where I lived. No biggie, they’d recover quick.

Then crypto took off and GPUs and some other hardware tripled or quadrupled in price. No biggie, it’s a fad that will go away quick.

Then COVID destroyed production and distribution of computer hardware. No biggie, gives me time to save up more to afford these new crazy prices.

Then everyone needs GPUs for the AI craze, and prices went up even more. No biggie, I’ll just…cope?

Finally, I was at the point of “Fuck it, I’m tired of waiting. I’m buying a 5080, even if it costs as much as 2 PS5s.”

So I planned it out, made sure I had everything lined up to immediately snag one once they were available. And then day of:

• Nvidia’s store: Never had any in stock at any point.

• Microcenter: In-store purchases only, and stores were given single-digit stock while hundreds of people queued up for days.

• Newegg: Never loaded until their stock was all gone.

• Best Buy: Had a very attractive “Add to Cart” button display for a period of about 10 minutes at random intervals throughout the day, which placed me into queues that all ended with me getting kicked out after a few minutes.

• Amazon: Well, fuck Amazon, but they didn’t have any either.

So then I thought, forget Nvidia. Just because their cards are dropping earlier in the year doesn’t mean it’s them or nothing. I’ll just get an AMD card if Nvidia doesn’t have stock by then.

And, well…here we are in this article.

PC gaming is the best deal, eh?

I think the previous user is speaking out of emotion more than logic, but I would say they are correct at least about the hypocrisy. China has been supplying Russia with arms and intelligence all throughout their invasion of Ukraine.

On its surface I think the statement in this article is good but I can’t help but wonder if the underlying meaning is that China just doesn’t want to be left out of the conversation, since they have basically been doing for Russia what the US was doing for Ukraine.

That’s basically his entire stance on Ukraine, at least. He parrots the Russian stance that the war is Ukraine’s fault, because they could have just rolled over and given up after a few days.