August 2019 – hotdogmilk

GTX 1660 Ti – A decent buy in Aug 2019?

The GeForce GTX 1660 Ti. The current one I was eyeing is a Gigabyte. 1800MHz, with 1536 cuda processors, up to 4 monitors supported with 6 gigs of GDDR 6 @ 12000MHz. It’s overclocked with Turing architecture, which is a bit of an oxymoron if you’re doing anything with AI and value your model integrity (overclocking can lead to model corruption.) But do I really need a new 1660? Is it worth going from a last gen top of the line to a next gen midgrade?

There’s no short answer. It depends entirely on the use case and what card you have. To keep it simple, lets just look at the benchmarks.

So I am rocking a GTX 1080. Clearly nextgen is not for me. My friends rocking GTX 1070s or 1070Ti s — it’s probably a good idea to wait. Why upgrade if you’re not getting a monster improvement? So if you were top of the line last year, you’re probably still close to it.

If you’re one of those guys that uses parts until they give out, or you’re used to playing things on medium / low detail, the 1660 Ti might be a good choice for you if you’re looking to upgrade. If you’re still on a GTX 780, or 1050 Ti, or a R9 280/380X or RX570, consider the GTX 1660Ti. It’s definitely a decent buy — Close to the top with a pricepoint.

–norm

1% of smartphone buyers think a headphone jack is mandatory.

Report: 1% of US smartphone buyers think headphone jack is top-three feature

Android authority wrote a post above citing that 1% of smartphone buyers consider a new phone to be a deal-breaker if it doesn’t have a smartphone jack. Personally, I like the option of being able to go corded. I have a nice pair of Sennheisers that is corded only, and lets be honest, a lot of stock software doesn’t choose the best Bluetooth codec by default- so why are fewer and fewer hardware manufacturers charging more and more for flagship phones but giving the buyer fewer and fewer features? Shouldn’t prices go down as the technology improves? Why are phones north of $1000 now?

I tend to buy used, myself. I will look up all the specs and features on phonearena, compare with a similar model that stands up and then buy the best fit for me on swappa. In 2019, I am using a LG G6- released in March 2017, it’s still working fine in 2019. If you want a cheap daily driver, or want a phone to root/rom I suggest you borrow from my methodology.

Hopefully in the future, the consumer will win, but it looks like we’re far from it, now.