A lot of those Xeon e-waste machines were downright awful, especially for the "cheap gaming PC" niche they were popular in. Low single-core clock speeds, low memory bandwidth for desktop-style configurations and super expensive motherboards that ran at a higher wattage than the consumer alternatives.
> THIS will be the excitement everyone is looking for.
Or TSMC could become geopolitically jeopardized somehow, drastically increasing the secondhand value of modern GPUs even beyond what they're priced at now. It's all a system of scarcity, things could go either way.
Sure, eventually. Then in 2032, you can enjoy the raster performance that slightly-affluent people in 2025 had for years.
By your logic people should be snatching up the 900 and 1000-series cards by the truckload if the demand was so huge. But a GTX 980 is like $60 these days, and honestly not very competitive in many departments. Neither it nor the 1000-series have driver support nowadays, so most users will reach for a more recent card.
> THIS will be the excitement everyone is looking for.
Or TSMC could become geopolitically jeopardized somehow, drastically increasing the secondhand value of modern GPUs even beyond what they're priced at now. It's all a system of scarcity, things could go either way.