Do I need to upgrade in the future?

[Cappuccino]

Obviously, no know one knows but I have the GTX 1080 G1 Gaming, and I was wondering do I have around 10 years life expectancy in gaming? I don't want to upgrade my GPU. I don't need to worry about GPU in the future? Is the 1080 top tier GPU still or has it fallen? I have no idea when it comes to PC stuff as some of you may know me lol 😛

 

[SPBHM]

10 years is probably unrealistic, a 10 years old VGA right now would be something like the 8800GTX, which is going to fail to run most newer games... but it seems like development slowed down, so who knows... I would say you can get 5 years out of it, like a 680 right now... but things can change, last 5 years had a lot of stability with DX11 and 28nm, the next 5 years might be different.

I think buying something in the 1060 range and upgrading more often is more effective than buying something on the 1080 range in terms of money spent over the years.

 

[Bacon1]

I think buying something in the 1060 range and upgrading more often is more effective than buying something on the 1080 range in terms of money spent over the years.

This.

Even if you bought every 3 years.

1060 = $230

1080 = $610

GPU speed basically goes from top-mid tier per release which is ~1-2 years each.

So later this year (since 1080 came out last year) we'll have a x60 part which has the same perf as that 1080 does but for $200-300 range. Skip a cycle or two and you can upgrade your 1060 to a 1260 or w/e its called for $200-300 and have more perf than the 1080 does now. Plus it will have newer features to support w/e tech upgrade comes next as well as using less power. You are out $500ish at this point and have a better system than an old 1080. Then in a few more years you can buy a 1560 and have a much faster system. If you sell your old cards you will end up paying less than a 1080 as well, and the 1080 at that point would have 0 resell value.

Anyone who was still using a 8800gtx today would be nuts, not to mention most games wouldn't work with it since it doesn't have DX11.

Upgrading more often is much better than buying big

 

[tential]

Obviously, no know one knows but I have the GTX 1080 G1 Gaming, and I was wondering do I have around 10 years life expectancy in gaming? I don't want to upgrade my GPU. I don't need to worry about GPU in the future? Is the 1080 top tier GPU still or has it fallen? I have no idea when it comes to PC stuff as some of you may know me lol 😛

I can't even.... 10 years?

Absolutely not.

Wrote this whole post without realizing that you're new to PC stuff.

If you're buying an expensive GPU like that, you don't buy it to last long. You buy it to enjoy the fastest GPUs out.

If you're just trying to enjoy gaming, you need to upgrade your GPU if you want the fastest performance. Otherwise, just upgrade when you want. You don't need a top tier GPU. If you're trying to get 10 years of GPU expectancy out of a GTX 1080, then you shouldn't have gotten a GTX 1080. It wasn't the right GPU choice for you and someone misled you in your GPU buying process or you simply just didn't know (well you can learn now right?).

Get midrange GPUs, upgrade them when you want more performance.

If you took your $600+ you spent on a GTX 1080, and bought an onsale GPU every 3 years for $200, you'd get to your 10 year mark, and have better performance GPU wise after 3 years. Even better, you'd sell those GPUs and have more than that $600 left over.

Also, high end GPUs don't yield a great visual to price ratio. If you want to spend $600+ you're doing it for things the vast majority of people aren't going to actually care about. We do as enthusiasts, but they won't.

So unless 4k, 1440p, 144hz, 120z, etc. are things that are critical for you to enjoy your gaming experience, you should get a cheaper GPU.

Or unless you're gaming at 1080p and you can't stand "high" shadows and you need your shadows to be on "ultra" then you get a super expensive 500+ gpu. Otherwise, this really isn't the GPU class you should be purchasing in.

 

[ElFenix]

10 years is probably unrealistic, a 10 years old VGA right now would be something like the 8800GTX, which is going to fail to run most newer games... but it seems like development slowed down, so who knows... I would say you can get 5 years out of it, like a 680 right now... but things can change, last 5 years had a lot of stability with DX11 and 28nm, the next 5 years might be different.

I think buying something in the 1060 range and upgrading more often is more effective than buying something on the 1080 range in terms of money spent over the years.

an 8800GTX probably does better in today's games than a voodoo did when the 8800GTX came out (even ignoring the lack of support after 3dfx died), let alone what any non-voodoo card could have done

 

[SlickR12345]

As others have said its better to buy a mid range card like the 1060 or 480 and upgrade every 3 years, rather than buying a 1080 and keeping it for 10 years.

Most likely in 5 years the 1080 is going to be on the very low end scale. I think mid range cards are best, since you can get the most out of it for about 2 years and then in the third year when its showing signs of slowing down significantly, you just upgrade to a new mid range and basically for about $450 you always have a capable system.

If you absolutely want to go with your strategy of not upgrading for 10 years, its better to wait for AMD's Vega and probably go for that, since its going to be faster than the 1080. Nvidia is also most likely going to introduce a 1080ti in the mean time, later on towards Q3/Q4? they will release Volta.

 

[Headfoot]

Obviously, no know one knows but I have the GTX 1080 G1 Gaming, and I was wondering do I have around 10 years life expectancy in gaming? I don't want to upgrade my GPU. I don't need to worry about GPU in the future? Is the 1080 top tier GPU still or has it fallen? I have no idea when it comes to PC stuff as some of you may know me lol 😛

No, it won't last ten years. Not wanting to upgrade the GPU is pretty nonsense, TBH. It takes 5 minutes to swap it out, another 15 minutes to download and install new drivers and you're good. Buy-and-hold top end cards is about the worst $/fps you can get, as the other posters have pointed out

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Obviously, no know one knows but I have the GTX 1080 G1 Gaming, and I was wondering do I have around 10 years life expectancy in gaming? I don't want to upgrade my GPU. I don't need to worry about GPU in the future? Is the 1080 top tier GPU still or has it fallen? I have no idea when it comes to PC stuff as some of you may know me lol 😛

I'm gonna go against the grain a bit with other posters, and say that while you might get more *value* out of a 1060 every couple years, you may not actually get what you want. Buy the card that's appropriate for the games you play + resolution you play at. When I was looking for a card this go-round to replace my 970GTX, I had a 1440p monitor and 144hz to consider, as well as at least some current-gen games. Due to that I didn't care to 'upgrade' to a 1060 or 1070 because they wouldn't push pixels the way I wanted them to, so I went with a 1080 and I've been happy with it. I may have issues with this card in 2-3 years depending on what games/engines come out, what tweaks come to the 1080 drivers, and what I'm willing to accept FPS-wise, but I'd feel like I wasted money on the monitor if I was anticipating gaming for the next 4 years on either 1080p or 60fps.

Along with the above, a 1080GTX is overkill for 1080p, even @120fps (and probably will be for the serviceable life of the card), so if I was limited to <1440p, I'd go with a 1070GTX or equiv.

EDIT: Oh, but don't expect it to last a decade. You'll be hard pressed to find any component that lasts that long, even cases eventually have USB ports or whatever that go obsolete. I'm anticipating a 5-8 year useful life on mine, but this is including transposing it into the GF's computer at some point. This is how I've done my upgrades for a long time and it's served me well.

 

[Bacon1]

Oh, but don't expect it to last a decade. You'll be hard pressed to find any component that lasts that long, even cases eventually have USB ports or whatever that go obsolete. I'm anticipating a 5-8 year useful life on mine, but this is including transposing it into the GF's computer at some point. This is how I've done my upgrades for a long time and it's served me well.

Well yeah, the point is with how GPUs change so much, you have to upgrade every 2-3 years or fall way behind. So trying to buy a top end and keep it for 5+ years makes less sense than buying multiple mid-range which will end up being faster and cheaper in the long run (especially if reselling/purposing)

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Well yeah, the point is with how GPUs change so much, you have to upgrade every 2-3 years or fall way behind. So trying to buy a top end and keep it for 5+ years makes less sense than buying multiple mid-range which will end up being faster and cheaper in the long run (especially if reselling/purposing)

I'd argue against that. A 980 still performs well for the most part if you're sitting at 1080p, and that was released 2.5 years ago. In all likelyhood a 980ti will perform for the next 2-3 years (with a 1.5yr lead time already) @1080p if you don't stretch above that.

Financially it may make sense, but if you're not getting what you wanted (a card to push x fps at y resolution) then it's moot. You could also save money by gaming off an iGPU, or playing angry birds on your phone, but who wants that?

 

[crisium]

So far there has never been a GPU that can run AAA games 10 years down the line. DX and Shader requirements make it impossible. With DX11 expected to continue to be an option in AAA games, we may get there in about 3 years with the 5870 and 480. But you also have the issue of driver support dying (Radeon 5000 series is legacy) as well as GPU grunt.

I look forward to finding out which GPU will be the first to run a AAA game 10 years after launch out of curiosity, but from a gameplay perspective it will likely be close to all-low settings, and a very low framerate, and thus rather misserable to experience.

As others have said, upgrading mid-range every 2-3 years is a far better strategy, especially with reselling. And it's also prudent not to buy at launch.

Your card, the GTX 1080, is the successor to the GTX 980. Osiris I must disagree, the 980 buy and hold at launch price is a poor choice if you still have it today imo.

The $550 980 was matched by the $250 1060 less than 2 years later. An alternative path to the 980 would have been to get a 290 for ~$250 shortly after 980 launches (slower card, yes, but not radically), resell it for at least $100 in 2016, and buy a 1070. You'd still have money to spare (this is still less than $550 total after resell), have a much faster card, and when you upgrade again you can resell the 1070 for more than the 980 and have a faster card and/or more money yet again in another cycle.

With this strategy, you initially buy into a little lower performance, but it becomes an investment as you actually get faster with spending less money as time goes on compared to a buy-and-hold and run-it-into-the-ground GTX 980 gamer. It's fine if you always want to have the best and stay at the top if you want to spend the money - I won't criticize an enthusiast who bought a 980 but is now on a faster card. But for the long run it's a bad strategy to buy the top card and just wait it out forever. You actually are behind very quickly.

To replicate this strategy today, you'd buy a GTX 1070. Although hopefully we get more competition this year and a cheaper 1070 or 1070 equivalent comes along soon.

 

[poofyhairguy]

As others have said, upgrading mid-range every 2-3 years is a far better strategy, especially with reselling.

The real benefit there is if you can stay plugged into the industry and sell cards right before the new models launch. Secondhand GPU prices depreciate overnight after a big launch, and often timing the sale right before the cliff can save you a lot of money. Last year I sold my 970 before the 1070 came out for $290, an amount that five months later could buy me a AMD 470 equal (or better really) than that 970 plus a 460 for my HTPC. But to do that you need to have either the ability to have a "backup" rig/GPU or you just have to suffer/do without during the gap between a new product release and when you can actually get it. That is why I pretty much plan to have two gaming rigs going forward, both with midrange GPUs.

And it's also prudent not to buy at launch.

It really depends on when launch is and what the brand is. If its a August/September launch and its a AMD card then its better to wait a few months for Black Friday pricing. If its a Nvidia card launching in say March it might be 6+ months before you will get it at a cheaper price. Even then other situations might come into play- my $199 launch 480 with 8GB of RAM wasn't matched by deals until well after the six month mark. When you add in the crypto I mined in that six months on that card buying it on launch day was simply the best deal I have ever gotten in my long history with computers.


For those who want a higher-end card (beyond the 480/1060 current levels) I think there is something else to take note of- massive AMD discounts on older flagship GPUs. For example, in 2015 you could easily get a sub-$300 AMD 290X that is still competitive with midrange offerings today (with more heat and power usage). Right now you can get a Fury non-X for $240 which is a little more than a 480 and cheaper than most 6GB 1060s. I think my next GPU purchase will be a Vega card discounted like crazy a year from now if the same pattern holds. I will sell my 470 before it gets a real competitor and just use my other rig until the inevitable Vega price drop happens.

Maybe one generation AMD will create a real Halo GPU and they will stop giving away the farm by until then they are a great place to look for high-end gaming on a budget.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

The real benefit there is if you can stay plugged into the industry and sell cards right before the new models launch. Secondhand GPU prices depreciate overnight after a big launch, and often timing the sale right before the cliff can save you a lot of money. Last year I sold my 970 before the 1070 came out for $290, an amount that five months later could buy me a AMD 470 equal (or better really) than that 970 plus a 460 for my HTPC. But to do that you need to have either the ability to have a "backup" rig/GPU or you just have to suffer/do without during the gap between a new product release and when you can actually get it. That is why I pretty much plan to have two gaming rigs going forward, both with midrange GPUs.



It really depends on when launch is and what the brand is. If its a August/September launch and its a AMD card then its better to wait a few months for Black Friday pricing. If its a Nvidia card launching in say March it might be 6+ months before you will get it at a cheaper price. Even then other situations might come into play- my $199 launch 480 with 8GB of RAM wasn't matched by deals until well after the six month mark. When you add in the crypto I mined in that six months on that card buying it on launch day was simply the best deal I have ever gotten in my long history with computers.


For those who want a higher-end card (beyond the 480/1060 current levels) I think there is something else to take note of- massive AMD discounts on older flagship GPUs. For example, in 2015 you could easily get a sub-$300 AMD 290X that is still competitive with midrange offerings today (with more heat and power usage). Right now you can get a Fury non-X for $240 which is a little more than a 480 and cheaper than most 6GB 1060s. I think my next GPU purchase will be a Vega card discounted like crazy a year from now if the same pattern holds. I will sell my 470 before it gets a real competitor and just use my other rig until the inevitable Vega price drop happens.

Maybe one generation AMD will create a real Halo GPU and they will stop giving away the farm by until then they are a great place to look for high-end gaming on a budget.

This is another good point, the more expensive cards tend toward larger discounts (from a % standpoint) within a few months of release, so you can be looking at a very large bump from an older card for not that much extra scratch. I got my 1080 last black friday for $530 shipped, and it's made over half that back from BTC mining already.

 

[Bacon1]

I'd argue against that. A 980 still performs well for the most part if you're sitting at 1080p, and that was released 2.5 years ago. In all likelyhood a 980ti will perform for the next 2-3 years (with a 1.5yr lead time already) @1080p if you don't stretch above that.

Financially it may make sense, but if you're not getting what you wanted (a card to push x fps at y resolution) then it's moot. You could also save money by gaming off an iGPU, or playing angry birds on your phone, but who wants that?

A 1060 runs the same as a 980 is my point. The 980 cost $500 last year and a 1060 costs $250.

The point isn't that a 1060 will be the best out there, but that you have to upgrade more often if you want to keep playing and that over time you'll get a better bang/buck from continuing to upgrade every few years than trying to spend a lot on a top end and keeping it for a long time. Like I said in my first comment, by year 4 you'd have a faster card by buying a new *60 series over the old 1080 and by year 8 it would be probably twice or more the speed of the original 1080. It sounds like a 1080 is "overkill" for his current setup, hence wanting it to last 10 years. If 1080 is the minimum he needs now, it won't last more than 2 years before falling behind for his monitor / hz requirements.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

A 1060 runs the same as a 980 is my point. The 980 cost $500 last year and a 1060 costs $250.

The point isn't that a 1060 will be the best out there, but that you have to upgrade more often if you want to keep playing and that over time you'll get a better bang/buck from continuing to upgrade every few years than trying to spend a lot on a top end and keeping it for a long time. Like I said in my first comment, by year 4 you'd have a faster card by buying a new *60 series over the old 1080 and by year 8 it would be probably twice or more the speed of the original 1080. It sounds like a 1080 is "overkill" for his current setup, hence wanting it to last 10 years. If 1080 is the minimum he needs now, it won't last more than 2 years before falling behind for his monitor / hz requirements.

And that's the crux, if it's overkill currently you probably should have gotten cheaper. If it's appropriate now, you'll probably need a new one in 2-4 years. But there's wiggle room in those descriptions for what's needed/appropriate.

 

[HutchinsonJC]

The only reason you buy a top end GPU and expect it to last 10 years is if you're religiously expecting to play the same games you already own or will own within the year... for the next 10 years. Some MMO players might fall in this category.

Otherwise, you shouldn't count on the GPU being viable in any sense of the word beyond 5 years, much less 10.

 

[Insomniator]

You might get 5 years, but that last year (and ongoing) is going to get pretty sad for gaming. Think about if more people are on 4k, VR etc by then, plus more advanced graphics (hopefully...). 10 years is a longggggg time.

 

[imported_bman]

Your card already needs to be upgraded if you want to play at 4k. I don't think I will be happy with 4k until big Volta is available, thinking 4k will be solid around +20 tflops.

 

[at80eighty]

10-12 years from now, it is estimated that we would enter the 16k resolution realm (according to Richard Huddy). So let's assume 8k is mainstream by then.

Ask yourself if you feel your card would even breathe at that altitude

 

[mohit9206]

an 8800GTX probably does better in today's games than a voodoo did when the 8800GTX came out (even ignoring the lack of support after 3dfx died), let alone what any non-voodoo card could have done

That's a good point. 8800gtx does much better today than voodoo would have done in 2007. Similarly we can expect a GTX 1080 to do much better in 2026 than 8800 GTX does today.
DirectX12 is here to stay for a long time as Microsoft will keep updating windows 10 for many years instead of introducing new windows and api.
So realistically a 1080 would still be able to play AAA games for 7 years atleast on medium settings at 1080p.
So a $700 card lasting for 7 years means $100/yr which is pretty good value.

 

[SlickR12345]

That's a good point. 8800gtx does much better today than voodoo would have done in 2007. Similarly we can expect a GTX 1080 to do much better in 2026 than 8800 GTX does today.
DirectX12 is here to stay for a long time as Microsoft will keep updating windows 10 for many years instead of introducing new windows and api.
So realistically a 1080 would still be able to play AAA games for 7 years atleast on medium settings at 1080p.
So a $700 card lasting for 7 years means $100/yr which is pretty good value.

That is really optimistic, overly so! I mean the 1080 is great for today, but in just 2 months its going to be a bad deal due to the 1080ti. Not to mention the 1080 gains under DX12 are minimal if at all, most of the time it loses performance under DX12.

Also you got to realize Microsoft will release the new console later this year, its supposed to be super powerful at 6tflops, which is more than the RX 480 and the GTX 1060. And since there is a lot of time till the end of 2017, it might be even more powerful.

Also I expect to see a big jump in graphic fidelity in about 2 years based on historical evidence thanks to the faster GPU development we are seeing now and the faster console turnout, I also think AMD Ryzen chips will push a lot of upgrades and will keep on pushing thanks to the competition with Intel and faster and better CPU's that will need to be saturated with proper GPU's.

 

[richaron]

Good audio gear will last 10 years, and still be "good" once that time's up. As will a modern/forwards looking computer case and good quality keyboard. Some of my mice have lasted 5+ years, although it's not something I'd count on. Most of my monitors have lasted at least 5 years and I'd hope for more if they still suited my purpose. Sometimes you get lucky and world factors mean an "unusually" long life with components like Sandys/Ivy CPUs still around today (especially HT models), or my 4x3TB hard drives from the same era which have almost stagnated in value.

All those above are relatively good investments compared to internal components. Most people consider 2-3 years for their their GPU upgrades. So whilst you may be grumbling cleaning out your 'old' keyboard, or replacing the ear pads on your 'old' headphones, or dreaming about upgrading to a huge new screen, these puppies are still performing fine after 5 years. But judging by history your GPU will most likely not be performing "fine" since it will be suffering from too little memory, outdated protocols, or simply too little muscle to keep up with modern applications.

 

[daxzy]

So realistically a 1080 would still be able to play AAA games for 7 years atleast on medium settings at 1080p.
So a $700 card lasting for 7 years means $100/yr which is pretty good value.

Radeon 7970 can still play most 2017 AAA titles on high+ settings 1080p and it's over 5 years old, and it cost $550 at launch.

Regardless, high end cards are still bad for value if you aren't replacing for an extended period of time. Let's take the worst case example and assume you bought a Kepler:

Feb 2013, Top Tier (minus Titan), GTX 780 Ti 3GB, $699.
Sept 2014, Maxwell launches, still high-tier.
May 2016, Pascal launches, now mid tier.
Currently mid tier, it sells for maybe $150.

$699 - $150 = $549 cost.

Let's assume you're an Nvidia fan and stick to Nvidia.

Feb 2013, Mid-Tier, GTX 660 1.5GB, $199 (actually launched at $229 in Sept 2012)
Sept 2014, High-Tier, GTX 970 4GB, $329. You are now better than the GTX 780 Ti you would've purchased just 19 months prior.
Sell GTX 660 1.5GB, $100 (rough estimate).
May 2016 (more realistically Nov/Dec 2016, due to supply constraints), Mid/High-Tier, GTX 1060 6GB, $249. You are now way ahead of the GTX 780 Ti.
Sell GTX 970 4GB, $150 (rough estimate).

You've spent $777 - $250 = $527. If you went the GTX 780 Ti route, it would've been glorious for all 19 months. If you didn't plan on upgrading for 7 years, that would've been 65 more months were you would've had middling performance.

 

[HutchinsonJC]

I agree that history has shown us that a card can still work for a good majority of games after 5 years, but I stand by that you shouldn't *count* on the card being viable in any sense of the word beyond 5 years, never mind 10. Too many things *could* change. There's definitely the real possibility, or even likeliness, things stay largely on the same track and the card performs decently enough in titles in 2022, and who knows, maybe even in 2027 the card would still *work* (by whose definition, who knows). But you shouldn't count on it.

I don't feel that buying GPUs for 5 years out is a good idea. The way things change, advance, etc... it's just too volatile to say that 5 years out your GPU purchase will still be worth a darn. You should buy GPUs for what you need now relative to what you can afford. The most forward looking I can even muster to suggest in terms of "future proofing" your rig when it comes to graphics cards, is 18 months, but I think you should take even that as one man's opinion and not a hard rule.

 

[Rifter]

I dunno, i had SLI GTX 460's for just over 6 years, and they are long in the tooth now, i had to replace them with a RX480 in the summer to keep my gaming rig alive with modern games. And keep in mind that when SLI was scaling well those 460's were pretty much as fast as the flagship card the GTX480 at the time i purchased them.

IMO 5 years is a long life for a GPU, 10 is just not feasible.

Now your CPU on the other hand i can see living happily for 8-10 years as long as you get a beefy model with 4 or more cores.