Is now a terrible time to build a gaming PC?

GrantMeThePower

Platinum Member
Jun 10, 2005
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With video card hardware a bit stale and the new consoles coming out in just a few months, is now a really bad time to build a gaming PC? I was planning on doing it in the next couple weeks but I am double guessing myself...




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LSANTHRAX

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Nov 14, 2004
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I just built a new one myself and am loving it. I've been catching up on titles from the past few years that my laptop choked on with the settings cranked up.
 

giantpandaman2

Senior member
Oct 17, 2005
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Wait a single day and follow this thread for news: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2302828

Then you'll have a better idea how long you might have to wait if you want the latest and greatest.

The Titan? Most people can't reasonably afford that. I mean, it's in the 900-1000 range. It's so expensive that it won't put any downward pressure on any of the cards downstream from it either. Unless the OP is wanting the absolute best/most expensive, it really shouldn't be any factor in building a new pc.

Yes, I think it's a great time to buy. I'm actually building a PC this week for just that reason. No new mainstream graphics cards coming out anytime soon. It will be a loooooong time before most pc games actually saturate current mid/high end cpu's.
 
Oct 20, 2005
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With video card hardware a bit stale and the new consoles coming out in just a few months, is now a really bad time to build a gaming PC? I was planning on doing it in the next couple weeks but I am double guessing myself...

This is new to me. I always assumed the next Xbox and PS4 were at least a year away.
 

giantpandaman2

Senior member
Oct 17, 2005
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This is new to me. I always assumed the next Xbox and PS4 were at least a year away.

All reports is that they will be Q4 drops this year.

New consoles won't be able to keep up with even current gen hardware, though. People like to rag that 8 year old computers can't keep up with the 8 year old consoles in current games, but they can as long as they run on console resolutions (720p). The new consoles will run at 1080p so any rig a person could build today will keep up with that resolution.
 

gorcorps

aka Brandon
Jul 18, 2004
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The Titan? Most people can't reasonably afford that. I mean, it's in the 900-1000 range. It's so expensive that it won't put any downward pressure on any of the cards downstream from it either. Unless the OP is wanting the absolute best/most expensive, it really shouldn't be any factor in building a new pc.

Yes, I think it's a great time to buy. I'm actually building a PC this week for just that reason. No new mainstream graphics cards coming out anytime soon. It will be a loooooong time before most pc games actually saturate current mid/high end cpu's.

*shrugs* He didn't give an idea of his budget and he said he's second guessing himself, and I couldn't think of any other nearby announcements that would make him hesitate.
 

GrantMeThePower

Platinum Member
Jun 10, 2005
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Hey guys...good points. I should have mentioned what i was planning on building.

I've been planning (and just yesterday bought a couple of the pieces) a rig with:
Core i5 (3470)
Asrock Z77 mobo
Gigabyte 7950 3gb
8gb ram
xbox 360 wireless controller with PC adapter

It would probably be described as a mid range gaming PC.

I really appreciate your guys' thoughts and insights. It helps a lot.
 

Ketchup

Elite Member
Sep 1, 2002
14,558
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I just bought the rig in my sig last fall. Love it. Depends on what you want to do though. Haswell will be a bit more powerful/efficient but I don't see anything groundbreaking there (unless you compare it to AMD).

If you like to upgrade, Haswell may be worth the wait, as it will be a new socket. SSDs are still at a fairly swift page of improvement, so playing the waiting game on those could take quite a while.

I can't really help with you decision about consoles though. We have a wii, and use it a good bit (ok, mostly the kids) but that does not deter me in the least of having a good gaming experience on the PC.

Edit: just saw the rig you posted. Looks pretty solid to me. I just don't see that kind of performance coming from a console.
 

jimhsu

Senior member
Mar 22, 2009
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Hardly. We've just about hit a cheapness plateau (+ the bundles) with the current gen cards, and the real next gen (<20 nm) isn't going to come until well into 2014. I'd say there's hardly a better time.

Haswell also is unlikely to bring much to the landscape of single-threaded performance. Key focuses are power efficiency and the integrated GPU, neither of which you would care about.

There's a reason why prices for certain GPUs right now are actually going UP. I've literally seen the prices of some 7950s steadily creep up nearly $30 on newegg.
 
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tHa ShIzNiT

Platinum Member
Feb 15, 2000
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I just built a new one myself and am loving it. I've been catching up on titles from the past few years that my laptop choked on with the settings cranked up.

same here. I'm lovin it. my rig is ultra powerful now and its awesome to crank settings to max and see things as good as they can possibly be.
 

Wardawg1001

Senior member
Sep 4, 2008
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I'm not sure what console release announcements have to do with your decision to build a new pc right now or wait. Anyways, I think now is probably a pretty good time to build a gaming pc.

I'm not aware of any groundbreaking CPU advancements being made that are enough of a reason to wait, especially considering the CPU's available now are probably good enough to last through your initial GPU plus an upgrade a few years later.

The GPU market seems to be in a good place as well. The tippy-top tier of cards has just been (or is just now being) released, so its unlikely they will be in the affordable price range for quite some time, but they've also put about as much downward pressure on the price of the previous top tier cards as they are going to for a while. The GTX680 and 7970GHz are both in the $350-$450 range and very powerful, and you can save a lot of money without losing too much power by dropping down another generation or two.
 

Annisman*

Golden Member
Aug 20, 2010
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RAM is at an alltime low, and you can get phenomenal value for your money with some of the more expensive i3 cpus, so maybe besides video cards, this is a great time to buy imo.
 

Zenoth

Diamond Member
Jan 29, 2005
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It's a good time I'd say. I bought my GTX670 just last month, it was an upgrade from a GTX285 (hadn't upgraded the GPU since then at all). I already had the i7 2600k and the 8GB of DDR so I couldn't find any reasons to upgrade those two, so I only upgraded the GPU and called it a night. I might upgrade my GPU/Memory/Motherboard trio sometime next year I'd guess, but I know myself enough... I'm saying this now and it could end up being an upgrade sometime in 2016 instead, heh.

Additionally, both the PS4's and the next XBOX's hardware capabilities will dictate how most future "PC games" will end up like. What I mean, obviously, is that just like the current generation of consoles the future of PC gaming's "library variety" will mostly depend on console ports (not saying there won't be PC exclusives but you guys know the drill by now and it's been the case since 2006). Whatever ends up on PC from the PS4 and/or the next XBOX will be ported, and won't display more than what the consoles they were developed on could technically do. So I won't exactly (for example) upgrade to 16GB of DDR even in five years from now if the PS4 and the next XBOX are limited at 8GB. Since most ported games surely won't use that much or even close to that maximum amount (and to my knowledge no PC games to this day, even "PC exclusives" use 4GB of RAM, and the only one in my own library that I know of using around 2GB or RAM at most is the original Supreme Commander... and I think that's about it).

Anyway, for a "mid range" gaming PC prices are cheap and components are already very good. What I would do if I had to get a "brand new" gaming PC from old components (I.E. "full upgrade" or perhaps rather just a brand new PC rather than an upgrade per se) would be to simply go for a rig that's almost identical to the hardware of the upcoming new consoles generation. We've just seen the basic first hardware details of the PS4. You might want to wait to see the specs for the next XBOX too just in case. But you can be "safe" by sticking with a 4-core (multi-threaded) CPU, 8GB of memory, a decent motherboard (doesn't need to be SLi or Crossfire capable) and a "mid-range" GPU in the veins of a GTX660 or perhaps just go with a high-end GPU and call it a night, GTX670/680 or Radeon equivalents. If you "stay in line" with the next console's hardware muscles you should be safe for the coming years, if not for the entire life span of said new consoles (since technically they won't change for perhaps another six or seven years from now, if not more).
 

AyashiKaibutsu

Diamond Member
Jan 24, 2004
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Unless you have a good reason to I would wait. I'm sitting on i7 860 w/ a 460gtx and very little desire to upgrade although I think about it sometimes. If something is seriously bothering you now, anytime is a good time to upgrade, but if your content I think it's better to wait for haswell/next gen cards.
 

Red Hawk

Diamond Member
Jan 1, 2011
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Now is a fine time to buy, I'd say. Both graphics card companies have released their 28nm next-generation parts and are keeping prices down through competition. The real "bad time" to buy parts was around this time last year, when AMD was releasing its 28nm parts and could keep prices up because Nvidia didn't have its 28nm parts ready. Prices probably aren't going to drop for another year or more until the two companies come out with their 20nm parts.

I would suggest investing in an unlocked CPU, though.
 

mikegg

Golden Member
Jan 30, 2010
1,853
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I last built a gaming PC in in May 2010. I have no desire what so ever to upgrade my PC or GPU. I just don't think PC gaming is what it was used to and gaming in general isn't what it was used to.

If you got something that will hold it down for a while, I'd wait for a PS4. If it's indeed only $450, that's a great value.