Strategy to avoid upgrade-itch for GPU

[Iron Wolf]

A couple of years ago when I built my last computer, I decided to settle on the 470. It was near the end of the generation, and I got a good deal on it. Trouble is, I was never happy, thinking that I could have had the 480, or, a little later, the 580. Instead of trying to save money this time, I went for the 680. It should keep me from wanting to upgrade for longer, plus with the Asus DCII fan, along with the rest of it, I have a much quieter system now than I used to have, which is nice.

So that's my strategy, buy the top (single card, single GPU, I'm not that extreme), and it keeps me happy and from wanting to upgrade for longer.

 

[Goresplattered]

That's why I sold all of my mustangs - Too much money in upgrades. I can just drive my brothers 2003 550HP Cobra for a day and be happy! My 7950 is my performance car equivalent...... pathetic right

nice! :thumbsup::thumbsup:

i have a 400whp '05 wrx. the only thing that is still stock is the arm rest :biggrin:


my entire comp was cheaper than my turbo....

point is

gaming is cheap.

 

[Face2Face]

nice! :thumbsup::thumbsup:

i have a 400whp '05 wrx. the only thing that is still stock is the arm rest :biggrin:


my entire comp was cheaper than my turbo....

point is

gaming is cheap.

Nice - A 400whp subie in MA (I was born in Worcester) would be fun in the snow....dangerous, but fun in an empty parking lot..

 

[Goresplattered]

its fun everywhere. and its not the car that's dangerous its the driver =)

I'd get into details but that'd be an entire thread derailment of another level....instead I'll just leave this here

http://www.mysubie.com/vehicle?id=1332


severely outdated mod list (before i did my motor swap) but you get the idea


Posted from Anandtech.com App for Android

 

[Face2Face]

its fun everywhere. and its not the car that's dangerous its the driver =)

I'd get into details but that'd be an entire thread derailment of another level....instead I'll just leave this here

http://www.mysubie.com/vehicle?id=1332


severely outdated mod list (before i did my motor swap) but you get the idea


Posted from Anandtech.com App for Android

Very nice car man... I came very close to buying a 340-350whp WRX awhile back - Settled for a truck instead.

 

[KingFatty]

Yeah that's a really good point, setting aside the computer hobby and pursuing something else. Now, cars are expensive that is true, but do they depreciate as horribly as video cards? I guess that's what is so frustrating with GPU upgrade itch, you worry that you'll lose hundreds.

Anyway, here's my list of old games I'm working through. I don't want to make the spreadsheet public because I delete the games off the list as I complete them, so the list is continually shrinking (that's why it's a relatively small list, all the games I own that I already played beaten, e.g., Starcraft 2 etc., aren't on this list):

Game Title Release Date
X-COM: UFO Defense 1/1/1994
Fallout 9/30/1997
Deus Ex: GotY Edition 6/26/2000
Company of Heroes 9/12/2006
Half-Life 2: Episode Two 10/10/2007
Portal 10/10/2007
Mass Effect 11/20/2007
The Witcher: Enhanced Ed 9/16/2008
Batman: Arkham Asylum 9/15/2009
Borderlands 10/20/2009
Mass Effect 2 1/26/2010
Bioshock 2 2/9/2010
Supreme Commander 2 3/2/2010
Metro 2033 3/16/2010
Portal 2 4/19/2011
Torchlight 2 9/20/2012

 

[Goresplattered]

they depreciate much much worse...especially modded.


thank you sir im sorry to hear about the truck as nothing beats tossing her around corners on the weekends then dogging mustangs on the way home


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[moonbogg]

I think the biggest cost is not hardware but software. Even if you lose $200 on a GPU in 12 months from depreciation, if you play a lot of newer PC games, the $40-60 games add up. The solution could be to wait until Steam sales and wait until games reach $5-7.50 and that usually means waiting 1-2 years. By the time today's latest games reach sub-$10, an entire GPU generation passes (or more) and a mid-range card is usually more than adequate to play last generation games. For example, you can now find HD7850 for $180 and OC = GTX580 that cost $500. The downside is you don't get to play the latest games maxed out.

This is the way to do it, but it requires patience and a willingness to play multiplayer games later than other people. With just a little patience, like he said you could get the same gaming experience for less than half the money.

 

[KingFatty]

Some games I'm willing to pay full price, like Starcraft 2, Warcraft III (and expansions), World of Warcraft, ah other ones too just drawing a blank,

 

[RussianSensation]

Ya, thankfully Blizzard games don't need a $500 GPU . I played WC3 on a Core 2 Duo T5800 2.0ghz + Intel 4500MHD laptop at 1440x900 and it was still enjoyable.

 

[Face2Face]

they depreciate much much worse...especially modded.


thank you sir im sorry to hear about the truck as nothing beats tossing her around corners on the weekends then dogging mustangs on the way home


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No need to apologize I know my truck is not as fun to drive but it's very reliable. Best of all it's paid off. Can't beat the good ole reliable Tundra 4.7. What kind of 1/4 times does your subie do?

 

[Goresplattered]

no idea its never been down the 1320. I usually finish top of xp class when I auto-x and its had 1 lazy track day at nhms


Posted from Anandtech.com App for Android

 

[MrK6]

Set predetermined goals/objectives as well as a budget. If you violate any of them, don't do it (although that takes discipline). I love new hardware and installing, tweaking, and overclocking something new. However, it is expensive and I don't do it "just because." As I get older, time becomes more precious as commitments rise, I find my criteria for upgrading becomes more stern. Couple that with the fact that my current card, for the first time in awhile, is more than enough for the games I play and it's more difficult to produce a justification.

Abstinence through other hobbies, work, and life in general are also good suggestions although maybe outside the box (in that you still would like to game). Without getting too psychoanalytical on the subject, you could also consider how much you play games and why you play games (bored, destress, socialization, etc.) and that too can play into your assessment.

 

[zijin_cheng]

I think the biggest cost is not hardware but software. Even if you lose $200 on a GPU in 12 months from depreciation, if you play a lot of newer PC games, the $40-60 games add up. The solution could be to wait until Steam sales and wait until games reach $5-7.50 and that usually means waiting 1-2 years. By the time today's latest games reach sub-$10, an entire GPU generation passes (or more) and a mid-range card is usually more than adequate to play last generation games. For example, you can now find HD7850 for $180 and OC = GTX580 that cost $500. The downside is you don't get to play the latest games maxed out.

If hardware costs are really a concern, get a PS4/next xbox and ditch PC gaming but honestly I think PC gaming is cheaper. The cost of games is lower, the sales are more frequent and if you already have a desktop PC, the upgrade is usually just the GPU. Even a Core i7 920 @ 3.9ghz from 2008 will last another 2-3 years with a single modern GPU. I bet Haswell + OC will last 4-5 years at the current pace. Yes, I realize that it'll hold back GTX980 SLI and so on but for most folks, Haswell @ 4.5-5.0ghz should last a long time.

And as others have mentioned, find another hobby. There are some sports which are both physically and technically challenging making learning them pretty rewarding, like tennis or downhill skiing is a very easy to pick up sport and usually that's the entire weekend gone. (But both of these hobbies are more expensive than gaming though).

Other sources that are around $40-60 cheaper.... ahem ahem :whiste:

nice! :thumbsup::thumbsup:

i have a 400whp '05 wrx. the only thing that is still stock is the arm rest :biggrin:


my entire comp was cheaper than my turbo....

point is

gaming is cheap.

Haha Have 140hp 2000 Integra. Cost as much as my computer

But back to the point, an amazing strategy for me was go watch TV shows ALL THE TIME. even a 9600GT will push Bluray.

 

[Maximilian]

I personally look at the steam hardware survey:
http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/videocard/

Looks like direct X 8 is where its at right now

Anyways seeing the amount of people still using stuff waaaay worse than my card makes me just hang on to this 5850, also nothing really taxes it that much. Dont need ultra, im fine with high

 

[KingFatty]

OK guys, I just added several more games to my queue. With deals like this $10 combo of good games, I'll just play the older ones first and then upgrade to AMD 8XXX or NVidia 7XX before finishing off the set of games. Having to play these older games gives me reason to get more out of my current video card that can handle them, and also a reason to upgrade later after finishing the older ones:

http://redirect.anandtech.com/r?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FAbsolutely-Great-Square-Pack-Download%2Fdp%2FB009PNLAAW&user=u00000687

Lots of good games in this pack. Reposted from the Anandtech Hot Deals forum.

 

[kaihonsou]

My 460SE runs everything well that I throw at it at 1680x1050.

Depressingly, to justify a GPU upgrade I need a 27" 2560x1440, but if I buy one I cant afford the graphics card.

 

[blastingcap]

According to that chart, DX8 and below is ~2% of the market. And 92+% of the market is DX10. But your point remains true that your card is way better than a lot of other people's cards.

I personally look at the steam hardware survey:
http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/videocard/

Looks like direct X 8 is where its at right now

Anyways seeing the amount of people still using stuff waaaay worse than my card makes me just hang on to this 5850, also nothing really taxes it that much. Dont need ultra, im fine with high

 

[Riotvale]

With all the car talk in this thread, I can't help but chuckling a bit to myself. My wife tells me all the time that she's glad that even though I spend good amounts of cash upgrading gpu's every year-year and a half or so, at least I didn't into a super expensive hobby like cars.

As someone who likes to have ALL the bells and whistles at the HIGHEST resolutions for EVERYTHING i play, I've no doubt had many cases of buyer's remorse over the years.

The biggest things I've taken away from all my frivolous spending regarding GPU's:

- Think about the game(s) you plan on using the GPU for. It could be a game requiring bleeding edge tech to run... but it could also be a SUPER crappy game overall. Or it might just be a game that you won't even enjoy. Enjoyment and crappiness are subjective. Here are some examples of games I've upgraded for, but they ended up being big disappointments (Doom 3, Age of Conan, Final Fantasy XIV)

- Never buy a card to play a single player game that you've already beaten on lower settings. Just not worth it.

- If you're playing something that requires long term commitment like WoW or something competitive and daily like SC2 or LOL, just stick with what you have. No need for a GTX 680 if 80-85% of the time you'll be playing 1 thing.

- Don't buy a higher end gpu just for e-peen measuring against friends. When I was younger my buddies and I always had to boast about who had the fastest rig, and who could run what at the highest resolution with the greatest details while getting the highest FPS. Not worth it.

That's all I can think of for now.

----------------------------

As an aside - Nowadays, all i spend time playing is Starcraft 2 and WoW.

Sc2 for competitive reasons, and WoW because it's crack. Neither require a gtx680 even @ 25x16. Could I have used that money elsewhere? Probably.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Depends on how your backlog is. I'm still halfway through Oblivion and even with mods, my 6950 @ 6970 handles it with aplomb at 1080p. Still haven't touched Fallout 3/NV, Metro2033, and a whole bunch of others (playing 2500+ hours of TF2 does that to you).

Only reason I upgraded to a 7970 was due to the price ($310AR - ~$150 of bitcoin profit) and a little prodding from RussianSensation Prior to that (4890 -> 6950 2GB), it was due to the unlocking sensation going on and I had kept my previous GPU for long enough (8800GTS 320MB).

 

[lkailburn]

I failed miserably at resisting. Bought a 7870 a few weeks back. Broke down today and bought a 3570K. Will have to pick up a board and memory to go with it. That being said, the game i'm hooked on now is Skyrim. I forsee playing this for quite a long while!

-Luke

 

[Powermoloch]

i failed ! grabbed HD 7850, 2 HD 7950s for $ 400 ~ money well spent and not regretting ever !