What drives your GPU buying decisions?

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Nov 2, 2013
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1)When choosing GPU it's price/performance. Limited by budget.

2)When choosing a specific card it's noise.
 

tential

Diamond Member
May 13, 2008
7,355
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1)When choosing GPU it's price/performance. Limited by budget.

2)When choosing a specific card it's noise.

This + it has to be AMD so I can utilize Freesync.

I pray Nvidia Adopts it, but I'm not using a monitor smaller than 50 inches and I'm using a Freesync/Gsync monitor, so my only option is Freesync.
 

Crono

Lifer
Aug 8, 2001
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Performance/price, absolute performance, number of positive reviews/lack of negative reviews, expected useful lifespan (estimation of how long it will be before games make the card insufficient and how long before a future generation of cards makes it obsolete)

Generally when searching for a new card I look at the mid-range cards and set a minimum for myself in some specs like the number of stream processors/CUDA cores, memory size/type, physical size (e.g. low-profile if I'm building a HTPC or other SFF PC), power efficiency, and cooling (sometimes I'm looking for a quiet card, other times it's less of a necessity), and then eliminate cards that don't meet my requirements. I'll look at lower end cards if they are going into builds for non-gamers, but I rarely by higher end cards (graphics cards that are ~$400 and up new) because they usually aren't as good value as the upper mid-range.

Then I sort by price, read reviews to get rid of potentially problematic cards (noisy cards, cards with insufficient cooling, cards that have issues being reported by a significant number of users, etc) , and go for whatever looks like the best option given my budget. 75% of the cards I've bought have been AMD (ATI before), 25% NVIDIA. It would probably be closer to 60/40 or 50/50 if not for some litecoin and ethereum mining. I'm agnostic as far as the chipset manufacturer otherwise, it's usually value that takes precedent over everything else. I don't have a strong preference for any manufacturer, either... so far I think I have bought cards from ASUS, MSI, PowerColor, XFX, VisionTek, PNY, EVGA, and Gigabyte (and maybe 1 or 2 others) without any specific manufacturer being problematic for me. I have a very slight preference for ASUS and MSI cards when all other things are equal.
 
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railven

Diamond Member
Mar 25, 2010
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Are both of those under some sort of full load during that 12-14 hours/day? If they're idle most of the time they shouldn't be drawing that much power provided you haven't disabled any of the power saving stuff.

Gaming is probably a good 4-5 hrs a day each (we don't watch TV, we play MMOs together and weekends is probably more.)

With a mix of Youtube watching or music listening, the CPU for each rig probably isn't running at lowest clocks.

Then factor in monitor, sound system, and I can understand why my home uses more electricity versus my neighbors.
 

Magee_MC

Senior member
Jan 18, 2010
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For me it depends on what I'm going to be using it for, but in general it usually falls along the lines of; performance/price, absolute performance, actual price, expected longevity for its intended use and then a mix of things like overclocking, cooling, power usage, etc.
 

Borealis7

Platinum Member
Oct 19, 2006
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performance/$, followed by power consumption.
that is why i bought my GTX680 used for about half the price of a new one, double perf/$ boost :)
i've considered getting a R9-290 a year ago, good perf/$ ratio on that one, but the power consumption and heat were prohibitive in my decision.
 

Ottonomous

Senior member
May 15, 2014
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I have the unique predicament of being a native of a US/EU sanctioned country - Sudan, with minimal resources for maintenance and any failure requiring substitution of major components.

All warranties are effectively void from inside the country since you can't return the product within 1 - the time frame 2- Sudanese address.

So the quintessential criterion is endurance and then relative price per performance for say, the next 2-3 years.

1 - Inno3D Geforce FX5500 - Excellent introductory card for my adolescent self, still running today
2 - Sapphire Radeon 6950 - ordered internationally to a saudi liason and arrived with what appeared to be a misflashed bios - bricked. Notified Superbiiz after it arrived 17 days beyond the order date, they said return it within 12 (?).:(
3 - Gigabyte 560 Windforce - Very dependable and reliable within the summer heat.:D
4 - Gigabyte 970 Gaming G1 - Easily the best GPU experience I have ever had (although final cost after importation and customs was $500). Maxwell at 28nm doesn't even break a sweat on load and it's 43C outside.:eek:

I also had defective R7 M265X and RageFX GPUs in the past. 3 failed AMD/ATI GPUs and three wonderful Nvidia ones. AMD, never again, even if Polaris surpasses Pascal significantly.
 

Leadbox

Senior member
Oct 25, 2010
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Haven't read the thread, don't expect anything more than some supposedly well reasoned rationale, but if anyone has allowed their inner fanboy to speak for them, much respect for your honesty.:p
 

linkgoron

Platinum Member
Mar 9, 2005
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I usually have a price that I'm willing to pay, and then I only consider performance in that price range, unless the fans are extremely loud.

If both nVidia and AMD have more or less equivalent cards which fit the bill, I prefer the AMD card, as I really dislike nVidia's business practices.

For example:

980TI over FuryX
Nano over 980
390 over 970
 

Piroko

Senior member
Jan 10, 2013
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I buy whatever sparks my interest, no particular limitations in anything.

However, I exclude companies from my buying decision for at least a couple of years if anything I bought from them had issues. Currently that's MSI (card died early), Samsung (dead monitor, bad android experience) & Seagate (dead HDD). And, well, whoever made that Fury X cooler, Cooler Master, wasn't it?
 

Head1985

Golden Member
Jul 8, 2014
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Price/performance
Oc ability/performance after OC
Drivers-dx11 cpu overhead
nothing
nothing
Noise
heat
 
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happy medium

Lifer
Jun 8, 2003
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I like low maintenance gpu's..... set it and forget it.

I don't want it to use too much power that will heat my room and other case components.
I don't want to hear it, if at all possible.
I don't want it to break down (no bad fans ect. ect.) and have a good warranty
I don't want to mess with driver downloads and hotfixes.
I want it to overclock without the above dont's. :)
I want it to play games out of the box correctly.
I want it to give me much better/faster resolutions, graphics and framerates than current consoles.
I want it to have the latest features. hdmi 2.0, ,h.265 video,, HBM, DP 1.4 (not that important but a plus)
I want it to not to hurt my wallet too bad, but if I get the above dont's and wants ,I'll gladly pay a little extra. And this goes for most of my system purchases.

I don't care who makes it, how they run their companies, ethics, who stabs who in the back, bla bla bla, you get the idea. BUT it slightly bothers me to buy from a company that cuts corners to save money, that might fold, go bankrupt or is bad shape or something else that might effect the long term commitment of my gpu or any purchase for that matter..

I'm a return purchaser, make me happy once ,I'll buy from you again. I don't mind spending a few extra bucks to get what I want, I work hard, I deserve it. Simple as that.
Currently my brand preference is Nvidia.
 
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Piroko

Senior member
Jan 10, 2013
905
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I like low maintenance gpu's..... set it and forget it.

I don't want it to use too much power that will heat my room and other case components.
I don't want to hear it, if at all possible.
I don't want it to break down (no bad fans ect. ect.) and have a good warranty
I don't want to mess with driver downloads and hotfixes.
I want it to overclock without the above dont's. :)
I want it to play games out of the box correctly.
I want it to give me much better/faster resolutions, graphics and framerates than current consoles.
I want it to have the latest features. hdmi 2.0, ,h.265 video,, HBM, DP 1.4 (not that important but a plus)
I want it to not to hurt my wallet too bad, but if I get the above dont's and wants ,I'll gladly pay a little extra. And this goes for most of my system purchases.
That's pretty much exactly what I would consider to be issues that would stop me from being a return customer as well, except for the warranty part (a good product doesn't need to make use of its warranty) and the overclocking part (I just can't be bothered, despite owning a 4690k...).
 

happy medium

Lifer
Jun 8, 2003
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That's pretty much exactly what I would consider to be issues that would stop me from being a return customer as well, except for the warranty part (a good product doesn't need to make use of its warranty) and the overclocking part (I just can't be bothered, despite owning a 4690k...).

Don't forget the resale value when it comes to a warranty. :)
I sell my gpu's when I upgrade. :thumbsup:
 

Erithan13

Senior member
Oct 25, 2015
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Price/Performance is top priority for me. I can cope with high heat and power consumption so long as the cooler isn't too loud. Sapphire Tri-X 290 ticks all the right boxes and I'm quite certain Sapphire will be getting more of my business in the future.

My last GPU was a GTX260, in my view Nvidia have fallen a long way from those days. I don't hate Nvidia and I don't worship AMD or any other company either, but I don't see myself buying Nvidia in the near future unless they seriously outperform the alternative. I'm very excited to see how Polaris vs Pascal plays out, my bet is they are going to be fairly evenly matched overall so it's most likely my next GPU will be Polaris.
 

Piroko

Senior member
Jan 10, 2013
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Don't forget the resale value when it comes to a warranty. :)
I sell my gpu's when I upgrade. :thumbsup:
I tend to give them to friends for cheap. But I also tend to keep my hardware for 2-3 generations at a time, from an over all cost perspective that's way more efficient than speculating on resale value imho.
 

PPB

Golden Member
Jul 5, 2013
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Hard requeriments: Card-PCB size/power consumption as PSU power budget is fixed (gotta fit all my gaming gear in a 5.5lt itx/400W gold flex atx build)

After that it is just picking the best perf/$ (at X situational budget when I change cards, can't give an aproximate number as prices here are totally distorted from the US/EU) at the games I tend to play (which is mostly Battlefield saga as the most "demanding" title, thank god Repi likes to make Frostbite really good performing for the widest selection of GPU/vendors).
 
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boozzer

Golden Member
Jan 12, 2012
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perf/$ and noise. does anything else matter?

loud noise is a deal breaker no matter how cheap it is. unless there is a 3rd party cooler for it.

ps: people who are limited by size and psu don't really count. they aren't even a minority when it comes to gpu sales.
 

Pariah

Elite Member
Apr 16, 2000
7,357
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All the people listing price/performance as their primary or only criteria who aren't using a $100 video card are either lying for some unknown reason, or not understanding what price/performance is. Beyond fluke sales there are no cards that beat cards in the $100 range for price/performance. $300 cards not 3 times faster than $100 cards nor are $600 cards 6 times faster.

What you're probably doing, which I do myself, is picking a budget and then finding the fastest card that fits within that budget.

Before I get there, it has to have stable drivers that just work. I'm no longer interested in spending time trying to get basic functions that I use working, nor am I interested in downloading updated drivers just to find they break functionality that I use on a regular basis.

After I've selected the GPU I want, the specific model needs to be as quiet as reasonably possible. It doesn't need to be dead silent when gaming, but it can't sound like a leaf blower, and I don't want to hear the card when I am not gaming, so no coil whine either.

Don't care about power usage so long as it isn't way out of whack from the rest of the field, don't care about politics, anti competitive behaviors, multi GPU performance/support (both sides suck, I'm not going that route again), longevity, API support (I don't keep cards long enough for either to matter).
 

PPB

Golden Member
Jul 5, 2013
1,118
168
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perf/$ and noise. does anything else matter?

loud noise is a deal breaker no matter how cheap it is. unless there is a 3rd party cooler for it.

ps: people who are limited by size and psu don't really count. they aren't even a minority when it comes to gpu sales.

Everyone has a size and psu limit before considering their buy, I just explained why mine. If that particular limit doesnt fit you agenda (yep, even in this thread there are people just doing that) that is not my problem.

Your argument is absurd as there is no relation between belonging to a broader statistical group and being allowed to be counted in this kind-of-a-poll. Non-sequitur at it's finest.

All the people listing price/performance as their primary or only criteria who aren't using a $100 video card are either lying for some unknown reason, or not understanding what price/performance is. Beyond fluke sales there are no cards that beat cards in the $100 range for price/performance. $300 cards not 3 times faster than $100 cards nor are $600 cards 6 times faster.

What you're probably doing, which I do myself, is picking a budget and then finding the fastest card that fits within that budget.

Before I get there, it has to have stable drivers that just work. I'm no longer interested in spending time trying to get basic functions that I use working, nor am I interested in downloading updated drivers just to find they break functionality that I use on a regular basis.

After I've selected the GPU I want, the specific model needs to be as quiet as reasonably possible. It doesn't need to be dead silent when gaming, but it can't sound like a leaf blower, and I don't want to hear the card when I am not gaming, so no coil whine either.

Don't care about power usage so long as it isn't way out of whack from the rest of the field, don't care about politics, anti competitive behaviors, multi GPU performance/support (both sides suck, I'm not going that route again), longevity, API support (I don't keep cards long enough for either to matter).

People have performance needs too and it is so obvious you somehow missed it. The people saying perf/$ are implying that it should be the best bang for buck in the performance category that fits their graphics needs.

PS: I like to ask to the people suddenly valuing power consumption if that factor was important to them in the Fermi era.. This thread is a testament for possible goalposts shifting when the next generation arrives and certainly will be quoting-material.
 
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boozzer

Golden Member
Jan 12, 2012
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Not saying your conditions aren't true bro, just saying they don't matter, in the sense that very few gamers have machines, hence requirement like yours.
 

MrTeal

Diamond Member
Dec 7, 2003
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All the people listing price/performance as their primary or only criteria who aren't using a $100 video card are either lying for some unknown reason, or not understanding what price/performance is. Beyond fluke sales there are no cards that beat cards in the $100 range for price/performance. $300 cards not 3 times faster than $100 cards nor are $600 cards 6 times faster.

What you're probably doing, which I do myself, is picking a budget and then finding the fastest card that fits within that budget.

Before I get there, it has to have stable drivers that just work. I'm no longer interested in spending time trying to get basic functions that I use working, nor am I interested in downloading updated drivers just to find they break functionality that I use on a regular basis.

After I've selected the GPU I want, the specific model needs to be as quiet as reasonably possible. It doesn't need to be dead silent when gaming, but it can't sound like a leaf blower, and I don't want to hear the card when I am not gaming, so no coil whine either.

Don't care about power usage so long as it isn't way out of whack from the rest of the field, don't care about politics, anti competitive behaviors, multi GPU performance/support (both sides suck, I'm not going that route again), longevity, API support (I don't keep cards long enough for either to matter).

That's an interesting choice of example. The fastest card you can buy for $100 is a 750 Ti, while you can pick up a 390 or 970 for under $300. In the latest TPU suite of games, at 390 is more than 3x faster than a 750 Ti at my resolution. Even at 1080p, it's pretty close to 3x faster.

Performance/$ is definitely not linear through the price range, but there's scads of examples where spending a few (or 100+) extra dollars nets a larger than expected increase in performance. The 200-300 space often houses the best values.