Why should i even bother buying a good graphics card when a new upcoming XBox or Playstation costs the same or less?
Let's say my existing rig has a good enough cpu, RAM, power supply, and airflow to support an upgrade of the graphics card. If i want a new card good enough to last a few years it's probably going to be something along the lines of an RTX 2070 Super. Currently, those start at around $499 and go up to around $629 at Newegg. A few months from now i can probably get the latest PS5 or XBox-whatever for around $499 with a couple of games thrown in. My point is that G-cards have become so pricey that it may no longer be worth pursuing PC gaming, especially if you're not committed to it long-term.
Another scenario which is even more likely is that a big upgrade to the G-card would then leave your 3-to-5 year old cpu (and maybe RAM, too) as weak links in the chain, thus holding back the G-card from giving you its top performance. In this situation the cost of upgrading is much higher altogether.
The third scenario is choosing to subscribe to one of the cloud gaming services. If you choose, say, a $10/month gaming service you could play for about 5 years for the same cost as buying an RTX 2070 Super or a new game console.
Then there's even one last scenario that applies to at least a few of us. We have a living room PC built as a combined gaming rig and HTPC. This means that the PC must run quietly at all times except when you're gaming. Then the question arises of how noisy an RTX 2070 Super or an equivalent Radeon would be. Yes, we have a "quiet" sound-damped case; yes, we have a Noctua cpu cooler and case fans; yes the PC is situated to one side and towards the rear of the TV cabinet., and the existing G-card is pretty quiet. Anything less than these precautions will allow us to hear the PC running, and that wouldn't be acceptable to us.
I started gaming back in 1998 with Quake, Need For Speed, etc. by hard-modding a couple of Dell PCs (haha). Can still remember the excitement of installing a Geforce 4 Ti4200 - triffic! Then came building my own rig several times over the years. These days it's used more for TV, movies, music (a lot), internet, etc., and gaming is only about 25% of the time.
This brings me back to the question: Why bother spending $500-$600 on a really good G-card when there are so many other options?
Let's say my existing rig has a good enough cpu, RAM, power supply, and airflow to support an upgrade of the graphics card. If i want a new card good enough to last a few years it's probably going to be something along the lines of an RTX 2070 Super. Currently, those start at around $499 and go up to around $629 at Newegg. A few months from now i can probably get the latest PS5 or XBox-whatever for around $499 with a couple of games thrown in. My point is that G-cards have become so pricey that it may no longer be worth pursuing PC gaming, especially if you're not committed to it long-term.
Another scenario which is even more likely is that a big upgrade to the G-card would then leave your 3-to-5 year old cpu (and maybe RAM, too) as weak links in the chain, thus holding back the G-card from giving you its top performance. In this situation the cost of upgrading is much higher altogether.
The third scenario is choosing to subscribe to one of the cloud gaming services. If you choose, say, a $10/month gaming service you could play for about 5 years for the same cost as buying an RTX 2070 Super or a new game console.
Then there's even one last scenario that applies to at least a few of us. We have a living room PC built as a combined gaming rig and HTPC. This means that the PC must run quietly at all times except when you're gaming. Then the question arises of how noisy an RTX 2070 Super or an equivalent Radeon would be. Yes, we have a "quiet" sound-damped case; yes, we have a Noctua cpu cooler and case fans; yes the PC is situated to one side and towards the rear of the TV cabinet., and the existing G-card is pretty quiet. Anything less than these precautions will allow us to hear the PC running, and that wouldn't be acceptable to us.
I started gaming back in 1998 with Quake, Need For Speed, etc. by hard-modding a couple of Dell PCs (haha). Can still remember the excitement of installing a Geforce 4 Ti4200 - triffic! Then came building my own rig several times over the years. These days it's used more for TV, movies, music (a lot), internet, etc., and gaming is only about 25% of the time.
This brings me back to the question: Why bother spending $500-$600 on a really good G-card when there are so many other options?