Question Why Should I Buy a Good Graphics Card?

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southleft

Junior Member
May 11, 2018
19
3
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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?
 

amrnuke

Golden Member
Apr 24, 2019
1,181
1,772
136
Why should i even bother buying a good graphics card when a new upcoming XBox or Playstation costs the same or less?
It depends on what you want to do and which games you play. I use my PC for games and for work. I don't really want two different systems. Rather than pay $500 for a slow-ish PC for work and $500 for an Xbox Series X, my PC does 1440p60 and is excellent at work stuff, and it was $300 for GPU, $200 for CPU, $40 for case, $70 for mobo, $80 for RAM, $80 for SSD, $40 for mouse+keyboard. Definitely under $900 for the plain system.

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.
This is a compelling point, when you look at a good-enough PC and what it would take to drive it up to console capabilities. The issue is that we don't know what Nvidia and AMD are going to be releasing later this year. It's possible a 3080S would drive 2070S down to $300, or that an RX6700XT would release for $499. AMD almost always have a game bundle deal. Also, Xbox game pass.

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.
Less likely. The CPU and RAM play a minimal role at 1440p and above gaming. For example a 3 year old Ryzen 1800X is only 7.5% slower than a 9900K. But a 2.5 year old Vega 64 is 16% slower than a 5700XT. Not really a fair comparison since 5700XT retails $399 and the Vega 64 was $499.

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.
I'm not sure the user experience is going to be great because it depends on more things - speed of internet, lag/latency of internet, etc. - making even single player gaming depend on more things. Also, Stadia is $129 PLUS $10 a month after the first 3 months (or if you have a Chromecast already, $70 plus $10 per month), so you get about 40-43 months of it before it costs more than a GPU or 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.
Many modern GPUs have silent modes at rest, fans don't turn on unless temps hit a certain places. Or you could have the fans running at very low speeds. Really up to you. A 2070S playing video is not going to be much louder than a 1060.

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.
You seem to have your answer here. If you're looking for a place to store music, browse the web, watch TV, store movies, Plex server, etc. and only game 25% of the time, are you going to be happy with an Xbox Series X or PS5?
 

insertcarehere

Senior member
Jan 17, 2013
639
607
136
Wut? Because keyboard and mouse, because open marketplace, because RPG and RTS games, because its easily upgradable, etc...

Initial PC investment might be a bit higher, but for example if you went the AMD route since Ryzen 1000 series and bought a say R5 1600, with a say RX 470 4GB, 2TB HDD, 16GB DDR3 2933MHz, you can now upgrade just the CPU and go for the $180 3600, in the meantime you might have added a 512GB SSD, in the future you might upgrade the GPU to RDNA2, something like the RX 6700, etc...

Again a PC that you planned out and build 3 years ago, might be easily upgraded over time and serve you for over 6-7 years!

It's not all about the cost, in fact if you add the fact that you can use the PC to listen to music, watch movies, stream shows, web activity, work, productivity, etc... the cost vs value is much more beneficial to you!

A PC planned out and built 3 years ago...would still work for games that arent on the Xbox X/PS5, and would still be able to "listen to music, watch movies, stream shows, web activity, work, productivity,". And if the upgrade cost to get that PC to console parity will cost as much if not more than buying those consoles themselves....then why not just buy those consoles and keep the PC for other stuff? Not to mention the countless people who only use Laptops because of space constraints...

I am thinking $299 for GPU with ~Xbox X/PS5 performance before this convo shifts back towards favoring PCs.
 

NTMBK

Lifer
Nov 14, 2011
10,208
4,940
136
To be honest, I think you're right. If you are buying just for gaming, a PC just doesn't make economic sense. It only really works if you want a powerful PC for other reasons, like software development, audio/video work, etc.
 

philosofool

Senior member
Nov 3, 2008
281
19
81
  1. You don't own a TV but you own a desktop PC.
  2. You want to play games that aren't available on console.
  3. You want to game for $100 and don't care about settings (i.e., RX 570 and medium settings.)
  4. Currently, a ~$200 card will deliver everything you need at 1080p.
  5. In 2 years, a ~$400 card will outperform consoles at 1440p resolutions and maybe also 4k. (GPUs tend to get a big boost with console generations for a number of reasons.)
  6. You like keyboards.
  7. This is basically a version of Mac vs. PC, only gaming, so X-Box vs. PS argument, except we brought in the weird Linux Users of Gaming, PC gamers. I have no idea why some people use Linux for the personal computer, but it's also not my problem. On the other hand, I can't justify my tendency to PC game. It's just what I do.
 
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Staples

Diamond Member
Oct 28, 2001
4,952
119
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It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to spend that much on a graphic card 2x or more in the lifetime of a console unless you really enjoy playing games on your PC. I usually play 2-4 PC games per year and only buy GPUs that are in the range of $200 every two years. The problem I have with Xbox games in general is that most run at 30fps. This situation will be resolved next gen (hopefully). Despite that, I buy a lot of games on Xbox unless they are shooter games.
 

Staples

Diamond Member
Oct 28, 2001
4,952
119
106
I am surprised there are not many (if any) rabid PC elitist in this thread. Ask a question like this on reddit and you will get death threats from fanboys. I remember seeing one video on youtube. I think it was from the verge or engadget called "Can the Xbox Series X pose a threat to PC gaming." Oh boy was it fun reading the comments. PC fanboys were about to wage war. I found one comment that said "PC fanboys can't even handle the title" to be particularly funny.
 
Feb 4, 2009
34,506
15,737
136
I am surprised there are not many (if any) rabid PC elitist in this thread. Ask a question like this on reddit and you will get death threats from fanboys. I remember seeing one video on youtube. I think it was from the verge or engadget called "Can the Xbox Series X pose a threat to PC gaming." Oh boy was it fun reading the comments. PC fanboys were about to wage war. I found one comment that said "PC fanboys can't even handle the title" to be particularly funny.

Okay here you go

maxresdefault.jpg
 

mopardude87

Diamond Member
Oct 22, 2018
3,348
1,575
96
Well, NONE of the games I play are on console, so that is a pretty good reason for me.

It's either pc or find a new hobby.

I used to play OG Halo on Xbox with a clan, it used to be fun. Been pc gaming strictly since 2006. I did take a detour trying out the ps3 and a cod title back in like 2011, i could not for the life of me get used to controller for fps. In GTA V? Yeah i run controllers when the pc is hooked up to my 40'' 4k. I only play fps with keyboard and mouse on my monitor :)
 

philosofool

Senior member
Nov 3, 2008
281
19
81
I am surprised there are not many (if any) rabid PC elitist in this thread. Ask a question like this on reddit and you will get death threats from fanboys. I remember seeing one video on youtube. I think it was from the verge or engadget called "Can the Xbox Series X pose a threat to PC gaming." Oh boy was it fun reading the comments. PC fanboys were about to wage war. I found one comment that said "PC fanboys can't even handle the title" to be particularly funny.
I can speculate: most of the people here are system builders who see system building as a value proposition. One of the most standard posts is "help me build something for $x" where x is an amount that requires some trade offs. As a result, many people here have a sense of what you get for your money and we're usually trying to help other people understand that. So, we can't in good faith represent PC gaming as in general a value-oriented way to game.
 

Midwayman

Diamond Member
Jan 28, 2000
5,723
325
126
Because consoles are lowest common denominator hardware and devs seem to think 30fps is acceptable. I'd have a lot less to complain about with consoles if high end hardware was available. Maybe they'll have a peasantbox+ for launch this time?
 

Flayed

Senior member
Nov 30, 2016
431
102
86
Graphics cards are annoyingly expensive and now when the used Vega 56 I bought that seemed like such a good deal on Ebay has died I'm stuck with a 1050 ti again.

Still I'd rather game on a 1050 ti than a console
 
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SPBHM

Diamond Member
Sep 12, 2012
5,056
409
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from what we know the Xbox series X is as good as a Ryzen 7 3700 and a RTX 2070 (or better),
we don't know the price and if it's actually going to be released this year, but it's probably going to be a good deal for a while,
but PC hardware keeps evolving and getting cheaper, so at some point a budget PC will be better again,

but I think right now is a bad moment to buy a new graphics card.
 
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VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,226
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but I think right now is a bad moment to buy a new graphics card.
If you worry about future console port compatibility on the PC side (feature-wise, specifically RT capability in RDNA2), then yes, I agree with you.

If you just want to play existing PC games, then not so much an issue. Though, prices seem to be slowly rising due to supply-chain issues due to CV in China (supposedly resolved?).
 

SteveGrabowski

Diamond Member
Oct 20, 2014
6,805
5,759
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from what we know the Xbox series X is as good as a Ryzen 7 3700 and a RTX 2070 (or better),
we don't know the price and if it's actually going to be released this year, but it's probably going to be a good deal for a while,
but PC hardware keeps evolving and getting cheaper, so at some point a budget PC will be better again,

but I think right now is a bad moment to buy a new graphics card.

Series X looks to be somewhere in between 2080 and 2080 Super. PS5 looks to be around 2070 Super level performance. Them able to get these gpus into consoles should mean Big Navi 2 will really be a monster.
 

beginner99

Diamond Member
Jun 2, 2009
5,208
1,580
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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?

Right now? Yes I would wait till NV releases their 7nm versions which can still be almost a year away. But as recent history has shown, the best time to buy was early on a new node and prices and performance/$ haven't really gone down much since a 1080TI. Right now I would only buy if your old card breaks and then something in the $100 range like a used RX 570.
 

Ready4Droid

Junior Member
Apr 12, 2020
12
2
11
It s seems OP did not include cost of consoles monthly for online gaming in his comparison. Like you said, your PC does more than just game, so why are you comparing the price to something that only does one thing? It's like saying this screw driver is cheaper than this tool kit over here, why would anyone spend that much on a full toolkit when I can just buy a single tool? Sure, if you only want/need that one tool it's.cheaper, if you are going to need many tools, you're better off with that kit. Yes, GPUs are expensive, and you're comparing a yet to be released system with graphics cards that are due to be refreshed before said consoles even come to market. Also with the console you can't just upgrade at will like you are looking at doing with your PC.
 
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Red Hawk

Diamond Member
Jan 1, 2011
3,266
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It's a fair question, one that anyone making a significant purchase should know the answer to. With the last console generation, they used such underpowered APUs from AMD that it was pretty easy and cost effective to build a PC that could run games the same or better. Next gen consoles will have much higher end graphics and processors in them relative to their release, so it's going to be more expensive to build a PC that can play console games as opposed to just buying a console. With that said, why would anyone still pay for a gaming PC?

-There are games on PC that you can't play on consoles. Particularly if you're into strategy games, those are much better represented on PC. Also MOBAs, though those tend to not be very demanding. You may also prefer the mouse and keyboard control scheme in games over controllers.
-Flexibility and control. You're not locked into only playing what the console maker has approved for the console. You can also look for workarounds in games and not be kept waiting for an official patch. And you can use the PC's power for other tasks, helpful if you are a content creator of some sort.
-It's a hobby that is its own reward. Some people just like the process of buying a list of parts and putting it all together. Doesn't mean people who want a console that they plug in and it just works are somehow inferior