working mans guide "how to finance a high end gaming habit." :)

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tential

Diamond Member
May 13, 2008
7,355
642
121
I know but I am, can you answer my question?

Oh I see now ,even though the second fastest card in Nvidia's line up the gtx1070 (that you guys call mid range) is faster than AMD's Fury x high end, the gtx1070 is still midrange. Is that what your saying?

So performance means nothing when choosing what is mid range or high end?

Or are you saying that AMD and Nvidia cards have different high end standards?
Or is the Fury Air midrange?
How is this hard to understand?
The 1070 is a midrange card because it's the middle of the Nvidia 1000 series lineup.
It's based on where you are in the product stack of your generation.
Yes, the Fury X is a high end card, but it's a high end card of last generation. It's only natural that a midrange card this generation would beat it.

This is what ALWAYS tends to happen.

The GTX 970, midrange card, but faster than the GTX 780Ti, the High end card of last gen.

Nvidia releases their cards faster than AMD (Or just on time, or just actually runs their business well, however you want to phrase it), and therefore, yes a GTX 1070, a mid range card, can be a top tier card for a long time on the market.

Being the second fastest(technically third. I mean, we do have Titan XP owners on this forum...) card on the market means nothing.

Please don't tell me you'd call Volta GTX 2060 a high end card if it released tomorrow and was the fastest thing on the market (excluding Titan XP).

For now though Nvidia rules the market with a midrange GTX 1070 and a High End GTX 1080 (Or upper midrange depending on how you feel since Nvidia doesn't produce a direct equivalent to AMD in this regard and actually has been fighting the cutdown version of a larger chip. We'll see where it lands this gen).
 
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Piroko

Senior member
Jan 10, 2013
905
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I agree. and yes no more off topic, but it seems most of this whole thread is off topic.
Haha, so true. You know what, I'm going to plagiarize your initial story and mix it up a bit to where I'd say it's a story with a happy end:

"The story of $1 and a video gamer"

Happy medium's cousin surfs newegg in March of 2012 for a fast brand new video card. He was disappointed with the $500 gtx480 power hog his wife bought in March 2010. :) He has saved 1$ a day for 2 years and saved $730 and sold his gtx480 to some sucker for $200. :) He has $950 in March 2012 to buy a brand new gtx680 that he read on Anandtech was "retaking the performance crown" ( http://www.anandtech.com/show/5699/nvidia-geforce-gtx-680-review ) So he pays the $500 for the gtx680 and he is happy knowing he can crank the settings with a card that has the latest features and is not a power hungry beast.
and he has $450 left over for his next card.

Well here it is only 14 months later he again reads on Anandtech that there is a new card, the gtx780, what they describe as "the new high end" ( http://www.anandtech.com/show/6973/nvidia-geforce-gtx-780-review).
Well he has been saving his $1 a day for the last 14 months ($420), has the $450 left over from last generation and has a buyer for his gtx680 for a real cheap $250. Now he has $1120 but no gaming card. So he surfs over to Newegg and buys the best gtx780 he can get for $650. He again has high end performance and $470 left over for his next purchase.

<no snide remarks, Happy's cousin has no need to defend his purchase history ;) >

Now he has had his gtx780 for 16 months (Sept. 2014), he felt a bit cheated that his GPU didn't turn out as great as he thought and once again he was reading Anandtech about a new $550 low power superfast card called the gtx980. ( http://www.anandtech.com/show/8526/nvidia-geforce-gtx-980-review/14 ) He still has $470 left over from his last card, he sells his gtx780 for a cheap $250 and still has been saving his $1 a day for the past 16 months ($480). Total money to spend $1200. He buys the gtx980 for $550.
He enjoys top notch performance once again and has $650 left over.

Now 20 months after he bought his gtx980 a new card called the $650 gtx1080 comes out , its much faster than his gtx980 and he wants the extra power because he has the urge to upgrade. Happy's cousin is going to go ham. :)
He takes the $650 he had left over from the last purchase, he has been saving $1 a day for 20 months ($600), and sells his gtx980 for a cheap $250.
He has $1500 dollars to spend. He's going all-in on a GTX1080 for 650$, the core i7 6700k for 370$, a motherboard for 150$, 16 Gigs of DDR4 RAM for 140$, a 250GB SSD for 100$ and a new 80+ Gold 750W PSU for 90$ because his old one isn't Haswell certified :).

His system is well prepared for Volta, though he does have to rely on someone else gifting him a new Monitor. He hopes that by the time Volta hits he can save enough money to jump to a new card and that he didn't overextend his budget on the 1080. And he keeps an eye out for a new review site, since Anandtech is slowly turning into a gadget review site ;)

the end.

I hope the math checks out, I only did a bit of quick math search&replace.
 

whm1974

Diamond Member
Jul 24, 2016
9,460
1,570
96
Haha, so true. You know what, I'm going to plagiarize your initial story and mix it up a bit to where I'd say it's a story with a happy end:

"The story of $1 and a video gamer"

Happy medium's cousin surfs newegg in March of 2012 for a fast brand new video card. He was disappointed with the $500 gtx480 power hog his wife bought in March 2010. :) He has saved 1$ a day for 2 years and saved $730 and sold his gtx480 to some sucker for $200. :) He has $950 in March 2012 to buy a brand new gtx680 that he read on Anandtech was "retaking the performance crown" ( http://www.anandtech.com/show/5699/nvidia-geforce-gtx-680-review ) So he pays the $500 for the gtx680 and he is happy knowing he can crank the settings with a card that has the latest features and is not a power hungry beast.
and he has $450 left over for his next card.

Well here it is only 14 months later he again reads on Anandtech that there is a new card, the gtx780, what they describe as "the new high end" ( http://www.anandtech.com/show/6973/nvidia-geforce-gtx-780-review).
Well he has been saving his $1 a day for the last 14 months ($420), has the $450 left over from last generation and has a buyer for his gtx680 for a real cheap $250. Now he has $1120 but no gaming card. So he surfs over to Newegg and buys the best gtx780 he can get for $650. He again has high end performance and $470 left over for his next purchase.

<no snide remarks, Happy's cousin has no need to defend his purchase history ;) >

Now he has had his gtx780 for 16 months (Sept. 2014), he felt a bit cheated that his GPU didn't turn out as great as he thought and once again he was reading Anandtech about a new $550 low power superfast card called the gtx980. ( http://www.anandtech.com/show/8526/nvidia-geforce-gtx-980-review/14 ) He still has $470 left over from his last card, he sells his gtx780 for a cheap $250 and still has been saving his $1 a day for the past 16 months ($480). Total money to spend $1200. He buys the gtx980 for $550.
He enjoys top notch performance once again and has $650 left over.

Now 20 months after he bought his gtx980 a new card called the $650 gtx1080 comes out , its much faster than his gtx980 and he wants the extra power because he has the urge to upgrade. Happy's cousin is going to go ham. :)
He takes the $650 he had left over from the last purchase, he has been saving $1 a day for 20 months ($600), and sells his gtx980 for a cheap $250.
He has $1500 dollars to spend. He's going all-in on a GTX1080 for 650$, the core i7 6700k for 370$, a motherboard for 150$, 16 Gigs of DDR4 RAM for 140$, a 250GB SSD for 100$ and a new 80+ Gold 750W PSU for 90$ because his old one isn't Haswell certified :).

His system is well prepared for Volta, though he does have to rely on someone else gifting him a new Monitor. He hopes that by the time Volta hits he can save enough money to jump to a new card and that he didn't overextend his budget on the 1080. And he keeps an eye out for a new review site, since Anandtech is slowly turning into a gadget review site ;)

the end.

I hope the math checks out, I only did a bit of quick math search&replace.
He would done much better getting the GTX x70 cards instead. IMHO the GTX x80 GPUs are not worth the major price increase over the GTX x70 since they are so close in performance.
 

Piroko

Senior member
Jan 10, 2013
905
79
91
He would done much better getting the GTX x70 cards instead. IMHO the GTX x80 GPUs are not worth the major price increase over the GTX x70 since they are so close in performance.
I went with the initial premise and it does fit into the budget. There's no shame in spending as much as you want to spend, there's only shame in thinking that you need to spend that much to be "a high end gamer" or something along the line.
 

Tweak155

Lifer
Sep 23, 2003
11,447
262
126
Why I read pretty much this whole thread, I'm not quite certain. If it was meant to be light hearted as OP indicated, the thread surely delivered entertainment.
 

whm1974

Diamond Member
Jul 24, 2016
9,460
1,570
96
I went with the initial premise and it does fit into the budget. There's no shame in spending as much as you want to spend, there's only shame in thinking that you need to spend that much to be "a high end gamer" or something along the line.
Yeah but the money saved by going with a slightly lower performing card but a lot cheaper can be use to improve the rest of the system. Such a bigger SSD, better HSF, or an i7 instead of an i5, etc.
 

Piroko

Senior member
Jan 10, 2013
905
79
91
Yeah but the money saved by going with a slightly lower performing card but a lot cheaper can be use to improve the rest of the system. Such a bigger SSD, better HSF, or an i7 instead of an i5, etc.
I did already get the highest consumer platform i7 ;)
The other points are valid, 1500$ only gets you so far when you spend 650$ on the GPU. I know by only buying a 1070 I could spend more on a modern case, better cooling, probably a new HDD if the old one is from 2011 and I would opt for a platinum PSU with CM. Oh and I'd have money left that would go towards a screen so I don't have to sit on someone elses pocket :D
And I'd have a 2016 high end system that looks and feels like one, not a pretend one that splutters on half the 2016 titles :cool:

No offense, happy ;)
 

littleg

Senior member
Jul 9, 2015
355
38
91
Titan XP
1080ti
1080
1070
1060
1050ti
1050

1070 looks bang in the mid-range to me.
 

happy medium

Lifer
Jun 8, 2003
14,387
480
126
Titan XP/1080ti ultra high end
1080 high end
1070 lower high end
1060 upper mid range
gtx1060 3gb lower mid range
1050ti higher low end
1050 mid low end
gt1040 lowest of the low.

1070 looks bang in the lower high end to me.................

But compared to AMD cards its the super high end in 2016.
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
110,512
29,098
146
You guys are just creating values for each tier. It can essentially be anything you want with any naming scheme you choose. See:

Titan XP: ultra High end
1080ti: Enthusiast/High End
1080: Upper Mid range
1070: Mid range
1060: Upper low end
1060 3gb: low end/crap/why would this ever be made? (humor option)
1050ti: low end, but reasonable low end
1050: lowest low end
1040: Hamster wheel

See? :p
 

poofyhairguy

Lifer
Nov 20, 2005
14,612
318
126
Yes, actually I find gaming an expensive activity because gaming hardware (consoles, high end PC hardware, peripherals, etc) is expensive and yes, most of the games are expensive at launch and I like to play the latest releases. Please suggest me the solutions I can't wait till the period games lose their price.

A lot of games have pre-sale deals which allow you to get a discount day one. isthereanydeal.com is a huge help for that kind of research. Sometimes its a simple as using a sitewide coupon.

For major games that get included with AMD or Nvidia GPUs, often Ebay is flooded with discounted keys from people who bought those GPUs but don't want those games. Ebay buyer protection is pretty excellent.

As far as making the hardware cheaper, that all comes down to timing WHEN you buy. Really the only three good times to buy a GPU are :

1. Day/week/month 1 so the dollar paid per day is minimized

2. Black Friday Weekend when almost all types of cards go on sale

3. When the cards are on clearance sales

Number 3 is the real deal, if you target last generation flagship cards you can often get top performance for pennies on the dollar. Like people who picked up a clearance 980 ti last year, or someone who gets one of the $300 Fury Xs right now.
 
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linkgoron

Platinum Member
Mar 9, 2005
2,286
810
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1080ti doesn't exist. Why not add a few other non released cards in there, then you could make any of those look like the mid range card.
The Titan XP is almost 60% faster than the 1070 @ 4k, and is 50% faster than the 1070 @ 1440p (according to TPU). I just don't see how you can seriously consider a 1070 as high end, given the fact that a ~60% (58.7%) faster card exists.
 

IllogicalGlory

Senior member
Mar 8, 2013
934
346
136
1080ti doesn't exist. Why not add a few other non released cards in there, then you could make any of those look like the mid range card.
GP100 - Professional
GP102 - High end
GP104 - Midrange/upper midrange
GP106 - Mainstream/lower midrange
GP107 - Low end

Something like that.
 
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Bacon1

Diamond Member
Feb 14, 2016
3,430
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The Titan XP is almost 60% faster than the 1070 @ 4k, and is 50% faster than the 1070 @ 1440p (according to TPU). I just don't see how you can seriously consider a 1070 as high end, given the fact that a ~60% (58.7%) faster card exists.

Maybe because we don't consider Titan XP to be high end @ $1200?

So if Nvidia released a $2400 card that would make Titan XP high end and 1080 mid range, 1070 mid-low, 1060 low range and 1050 bargain?
 

linkgoron

Platinum Member
Mar 9, 2005
2,286
810
136
Maybe because we don't consider Titan XP to be high end @ $1200?

So if Nvidia released a $2400 card that would make Titan XP high end and 1080 mid range, 1070 mid-low, 1060 low range and 1050 bargain?
I use the performance of a card as the metric, not its price, which is exactly what you quoted. Nowhere did I mention the price as a metric.

The 1080 and 1070 are essentially the same segment (midrange/upper midrange), even though the 1080 costs 60% more than the 1070 (non-FE MSRP $380 vs $600), the performance delta is a bit over 20% (according to TPU) at 1440p and 4k.
 
Last edited:

Bacon1

Diamond Member
Feb 14, 2016
3,430
1,018
91
I use the performance of a card as the metric, not its price.

Heh I was in the middle of editing because I hit post before I meant to. But what I meant was the scaling is totally broken for mid-range vs high end now just because Nvidia keeps upping the price for each range.

Mid range used to be the $200-300ish which the 470/480 and 1060 3/6 currently occupy. But those are really the bare minimum I'd recommend anyone get now for gaming due to the huge GPU demands. I remember the outcry at the 8800 Ultra @ ~$820 vs the 8800 GTX @ $600 being expensive.

Anandtech hit it on the head though:

We do know NVIDIA has wanted to push up towards the $1000 graphics card segment for a while. Offering the top of the line for what almost amounts to a performance tax would give NVIDIA the ability to sell a card and treat it like a Ferrari. It would turn high end graphics into a status symbol rather than a commodity. That and having a huge margin part in the mix can easily generate additional profits.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2222
 

tential

Diamond Member
May 13, 2008
7,355
642
121
is this cheaper than nvidia game streaming?
For triple a gaming, nvidia game streaming is cheaper for me personally for the amount of games I play than buying a flagship or high end gpu.

That said, I still will try to buy 2 high end Vega GPUs when they come out.
 

maddogmcgee

Senior member
Apr 20, 2015
384
303
136
When its time to save for an upgrade, my kids simply skip meals. Been working so far. I never skip meals though.

Have you considered re-using older, outdated systems by having your children level WOW accounts? That way they could be cash flow positive during meal free days? This may also allow you to upgrade to the ultra high-end professional tier every year.

Note: the writer of this suggestion dies not advocate the non-feeding of children.
 

littleg

Senior member
Jul 9, 2015
355
38
91
A simple wheel and turbine system will not only keep your hamsters children fit and healthy, it also cuts down on electricity for those few extra dollars for the Lightning OC edition.