Is it even worth it to buy a new GPU / build a computer these days? I’ve been holding off for a couple of months now, and I still haven’t seen any dip in GPU prices. Here where I live, the cost of a GTX1080 is equals to what a GTX1080 Ti used to be, more or less $699 and the GTX1080 Ti is around $899-1000. Which is just plain retarded.
I could always just go “screw it” buy the 1080, but then I’m worried that Volta might come out shortly after and offer similar pricing or even worst that I could have bought the 1080 cheaper because of the new GPUs.
That is the most challenging aspect of the current hardware market: can you exercise the discretion to refuse to pay inflated prices for current-gen hardware? I would say that this question is ultimately subjective; however, you can do some quick research and develop some objective conclusions to help drive your impulse.
@QuantumDucksQuark95 I wouldn’t call it impulse, I guess its more like frustration . Been saving up for a long time and when I saved up enough funds, the GPU price hike happened. It just i’ve been waiting for a long time now. This just sucks.
@TNB I really would like to have at least a 1080, I saved up for a long time and plan to go all out, balls to the wall for this build.
If you can do without a GPU until Volta launches then I would wait.
The prices will almost definitely be inflated, but at least it will be the latest tech, and should theoretically last you longer. Like you said there is always the chance that Volta could also drive down the prices of the 1080.
I bought my 290x in the middle of a crypto mining phase, albeit it wasn’t quite as bad as it is now, but that card is, luckily, still going strong.
Unfortunately it’s a shit time to buy a card we can all hope the market gets back to “normal” but you may have to accept that it’s not going to.
its an unfortunate fact of life at the moment… But i would argue that with the increased demand caused by the Crypto world, unless supply is drastically increased ( unlikely ), this current price “inflation” is the new normal… and RRP announcments for new cards may as well be completely ignored…
But the reality is… when was the last time a mid-range or higher card could be had for RRP? I think I managed to snag my nitro 390 for about 100 over RRP… but theres not a lot of mining happening here in NZ… and retailers have had the one card per customer rule in force since the 400 series was still rumour…
nVidia have posted prices will continue to increase in Q3 this year so I decided to upgrade my 980 Ti to a 1080 Ti a couple of weeks a go when my UK supplier offered a £200 discount to forum subscribers on a 1 per basis but limited to 60 units.
That just about took it back to the original RRP and it meant I could run KC:D at Very High settings and see 60+ fps so it was worth it for that
Still silly money for a GPU really. The discount was more than I paid for any of the RX 480s I bought at launch!
Yes prices will go up. Cryptocurrency is stronger than ever (with governments starting to backing it). My opinion is find a good deal on a 980ti or older gpu’s just to get by. Giving so much money for a 1080ti is out of the question for me. Except you will start mining in the time you are not using your PC and recoup that 400$ over MSRP.
In these times you kinda have to start thinking out of the box. Embracing the new technology and turning it into your advantage.
So bit of a annoyed rant from me on these sorts of topics ahead:
My perspective:
Just use whatever random modernish GPU you can get. 970 and up or AMD 380 and up is plenty for just about anything. Hell a 780/Radeon 280 is still amazing for just about anything.
You will be fine.
I have literally stopped caring because gaming is quintessentially a form of luxury non productive entertainment. You’re just burning money, time and electricity for nothing but entertainment that means very little in the long term / scheme of things.
And as much as I dislike cryptominers and however nonsensically contrived cryptomining may be, they’ve at least found a way to make money from gaming hardware thats usually a depreciating moneypit.
I currently have 2 Rx580’s and will probably keep them for at least another 2 years or as long as they are useful to me.
If you have a 970/980 now for example just keep it.
Just turn the settings down a wee bit and carry on. You won’t even care or notice after a while as long as you are having fun. For example there are people with lowly laptops competing against oneself on fortnite that still trash you every time.
There is no point to having the latest and greatest hardware at every turn. There will always be new things to burn money on. I learned to resist it and spend my money elsewhere.
I understand what you’re saying and I agree with everything that you said about pc gaming and about the point of having the latest / best hardware as possible. I wouldn’t have this dilemma if only I have endless disposable cash. Its just that I have been saving for a long time and I really just want to get my money’s worth and to avoid being salty as much as possible.
Although I did say “balls to the wall” I’m only planning to build a system with ryzen 7,at least 32gb ram, 1080 gpu, at least 500gb sdd and its mostly because of my work. I’m a video editor and I do alot of my work at home. I’ve been working with an fx 8350 and 2 R9 280 for years now. And as thankful as I’m for my Fx 8350. This thing is more or less half a decade old now and it shows, especially when I work. As for my GPU i’m seeing artifacts from time to time now.
I hope this clears up the reason why I’m asking this question and hopefully people would understand where I’m coming from.
Contrary to popular belief, consumer electronics are seldom about the latest cutting edge technology. Its about supply pipelines being manipulated by oligopolies in different countries. Its Empire baby, and this train ain’t stopping until she derails. Fanboys elevated Nvidia and Intel to the status of gods and are now shocked that the 800lb gorillas dominate the market. Nvidia has refused to release their new Tesla architecture which includes a 38tfp consumer graphics card. Between 26-38 teraflops is the estimated requirements for photorealistic real time ray traced geometry in virtual reality while, just a few years ago many of us were struggling to afford 2-4tfps.
I’m waiting for Navi to appear and, perhaps, bring new meaning to AMD’s infinity fabric and lower the cost.
