Concupiscence wrote:Forge wrote:I don't understand trying to "get by" with a mid to low end GPU anymore. It's not like we're on 6 month cycles anymore, real new GPU releases seem to have fallen into an annual tick-tock, so you can easily get 2 or 4 years out of a graphics card anymore. New Colossus is pretty at UHD with all the settings maxed, too.
Some just don't have a lot to budget for the hobby and have to make do. I'm lucky to be able to plop down a few hundred bucks for a graphics card every few years if need be, but don't imagine I'm anywhere near the majority of people.
True, and I don't mean to seem like I'm sneering down my nose at anyone, but a GTX 650 was 109$ when it launched in 2012. It was never a great card, and it was never expensive. Rather than buy a new game for 40-50-60$ or more, why not skip one or two, and get a current GPU? It makes all your old games play tons better as well. I'm not exactly affluent, I've got a mortgage, wife, and three kids, and I bought a 1080 Ti without too much fuss. The rest of the box ages lots better, I have an i7-4790K that was 300$ when I bought it brand new in spring 2014. I've been thinking about upgrading it, but why? The new stuff isn't that much faster. Board is roughly contemporary, and sure, my ram was expensive, but I have 32GB and no need to upgrade there either. If you plan ahead, it lasts longer. If I hadn't moved to a 4K monitor when I did, I could probably still be on the GTX 970 I bought a few months after the 4790K rig. I didn't throw out 2-3K$ on my machine, more like 1-1.5K, and barring a few nice and timely upgrades along the way, my setup is pretty much 3-3.5 years old, and capable of all the latest games at high quality.
I guess the point I'm trying to make is that 300$ in the right place, at the right time, can avoid 3 or even 4 100-150$ "make do" replacements. I'm not trying to single anyone out, it just seems that a significant minority of people could use some coaching in not just WHAT to buy, but WHEN to buy. For instance, right now is really not a good time to invest in any Nvidia 10 series cards. Volta's launch is sometime in Q1, last I checked, and while there won't be a low end Volta at launch, most likely, the prices for cards from the previous generation tend to tank hard right after announcements.
Please don't edit my signature for me. Thanks.