Why Upgrading a Gaming PC Right Now is Almost Pointless

[tancabean]

I understand what the author is trying to say but it’s pretty pointless to discuss what someone should have bought two years ago. That has no bearing on their purchase decision “today”.

 

[Lew Zealand]

I understand what the author is trying to say but it’s pretty pointless to discuss what someone should have bought two years ago. That has no bearing on their purchase decision “today”.

I think their point is: as long as your buying power today is the same as a year ago, you should have bought what you needed then and enjoyed the time gaming instead of waiting. However that assumes you had the buying power then and that you needed the GPU upgrade back then. There are a lot of caveats.

After the 4080 was reviewed and we knew generally the price of RDNA3, it became clear that nothing at the mid-high end would soon touch the value of a 6800 XT, so I bought one last Nov. I needed to wait until current generation performance and pricing was known to realize that new GPUs weren't going to change things value-wise, just like when Turing came out.

And I bought a 1080 at that time for the same reason as it cost the same as a 2060, less than a 2070, with performance between the two. It was also EOL so readily accessible for under list price where the the 2060 and 2070 were selling for above list.

 

[brucek]

I understand what the author is trying to say but it’s pretty pointless to discuss what someone should have bought two years ago. That has no bearing on their purchase decision “today”.

I actually appreciate that he's explicitly talking about the useful life portion of the value equation. Too many reviews leave this out. It's an important concept to understand. Without it, you might think that a new card today at roughly similar price and performance to a last gen model is an equivalent deal. Or that that any model card purchased near the end of its generation is worth the same as it was at the beginning of its generation. But it's not at all, you're paying the same money for two less years of remaining useful life. If you convert the purchase price to an estimated equivalent monthly subscription price you'll see it can make for a very substantial price difference.

 

[Nintenboy01]

Got a 3070 in early 2021 and hoping the 5070 is at least a 2x jump with at least 16GB VRAM, otherwise I may wait for a discounted 4080 or 7900 XTX then. But I wanna keep TDP below 250 watts as much as possible.

 

[brucek]

I'm with a 3060ti and I'm fine with it. I think manufactures will try to make most cards unusable by stimulating new games to demand more RAM, so most 10- to 40- series will be very restricted, though the chip is still capable. I bet that the 50- series will only have 8 GB RAM on the 5050 versions and will come with 12-16 GB for all other mainstream versions with a minimum of 16 GB RAM for the 60- series. That way it's guaranteed that most 10- to 40- series owners will feel the need to change, even if the chip is not that good.

Maybe for a handful of games going the "Crysis" marketing route, but if there's any upside to the abominations that are microtransactions, loot boxes, etc. increasingly even in paid games, it's that publishers have a big incentive to make sure their titles run well = gamers will keep playing on the hardware they actually have.

 

[Nintenboy01]

I actually appreciate that he's explicitly talking about the useful life portion of the value equation. Too many reviews leave this out. It's an important concept to understand. Without it, you might think that a new card today at roughly similar price and performance to a last gen model is an equivalent deal. Or that that any model card purchased near the end of its generation is worth the same as it was at the beginning of its generation. But it's not at all, you're paying the same money for two less years of remaining useful life. If you convert the purchase price to an estimated equivalent monthly subscription price you'll see it can make for a very substantial price difference.

Regarding "useful life", Nvidia still supports Maxwell, an architecture that's about 9 years old now, but it's likely on the chopping block in the next couple years. I think what saved it from Kepler's fate is that it and Pascal have a pretty similar architecture. Ampere and Ada Lovelace are also fairly close other than DLSS3 and improved RT perf in the latter.

 

[Julnor]

It may not be a good time to upgrade a GPU, but it’s really good for anyone still rocking Gen 1/2 AM4 to step up their CPU - as well as filling up those DDR4 and m.2 slots. PCIE 4.0 SSDs are now less of a price premium over their predecessors.

It also seems that this article is written on the premise of someone upgrading a 12-month old PC. Most people however are coming from much older machines than that, so 2021/22-gen GPUs are a reasonable upgrade path from Polaris/Vega or Pascal etc. “Upgrade” in PC terms has generally referred to a minor component swap to extend service life, as opposed to a system replacement.

Anyone on AM4 that can upgrade to a 5800X3D for gaming should just do it and ignore CPU for the next 5 or so years. CPU barely matters, especially going up in resolution, and what does matter is a combination of single core speed and cache, of which the 5800X3D is the best in class on the latter and strong enough on the former for virtually everything, and goes for around $280-290 right now. If someone doesn't have AM4 but has a Microcenter near them and is on 8th gen or earlier Intel, the 5600X3D gives you some 95% of the performance at a ridiculous $330 bundle price with mobo and RAM.

Now the GPU is where it gets tricky for sure. Anyone on Nvidia 30 series or later, or RDA2 6000 series, can skip current gen. But even there it depends what you have and what you're aiming for. 6700+ and 3060+ are both going to be fine, below that an upgrade is likely needed but it's tricky.

And for anyone that doesn't think it's worth being exploited for the GPU? A console is the way to go. You buy those and can forget about having to pay any attention for another 5+ years as well.

Although for me new AAA games are usually bad so I just want performance on the older games and indies I like. I don't need much, but I do need good drivers for DX9 especially, which unfortunately means Nvidia has the edge. I also do like watching anime so VSR is kind of cool. If I only played newer games and didn't watch anime though I'd grab a 6700XT or something and call it a few years, maybe 6800 to be safe.

 

[kiwigraeme]

Some people in some countries will find a nice deal - but the whole article could be two choice words to AMD and Nvidia especially.
I really hope the markets tell them off - The top cards will still sell
But it that is the strategy well another gen to really get the moneys worth .
Bottom end will probably look after itself - Intel , AMD APUs etc
So those on the middle just wait - let them know - or buy a gimped Gb GPU at a huge discount that will also let them know.

NVidias' partners must be really annoyed - so they will would pressure on as well - Give us sellable cards

 

[toooooot]

I did. 1080ti and 9th gen intel cpu is a good rig to upgrade.
Although, GPU prices are horrible, sales and discounts prove it.
A note about upgrading a laptop. rtx 4000 mobile are way more expensive than rtx 3000. A laptop with rtx 4060 should not cost 1500 as most of them do right now.
And those fake frames that won't work for all games are a questionable investment.
I would wait for laptop upgrade or upgrade to a laptop with rtx 3000.
I do like the trend of new thin and very light laptops that can now carry 4050 or 3050ti. I have a laptop of this size and weight, and I wish I could keep a couple of games on it. Iris Xe on mine is too bad for this puprose.

 

[ddferrari]

I managed to snag an MSI 3080 12GB OC variant on Newegg in May 2022 on a quick flash sale during the crazy pricing debacle for $800, replacing a 1080Ti (which I paid $700 for in 2017). I managed to OC it a further 10% beyond the factory OC (Golden sample?) and now it meets or beats a 3080Ti. Nearly doubled my FPS at 3440x1440p- which I plan to stick with for years to come.

Unless something really special (and reasonably priced) 5xxx series tempts me, I'm good for the next 3-4 years. Claims abound that 12GB VRAM is now the "minimum", but until I see a problem I'm perfectly happy with what I have. Rocking many AAA games at 144 FPS on high settings currently, and 120 FPS when I need to make a few "concessions". No problem.

 

[torchyear]

I understand what the author is trying to say but it’s pretty pointless to discuss what someone should have bought two years ago. That has no bearing on their purchase decision “today”.

Yes I agree with you there, with regards to this statement in the article:

In essence, if you were planning to upgrade from a GPU that's now a generation or two old for roughly the same price, you would have been better off doing so 1-2 years ago, or instead continue to wait for another year or two.

That was pretty much smack in the late part of the crypto boom, and GPUs were 150-200% RRP, if not more (especially Nvidia). I know because I *had* to buy an RTX3060 12GB in June 2022 to actually get some work done with graphics editing and video rendering, and was able to claim it as a work expense. By then the Ethereum hype had died off and GPU prices were beginning to drop, but they were still around 20-30% above RRP. RTX 30s didn't really approach RRP until Q4 2022. So yeah, not really fair to tell people they should've done something back then.

 

[toooooot]

Really it’s just GPU upgrades that are pointless at the moment. I’m waiting to see if there are any Black Friday deals to go from my 1700 to a 5800X3D.

There are new mid tier x3d cpus released. You might want to check how well they perform compared to 5800x3d, unless you do not want to upgrade motherboard and ram.

 

[Todd Sauve]

I had a GTX 770 and upgraded my entire rig to a Ryzen 7 3700X, Asus 570 Tuf Gaming and 32 Gigs of DDR 4 RAM. I managed to find a RTX 3060 Ti to go with it all and now it is a fairly fast machine. I wouldn't mind a Ryzen 9 5900 as an upgrade but I think the 3060 Ti is going to be with me until I get a lot more money from somewhere. And it is a really good machine as it is. Does everything I need, with aplomb!

 

[takaozo]

Finished upgrading my rig for now, not sure I will upgrade anytime soon.
The only thing left for me to upgrade now is the router, got my eye on a Microtik hAP ax2.
Also would be nice to get an 4TB SSD or more for my NAS since the current HDD is too loud for night operation.

 

[tancabean]

I actually appreciate that he's explicitly talking about the useful life portion of the value equation. Too many reviews leave this out. It's an important concept to understand. Without it, you might think that a new card today at roughly similar price and performance to a last gen model is an equivalent deal. Or that that any model card purchased near the end of its generation is worth the same as it was at the beginning of its generation. But it's not at all, you're paying the same money for two less years of remaining useful life. If you convert the purchase price to an estimated equivalent monthly subscription price you'll see it can make for a very substantial price difference.

That assumes things will improve in future generations. If it gets worse the useful life of a purchase today will be extended. The point is hindsight is 20/20 and nobody knows whether things will get better or worse. Hopefully it gets better but the 5060 Ti could be an even bigger joke.

 

[Jack77]

Simply put: We at the point where increasing GPU performance through adding more shaders or ramping up clocks is over. We're about to hit "peak computing" due to the increasing manufacturing costs of using smaller processer nodes.

Nope. While manufacturing costs have increased, the price increase if far higher. So the current gen price/performance ratio is not because of necessity, but because of business decisions. And the 4090 proves it.

 

[gingerbill]

I am still using my 1060 ,and play at 1080 .

AAA games suck now and I have been playing games that dont need a good GPU. And I wont upgrade till the prices are sensible . Even if that means never upgrading again.

 

[Vauban]

Actually 6600 to 7600 is like +25% FPS increase so it's not that bad, the problem is pricing and everyone comparing 7600 to 6600xt/6650xt which is kind of apples to oranges, for price/performance purpose it's valid but for generational uplift it's not.

In any case I have still some 2 years left of windows 10 support on my 4790k which is still absolutely fine for 1080p. I could upgrade my gtx760 but I just refuse to pay console price for 8gigs of VRAM. I fooled myself once by buying 2gb card when more was becoming a standard, not doing it again. I bought a console almost a year ago and don't regret it. I would buy only 16gb card now with decent HW (no 4060ti) around 500-600€ but there is literally nothing in my country...it's insane. There are 300-370€ GPUs with 12gigs (like 6700xt or 3060 12gb, or A770 16gb lol no thank you) and then there is huuuge gap and next one is like 7900xt for 850€. Everything else has been sold out for months, one eshop orders maybe 1 piece of 6800xt for around 600€ but it's always gone no matter what you do (refresh page, pre-order just keeps getting postponed week after week, by the time you receive notification it's already sold out again). I guess I'll enjoy my console and delay my PC upgrade even longer.

 

[bluetooth fairy]

Considering upcoming rdna3 releases, there's probably nothing special expected either. That's what I've read between the lines from the original article.

If we look at the performance chart at TPU and check current newegg prices (just for reference), the picture is pretty clear. AMD needs to fill the gaps after 6800XT/6950XT stock will be finally cleared.

AMD product placement is also not a big secret. They tend to undercut Nvidia prices at the same perf level or offer a bit more for comparable money.

So we may expect 7700XT at the 4070/6800XT level and probably for $500-550.
And 7800XT to replace 6950XT at $650-700.

Prices set for back to school season won't be damn good, that's for sure. So we just get new hardware but with the same price/performance ratio.

 

[godrilla]

Got a 3070 in early 2021 and hoping the 5070 is at least a 2x jump with at least 16GB VRAM, otherwise I may wait for a discounted 4080 or 7900 XTX then. But I wanna keep TDP below 250 watts as much as possible.

It's definitely possible. I have my 4090 using 250 watts at vermitide 2 max settings, 4k and vsync on capped frames at 120hz on my cx. The benefit is 3 fold. Less energy, less heat output and you still have the the benefit of the same latency than if my frames doubled. Maybe even 4 fold In the summer where you don't have to run the ac just to keep playing .

 

[yRaz]

I feel the pain in MFS2020 at 3840x1600 (no surprise there) but all other games? Nope, runs everything fine.

my 1070ti ran everything I play just fine at 4k. Granted, all I really is ESO, EvE and Age of Empires II. I'd probably still have it if it didn't die but I'm happy with my 6700xt.

 

[brunocasarini]

My 1050 Ti still works pretty well with a Ryzen 5 3600XT, but I don't play any of the latest AAA games (I prefer playing old classics). But I've been thinking about replacing that GPU with a RX 6600 XT or a 6700 XT. I think it'll be a nice upgrade.

 

[jfreddy82]

it makes sense to update now because now we have good price on nvme and memory
I'm waiting for threadriper 7000 series to make my upgrade


maybe it's not good time to upgrade gpu especially if you are not a video game developer that will use dlss3 on unreal engine, but if you are a normal gamer user, surely it is a good time to do it if you are going to update to a platform with ddr5

 

[bexwhitt]

Tech channels are convinced everyone needs more than 1080p and fast raytracing something you would need the newer cards for. I personally happy at 1080p and don't need to go any higher res.

 

[Clawsmayhem]

I agree to bits of this article. I think this gen of GPU is a big jump. I solely use VR for sim racing or msfs. The gains provided by the 4090 compared with my 6900 XT were huge. Similarly the 5800x3d was a big jump.
What has been disappointing though was the 7800x3d. I can’t say I notice any meaningful difference, even with lower latency faster RAM. I guess we maybe getting to a point in pc tech of diminishing returns.