Why Upgrading a Gaming PC Right Now is Almost Pointless

[Champoikoi]

I have a 1080 and I'm still waiting. The CPU's are much better than what I have (a 4th Gen I5), but the GPU's are laughable for the price point. The only thing I can't really play is something like the new Spiderman game at high settings. I barely scrapped by playing Horizon Zero Dawn, but I can wait a bit longer till next years' offers.

 

[mylessshyself]

My RX 570 4GB barely holds on after I bought a 3440x1440 monitor. The only upgrade I consider right now is RX 6700 XT but I wonder if I could survive another year and get 6800 for about the same price...

 

[theshipismoretha]

Bro, build the gpu please. And sell it to me with the same price +60% performance. This green always scams me.

 

[Jarenien]

Frame Generation is effing huge, and those that say it isn't are either ignorant and/or stupid. It adds zero latency to the games that need it, which are single player games. Nvidia reflex cancels out any possible input lag you may have. I get 200-300% fps improvement with FG on over it off, like from 45 to 103fps in cyberpunk with everything on ultra/psycho, including RT, just path tracing off. If I turn Path Tracing on, I still get like 80-90, whereas I would get about 25 with my old 3070 (I have a 4070 now).

 

[loki1944]

What applies to GPUs is about 10 times more true for CPU the last decade+ for the average user.

 

[godrilla]

Frame Generation is effing huge, and those that say it isn't are either ignorant and/or stupid. It adds zero latency to the games that need it, which are single player games. Nvidia reflex cancels out any possible input lag you may have. I get 200-300% fps improvement with FG on over it off, like from 45 to 103fps in cyberpunk with everything on ultra/psycho, including RT, just path tracing off. If I turn Path Tracing on, I still get like 80-90, whereas I would get about 25 with my old 3070 (I have a 4070 now).

Please explain to everyone what this image is ignorant about in Cyberpunk 2077.

https://www.techspot.com/articles-info/2546/bench/4.png

"But when enabling frame generation, while scene FPS rose again to 112 FPS, latency increased to 63 ms. What this means is that despite the game having the visual smoothness of 112 FPS, the latency and responsiveness you're experiencing is more like playing the game at 40 FPS. You end up with smooth motion but a slow feel, which is hard to show on a video."

update please continue the conversation in that dedicated article.

 

[toooooot]

Frame Generation is effing huge, and those that say it isn't are either ignorant and/or stupid. It adds zero latency to the games that need it, which are single player games. Nvidia reflex cancels out any possible input lag you may have. I get 200-300% fps improvement with FG on over it off, like from 45 to 103fps in cyberpunk with everything on ultra/psycho, including RT, just path tracing off. If I turn Path Tracing on, I still get like 80-90, whereas I would get about 25 with my old 3070 (I have a 4070 now).

What's with dlss generations though? Newer cards supporting the latest version but not the older ones? What a great hook to always sell GPUs and laptops every year.
What about older games? Do we ever get it working in all, half, or some of them?
This tech, if it literally allows Nvidia to spam newer version each year. And I don't argue on the main point, cooler less power consuming GPUs producing more, much more fps, it is amazing. It is not amazing that Nvidia will decide when it is the time for me to upgrade my laptop or GPU.

 

[wiyosaya]

I'm on a combination of Ivy Bridge E and 980Ti and Phenom II x4 and 6GB 1060.

I'm planning on upgrading - including the graphics cards, but I am not planning on going to the latest of either the NVidia or AMD GPUs since they seem to be way over-priced for my tastes.

Since my computers are so old, I expect to see quite a performance boost. Neither PC has NVMe drives, nor any semblance of the latest PCI-e revisions. I guess there was something to say for delaying my upgrade for so long. The PCs are probably over 11-years old by now.

 

[wiyosaya]

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.

Especially with the insane power draws. To paraphrase Doctor McCoy from Star Trek: "Its a GPU. Not a Space Heater"

EDIT: I've got two PSUs that will likely handle these cards, a Seasonic 1200W, and a Seasonic 1000W, but still.

 

[yRaz]

Especially with the insane power draws. To paraphrase Doctor McCoy from Star Trek: "Its a GPU. Not a Space Heater"

EDIT: I've got two PSUs that will likely handle these cards, a Seasonic 1200W, and a Seasonic 1000W, but still.

Remember in like 2005-2007 when people were running two power supplies because that's when power requirements started running?

 

[pan1c]

I play sim racing on the pimax 8k vr headset, 4090 is rock solid

 

[bluetooth fairy]

I'm on a combination of Ivy Bridge E and 980Ti and Phenom II x4 and 6GB 1060.

I'm planning on upgrading - including the graphics cards, but I am not planning on going to the latest of either the NVidia or AMD GPUs since they seem to be way over-priced for my tastes.

Since my computers are so old, I expect to see quite a performance boost. Neither PC has NVMe drives, nor any semblance of the latest PCI-e revisions. I guess there was something to say for delaying my upgrade for so long. The PCs are probably over 11-years old by now.

After 11 years on Phenom II X6 (dropped it 2 years ago) I can say that the future is bright

We don't need fastest PCI-e lanes. 16 at v3 is still enough for GPUs.
NVME drives and SATA w/dram cache are indistinguishable in everyday use (unless you're copying tons of data 24hrs).
But major drop is the platform as a whole.

---
EDIT

 

[RandomWAN]

Current crop of GPUs make it look like I'll be sticking with the 3080 I got last year. Considering I was doing well enough with my 1080Ti prior to that, I doubt I'll need an upgrade for a while since I'm not chasing 4k+ resolutions.

 

[wiyosaya]

After 11 years on Phenom II X6 (dropped it 2 years ago) I can say that the future is bright

I figured as much - thanks for sharing your first-hand experience with a similar platform.

We don't need fastest PCI-e lanes. 16 at v3 is still enough for GPUs.
NVME drives and SATA w/dram cache are indistinguishable in everyday use (unless you're copying tons of data 24hrs).

I've had some experience with NVMes. I built my wife a new 3800X (from a Phenom II X6) and then upped to a 5800X last year. Windows 10 cold boots in something like 4-seconds on her PC.

But major drop is the platform as a whole.

Fortunately, I'm ready for it and prepared. I'm staggering my builds (4, total) to one every-other month. The first one is in progress - for my linux router/firewall/server/network storage - which is currently an Athlon 3550 - "AM1 - Kabini.

 

[wiyosaya]

Remember in like 2005-2007 when people were running two power supplies because that's when power requirements started running?

I never used those supplies I bought to their fullest capacity, and I doubt any of my new builds will either. I bought them thinking "SLI" but decided I did not want to invest that much money. The supplies, though, remain rock solid.

 

[rmcrys]

After 11 years on Phenom II X6 (dropped it 2 years ago) I can say that the future is bright

We don't need fastest PCI-e lanes. 16 at v3 is still enough for GPUs.
NVME drives and SATA w/dram cache are indistinguishable in everyday use (unless you're copying tons of data 24hrs).
But major drop is the platform as a whole.

---
EDIT

You shouldn't mix levels, as in a car: top brakes on a simple car doesn't bring much; but if you have a top GPU and CPU and a slow SSD, it may happen that the ultra high texture don't load fast enough. On a >100 GB game, a 500 MBps SSD just won't cut it with other high end pieces.

I always bet on the mid class with a little overclocking. Though with these "mid" class from Nvidia

 

[Ohnooze]

I'm running a 6800xt and would have considered upgrading it to a 7900xtx but the greedy @$$ companies priced everything so highly that I decided to pass.

 

[mr5elfd3struct]

I'm always behind the curve when upgrading. Built a new system a few years ago with Ryzen 5 3600x. Recently upgraded gfx to RTX2060. Next, like a lot of people, it seems...I've been looking at upgrading cpu to Ryzen 7 5800x 3D. They seem rather popular! That will be it for the time being tho...until I can afford a RTX 4060....my system plays stuff fine...so no drama

 

[bluetooth fairy]

I'm always behind the curve when upgrading. Built a new system a few years ago with Ryzen 5 3600x. Recently upgraded gfx to RTX2060. Next, like a lot of people, it seems...I've been looking at upgrading cpu to Ryzen 7 5800x 3D. They seem rather popular! That will be it for the time being tho...until I can afford a RTX 4060....my system plays stuff fine...so no drama

5800x3d gpu scaling is undisclosed topic here yet (to my knowledge). But there's 7600 vs 5600 comparison with different class GPUs - https://www.techspot.com/review/2615-ryzen-7600-vs-ryzen-5600/

RTX4060 is basically 6650XT in raster performance. Probably except some specific games like ACC there's no need in 5800x3d with such class GPU. Considering 5700x is almost two times cheaper than 5800x3d it will be more than enough, or even 5600x will do the job just fine.

I'm running on 5600g which is on par with 3600x in gaming, paired with 6600XT. So I was thinking a little about the same things. But 4060 is not worth it. Maybe the better is to upgrade CPU and GPU and the same time, when switching to RTX3080 class or above.

 

[waclark]

So if you already own a 2+ year-old GeForce 30 or Radeon 6000 series graphics card, there's little appeal in this latest generation at the same price point.

I would say that for most people upgrading a 2 yr old GPU has little appeal. Think about it. If you paid $400 for a GPU 2 years ago and the new generation has 50% more performance for $400, would you spend that $400 to get more performance? I wouldn't. That would be spending $800 over 2 years for 50% gain. Doesn't seem worth it, unless your GPU cannot handle current games. If it's playing the games you like at the resolution you want, then why upgrade?

In years past I would buy N-1 generation components because you can (usually) get a good deal on them. Last gen (Nvidia) GPUs, unfortunately, didn't get discounted as much as they normally do so it wasn't worth the upgrade. Now, CPUs, SSD, RAM, did a little better in this regard, so one could argue that upgrading to a new CPU, or adding more RAM or a faster SSD does make sense.

 

[pizzacat]

Just saw price of rtx 4060ti 16gb .....over$900 australian.......no one in their right mind will buy that when you can get a 4070 at least for same price or 3000 series as well.

 

[Q Wales]

Bought a new 1660 Super in Sept 2020 for $250 and it's still rockin it in Fortnite. I'll be waiting until I can get something for a similar price with performance at least equivalent to an RTX3070 before I part with my cash again.

 

[harm9963]

4090 was my choice , coming from a 1080 Ti , $700 vs $1700 , its a luxury for sure , but performance is amazing with stunning visuals at 4K max RT .

 

[Racklefratz]

Meh, when performance is paramount, as it is with me, a spreadsheet analysis of frame cost per dollar, AMD vs Nvidia, yada, yada is a waste of time. My current GPU is an RTX 4090, and when something faster shows up, I'll buy it.

Life's too short, and we all just get one go at it.

 

[StrikerRocket]

I stumbled on a real Asus ROG Strix 3080 OC bargain on eBay a few months back. Barely used, for around $650 and with almost 2 years of warranty still on it, and it was not even registered with Asus!
I think this one will stay in my rig for a looooooong time!