Nvidia could delay the RTX 5000 Super series indefinitely as AMD offers no 2026 competition

[Rapob]

You’re just restating the same point at this stage, and I don’t actually disagree with most of it. Yes, DLSS is widely used. Yes, upscaling is now the norm at 4K. Yes, feature support matters more today than it did in the Pascal era. None of that is controversial.

Where we keep talking past each other is that you’re framing this as proof that the 1080 Ti was never really a 4K card, when the reality is simply that expectations and rendering pipelines changed. Feeling slow in 2019–2020 at ultra wide or 4K in newer AAA titles does not invalidate what the card was capable of in its own generation. That’s not aging “badly,” that’s the industry moving on and that is what the topic was about.

Saying even a 4090 feels dated at native 4K today kind of proves the point. Native 4K has become an unreasonable benchmark because vendors and developers assume upscaling. That doesn’t mean older GPUs failed due to bad design, it means the target shifted.

I’m not arguing people should ignore DLSS or buy GPUs without feature support today. Of course those features matter now. My point has always been narrower than what you keep responding to....the 1080 Ti was a legitimate 4K GPU in its era, and its decline was driven by a shift toward feature dependent rendering, not because it was fundamentally inadequate hardware.

At this point we’re just going in circles. If you need to have the last word, you can have it. DLSS and FSR 4 are important.

I am saying 1080 Ti was a 4K/UHD card, for a few short years, then next gen consoles came out and way more advanced game engines, which made the 1080 Ti hit a brick wall real fast with no upscaling to help.

9 out of 10 if not more of actual 4K gamers is using upscaling, because it is a nobrainer for most.

3090 was a 4K card as well, today not so much but saved somewhat by DLSS.
4090 still somewhat is a 4K card but many games are made with upscaling in mind these days, like Black Myth Wukong for example, even 5090 will sweat at 4K max settings if you disable upscaling.

What I am trying to say: A card might be 4K capable, but won't last long. Especially not without good upscaling with broad game support, which was the main reason 1080 Ti did not age well and why I replaced my 1080 Ti after like 3 years.

 

[Loadedaxe]

I am saying 1080 Ti was a 4K/UHD card, for a few short years, then next gen consoles came out and way more advanced game engines, which made the 1080 Ti hit a brick wall real fast with no upscaling to help.

9 out of 10 if not more of actual 4K gamers is using upscaling, because it is a nobrainer for most.

3090 was a 4K card as well, today not so much but saved somewhat by DLSS.
4090 still somewhat is a 4K card but many games are made with upscaling in mind these days, like Black Myth Wukong for example, even 5090 will sweat at 4K max settings if you disable upscaling.

What I am trying to say: A card might be 4K capable, but won't last long. Especially not without good upscaling with broad game support, which was the main reason 1080 Ti did not age well and why I replaced my 1080 Ti after like 3 years.

You’re basically saying the same thing, just with different emphasis. I’ve never claimed the 1080 Ti was a forever 4K card. I’ve consistently said it was a legitimate 4K GPU in its time, which you’re have also acknowledge.

 

[Rapob]

You’re basically saying the same thing, just with different emphasis. I’ve never claimed the 1080 Ti was a forever 4K card. I’ve consistently said it was a legitimate 4K GPU in its time, which you’re have also acknowledge.

Yep but not for long, like always if you insist on 4K/UHD or higher, at native.

I also said most RTX cards aged better due to proper upscaling support and this was the main reason 1080 Ti aged kinda bad.

For example, 2080 Ti is pretty good still at 4K using DLSS Performance mode which looks great with DLSS 4 and preset K.

1080 Ti was a good GPU but overrated as well. I saw people back in 2022-2024 saying it was still great. Absolutely not. My 1080 Ti felt dated before 2020.

Many people were stuck with GTX 900/1000 long after 2020 due to mining craze etc.
They tried to make people and themselves believe their card was still good. Because they could not really afford to buy a new card. The same people called upscaling a joke, while game industry embraced it fast. Both console and PC game developers.

1080 Ti aged like normal really. Could have aged much better than it did but the game industry changed.

I personally liked my 980 Ti better than my 1080 Ti mostly due to the massive OC headroom.
My 980 Ti was almost on 1080 non-Ti level but lacked VRAM in the end. I bought 1080 Ti hoping it would last better, due to 11GB VRAM, but lacked advanced features and eventually, next gen consoles, next gen game engines and brand new features hit, which made the 1080 Ti age as usual, regardless of having 11GB which was alot back then.

Conclusion? No matter how hard you try and futureproof, it won't really work.

That said, my 4090 aged like wine. Probably the best GPU purchase ever for me. Still very good 4 years later, with full DLSS 4 + 4.5 support, including native FP8, and it seems that the next 2 years won't bring much new from neither Nvidia or AMD. And with 24GB VRAM, I don't fear any game this time.

4090 >>>> 1080 Ti in terms of longevity

Had my 1080 Ti for 3 years or so.
Will have this 4090 for 6 years I guess. RTX 6090 or 6080 will be my upgrade path, or AMD if they deliver a GPU in this league.