The Worst CPU & GPU Purchases of 2018

[Julio Franco]

If you want to know what graphics card you should buy or what's the best CPU for your new rig, we've already got you covered. Today we're discussing something else. Welcome to our second annual hall of hardware shame, where we list what we feel were the worst CPU and GPU purchases of 2018. Some of these products should have never existed, others are just a bit pointless or made promises they did not fulfill.

Read the full article here.

https://www.techspot.com/article/1766-worst-cpu-gpu-purchases-2018/

 

[CheekyP]

Agreed 100% that the GT1030 DDR4 is an absolute joke, you may as well get the Ryzen APUs for the same price and get a freebie CPU to go along with it! SKL-X prices are horrible value too, so totally agree with that choice as well. Intel is in serious fantasy land there with all the Threadripper deals going around. I guess they are gettting a lot of sales via their brand name alone, because clearly price/performance isn't the main criteria to getting these sales!

The RTX lineup was disappointing as I was hoping for a larger generational leap in performance especially after waiting so long for a new GPU from nVidia, so I'll agree with Steve here particularly with the 2070 / 2080 models which bring nothing more than ray tracing to 1080 / 1080 Ti level cards. Only the 2080 Ti is a worthwhile upgrade and it is scarily expensive, thanks nVidia! /rolleyes

The 9900K was indeed overpriced at launch but is now available at near MSRP, at least at Amazon ($508 after coupon) so I don't really get the 'hate' for this CPU apart from the thermals. Sure, you can get a 2700X for $300 but you're giving up ~20% in CPU performance in a category of computing (high end) that is likely to cost at least $2000 system wise (9900K + Z390 + 32GB DDR4 = $1000 already, add a 2080 Ti and you're already over $2000) so its not like you're saving 40% for a 20% drop in CPU performance, you're saving 10% in overall cost for a 20% slower system, not to mention one that bottlenecks a 2080 Ti as shown in your own testing: https://www.techspot.com/review/1754-battlefield-5-cpu-multiplayer-bench/

 

[dirtyferret]

There used to be a pc hardware reviewer, on anandtech I believe, who would state there is no bad pc hardware just bad pc hardware prices. While that statement is not 100% true I feel it does apply to most cpus and video cards.

 

[R00sT3R]

...And so my i5 4690K & Nvidia 970 survive for another year, due to the appalling price/performance ratio of 'new' Intel & Nvidia PC hardware releases of 2018.

 

[rrwards]

...And so my i5 4690K & Nvidia 970 survive for another year, due to the appalling price/performance ratio of 'new' Intel & Nvidia PC hardware releases of 2018.

My x5650 @4.2Ghz and 290x will continue to hold strong as well, but just because I can't justify an upgrade while only playing at 1080p.

 

[OcelotRex]

...And so my i5 4690K & Nvidia 970 survive for another year, due to the appalling price/performance ratio of 'new' Intel & Nvidia PC hardware releases of 2018.

My x5650 @4.2Ghz and 290x will continue to hold strong as well, but just because I can't justify an upgrade while only playing at 1080p.

3570K with a GTX 1060 6GB. Needs a Ryzen upgrade but at 1080p I can get 60fps without many tradeoffs.

 

[fktech]

Seems like I am seeing too many "bad" Intel and AMD products.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

1080p gaming is easier than 4K gaming. Most people who think they need 4K gaming don't - most don't even have a CPU or monitor necessary to benefit from it.

A GTX 1050Ti and 1060 are both the minimum you should have for PC gaming, but I personally am sickened even thinking of them. I say you should aim no lower than the 1070Ti...but I'd rather recommend the 2060 or 2070. The 2070 is about $500.

 

[Adhmuz]

Simple, need a GPU get one used from a reputable manufacturer which came with a 3 year warranty, avoid mining cards (look for people selling a single card, are upgrading to RTX) if you can, but in reality mining cards are probably going to be just fine as well.

 

[dirtyferret]

I say you should aim no lower than the 1070Ti.

Very nice of you to offer to buy us all a GTX 1070ti, I want mine with RGB to make it faster.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

Simple, need a GPU get one used from a reputable manufacturer which came with a 3 year warranty, avoid mining cards (look for people selling a single card, are upgrading to RTX) if you can, but in reality mining cards are probably going to be just fine as well.

There is virtually no way to tell the difference between a mining card and a non-mining card. Most sellers are selling them individually.

Best possible scenario - DO NOT BUY A USED CARD.

Let used card prices plummet into the toilet.

 

[Roy Mepham]

"And yes, ray tracing is the future of gaming and computer graphics, but sadly it is not the present, so why pay for it?"
Well, I would guess that if the cards are not sold, there will be no user base, therefore no developer will bother to build ray tracing into their engine. The result is that we will never get ray traced graphics in games.

 

[Ndude07]

Agreed 100% that the GT1030 DDR4 is an absolute joke, you may as well get the Ryzen APUs for the same price and get a freebie CPU to go along with it! SKL-X prices are horrible value too, so totally agree with that choice as well. Intel is in serious fantasy land there with all the Threadripper deals going around. I guess they are gettting a lot of sales via their brand name alone, because clearly price/performance isn't the main criteria to getting these sales!

The RTX lineup was disappointing as I was hoping for a larger generational leap in performance especially after waiting so long for a new GPU from nVidia, so I'll agree with Steve here particularly with the 2070 / 2080 models which bring nothing more than ray tracing to 1080 / 1080 Ti level cards. Only the 2080 Ti is a worthwhile upgrade and it is scarily expensive, thanks nVidia! /rolleyes

The 9900K was indeed overpriced at launch but is now available at near MSRP, at least at Amazon ($508 after coupon) so I don't really get the 'hate' for this CPU apart from the thermals. Sure, you can get a 2700X for $300 but you're giving up ~20% in CPU performance in a category of computing (high end) that is likely to cost at least $2000 system wise (9900K + Z390 + 32GB DDR4 = $1000 already, add a 2080 Ti and you're already over $2000) so its not like you're saving 40% for a 20% drop in CPU performance, you're saving 10% in overall cost for a 20% slower system, not to mention one that bottlenecks a 2080 Ti as shown in your own testing: https://www.techspot.com/review/1754-battlefield-5-cpu-multiplayer-bench/

Yes the 2070 and 2080 are disappointing in advertised feature sets being largely unavailable. But ray tracing is only half of the benefit DLSS looks very promising as well and utilizes the other currently unused cores on these cards for big performance gains. It's still disappointing though as it would be nice to see these features available now but we'll have to wait until next year to see them be be used in games.

 

[BadThad]

The RX570/580 aren't far off. They are essentially RX470/480 parts slightly overclocked!

Thanks for exposing these things! It needs to be done more often.

 

[Evernessince]

Simple, need a GPU get one used from a reputable manufacturer which came with a 3 year warranty, avoid mining cards (look for people selling a single card, are upgrading to RTX) if you can, but in reality mining cards are probably going to be just fine as well.

There is virtually no way to tell the difference between a mining card and a non-mining card. Most sellers are selling them individually.

Best possible scenario - DO NOT BUY A USED CARD.

Let used card prices plummet into the toilet.

The people selling individual cards are not miners. It's not like miners can make a million seller accounts either, as eBay only allows you one and will quickly ban you for making more.

So yeah, guy has 4 or more cards he's a miner. Otherwise he's probably not. Many miners will also be selling other mining gear as well.

 

[Yodaman]

The RX570/580 aren't far off. They are essentially RX470/480 parts slightly overclocked!

Thanks for exposing these things! It needs to be done more often.

It was just a revision, they didn't sell the 480 anymore once the 580 series debuted. Did it warrant a number change? probably not, but there are hardware differences

 

[Godel]

Problem is, if you bought your GPU after March 2018, you could have ended up with a GT 1030 that will average less than 40 fps in Fornite instead of one that is supposed to average 66 fps... both have the same name, look the same, and sell for the same price.

Hmm . . . in Australia I think that might raise the ire of the ACCC, the fed's consumer protection agency, but I suspect most of the likely buyers wouldn't realize that they'd been swindled.

 

[lripplinger]

Not seeing a reason to upgrade right now. My i5-4670k oc'd to 4.4Ghz is running great, along with my Gigabyte GTX 1060 6GB.

 

[144hzGamer]

1080p gaming is easier than 4K gaming. Most people who think they need 4K gaming don't - most don't even have a CPU or monitor necessary to benefit from it.

A GTX 1050Ti and 1060 are both the minimum you should have for PC gaming, but I personally am sickened even thinking of them. I say you should aim no lower than the 1070Ti...but I'd rather recommend the 2060 or 2070. The 2070 is about $500.

Sickened about 1050ti/1060? 1070ti minimum? Cmon that makes no sense. All it takes at 1080p is using low/medium settings or
/and 80% res scale on competitive games for 144hz or just medium/high settings for single player 60fps.

Those cards are the most used on steam for a reason. Also they are cool, no coil whine, low power consumption, low price.

 

[i3kingwizardop]

My best purchase this year was upgrading my 10-year-old i7-860 to a used $200 1800x I got off ebay. That and not bothering to upgrade my GTX 1080 which runs at 2116mhz all day long. Still trolling ebay for a 1080Ti bargain but still pretty happy with the card ive got.

 

[Steve]

Agreed 100% that the GT1030 DDR4 is an absolute joke, you may as well get the Ryzen APUs for the same price and get a freebie CPU to go along with it! SKL-X prices are horrible value too, so totally agree with that choice as well. Intel is in serious fantasy land there with all the Threadripper deals going around. I guess they are gettting a lot of sales via their brand name alone, because clearly price/performance isn't the main criteria to getting these sales!

The RTX lineup was disappointing as I was hoping for a larger generational leap in performance especially after waiting so long for a new GPU from nVidia, so I'll agree with Steve here particularly with the 2070 / 2080 models which bring nothing more than ray tracing to 1080 / 1080 Ti level cards. Only the 2080 Ti is a worthwhile upgrade and it is scarily expensive, thanks nVidia! /rolleyes

The 9900K was indeed overpriced at launch but is now available at near MSRP, at least at Amazon ($508 after coupon) so I don't really get the 'hate' for this CPU apart from the thermals. Sure, you can get a 2700X for $300 but you're giving up ~20% in CPU performance in a category of computing (high end) that is likely to cost at least $2000 system wise (9900K + Z390 + 32GB DDR4 = $1000 already, add a 2080 Ti and you're already over $2000) so its not like you're saving 40% for a 20% drop in CPU performance, you're saving 10% in overall cost for a 20% slower system, not to mention one that bottlenecks a 2080 Ti as shown in your own testing: https://www.techspot.com/review/1754-battlefield-5-cpu-multiplayer-bench/

"All that said, the 9900K is still a beast and technically a better/faster CPU than the Ryzen 7 2700X."

I think that sums that one up. Furthermore what's wrong with the 8700K? It's much cheaper than the 9900K and if you refer back to the Battlefield V benchmarks you linked you'll probably struggle justifying spending almost 50% more on the 8-core processor.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

Sickened about 1050ti/1060? 1070ti minimum? Cmon that makes no sense. All it takes at 1080p is using low/medium settings or
/and 80% res scale on competitive games for 144hz or just medium/high settings for single player 60fps.

Those cards are the most used on steam for a reason. Also they are cool, no coil whine, low power consumption, low price.

Most used on STEAM is the 1060. That's cause a lot of systems are store bought and people are broke.

 

[oghardware]

Wtf. the intro to this article is identical word for word to "Hardware unboxed" video on youtube released a day ago.
do you guys even write your own stuff or do you just watch youtube and steal their content?

 

[oghardware]

Derp sorry steve. I thought a website was stealing your content. I feel like an ***** now lol.

 

[Steve]

Derp sorry steve. I thought a website was stealing your content. I feel like an ***** now lol.

We'll let it slide mate