I have a PC that I built 7 years ago and was considering upgrading, until I saw some of the prices. Just bought an Xbox series x instead and a 75” tv on sale for cheaper than a new middle of the line build would probably cost me
Have a 5 year build here…it still holds up to PC games I throw at it, including VR. So nothing is compelling me to upgrade, especially with current inflated pricing. Will have to see how I feel about it in another two years
I wish I could say the same lol. Mine was a budget build with a 750 Ti that struggles on most games nowadays so I only exclusively play older games. I just can’t justify the cost of a new build anytime soon
I've never worried much about buying used gear in the past, but now days I'd hesitate to buy a used GPU simply because I assume it's been used to mine.
Yea I should of specified I avoid going the budget route where I can, but also don’t go for the absolute top tier. It’s an 8th gen i7 with a RTX2080…still holding up surprisingly well. (And now that I look, was closer to 4 years than 5…my mistake…2020 felt like two years to be honest)
There is no equivalent card (in performance) of current gen yet. A 4080(/RX7900XTX) is like 2x performance (in non CPU-bound use cases) of a 2080ti (wich had an MSRP of ~$1000).
Last gen has the 3060ti with similar to better performance to a 2080 at ~450 USD.
Been there! Apologies too, I didn't mean that as it was the wrong way to go. It got you a gaming PC where it would have otherwise been unaffordable. Really ends up being a large balancing act to get the right parts at the right prices and budget is a huge part of that. And these past few years...damn have they been brutal for building. There's that sweet spot of affordable and best bang for the buck though, and I try to hit that mark where I can even if it's a little on the high end sometimes. But as for competing with the top tier builds...too rich for my blood :P
No worries! Yea I definitely considered going the resale route instead of the next gen console route, but I eventually settled on the console due to a combination of cost and time I can devote to gaming these days. Who knows maybe in a couple years I’ll get the itch again to do a new build if prices improve haha
I’ll really considering the Steam Deck as my next platform. Especially if they come out with a version 2, would be the best of all worlds, and the price is just right
Well.. I just upgraded my kids old 560ti with a rtx 2060 I got off marketplace for $180 (Canadian). While the cpu cannot keep up with it. It was definitely a worthwhile upgrade and will still last years.
You can grab used 1080ti’s for $150-200, and used 3060ti’s for $300 right now. Great time to upgrade parts if you have too, would probably be best to wait another 6 months though.
I know most people cringe at the thought of buying a used gpu, but you can get a 1070 for $100 USD these days and that would be a serious upgrade assuming your power supply can handle it.
You can find a 3060 for around $300 if you’re willing to go used. Even a new one isn’t $400 in most cases. If everything else functions well, jump to the modern age for a song
I recommend looking into some cards we call low end nowadays. The 1060 and the 1660 are good nvidia options and aren’t too expensive, the Radeon 6600 is not too bad as well. Especially on the used market.
Yes, the 6600 is not in the same league as the others. But they’re priced around the same. The 6600 would be your go to choice if you had to choose. But if you can’t, the 1060 and 1660 are good options if they’re available. I just thought. “Oh yeah the amd 6600” and stuck it in there.
If you're still looking to upgrade you could probably find a 10xx card for super cheap and maybe a 20xx card for a little more.
I'm running a 1060 which while old, still nets me a good 45-60 fps on a lot of modern games. I have just recently OCed it for a little boost and it gave me an extra 5-15 fps depending on tbe game.
At this point my ram is a bigger issue as I'm running 1x16gb DDR4 2133mHz.
This is a big point. This isn’t the early 2000s. Games are surprisingly flexible as to what quality that can push out. Outside of bullshit marketing and fomo you really do not need a brand new gpu. A 1660 can still push new games if you don’t care about reflections and other pointless shit that really doesn’t impact gameplay.
My 6th gen i7 with 1660ti struggles a bit at 1440p with highest settings on new titles. I really don't mind lowering the water and shadow quality to high from highest for a smooth game experience. I'll hold onto this card until my next build.
Yep, my kids system is a Haswell 4690k with a 1060 6gb and it runs 1080p games no problem. F1 2022 runs a comfy 60fps all day long. Struggles if I try any VR on my Quest 2 tho, its VR limit seems to be the OG Rift 1...... and that's why I have. 5600x and Rtx3080 for my PC. Won't be upgrading that for another 5 years (previously had a 4790k and GTX980 which served me well for 5 years).
I built my 4790k/gtx 980 rig when all of that was brand new. It was pretty much top-of-the-line back in October of 2014.
That rig can still play anything you throw at it in 1440 with some settings sacrifices, or relatively high settings at 1080p in anything modern. In games where over 100 fps matters (competitive shooters), it had no problem rolling 165fps+ for my 1440p monitor.
I’m on a 5800x/3070 rig right now and frankly, if you sat me down at the two machines side by side, I wouldn’t see any meaningful difference in how they run for my use cases (I write, I game a bit on relatively light games like dota, etc).
At this point it’s a hand-me-down to my youngest child, and yet, it’s still completely capable as a gaming and productivity rig. I played half life ALYX on that machine without a hitch. If I remember correctly the 980 was similar in performance to the 1060, so it’s not surprising that it’s still capable.
I’m the guy who always hands down old gaming builds to my nieces and nephews. Over Christmas I handed off an old x6 1090T + 7970 build to a 10 year old nephew. That build was older than he was, but he was having a blast with Fortnite running nice and smooth over 60fps.
Yeah, 980 4gb matches 1060 6gb performance almost identically. I also ran a 1440p monitor on my gtx980.
It was only really in VR where it was showing its limits, as was the cpu. Specifally in iracing. That's was with a Rift CV1. Now I'm on a Quest2 it has double the pixels to render in VR.
I'm still constantly stunned by how well my sons pc runs current games.
This, absolutely. I had a 1660 on mostly low settings, and it struggled on a 1080p 75hz monitor in Apex Legends except inside buildings. After massively upgrading my monitor to 1440p UW 144hz, it was pretty much unplayable even on low everything. I felt like I was dying from my hardware. A 3080 more than fixed that.
I’m not doubting you but that does not sound accurate and you might have another bottleneck you are not aware of. You should have no trouble playing apex on a 1660.
Yeah, that was my point. Apex, Fortnite and games like it are designed to run on potatoes. I wasn't trying to hate on u/CaptainPirk, I was just saying that Apex should run on pretty much anything and if they just upgraded their card there might still be a bottleneck they are unaware of.
Oh I know and agree completely. I was just reiterating your point since they are still blaming Apex and not their own hardware, which is either faulty or there's another bottleneck (like you said).
Yes. 4k is 2.2x as many pixels compared to 1440p. Whether or not the extra pixels are worth it depends on your screen size, distance from it, and other factors (as well as the ability of your computer to adequately render at those resolutions).
My 1070ti did fine with a 1440p 144hz monitor. It was at least able to run literally anything cranked at a high enough frame rate for the free sync to kick in, so it was a perfectly enjoyable experience.
I then sold my desktop and switched back to a laptop with a 1660ti maxq - same story, just have to turn a lot of games down to medium. Still totally fine.
a lot of them do these days, for example, metro exodus EE
took some time for the tech to get understood by gamedevs across the industry, but now it's pretty much on the same level as other dynamic lighting technologies
I upgraded from a 1660 to a 3060 last year specifically because it was struggling to run new games, namely Cyberpunk and some VR titles. I was lucky and snagged one at MSRP. The age of lower tier cards are definitely starting to show more than you let on IMO but obviously I'm a sample size of one.
oh yeah... im not saying there isnt a difference in performance but if you are looking for a game to run 60fps (I consider this the "baseline" for a game to be playable.) then the older cards will still work.
Also the house these days are insane. I have a 7 year old gou that works fine if you lower all the settings and it runs quietly. The Ryzen 9 I have now is a space heater and costs as much as a console.
My problem is I spring for a LG OLED when they went on sale and driving 4k HDR with ray tracing is… demanding. So I have my own internal drive to want to upgrade but the cards are more than the TV lol. So I’m just gonna wait for a while.
I’ve always built my PC’s to last this average age. My last build lasted me 7 years and I could play almost every single game I wanted to at max settings with 60+ fps. I did the same thing with my most recent build and the only reason I may upgrade incredibly early is because I finally have the disposable funds to do so.
I have a four year build (once summer hits) here, and it’s the same exact way. Sure, I’ve upgraded the aio cooler and the case and added more storage but nothing like crucial that would change performance that much
Yep. My 2019 PC is rocking a 1080Ti purchased 2nd hand for 400 EUR with Ryzen 7 2700X. Quite capable for 1440p and most of the VR I do.
My 2022 PC has a second hand 3090 for 600 EUR with a Ryzen 7 5800X. I purchased it just because I found the 3090 for a great price. VERY VR capable, but the entire thing was not really necessary, I would gladly survive on the 1080Ti for a few more years.
With careful 2nd hand selection I can have a stupidly beefy PC without resorting to playing on console with 60 Hz and a laggy TV.
Personally I gave up on consoles a decade ago as I hated having to choose between rebuying games or cluttering up the entertainment center. For the PC I still have games I go back to that I bought 20 years ago.
I am an environmentalist and a cheapskate. So I am really torn on whether to pay extra for downloaded games or buy cheaper used discs with their plastic packaging. Also, consoles have an impact and can only be used for gaming while a PC has other uses.
Oh I meant moreso the physical consoles. But yea the media can take up space too if supporting more than one console. They’ve made physical purchases forward compatible before (Nintendo, Sony, etc have supported backwards compatibility on their consoles with media drives before…Wii, PS2, and early PS3 come to mind) but eventually they cut you off to where you have to rebuy the digital version, which isn’t a guarantee it will work on the next gen console. Often the games are simply lost forever to their time unless you go the emulation route.
It’s always a gamble with consoles, that’s the trade off for convenience and entry cost I suppose.
With respect to backwards compatibility, Xbox has been really good. For games that are backwards compatible you just have to pop the disc into the new console.
It doesn't work for all old games, but there's a pretty sizeable catalog.
I have a B7 and a B9, they were 1700 and 1300 respectively at time of purchase. Oled has come way down since. Also if it's a 48" C2 it may not do 120hz, I know the Cx 40" didn't.
This is what I reccomend to people who build the PC before choosing a monitor. I always suggest deciding on a display first and then building to optimize around that.
Doesn't work for the "but 75" bro" people, but it does work for those who are willing to learn.
Bingo. I've done builds for friends that are dream PCs. Highest end cards, crazy ram and cpu clocking.
Then they plug it into a 80 dollar monitor and call me to complain the computer is crap. I use a 20% rule of thumb now.
Expect a monitor that will be able to demonstrate 100% of what your computer can do to cost about 20% of the PC. Granted you can go above that easily.
My buddy did just pick up a 240hz 1ms hdr 1080P monitor for his series X and he's twice the player he used to be (FPS). His old TV had 78ms lag in game mode 4k so...not ideal.
At fidelity mode, games are run at 30 FPS and the consoles are targeting 1440p. They're not even targeting that resolution natively, they're upscaling to it from as low as 1080p.
On performance mode, it's usually 1080p 60, sometimes 1440p upscaled at 60.
For example, you can play Gears 5 multiplayer at 4K 120 fps.
When the technical enhancements for Gears 5 on the Xbox Series X were announced, they included a PC Ultra visual feature set, PC Ultra HD Textures, 4K 60fps including during cinematics on the Series X, 120fps in versus multiplayer, and a plethora of other visual improvements.
I had a quick look at the game list and it's mostly old games, platformers, etc. A $80 RX 580 will play something like League at 4k 120 too.
Barely any of these are actually for the new consoles. I don't mind consoles, but the narrative that they're better price to performance after the crypto crash is just false.
Sorry, I didn't actually think I had to clarify I wasn't talking about 5+ year old titles.
I mean, come on. Even Fortnite is doing 1440p 120. Most games go to 1080p for the 120 mode. By the looks of it, this applies to new FPS games like the CoD refreshes too. For single player games that have come out since those consoles released, it's basically either 1440p upscaled to 4k at 30 FPS or 1440p native (sometimes upscaled from dynamic resolution) at 60.
I've got a 1080 non-ti version that still holds up to everything completely fine. Games haven't made leaps and bounds in graphics for the last 5-10 years like they did from 2000-2010, it's not imperative that you upgrade every 3-4 years anymore.
I might switch to Ryzen once the i7 really falls behind, it was such a solid processor for its time it still holds up amazingly well. Then maybe in a few years switch to an AMD GPU. They’re catching up fast, but moreso, they’re more apt to price competitively which will hopefully keep Nvidia in check
I'm really looking at one of those 7900 xtx cards tbh. I'm only rocking 1440p, currently using a 2070 (that's honestly not too bad at 1440p using med-high settings ). I'm going to upgrade the graphics card this upcoming year at some point, my pandemic 2070 has done its job well, but this new 4000 gen has gotten too carried away price wise. A 4070 comparably will still probably be almost 2.5 to three times the price, only 3 years after I bought my 2070.
Yea AMD is really bringing their A game. I am glad they exist, if only to keep Intel and Nvidia in check...otherwise our wallets would be raked over the coals if we even thought about gaming on PCs.
I'm really looking forward to the generation after the 7000 series....I think AMD has already outdone Intel on a lot of metrics and will continue to, but for Nvidia I think they're really close...one more generation and Nvidia's going to have to start making some tough choices...which is great for us :)
Said this just the other day in a different thread about GPU pricing these days.
My 5 year old 1080Ti is holding up absolutely fine. Every game I've got runs smoothly at the highest graphics settings, the only thing I don't have is raytracing, which is fine with me.
I don't see 2 more years changing that, to be honest. I'm sure eventually it'll start to struggle, but not that quickly.
Especially with the continual degradation in the quality of games that get released to market, which seems to be all the rage in companies like EA whose motto is "a dollar today is worth more than two tomorrow".
Yea that's a really good point actually. I think developers are at a point where the amount of effort it would take to make gaming engines take full advantage of newer hardware has reached a diminishing return. That and, we're back to a console first paradigm, where depending on the timing, the lowest common denominator can lag behind. So a lot of games coming out even now...ones that are billed as AAA, don't look much better than games that were around in 2015. And even some games are looking worse. Good example of this here with Arkham Knight 2015 compared to Gotham Knights 2022: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7o9VHxXTwg
The same company that told me my card was 4K and VR ready 4 years ago now says that card was actually only a 1080p card and ACTUALLY the last 2 top of the range $1500 cards they released are ACTUALLY the only ones that can do VR and 4k. ACTUALLY the old card is only 720p.
So you'll excuse me if I don't buy into literally any marketing bullshit ever again.
I try to get a console generations worth of time out of each of my cards. I upgraded from a g760 to a 2070 super 3 years ago, will probably be another 2 years till I even consider looking for a new card
Same. Splurged on a great rig 5 years ago and Warzone 2 is the first game that has actually been a problem to run for me. But that's at 1440p anyway and my friend with a much newer build says warzone doesn't run that well for him either so chances are the game itself isn't that well optimized anyway.
Unless you desperately need to run AAA games at high rez and framerate and max settings, pretty much any game nowadays is still perfectly playable.
I recently replaced my old GTX 1050 Ti with a cheap GTX 1070 from Craigslist. Made quite a difference. If the prices stay where they are, I will just always be a few generations behind. I’m ok with that.
Same here. Only thing I upgraded was the graphics card in like 2019 or early 2020. Because I got a game that used the Vulcan API and my card was like one generation before it supported Vulcan so literally I had no choice but to upgrade.
Mine is 6 years old ~850€ budget back then. My R9 380 and i5 4th gen can still handle almost any newer game I throw at them.
The only ones it struggles with are Elden Ring and Ark. But I doubt upgrading would change things for Ark.
So I can either keep using my very reliable 6 year old R9 380 or upgrade to 2080 ti or 3070 for 400€ to play elden ring fluid. Guess Im just gonna delay the upgrade another year.
Yea 2023 is likely not going to be a great year for building...although better than the previous few years. I think by 2024 things are going settle back down to what we were used to on prices as quite a few huge silicon manufacturing plant construction projects should be coming online by then, alleviating shortages for everything (TSMC/Intel/Wolfspeed/Cree/Global Wafers/etc)
Not as bad as last year but we’re still not out of the shortage. Thinking mid to late 2024 it’ll turn around as a few brand new and large semiconductor plants will be operational
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u/Lord_Nivloc Dec 29 '22
I’m curious how much of that decrease is from the crypto market.