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What is your graphics card upgrade plan for this generational transition?

ghst said:
i know this is yawningly predictable, but doesn't upgrading your GPU first make more sense? there will never be a worse number-of-titles to price of entry ratio than at launch, and all those PS4 multiplats you buy will remain tied to that single spec forever instead of scaling with new hardware.

as for CPU, your i7 runs rings around a PS4 CPU, even at stock. there's even a chance that devs make real use of HT since they're going to have to all become threading wizards to get anything out of 8 jaguar cores.
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I want to play the ps4 exclusives though, most notably Infamous which is coming out only 3 months after the system's release. I wouldn't be able to buy a PS4 by then if I used the money on a GPU. Plus I want to wait for at least the new nvidia architecture next year to see what that can do.

zeelman said:
You might get a bit more life out of the CPU if you overclock it, but you'll definitely need a new graphics card. The current offerings from NVIDIA and AMD will be significant improvements for you. NVIDIA released their newest GPUs recently, and I think AMD will be bringing out their new stuff later this year.
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Yeah but I like to maximize my upgrades compared to the consoles. Like this PC has lasted the final 3 years of the generation and I can still play pretty much every console port at 1080p/60fps with the standard settings on High (shadows, textures, water etc), I just have to leave off the DX11 stuff and usually AA (no big deal to me). I want to be able to do that with the next gen games for most of the generation in only 1 upgrade. I don't like to buy a set of parts and keep upgrading them every year or two, nor do I have the money to do that. So I'm just waiting for what feels like the perfect time like I did in 2010.
 
I just built my first gaming PC, and I'm already posting in threads like this and debating what I should upgrade next. Gosh dang it, PcGaf.

I'm currently running with a 650Ti that I got a excellent deal on, which isn't as terrible as it sounds because my monitor is still 1280x1024. Once Nividia's next gen cards release and I have my new 1080p display, I'll probably splurge and get either the 880 or 870, depending on how they compare to each other.
 
currently have a 670gtx. I might upgrade to a Maxwell card if the improvement is as large as nvidias graph claims otherwise I will hold off until the 670 cant match or exceed the consoles. hopefully well see some large improvements on the cpu side of things too.
 
novenD said:
I just built my first gaming PC, and I'm already posting in threads like this and debating what I should upgrade next. Gosh dang it, PcGaf.

I'm currently running with a 650Ti that I got a excellent deal on, which isn't as terrible as it sounds because my monitor is still 1280x1024. Once Nividia's next gen cards release and I have my new 1080p display, I'll probably splurge and get either the 880 or 870, depending on how they compare to each other.
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650 Ti is no slouch...even at 1080p. BF4 won't be maxed but it'll look great.
 
My 560ti's fans have stopped working and I need to RMA it but I've been thinking about grabbing a GTX 760 4gb and upgrade to the 880 later. I'd like to play BF4 at a nice rate and I don't feel like waiting for the spring of '14 to get it.
 
I have a GeForce GTX 560 SE, not too smart with graphics cards, but it's been treating me well for a while. Dunno when/if I should update, but when I do it'll probably be in the next 2 years or so.
 
How do you guys know what you will buy so far in advance? Have a 460, haven't felt much pressure to upgrade so far. Will probably buy a new nvidia GPU sometime next year.
 
I have a 560 TI inserted into a motherboard that probably has hieroglyphics. My entire machine except for CPU (i7 920) probably needs an upgrade. I have no idea what I'm going to replace any of it with.
 
...I honestly don't know. I'm in this weird limbo where I want to upgrade my 570gtx, but don't really need to. I'm getting a nice amount of money in the spring, but I'm not currently interested in the PS4 or the Xbone just yet, and I'm currently running an I7 930 ( which I will overclock as soon as I read a few more tutorials and get a better cooler), 12gb of ram, and the aforementioned 570...so there is newer stuff available, but the cost currently isn't worth the upgrade.

Maybe when the PC ports of next-gen games start hitting, and my system suffers a bit more than I like, then I'll look into whatever Nvidia has as their newest whatever-70 card
 
I have a 6870 which is good enough for now, but it's not PS4 level.. I will be getting a PS4 for the great 1st party, superior multi-plats and the JRPG's. I'll probably get a 7950 to keep competitive on PC since I believe the PS4's advanced architecture will punch above its weight, so I'll need more horsepower in a year or so..
 
I have an old 460 GTX. Not sure I can wait until the 800 series cards.

Thinking of getting a GTX 760. Would that support three monitors at a time (not for eyefinity)?
 
KMD said:
Grabbing a gtx 760. Will last me the generation!
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I'm between the 2GB and 4GB. I heard rumors about the smaller bus making it impossible to use all 4gb. But I also saw some promising stuff on overlock.net that said it was a driver problem now fixed.

4gb would make it last the generation...but 2gb is going to seem low end soon.
 
I have a 7950 overclocked to levels which put it a bit above the performance of a stock 7970 GHz edition--according to what I've read. I play at 1080p so I'll be okay for now. In the future, i'd love to play games on a 42 inch 4k tv. So if I have enough money I,d upgrade for that, unless it take 2000 in gpu to maintain 60. I won't spend THAT much.
 
Currently using a Titan, dont know enough about future stuff to know specifically what I want in the next little bit. My current plan is probably to completely get a new system every 2 years, and give my old systems to friends and family members. I know upgrading is easy and cheaper, but I love the feel of a new system, and the pleasure I get with being generous to those around me is easily worth it.
 
2x 570 sli at the moment. Wasn't planning on sli originally but got a 2nd for cheap.

Possibly will upgrade to 870 or 880.
 
My current setup:

Radeon 5870x2 in CFX

Upgrade plan:

Summer 2014: Upgrade to whatever single card has best cost/performance. Hopefully Maxwell will drop by then. Probably gonna do a complete system build at the time, though. So I'm not really sure this all qualifies =P

After: Add second card in CFX/SLI
 
Currently sitting with a 560ti. These new consoles are messing with my gaming budget in a way that I haven't had to plan for since...the last ones. It'll be really interesting to see what the future holds for hardware everywhere with more powerful stuff getting inserted into the mainstream on consoles.
 
sk3tch said:
650 Ti is no slouch...even at 1080p. BF4 won't be maxed but it'll look great.
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I'm not worried in the short term about the card(although I'm still having second thoughts about my decision to go for it over the 660 for 30 dollars more, considering the performance difference between the two), but the rest of my build is fairly high-end parts so it's sort of a bottleneck at the moment.
 
Current set up:

CPU: Intel I5 3.4

Memory: 16 Gigs

GPU: Nvidia 680

Future set up:

CPU: Next gen Intel CPU (not sure what will be available when the 880s come out

Memory: 24 gigs of memory

GPU: 880
 
question for the pc gaffers

iv currently got a gtx570, i7 @ 3.4ghz, 8gb ddr3 and a ps4 preordered

1. when would you upgrade with the above?
2. when will this config be chugging with next gen?
3. will i have to upgrade just the gpu or all three?

cheers for any much needed help :)
 
I have a 260GTX. I've had it for over three years. So far the only game I haven't been able to play well on it has been Metro--even BioShock Infinite ran on medium/high settings at 40-80fps. Crysis 2 is pretty buttery. It's been good to me.

I'll probably upgrade the moment a game I'm really, really excited about runs unplayably bad on it. And honestly, I'm kind of expecting that to not happen for another year, maybe two.
 
I'm currently sporting an i5 2500K and a 5850. I plan to wait for the next Intel "tock" and just get whatever upper-mid GPU is available at that time.
 
I have a single 6950 I bought in April 2012. I'll upgrade my GPU in mid 16' maybe late 16' and hopefully keep my i5, 8 gigs of ram.

Will use my PS4 for multiplats and use the PC for exclusives. Than hopefully buy a PS5 in 2018 and rinse and repeat. Fuck spending all that cash on yearly upgrades.
 
The wait has been hell.

I started with a GTS 450 and upgraded to a GTX 570 for Skyrim (the difference was absolutely mind blowing.)

My plan is to wait for the 8XX series and in a perfect world get the high ram 880 version, but more likely is the high ram 870.
 
I'm still running an SUPER OLD RIG from late 2006/Early 07, check this out:

ASUS Crosshair (V1) AM2+ >----------------------------------------------------------> New BIOS for CPU >-> Modded BIOS for Phenom2 >-> Bios support halted
AMD Athlon x2 4200+ >----> same >---------------------> 2.8 Ghz OC (Air) >--> Phenom x4 9950 >--> Phenom 2 940 3.0 GHz >------> Max CPU TDP Reached
2x1GB DDR2 400 >----------> 2x1GB DDR2 667 >------> 2x2GB DDR2 800 >-> same >-----------------> 2x4 GB DDR2 800/1066 >-----> BIOS limits 2/4 DIMMS
Nvidia 7950 GT 512mb >---> 2x7950-GX2(Quad-Sli)>-> same >---------------> 9800GT 1024mb >---> 560 (Non-Ti) 1024mb >-------> GTX760 4GB?
500W PSU >------------------> 600Watt PSU >-----------> same >----------------> 650Watt PSU >------> 700Watt PSU-------------------> Do I need any higher?

This baby has survived for 6+ years now and still chugging along in latest games @ 1080p above 30fps with Vsync & Triple Buffering...

How much longer can i keep her (via upgrades) before I have to retire her as a server rig, GAF? :puppy eyes:
 
I will buy a laptop with maxwell (real maxwell, not GTX 870M that may still be Kepler; hopefully these will be 6GB cards, 780M are 4GB) when they come around, will get a 870 for my desktop if they release early next year. Currently GTX 570 desktop, laptop from 2010 GTS 360M (dying).
 
Current setup is an Asus Matrix 580 overclocked to silliness. Last two cards I owned were Asus and have served me well, so I'll probably go with them again - I've been switching back and forth from AMD and Nvidia since 2003 so I might do that again. I usually just go for a strong single GPU card that's good for overclocking.

I plan on upgrading by Star Citizen's release, but I'll need money for that so I'll worry about it when it happens. Hopefully my current card doesn't die on me before then. I keep having random scares that I instantly think are impending video card death, but it's always something else (like a loose power cable, bad driver, buggy game or even running out of HDD space). I guess that's the problem with having a very expensive card, you get paranoid. But the performance has been amazing for two years, I love this big fat monster.
 
romulus91 said:
question for the pc gaffers

iv currently got a gtx570, i7 @ 3.4ghz, 8gb ddr3 and a ps4 preordered

1. when would you upgrade with the above?
2. when will this config be chugging with next gen?
3. will i have to upgrade just the gpu or all three?

cheers for any much needed help :)
Click to expand...

1. When the series 8xx comes
2. I don't know if someone is going to pull a Crysis again, but I think you will be fine if you get a card with enough vram. Maybe when dx12 comes along.
3. Only the GPU for now.

Get a 870GTX and you will be fine. you will eventually need to upgrade for that one game. Maybe Half-Life 3 so I wouldn't worry about it being too soon.

edit: Overclock that i7
 
I'm planning on watching the prices of the TITANS, if they drop Ill grab myself a second one, if they don't, Ill just sell the one I have and pay a pit on top to get myself a SLi setup with 2 880s or 980s.

I'm trying to wait it out as long as I can, I want that stacked RAM goodness from nVidia.
 
My 670 will last me at least another year, I think, and then I'll see if PC ports of next-gen games really benefit from cards with more than 2GB of memory.
 
IAmRandom31 said:
Whenever Star Citizen releases I will see what will run that game at the absolute max and get that.

I have no plans on needing any kind of 400$ GPU ever. Will likely stick in the 200-250$ range for the GPU. I will not need to upgrade my CPU ... ever. Ok ok, prob not for another 4-5 years minimum.
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Well, a $250 GPU isn't going to max out Star Citizen.

But I'm in the same boat. My i7-920 at 3.8GHz from January 2010 has held up really well for anything I throw at it even now. I've upgraded GPU's twice to my current 2GB GTX 670, OC'd quite a bit. I'll do a brand spanking new build around Star Citizen's launch.
 
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