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how much should one spend on a card?

sybaris

sybaris

sybaris

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I know this is a subjective question, but I am curious as to what the average person spends on a new graphics card.

I don't like spending lots on hardware that gets changed frequently and binned.
So deciding what card to go for is always a dilemma.

I can't justify spending on top end cards £300+

Having said that, a graphics card will normally last me a good 3 -4 years.

So I am curious what bracket the majority go for

< £150
£150 to £200
£200 to £250
£250 to £300
£300 to £400
£400+
 
I always had £200 as a hard upper-limit. I got most of my old cards when they dropped in price to the £175-200 bracket (6800GT, 7800GT, 1900XT, 8800GT, HD4870 pretty much all came into this category when I bought them, IIRC).

I still had this in mind for when I decided I wanted to upgrade my 4870 in December. Was just looking to see if any 470s or 5870s would drop to £175ish when I found a GTX460 for £120 delivered. Too good to pass up, that was, and I'm still extremely pleased with the value of it.

Reckon my £200ish limit will remain for the future. I just can't justify to myself spending more just for whatever extra graphical effects or one or two levels of AA it will let me squeeze out of my rig.
 
Personally I think its silly to spend £200+ (unless your trying to drive a 2560x or higher monitor setup) - as much as possible I try to buy in the £150-180 area and done me great so far.

8800GT, GTX260, GTX470 (got one of them at £165 inc. postage on an OcUK deal) all done me proud and within a few percent of the top dogs at much less money and lasted just as long useful performance wise.
 
Rroff said:
Personally I think its silly to spend £200+ (unless your trying to drive a 2560x or higher monitor setup) - as much as possible I try to buy in the £150-180 area and done me great so far.

8800GT, GTX260, GTX470 (got one of them at £165 inc. postage on an OcUK deal) all done me proud and within a few percent of the top dogs at much less money and lasted just as long useful performance wise.
Click to expand...

£165 + £165 = £330+ So you didn't spend £150 to £180 because you're running SLI Which is an awful lot faster the a single card, I'm not saying one card wouldn't be enough but your two 470s scale at what 60% minimum.

I would say head towards a 6950 and flash it to a 6970, Thease cards will only going to get faster with more optimized drivers. ;)
 
Rroff said:
Personally I think its silly to spend £200+ (unless your trying to drive a 2560x or higher monitor setup) - as much as possible I try to buy in the £150-180 area and done me great so far.

8800GT, GTX260, GTX470 (got one of them at £165 inc. postage on an OcUK deal) all done me proud and within a few percent of the top dogs at much less money and lasted just as long useful performance wise.
Click to expand...

Your no longer running sli?
 
At those prices it was a deal I couldn't pass over. Usually tho I buy a single card at <£200 and then add the 2nd one in later when the prices drop to top up performance.

EDIT: Oh I see second comment was aimed at the OP.
 
Last edited:
easyrider said:
Your no longer running sli?
Click to expand...

I'm running SLI. For the prices I paid was silly not to (I use a 120Hz TFT so could justify it) - just over £300 for performance that blows a single £300 card out the water. I'm probably not the best role model for spending as I always end up going multi GPU at some point.
 
Rroff said:
At those prices it was a deal I couldn't pass over. Usually tho I buy a single card at <£200 and then add the 2nd one in later when the prices drop to top up performance.

No point heading towards a 6950 not only can my board not do crossfire, an overclocked GTX470 SLI setup is easily in the same ballpark as an overclocked 6970CF setup.
Click to expand...

Your original post didn't refelct that you have a £330 GFX subsystem.

Its contradictory I'm afraid
 
errr, mine has always been the best I can afford, which basically used to mean the longer I could make myself wait and save up, the better. Now I just upgrade when I feel my FPS/settings are dropping to unacceptable levels and then I have to get something which is a worthwhile upgrade. Like now, Id have to go 580 SLI under Water so would spend like £1k, but would prefer tri SLI so I see a large improvement, but I am still happy with my 295's tbh, only Metro made me sadface at how poorly it ran at 2560 ultra settings.
 
gareth170 said:
i'd speed £200~ on a graphic card
Click to expand...

last few cards have all been around this mark cannot bring myself to spend more on a GPU than a CPU (8800gt, 4870, 4890, 5850 6950) i find if you spend this ammount by the time the refresh comes round you can sell your old card and upgrade for about £80 which doesn't seem so bad.
 
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