Bad time to upgrade 980ti?

Randall8686 · 13 Jan 2020 at 12:16

So i feel that the GPU market is in a weird place (still). I am still running my trusty 5 year old EVGA 980ti. its not missed a beat in all fairness and since i upgraded to 2k ultrawide 2/3 years ago its starting to show its age.

However dropping £500 on a 2070 super (about what i paid for my 980ti from memory) gives me (according to user benchmark) an average of 29% increase in frames and some tittles that i play as little as 18%. I would like to see a 50% increase tbh meaning to achieve that i need to get a 2080 super. £700 for an EVGA card. if not getting a 50% increase it seems a bit pointless to me. £700 is way more than i have spent on a GPU in the past and although money is not the issue it just seems obscene!

Is this do we think a trend to continue for the foreseeable? Will next gen consoles shake this up at all? im sure this has been talked to death but i just do not know if i should bite the bullet and get a 2080 super or not. its not that i cannot play the games i want as i can i have just got the eye candy approaching the lowest settings now to keep 100 fps.

Chrisc · 13 Jan 2020 at 12:36

id certainly hold out, i think there are new Nvidia card within the first half of this year.

Twinz · 13 Jan 2020 at 12:45

I would wait to see what gets released this year.

Randall8686 · 13 Jan 2020 at 12:46

Chrisc said:
id certainly hold out, i think there are new Nvidia card within the first half of this year.

this sounds promising! I am happy to wait until summer tbh. My main want to upgrade is the new flight sim coming out and that is not until at least the later half of the year. But its been so long since i have had some new tech in my PC apart from more and more SSD's

NZXT30 · 13 Jan 2020 at 12:47

2021 would be optimal as the dust will have settled regarding next gen consoles and their capabilities. We'll also have an idea of how demanding next gen games will be. Whatever you buy in 2020 could be obsolete next year.

Chrisc · 13 Jan 2020 at 13:13

Randall8686 said:
this sounds promising! I am happy to wait until summer tbh. My main want to upgrade is the new flight sim coming out and that is not until at least the later half of the year. But its been so long since i have had some new tech in my PC apart from more and more SSD's

Yeah that new flight slim looks incredible and will more than likely require a beefy card. Although i do believe the terrain/imagery is hosted on its own server so i dont believe it will have as much of a graphically hit as you'd think.

if you were to get a 2070s now, you wont be disappointed but if you're ok to hold out until summer then thats what i would do.

Raviolay · 15 Jan 2020 at 00:41

Chrisc said:
id certainly hold out, i think there are new Nvidia card within the first half of this year.

I suspect we wont see new 7nm Nvidia consumer cards until very late in the year if at all this year, datacenter cards that can be sold for huge margins yes and OEM 7nm gpus because of power draw likely too.

eeii · 15 Jan 2020 at 12:19

Hold firm I dont think there will be anything coming out for 6 months

raptor4216 · 15 Jan 2020 at 12:56

NZXT30 said:
Whatever you buy in 2020 could be obsolete next year.

This is true if you substitute 2020 for any year

My general rule is if you can't play the games you want to at the resolution/detail level you want to then its time to upgrade. Basically don't spend money if you don't need to but if you keep waiting for the next big thing then you will never upgrade

TNA · 15 Jan 2020 at 13:23

raptor4216 said:
This is true if you substitute 2020 for any year My general rule is if you can't play the games you want to at the resolution/detail level you want to then its time to upgrade. Basically don't spend money if you don't need to but if you keep waiting for the next big thing then you will never upgrade

Nah. It is not hard to just a wait a little bit more and buy at the start of the graphics card life cycle rather than towards the end. Not only does the new gen (that brings new architecture and on a smaller fab) bring better price for performance but you get better driver support. Look at how the gap got bigger between Pascal and Turing cards for example.

I am a firm believer that timing leads to better upgrades. I still remember the people who upgraded to a 980Ti's a month or so before the 1080Ti came out were making threads of buyers remorse. Funny thing was at least one was told to wait as it was known that the new cards were not far away, but he went with the wrong advice. Lol.

Saying all that it does depend on the person and their circumstances. Some will have zero problems with upgrading again in 12 months. But if you are someone who does not upgrade often, it is best to wait and get new tech.

NZXT30 · 15 Jan 2020 at 14:34

raptor4216 said:
This is true if you substitute 2020 for any year My general rule is if you can't play the games you want to at the resolution/detail level you want to then its time to upgrade. Basically don't spend money if you don't need to but if you keep waiting for the next big thing then you will never upgrade

Not really. Its true because new generation of consoles are coming out in 2020 which happens once every 6-7 years.

Psycho Sonny · 16 Jan 2020 at 15:27

upgrades are very situational dependent. the main factors being;

1. How much can you get for your current card and how much is the new card you are looking at.
2. How much warranty or use your current card has had.
3. How much of a performance gain you are going to get for the money.

I sold my 1080 and bought a 2070 super for a difference of around £170. For that I got a more efficient card, a more powerful card, a cooler running card and a brand new warranty. I thought that was worth £170.

Jimmy Weirdarms · 16 Jan 2020 at 16:00

It's never a 'good' time to upgrade AFAICT.

Either the new generation has just been released, and are crazy expensive and you can't even get one at the launch price, so you should wait for it to calm down, or there will something better along very shortly, probably best to sit tight eh?

We're getting towards Nvidia's next release cycle, but that could be a long way off, and has already been pushed out of the first half of this year. AMD rumours abound but there's nothing solid there either. Personally, I'd say that if you have an itch, scratch it. You're always going to be able to get more grunt for the same cash a year down the line, it's just the way of things.

Joxeon · 16 Jan 2020 at 16:14

I personally would wait as the new nvidia cards are moving to 7nm so should offer a larger performance increase than what we saw going from pascal to turin and have usable ray tracing which the consoles are getting so more games than ever will have. Also if amd bring some competitive options to the table it should keep prices in check and give more options.

Randall8686 · 16 Jan 2020 at 16:59

do much conflicting information! Well the main reason for the upgrade is the new flight sim and the fact current games i am having to turn down the eye candy, but i can live with that bit. I think i will wait until the new flight sim is about to release then pull the trigger. The new flight sim I have a feeling will be Q3/4 realistically so if new cards come out by then happy days. The entire PC gaming feels a bit diluted to me at the moment. I dont play as much as i used too. I feel the games are lacking and prices of GPU's so high now i dont get that regular upgrade buzz i used to.

CuriousTomCat · 16 Jan 2020 at 18:49

It's a great time to buy because hardware is future proofed for years due to a lack of progress. There's no longer that annoyance of obsolescence after 1 or 2 years. Good times.

DampCat · 16 Jan 2020 at 19:42

People will always tell you to wait. There's never been a hardware thread posted that hasn't resulted in "you should wait". You'll wait for the new releases, then you'll wait a bit more for the prices on older models to come down, then you'll waiting longer still for 2nd hand top tier to start appearing and by that point you'll be waiting again for the next gen.

The 2070S is currently the best value for money from nVidia when it comes to 4k/1440p but historically it's not good value at all. People are hoping that the new cards this year will have an effect on the market.

Wether it will or not is conjecture.

Van_Dammesque · 16 Jan 2020 at 20:59

If you do upgrade consider a CPU bottleneck, AMD 1600x? Stick with the 980Ti and upgrade your whole system.
You haven't mentioned a reason to upgrade, is there a game you desperately want to play?

Dirk Diggler · 16 Jan 2020 at 21:26

Randall8686 said:
im sure this has been talked to death but i just do not know if i should bite the bullet and get a 2080 super or not

That bullet is made out of pillow, my friend. You've held out thus far, don't give up now.

50% increase for £500 is a more than reasonable expectation and it'll be available in a few months time.

TNA · 16 Jan 2020 at 22:58

String said:
That bullet is made out of pillow, my friend. You've held out thus far, don't give up now.

50% increase for £500 is a more than reasonable expectation and it'll be available in a few months time.

Yeah. I actually don’t get why people can’t see this. £500 will but you a lot more soon and be on a brand new architecture which will mean gap will get even bigger. Why buy old Turing architecture card now?