At what point do you say GPU's are too expensive and refuse to buy?

[teejay73]

I remember when I first started gaming on self built pc's many years ago to play footbball manager and simulation games that you couldn't get on consoles at the time, and just getting so passionate about the latest gfx card release, later down the line I got heavily in to watercooling when overclocking was still a major thing. My current rig with everything including my MO-RA 420 set up is probably not far over cost of the Astral RTX 5090. That to me represents just how insane the gfx market has become. I don't game in 4k, as I just don't have the money to do it properly. My red devil 6950xt still holds it's own for the games I play at 1440p, but I am at that point in my life now, where I think I may just go back to consoles, and finally leave the pc gaming arena for good.

I've become disillusioned with the whole scene from a gaming perspective, and the recent 9700xt release has just reinforced that, though granted I did pay a few quid more for my 6950xt than the 9700xt is at mrsp. It's been a fun ride though, but I'll still be buying high end pc gear, as my business needs dicatate that, but as far as gaming goes, I think i'm done.

 

[5ubsonic]

So far I've never paid more than £165 for a GPU. I had a 660 Ti and followed that with an RX 6600.

I was willing to make the leap to a 9070 XT at MSRP, but didn't manage to get one. Above MSRP the value isn't there for me. TBH I was on the fence even at £569 - not sure I can justify it. I think now I'll wait for something used or for discounts in the future.

 

[dargla]

Money I get from selling my old card + £300 but expect +100% performance at least. I currently have RTX 3070 so my upgrade time is not there yet.

TbH 3070 is generally fast enough for me, I play 1440p @ 75 mostly and happy to cut some details, the biggest pain is the 8gb limit (FU nvidia). Amount of vram is my prime consideration now.

Rx 9070 xt at RRP would just touch the bar but I refuse to pay a single penny over the nominal price, it's too expensive already.

Reminding myself of consoles prices (entire system with dedicated os) get me to sane levels. PC gaming is better but not 4 times better as the costs involved suggest.

 

[DeathStorm]

I paid £960 for a 3080 four years ago and I still hate myself a little for doing so. Admittedly I was getting frustrated trying to source a 3080 because the upgrade was required so I just ate the added expense to finally solve the issue, exceptional times call for exceptional measures right? So I don't really understand how we've gotten into a situation where the high end cards at over £2k are all selling out and even the 80 series can basically command any price and sell out as standard practice.

I keep hoping that sanity will return but it's been getting worse and I don't see the justification, I sympathise with anyone who has an upgrade/new build and can't avoid it but the best thing you could do otherwise is to skip this generation entirely, so many cynical moves from the likes of Nvidia (cutting off 40** supply to bolster the 50** crap, releasing with missing ROPs, the stupid connector etc) and they keep getting rewarded for it.

So I guess I can probably mentally justify a grand but that's to actually get what I want, not some mid range bodge. The best thing about the 5000 series release for me has been avoiding it entirely and I really hope I don't need a replacement card for many years as Nvidia doesn't deserve a penny.

 

[Jono8]

I paid £960 for a 3080 four years ago. .....

So I don't really understand how we've gotten into a situation where the high end cards at over £2k are all selling out and even the 80 series can basically command any price and sell out as standard practice.

Hm.

You answered your own question there buddy.

 

[IvanDobskey]

I won't pay much more than £500 for a GPU. Not because I can't afford to, but with the limited amount of gaming I do these days, I just can't justify it.

And really, a decent GPU shouldn't cost any more than £500. I see prices of £2000 for the Nvidia 5090 and I just laugh.

 

[DeathStorm]

Hm.

You answered your own question there buddy.

Hey! Stop that, I don't do accountability.

However to be clear, I was alluding to the supply issues caused by lockdowns as being a somewhat valid justification for the insane pricing and demand but then they set that as their baseline years later and that's what I'm taking offense to.

 

[Sparky]

Hey! Stop that, I don't do accountability.

However to be clear, I was alluding to the supply issues caused by lockdowns as being a somewhat valid justification for the insane pricing and demand but then they set that as their baseline years later and that's what I'm taking offense to.

The artificial scarcity and FOMO have driven prices to an unacceptable level for most PC enthusiasts. I hardly have time to jump on Battlefield 1 these days so after some head scratching I chose to stick to my rtx3070. If I see a bargain in the MM or the auctions I may be tempted.

 

[Hugest_UK]

I have reached that point. I have a 3080ti and looked at upgrading at the 40 series but any meaningful upgrade meant a 4090 and no way was I paying that price and now I’d be willing to buy a 5080 if the price was better 12-1300 is just robbery for an 80 class GPU and finding a founders edition isn’t realistic at the moment. Even the 9070xt is more of a side grade and after selling the ti would mean an outlay of £120-400 for little benefit.

So I don’t know what I’m going to do when the ti can no longer play games at decent settings/fps hopefully by then manufacturers will come to their senses.

 

[WARburton]

but depending on what you play the ti as a lot of life in it, i have a friend in the same situation same gpu,

 

[gpuerrilla]

I have reached that point. I have a 3080ti and looked at upgrading at the 40 series but any meaningful upgrade meant a 4090 and no way was I paying that price and now I’d be willing to buy a 5080 if the price was better 12-1300 is just robbery for an 80 class GPU and finding a founders edition isn’t realistic at the moment. Even the 9070xt is more of a side grade and after selling the ti would mean an outlay of £120-400 for little benefit.

So I don’t know what I’m going to do when the ti can no longer play games at decent settings/fps hopefully by then manufacturers will come to their senses.

I seen someone went from that card to a 4070ti. Some of the options switching like that are not even a side grade. There was not much choice in the past two gens as GN puts it, there is like four versions of the 4080 now and if you include AMD's 9070XT its another in that band. The sku's that only do a generous enough leap would be a 4080S or better so its selecting something that is low enough cost there. I guess as the 3080Ti was £1200+ in the first place you are replacing it with the same expected outlay unless your happy to wait for second hand options or the next gen happens to make enough of an improvement that trickles down the stack and nvidia stop diluting their tiers.

 

[jimferno]

I bought a 5700XT for £365 in 2020 and didn't upgrade until I got an RX 6800 for £370 in 2023. That's roughly a 70% performance uplift and double the VRAM for the same money I paid for the previous card.

I will not be suckered in to paying proportionally more for a performance increase over my current card simply because they're new and shiny.

I will wait and when a suitable, meaningful upgrade is available at my price point then I will buy. There isn't a single game I play that my current card can't handle, with decent IQ settings and framerates, at QHD.

 

[kmetek]

Paid 700€ at the peak of the GPU prices in 2021/2022 for 3060ti now I'll get 200€ maybe for it....Willing to pay 600€ max for 9070, not buying Nvidia card anymore.