How do you justify your high end graphics cards?

[queeg]

if you want something and you can afford it without leaving yourself short get it or do it because you never know whats waiting round the corner for you. what good is a bank account that reads £100000000000 when your six foot under

 

[Silent_Scone]

Justifying to who exactly?

Ones self? How does one justify any luxury non essential item?

By not being a silly old worry wart.


Tomb slab

Joe Blogs, forever in our hearts.

Couldn't justify it.

 

[regulus]

I can't justify the cost of the cards (especially Nvidia's) now. The price of them has gone through the roof and is just disgusting. Better to wait until they start appearing in the MM and pick up a bargain.

What I do. Tend to buy AMD new, Nvidia, not so much.

 

[sprite1275]

if you want something and you can afford it without leaving yourself short get it or do it because you never know whats waiting round the corner for you. what good is a bank account that reads £100000000000 when your six foot under

I don't mind spending the money but I much prefer a bargain. Thats why i go for year old tech Then I can spend what I save on new tech on other bargains

Like just now I've spotted a vapour x 290 for £179 new. That's a lot of power for the money.

 

[subbytna]

Prey ? These are purchases that I and others can choose to take or leave , it depends how you perceive it I suppose . it can be a few frames difference or it can mean the difference between playability at 4k with a lot eye candy with
decent minimums or Unplayability at 4k .

Its also more / different hardware to bench and overclock and learn about . As it stands I've owned every GK & GM part and it's helped me learn , gave me hours of fun tinkering and let's me compete competitively with some of the best overclockers HWBot has to offer.

That for me is more than just 7fps .

2 years ago I'd of said exactly the same mind , but I'm now of the opinion I'll be to old by the Time my pension kicks in to enjoy these things as I do now. IF it means eating tins of beans and sitting by a hobo fire @ 70 so be it

I totally get what you're saying.

By "Prey" I mean that they hype something up with all the psychological marketing traps that make you feel like you're missing out and you take the bait and buy something that you don't really need.

Yes I know that us oldies love a tinker with new tech to see what we can do with it but I'm thinking about the younger lot who are just starting out in their epeen careers. Lots of them won't have a state pension to live off thanks to politics but are spending money now like there is no tomorrow. I guess that's the consumer society we now live in where it's buy now and take the future when it comes.

....now where's my debit card, I want a hybrid 980Ti

 

[triss]

I dont justify my purchases, I simply buy what i want if its what i am happy to pay

 

[eyetrip]

Hardly ever buy on release, and usually set a budget around about £300 (per card and would usually get two, lately three), but I am going back to max two cards.

HAve plumped for two GTX 980 ti's, which are way over what I would normally pay, but I am sick of AMD's support at the moment.

I want to get use out of the hardware I have paid for.

 

[MatTheCat]

I can't justify the cost of the cards (especially Nvidia's) now. The price of them has gone through the roof and is just disgusting. Better to wait until they start appearing in the MM and pick up a bargain.

They don't sell used 980 ti's in the Members Market, but if they did, they would sell them for £545.99.

No offence to anyone who has done this, as it's your cash and your call, but those that have dumped 980(s) to go 980Ti(s) you are a marketeers favourite prey. That additional outlay, for what...an extra 7 FPS, that isn't really registered by the human eye? I don't get it. I just get the fact that the hype machine has another victim....but then again it's not my money so I'm not in a position to preach to anyone who does.

It is not quite 7fps, it is more like a 20%/30% performance differential, which may mean the difference between a solid v-sync'd 60 FPS, or sub 60 fps and stutter. I think for the majority, a solid vsyncd 60 fps is the where it is at. Don't need no better than that, but certainly don't much worse. In games like The Witcher 3 which looks great at 60fps, a GTX 980 ti is required for 100% smooth gameplay with everything turned up, even at 1080p. A GTX 980 just won't do it.....

.....but I am in the same camp as yourself. If I had a GTX 980, no way would I be considering a GTX 980 ti. I have HD 7970 in my desktop, and up until now, I have considered the GTX 680, GTX 780, GTX 780 ti, and GTX 980, not a good enough step up to justify the outlay. The GTX 980 ti on the otherhand, gives me more the performance increase that I am after. However, very expensive for what you get and Nvidia are still peddling the 28nm cores, which is old tech that is only being used cos of problems with the 20nm. This time next year 14nm will be entering the scene, not one, but two generation leaps forwards. These GPUs will wipe the floor with the current gen so now probably isn't a fantastic time to be upgrading....

.....I have considered getting a 'cheap' used GTX 980 from Ebay (dont have enough posts for MM), but man, these greedy mofos on Ebay can ram their £350+ prices for a used 980 right up their *******s.

 

[regulus]

I totally get what you're saying.

By "Prey" I mean that they hype something up with all the psychological marketing traps that make you feel like you're missing out and you take the bait and buy something that you don't really need.

Yes I know that us oldies love a tinker with new tech to see what we can do with it but I'm thinking about the younger lot who are just starting out in their epeen careers. Lots of them won't have a state pension to live off thanks to politics but are spending money now like there is no tomorrow. I guess that's the consumer society we now live in where it's buy now and take the future when it comes.

....now where's my debit card, I want a hybrid 980Ti

Hehe. That's exactly what it is. If I want to run Titan X or 980TI in quad SLI I'll simply pull out one of my business debit cards and pay for it while I'm heating milk for Milo. Might throw in one of those fancy Intel chips the kids are talking about so much.

But all e-peening and kidding aside, I'd hate myself for wasting money so frivolously or shiny trinkets that'll lose 50% of its value in less than a year. I just cannot convince myself that it makes any sense to do so.

It's quite ironic. As we get older, we can afford far more, yet we spend far less. Or at least, I do.

 

[regulus]

Hardly ever buy on release, and usually set a budget around about £300 (per card and would usually get two, lately three), but I am going back to max two cards.

HAve plumped for two GTX 980 ti's, which are way over what I would normally pay, but I am sick of AMD's support at the moment.

I want to get use out of the hardware I have paid for.

I read a lot about the AMD support that's so bad. Is that Xfire only?

 

[FinglisHobbit]

Its money, you cant take it with you, who cares. The only guarantee in life is that you're gonna die, make yourself happy while you're here.

Believe me, I spend a lot of cash on crap I dont need

Sound systems, TVs, headphones, kitchen gadgets etc. I usually find a way to justify them

The only thing Im currently feeling with the PC is the limited number of games to utilise this power. I appreciate older gen cards would struggle 4k with some of the newer games, but when it comes down to how many games there actually is. Or the time spent playing each one. I need to convince myself a bit more.

 

[eyetrip]

I read a lot about the AMD support that's so bad. Is that Xfire only?

It's mostly crossfire yes, but it's the rate at which drivers come, and their lack of ability to communicate when we can expect things.

Plus they constantly deliver other things late, like freesync support...

Nvidia aren't perfect, but my history between the two I know nvidia have been less hassle.

 

[pandem0nium]

I'm happy to spend money on something I enjoy. It's a hobby.

I won't just spend for the sake of it though, there has to be a noticeable difference.

It's hard to upgrade from 3 x tahiti powering a 120hz 1080p screen. I like the idea of the samsung 4k 24" freesync screen paired with a fury, but will have to see how it turns out.

 

[StrongSad]

I updated my entire system from a first release i7 860 and a 6950 to what I have now, for GTA V

This is a one off for me. I have no need to update anytime soon, if ever (depending on how my MS goes)

I am 1080p, wont go higher than that and I don't expect I will be buying any other AAA titles....

I am future proofed for now. Just like my other system lasted me 4 years, I expect this to last longer.

 

[FoxEye]

Still not sure whether to get a PS4 or take that money and sink it into a better gfx card.

Tbh, it'll probably be the gfx card. But I'll cap my spending at the cost of a PS4.

I could never justify buying a single PC component that was significantly more expensive than an entire games console, it just doesn't feel right

+1 to becoming more and more tight with money as I've got older.

 

[Doco]

As title really.

I'm gonna be in the market for a new card within the next month and I'm quite excited to step up from this aging 7950.

Ill probably be stumping up more money than I have in years because the draw of 60fps at 1440+ definitely appeals to me.

At the same time my card is still managing 1440p at Medium detail on most of the current crop of high end games (W3, GTAV and SoM) managing 30fps in each of them.

When you sink £550-850 on a Ti or Titan what is giving you that buzz?

Part of me thinks that its a lot of cash for a handful of games right now.

Stop copying me :O - pretty much in the same situation as yourself - 7950 with a 1440p screen, also tempted to go water-cooled at the same time but that a different story lol

 

[yoyo59]

ive given up trying to make excuses, I just dont think about it and try get the gpu as cheap as I can at the time.

 

[FoxEye]

I think also the depreciation affects my estimation of the value of the card. A £550 card isn't too bad if you can sell it on in 1 year's time for £450.

But I'm just not sure that the 980ti is going to hold its value like that. The Titans sure didn't.

And the minimal amount of gaming I do these days makes it all the more painful to spend that kind of money. Would be a waste, frankly.

The trouble is, I'm just not happy with what I've got (280X)

 

[ScoTTyBEEE]

I've got a 1440p and 1080p monitor but still play on the 1080p with my 290x. Don't know what half the options do in games 8x, 16x blah blah. New tech is wasted on me so I don't bother. I wouldn't even be able to tell the difference.

 

[Shampoo]

It's my money therefore I don't need to justify anything I buy. If you're needing to justify spending the required money then maybe you have more pressing concerns than a video card.