How much does your graphics card really cost?

[Quartz]

It's easy to look at the headline cost of GPUs. But in another thread someone made an adverse comment about PC graphics cards in comparison to consoles so I did the sums and my Maxwell Titan X has cost me under £25 a month - and that's ignoring the resale or depreciated value.

So how much do your GPUs actually cost you over the long term?

 

[Quartz]

It wouldn't cost you 25 quid a month if crypto and memory shortages hadn't screwed everything up lol.

I bought 3 years ago - before the crypto boom.

RX 580 £299. Currently that works out as £299 a month....

How long do you intend to keep the card? If you plan on keeping it 30 months - 2.5 years - it will have cost you £10 a month.

I think trying to defend the current costs of pc hardware is a bit ridiculous.

Good, because I'm not; what I am interested in is finding out how expensive they are over the longer term.

Sure you can look at it from an X a month perspective, but at the end of the day the costs have sky rocketed.

Sadly true.

 

[Quartz]

And would you still be running the same card had prices not increased? I know I wouldn't still have my 970....

Absolutely. I saw no reason to upgrade to the 1080, much less the 1080 Ti. That's a good question that's better aimed at the owners of mid-range cards.

 

[Quartz]

a £700 GPU costs you £700 regardless of what backward calculation you do to make it seem reasonable.

True, but if it lasts you 3 years that's (roughly) £20 a month. If you buy a £240 GPU every year that's still £20 a month.

 

[Quartz]

How is turning something into a monthly cost make it any better?

It doesn't make it better; it puts the cost into a different perspective. For instance, how much do you spend on newspapers each month? (£1 a day is approx £30 a month.) How much do you waste on the Lottery each month?

 

[Quartz]

Thread topic has the basis of OP bought his card on credit

Not true.

 

[Quartz]

But the longer you own it, the cheaper it actually cost according to some people in this thread.

Don't confuse 'cheaper' with 'cost-effective'.