how much should one spend on a card?

arc@css · 5 Jan 2011 at 16:13

Depends on how long you might keep it, there isn't as such a right or wrong. I think the examples given in this thread are good ones. You get to a point where for a lot more cash you receive not too much added performance in return. That's for most people a good place too stop. A 470 / 570 / 6950 are amongst the ideal cards to consider atm, and aren't excessively over the £200 mark, 'tis what I'd look at if I was to buy now.

In my own situation I bought my card for £325 well over two years ago and it still cuts the mustard (just, AA lets it down), so in that respect it has been a good buy: cheaper than two single 4870's at the time; was on offer when purchased; gives about 95% + of the performance of two single 4870's iirc etc etc.

Confused Stu · 5 Jan 2011 at 16:56

I usually spend £150 give or take, depending on performance of new card and what I'm currently running. So long as I can see a noticeable improvement, I'm happy with that.

6200 - this P.O.S. cost me £60, and was no faster than the onboard!
6600 GT - spent £75 on that one
2900 PRO - about £150 spent on that, I think. First card I could game with above Low settings.
3870 - spent about £150 again, FPS didn't improve by much, but it was worth the cost for the quietness after the 2900!
4870 - about £180 this time, huge improvement
4870 Crossfire - second one was on offer at £120, so balances the books for the slightly more expensive first 4870. Again, big improvement.
5870 - when they were on silly offer a month or so back. About £180 again this time and with Eyefinity now set up, well worth it!

esiemi · 5 Jan 2011 at 17:07

i say £150, now you can buy a 5850 or gtx 460 for even a bit less

ThomasTheTankEngine · 5 Jan 2011 at 17:22

Depends on how much money I've got..... but it's usually a choice between the best card available or the next one down. Mostly I get the second best card available, because the best ones are usually 50% more expensive for about 10% better performance.

Walter Sobchak · 5 Jan 2011 at 17:25

Normally spend £150-£200 every couple of years, but recently bought a 2560x1440 monitor so had to spend £360 on 2 6870s this time.

Lunatic Dreyfus · 5 Jan 2011 at 17:26

I think the notch or so below bleeding edge silly money, say £250, gives you some decent longevity, but that depends on whether you can tame the upgrade itch.

The most expensive card I bought was an ATI x800pro in '04, which retailed at around the 250 note mark. This got bios modded/and custom heatsinked on day one.

Lasted me four years, before the motherboard broke and it was sold on eBay for good money in 2008. I think I spent well there, but that's the only time I've gone north of £200 for any computer hardware, besides a monitor.

Currently I have a £138 Sapphire 6850, but I don't think it has the longevity I'm after, but the price was more than acceptable. A bios mod might be coming its way though, at some point...

233 · 5 Jan 2011 at 17:29

simple formula to work this out for people

required gaming resolution-available cash x desired Epeen/possibilty of the wife seeing the reciept

MichaelM · 5 Jan 2011 at 17:32

I don't fit into the perfect "new hardware every 2 years" model you are looking for but I have had my fair share of budget performance cards in the past and i'm glad its in the past!

I'm currently enjoying overkill, the experience greatly outweighs the high cost imo

I can now see why its called the "enthusiast" market, i'm very enthusiastic about gaming without sacrifice

Edit - Baaawwwwwwww the santa hat smiles are gone now

<---wtf, frowning still has it?

Scooby-DoobyDoo · 5 Jan 2011 at 17:32

I normally spend about £230.

Just picked up a couple of s/h 5850's with 2 1/2 years warranty on as well. One for spare machine one x fire. I have 3 27" monitors so handy for cross fire.

I was a little shocked when I got a PS3 last year and saw what a complete package it is for the price of a G Card.

MikeHunt79 · 5 Jan 2011 at 17:35

<£150

I've never spent more than £100 on a card actually...

bakes0310 · 5 Jan 2011 at 17:44

umm...£500+ for my xfx 5970 Black Edition. Its the most i spemt on a card, usually its still pretty high like £400 heres the last 3 graphics cards ive had:

BFG 280GTX OCX £400+
8800GTX £350+
X1900XTX £350+

SouthEastBlue · 5 Jan 2011 at 18:05

Well I've gone from 7900GT, to 8800GS, 8800GTS 648MB, 8800GT, 4870 1GB and finally to a GTX 460. All of the cards I'd bought were second hand and between £45 - £85 apart from the latest one which was £115 new.

I don't think I'd really stretch to much more than £100 for a graphics card to be honest, unless I come into loads of money burning a hole in my pocket!

setter · 5 Jan 2011 at 18:44

The most ive ever spent on a single card was £270.00, (gtx 280). Ive always went for medium priced cards such as, 6800gt, 7900gt, 8800gts 640/512. Ran sli on a few of theese cards at different times. Previous to my current sli 470's i ran sli'd gtx 275's, one was a replacement for the gtx 280, other bought second hand for £115.00, the two 470's cost a total of £400.00 just over a month ago, however i recouped £140.00 of that with the sale of my 275's and a mafia 2 game code, so basically the 470's cost me £260.00, very good value and great overclocking cards, gaming at 1920x1200 and nothing i currently play taxes them at all.

Lightnix · 5 Jan 2011 at 18:58

The most I spent was ~£180 on my 4870. It's still doing me good almost 2 years on so I can't complain, really.

cainer · 5 Jan 2011 at 19:01

Gforce2 64mb £320 (2001), then x800xt platinum £396 (2004), then 5870CF £660 (2010).. sold 1 and still using the other, was going to spend however much needed to get a 6970 but its not enough of a step up from my 5870, next card will be on the 28nm process, either a 7970 or top nvidia card at whatever price its at

Schizo · 5 Jan 2011 at 19:04

budget is £150 every 18 months.

pumaz · 5 Jan 2011 at 19:13

I envy people who can just buy a mid range card and be happy, My current 580 cost me £400 and I usually buy the best single GPU (not a fan of dual GPU's) available every December, Stupid I know!

Nelly · 5 Jan 2011 at 19:30

I think the most I've spent on a graphics card was the MSI X800 XT Platinum Edition cost about £400 7 year ago.

I usually upgrade every year, last 3 cards have cost £180, £220, £220, by the time I've sold my previous card the cost per year on graphics card is around £100.

sybaris · 5 Jan 2011 at 21:19

hmmm I have thought about the saphire toxic HD 5850 (thanks to whoever pointed it out, sorry I can't remember who that was off hand).

Never clocked a graphics card before, but I have always been happy with a single card at stock..... sad I know... I should really tinker a bit.

I did once have a Geforce 4 Ti 4400, which was selling for £400 about 10 years back, but I dealt a lot with PC world business on a corporate scale then and paid £150 for it . Think that lasted me 4 years

before that I had an ATI Rage pro, before that an orchid 64 and even earlier I had something like a cyrus VLB card.

Come to think of it I bought my gts 8800 in may 2007, it is still going strong.
I don't think I have ever paid much over £150 for a card.

What has prompted me to consider changing is my 19" monitor is dying and I want to go to a 22" and push up the resolutions a bit.

McPhee · 5 Jan 2011 at 23:44

I usually grab sub-£100 2nd hand bargains, but then I've only got a 19" 1440x900 monitor at the moment. Buying cards every 18-months or so at that price has meant I've been able to keep most games maxed out without a hitch.

My next upgrade will be the biggest change. I'm going for a bigger monitor and 3D Vision. Going to need quite a bit more power for that and currently leaning towards buying two GTX460's (one to begin with, the other if/when I spot a bargain).