Is Spending £650+ on a GPU really worth it?

smilertoo · 17 Jul 2017 at 23:24

some people think its worth paying upto £1000, i think anything over around £450 is madness.

arc@css · 17 Jul 2017 at 23:47

From a more general value for money point of view, then no, definitely not. However, if you find that the enjoyment and overall experience prove to outweigh the cost then I say fair enough.

Me personally, I try to get the best for the least, so naturally, a compromise must usually be realized.

I'm not sure what the best VFM high-end card is right now, 1080? I haven't checked for a while. But anyway, that's probably what I'd be looking at in my situation, though jumping from a 980Ti to a 1080 isn't likely to make that much difference, generally speaking.

Edit: ^^ Having said all that, I thought the entry level 1080Tis were more than what they currently are on here.

LeMson · 18 Jul 2017 at 00:23

Yeah a whole section of the market has been taken out new your choice is 1030, 1050, 1080 and 1080ti, if your trying to push performance all you have is a 1080 or 1080ti, and the performance bump is in line with cost increase, so i need a shrug emote Amd is 550/560 with no middle or top until vega, yet i bet vega will be gr8 for mining and will be hoovered up bu the miners and we will be back to square one

Gregster · 18 Jul 2017 at 09:57

It is all down to how much disposable income you have.

AiiR · 18 Jul 2017 at 10:16

If gaming is your hobby and you want it then I don't see why not if you can afford it. Some people don't think twice on dropping over a grand on a Gibson guitar or car mods, I don't see how this would be any different.

HRL · 18 Jul 2017 at 10:24

Gregster said:
It is all down to how much disposable income you have.

And that's the winning answer. I'd love SLI'd 1080Ti's and much as I could afford it if I wanted to, I simply can't justify the cost.

If money is no object, of course I'd have them. Probably more than two of them if that's still possible.

Psycho Sonny · 18 Jul 2017 at 10:35

AiiR said:
If gaming is your hobby and you want it then I don't see why not if you can afford it. Some people don't think twice on dropping over a grand on a Gibson guitar or car mods, I don't see how this would be any different.

Difference with a Gibson guitar is in 10 years it will likely be worth the same as what you paid for it. A GPU will be worth nothing.

I've never spent more than £200 on a GPU. The OP could get away with a 1060 6Gb for £240. It all depends on the types of games he plays and his res. Do GPU's still double in power every generation? I'd rather spend <£200 every 2 years than £700 every 4.

I also find that gaming monitor prices are ridiculous especially since the quality of them is very poor in terms of light bleed, panels, etc. Once you start looking at 27" 120+hz, they soon become £400+

Badfish · 18 Jul 2017 at 10:37

If you are playing the latest games on max settings and want to have 1440p or 4K resolution then maybe its worth it, but if you are gaming at 1080P then its not worth the money.

Baboonanza · 18 Jul 2017 at 10:44

The obvious answer is no, of course it's not. But if you can afford it, you want it and it brings you enjoyment why not? People spend plenty of money on useless tat all the time.

Confuzz · 18 Jul 2017 at 11:12

I use to think a 1080ti was to much but when you compare cost per framerate it's no more than other cards and when I saw a new asus ROG Strix GeForce GTX 1080 Ti for £660 last week i coundnt resist and I don't regret it you certainly get what you pay for. I'm a bit lucky that my amd fury I bought for £240 in December sold for £300

Zeebedy · 18 Jul 2017 at 13:15

Damien. said:
If you can afford it then why the hell not.

I have a 1080ti @ 1080p 144hz.

Some people will argue that the ti is overkill at that resolution but I like to play my games maxed out, every slider at full and make full use of my monitor.

I agree with this statement, and for this reason, I have decided to go down the route of a ZOTAC 1080ti instead of waiting to see what VEGA offers, sorry VEGA

but I just dont have a nuclear power station to myself to power these types of cards!

GWANGY · 18 Jul 2017 at 13:36

Nobody can justify spending more than £250 on a gfx card unless its for work ... all these cards for 500+ are sheer insanity

Terrorfirmer · 18 Jul 2017 at 13:56

I got the 1080Ti on sale for £580, so was able to somewhat justify it at that price, and I do have a 4K monitor and TV. I had been using a GTX1070 but it just wasn't cutting it for me.

So for me it's very much worth it - can play most games at 4k ultra settings at 60fps, multiplayer on the montior and single player kicking back on the TV.

Prob wouldn't bother at 1440p though, would likely get a 1080 or even a 1070 if prices weren't so stupidly high.

Confuzz · 18 Jul 2017 at 15:46

GWANGY said:
Nobody can justify spending more than £250 on a gfx card unless its for work ... all these cards for 500+ are sheer insanity

it should be you can't justify spending more than £250 not nobody on a graphic card. Like some people can't justify spending more than £250 on a family holiday while other people can it's the same sort of thing. It's not being stuck up or being careless with money it just personal choice on how you want to spend your money

moogle · 18 Jul 2017 at 16:40

Baboonanza said:
The obvious answer is no, of course it's not. But if you can afford it, you want it and it brings you enjoyment why not? People spend plenty of money on useless tat all the time.

Agreed. I personally wouldn't spend more than £300 on a GPU, but I'm sure the extra jump in price on the higher end cards are worth it to those who buy it, otherwise they'd have buyers remorse no?

If I enjoyed PC games a lot more then I might have considered purchasing a higher end GPU and get my moneys worth from it, but I find I'll play new games and then leave them for a while (years sometimes) and then go back to them and carry on where I left off. By that time my GPU can handle the games easily and would defeat the purpose of having a high end GPU at the time.

I still have Skyrim unfinished, left Hitman: Absolution installed until about before last year when I got really stuck into it, and started The Witcher 3 last May and haven't touched it much since..

If OP is asking the question relative to value for performance, then most likely no. Top cards are never in that range, we can only wish that manufacturers priced them like that though

One Vision · 18 Jul 2017 at 16:55

I used to buy all the premium cards right up until Titan Maxwell however i wont be buying anymore Titans as ill just wait for the Ti and my system will have to be crawling before i upgrade again nowadays. Waste of money unless your benching which is a pointless waste of money too in my opinion.

smsmasters · 18 Jul 2017 at 16:59

£650 is a lot of money for a GPU but if you have the means then by all means splurge.

opethdisciple · 19 Jul 2017 at 23:29

I think what the op is asking is what is the 'bang for buck' GPU at the moment?

I always thought it's diminishing returns as you go further up the stack.

passifid · 19 Jul 2017 at 23:31

opethdisciple said:
I think what the op is asking is what is the 'bang for buck' GPU at the moment?

I always thought it's diminishing returns as you go further up the stack.

mining ruined that idea it goes 1050ti best value then the 1080 gibbo has (was 1080ti when amazon had them 550-600)

bimbleuk · 20 Jul 2017 at 09:03

My 980Ti is the most I've payed for a single GPU though for a while I had 2 x 970 which required a PSU upgrade also. As I've been using it almost everyday for over 2 years now the value for money easily justify's that decision back then.

I thought about a 1080Ti at launch to replace it but as I don't go for the highest settings and refresh rates it's just not necessary yet.