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Safe to purchase a current generation graphics card?

chickadee

chickadee

chickadee

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14 Feb 2015
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Scotland
Hey guys,

Just wondering if its safe to purchase a graphics card just now. I heard AMD have a conference coming up in the next week or so which is making me think I should wait to see what they come out with.

Any idea if Nvidia have anything in the works I should wait for?

Would hate to purchase a 970 and then a week later a new card comes out or something comes out that drops the prices of them considerably.
 
There's always something coming out, buy something now and dont look back.
It's also worth noting, if something new does happen to come out within the next week or so, and is more powerful than the 970/980/290(X) it will be priced accordingly, so worry not.
 
Depending on what you are upgrading from really.

Also if you are set on buying Nvidia card, their price generally don't change much even with AMD releasing new card. Just look at how Nvidia insisted on having the 770 stood at around £280 for so long even, even when the 290 was available at around the same price £300 with free games...

Nvidia's typical approach is they won't really release something new card before AMD, unless they is for the sake of reduce the cost of making for increasing profit margin (e.g. the 970/980 replacing the 780/780Ti despite they are not really much faster).
 
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AMD have had cards coming out this year since January the 3xx but no one knows when and by the sound of it they are just refresh or not much in the way of advancement unless you buy the high end one. Nvidia wont have anything mainstream this year they are still milking the 970 and 980. Last release was 960 I can see something like a 950 being released and their high end Maxwell possibly.

You cant really go wrong with a 290x or 970 now especially if you game at 1080p and the price is really good.
 
varkanoid said:
AMD have had cards coming out this year since January the 3xx but no one knows when and by the sound of it they are just refresh or not much in the way of advancement unless you buy the high end one. Nvidia wont have anything mainstream this year they are still milking the 970 and 980. Last release was 960 I can see something like a 950 being released and their high end Maxwell possibly.

You cant really go wrong with a 290x or 970 now especially if you game at 1080p and the price is really good.
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Good post.

Unless you are above 1080p the current cards will do you fine. The next cards will still be 28nm so I'd be surprised if there was any major change in bang for buck.
 
varkanoid said:
AMD have had cards coming out this year since January the 3xx but no one knows when and by the sound of it they are just refresh or not much in the way of advancement unless you buy the high end one. Nvidia wont have anything mainstream this year they are still milking the 970 and 980. Last release was 960 I can see something like a 950 being released and their high end Maxwell possibly.

You cant really go wrong with a 290x or 970 now especially if you game at 1080p and the price is really good.
Click to expand...

Good point. I would just hate for something to be released that drops the 970's price by a decent %.
 
Id wait, my GTX 970 has gone back, im holding fire to see what AMD does, if they come with something good, no doubt the GTX 980 price will tumble.
 
With PC parts you can never really beat the fact that there will always be something better released sooner or later. I would just accept that and enjoy games now.

But yes I would have been slightly narked if I bought a 780 right before that huge price drop when the 290X was released. I still think it won't be long until the AMD 300 series and I'm sure NVIDIA will reply with a high end GM200 GPU, but only time will tell.
 
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For me life is too short to worry about what may be on it's way, get what you like the look of now, use and enjoy it now then if something else does crop up make a choice then.

Got a 980 for myself a while ago, new g-sync monitor and could not be happier, image quality and gameplay experience are in a different league to where I was a couple of months ago, sure I could have waited for such and such to come along at half the price for double the performance (sure!) but I'm currently enjoying the best of what is on offer.
 
Normally it's best to just go and buy what you want and not wait but every so often you get a reshuffle that changes what's out there and what prices are being charged. The trick is getting the timing right.

Anyone who bought 770 or 780 early Sept 2014 would be kicking themselves. Anyone who bought a 970 during Black Friday, even with "ramgate", would be delighted as most costs still cost quite a lot more.

Right now I would say if you like Nvidia I wouldn't expect much of a change except maybe a price drop for 960 just because the 280 and 285 perform the same and cost less.

For AMD the 290 is the stand out deal and I don't expect the 3XX cards to change much.
 
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