Upgrades

[manic111]

I'm looking at upgrading my X1950pro, which I bought with my new rig in August. I always expected this to be a stop gap card, so buying a new card early next year doesnt really faze me. However, what worries me is that this will get me on some sort of horrific merry-go-round where I am spending £200 on a new GPU every 6 months.

I read posts on here from people that have sold the original 8800GTS and got an 8800GT then sold that for the G92 8800GTS. That is about £650 on GPUs in a year! Obviously some of this can be recouped (probably £300-350) but it still seems insane to me.

Firstly, would I be better off waiting until Feb. when it looks like the Nvidia 9xxx series will hit? My X1950 is still running games fine-I have Crysis running at 1400x900 at a litle over medium settings which is good enough for me.

Secondly, is it the majority of people here who upgrade their GPUs this frequently or just a few? How often do you upgrade yours?

 

[Darkwave]

You'll find it's a vast minority of people who do the kind of upgrades you're describing. I do it myself sometimes but people like me who do that carefuly weigh the pros and cons before doing so, and we make sure that we'll make a good return on selling our old card before buying the new one.

As for the question of your own upgrade: I think you'll be best off waiting if you a fast-switcher. If you're not comfortable doing so then it's probably not a good idea to start, partly because you might regret it and also because upgrading can easily become addictive. I'm not even joking.

 

[manic111]

What do you mean by fast switcher? I agree about the addictive part though, that is what worries me. Ever since I built my PC for the 1st time I have been umming and ahing about upgrading to a Q6600, new GPU, new case, better fans, all sorts! Really had to work hard to restrain myself!

 

[Darkwave]

By fast-switcher I meant the type of people you're talking about, sorry. Like I went from 8800GTS 640MB to 8800GTX 768MB back down to an 8800GT 512MB lol, pretty much what you're talking about I guess.

If you're not that kind of person then I don't think you'll have a problem keeping hold of your X1950Pro for the time being. After all latest rumour is it's only a couple of months until the next generation come out.

If you're thinking of getting a whole new computer though you might as well just go for it, no time like the present and it is Christmas after all so you might as well treat yourself. Whatever graphics card you buy now will still be worth nearly what you paid for it in ~2-3 months time, so you can just sell it on.

 

[manic111]

Nah, not gonna be getting a new PC until Nehalem unless AMD do something spectacular. I guess the best thing for me to do is wait for the next load of Nvidia cards (or maybe the HD3870x2).

 

[Darkwave]

Nah, not gonna be getting a new PC until Nehalem unless AMD do something spectacular. I guess the best thing for me to do is wait for the next load of Nvidia cards (or maybe the HD3870x2).

Ah right, I was referring to what you said about the Q6600 etc. I should've been clearer.

 

[manic111]

No, I aws just saying that the fact that I was barely keeping myself away from going Quad core meant that I may well be a bit of an addictive upgrader! How long do GPUs tend to last before they can no longer play games on at least medium?

 

[rolypolyman]

If the new nvidia was a couple of weeks away I'd say wait. I upgrade my video card every Xmas and mb/cpu every summer and find that works best for me as I'm not into benching but like to play decent games at good settings. I think my next upgrade could be a 22" monitor though as they are getting really cheap.

 

[fraps]

I would wait till spring as your card is decent enough - if you are happy with it for crysis then I assume you are happy with it for all other games (there is no game more demanding than crysis that I am aware of)

 

[manic111]

Yea, it is fine for everything-running CoH pretty much on highest settings, Crysis well enough. I cant see myself buying many new PC games in the near future anyway (except the Orange Box)-still havent played Mario or Metroid on the Wii yet!

Think I will wait til spring-I will have some money by then as well which will be nice!