How much WILL you pay for a graphics card?

[signal11th]

For me I've always said 800 was the most and so far I've been able to do that, if it starts getting to the point where I can't I'll just go console and keep the pc for work.

 

[KeanuIsLife]

For me I've always said 800 was the most and so far I've been able to do that, if it starts getting to the point where I can't I'll just go console and keep the pc for work.

This is what I like to tell myself but if those next gen cards have the kinds of performance gains being rumoured I'm not sure I'll be able to resist haha

 

[LtMatt]

£600, then £900, then £1099, then £1200, then £1546, then £1899.

This is an expensive hobby, but it sure is fun.

You'd better hope prices keep going up or you wont be able to buy a new GPU.

I was just looking at my Amazon history and remembered I paid £1550 for a Vega Frontier Liquid 16HBM Edition back in July 2018. Suddenly £1899 for the fastest GPU does not seem so bad.

 

[The_Arbiter]

I waited for the new cards, they came, i wasn't interested at the time, and then the drought suddenly happened. I skipped all the OC deals when they appeared, then became very close to getting a 3060ti for £500 but decided not to. Ultimately i want a 6700xt as have been using Relive a bit, but even if they drop to £500 i just don't think i care enough anymore. Picked up a rx580 on here for a fair price and it's performing great for what i use it for. Ultimately Stalker 2's system requirements and if the reviews say it's good may push me to pay £500, but i'm just not interested in spending money on tech right now, but that might be because summer is here.

I took a browse of the current prices and availability which then led me here to find this thread, the cost just makes me shrug, literally no interest right now. The lack of decent games (imo) is a good driver for this attitude i think.

 

[dskeivys]

£650

 

[keyser]

MSRP or when it's cheaper in a sale.

 

[Angilion]

I think I'll spend the money I had earmarked for a new graphics card on a new mattress instead. The value for money just isn't there with PC hardware any more. If new games require more grunt than my PC has, I won't buy them either.

The current situation is a great way to kill off PC gaming, which will go a long way to killing off hardware innovation. That would leave the only mass market being a new console once every few years and that time period will probably lengthen when it's no longer driven by PC gaming. Since consoles are PCs from a hardware POV, developments in console hardware are partially driven by developments in PC gaming hardware (which has a larger profit margin). I think PC gaming hardware is priced out of all but a niche wealthy gamer market. Maybe AMD and nvidia will move their mainstream hardware development to mining instead. Some cards for professional graphics work, some cards for mining, some cards for other highly parallel compute applications. That will have a knock-on effect for the rest of the PC market. If PC gaming's gone, so has the mass market for most PC hardware. The cheapest modern hardware is far more than ample for most business use and all home use other than gaming and probably won't need replacing for 10 years. My workplace is still using 20+ year old hardware and it's still powerful enough for office work. It only needs replacing when it breaks and replacement parts can no longer be obtained.

 

[MCFC_ANDY]

i can afford a gpu, but as principle i point blank refuse to line someones pockets with over inflated prices

 

[nashathedog]

Is there no way to game at 21:9 but stream the output as 16:9?

Hi, I meant streaming movies to watch where it often ended up with black bars on my Ultrawide monitor, sometimes on all 4 sides, only thin bars but that's not the point. I haven't tried streaming while playing games but as @Grim5 said "No" which sounds right as you'd even stretch or shrink the visuals in some way.

 

[nashathedog]

You can't be sitting at a normal distance from the screen then. I use an ikea desk which I would say is normal sized for an office type gaming desk. It's not very deep and my 32" is at the limit of what is actually usable. I actually struggled to convert from a 27" which was a surprise as the 27" felt a bit small but the 32" is really a bit too big. I'm using normal widescreen monitors though not ultrawide which has no purpose in the FPS twitch shooter world.

It would be impossible for a 42" to be usable at all. It would make me play worse. Pro gamers use 24" and 27" screens at LAN's for instance where money is no object. Your setup isn't a normal case usage or scenario. I will never go bigger than 32" and I'll never use ultra wide. Neither will work for me.

I sit at a table in front of a desk which puts my head about 2 to 3 foot away from the screen so had no problem with UW & having recently moved from that to a 32" 1440p monitor it's still okay, that said I can no longer do anything without glasses so maybe I got it wrong.

 

[pp111]

This is what I like to tell myself but if those next gen cards have the kinds of performance gains being rumoured I'm not sure I'll be able to resist haha

The reason I buy cards is for that performance upgrade, but at the same time I keep in mind that it isn't going to be long before it's dated. I mean, people paying thousands for cards now should remember that in a years time it will be senior citizen of the GPU world.

Also, cards get better over time. They always have. But the $ per performance increase has been falling for some time now. We are also approaching some fundamental limits that may well be further limiting $ performance in the future. Simple fact is that the performance may be great but the value for money may well be atrocious.

 

[xPETEZx]

I think I'll spend the money I had earmarked for a new graphics card on a new mattress instead. The value for money just isn't there with PC hardware any more. If new games require more grunt than my PC has, I won't buy them either.

The current situation is a great way to kill off PC gaming, which will go a long way to killing off hardware innovation. That would leave the only mass market being a new console once every few years and that time period will probably lengthen when it's no longer driven by PC gaming. Since consoles are PCs from a hardware POV, developments in console hardware are partially driven by developments in PC gaming hardware (which has a larger profit margin). I think PC gaming hardware is priced out of all but a niche wealthy gamer market. Maybe AMD and nvidia will move their mainstream hardware development to mining instead. Some cards for professional graphics work, some cards for mining, some cards for other highly parallel compute applications. That will have a knock-on effect for the rest of the PC market. If PC gaming's gone, so has the mass market for most PC hardware. The cheapest modern hardware is far more than ample for most business use and all home use other than gaming and probably won't need replacing for 10 years. My workplace is still using 20+ year old hardware and it's still powerful enough for office work. It only needs replacing when it breaks and replacement parts can no longer be obtained.

Has this crisis shown you nothing? People are clearly willing to not only pay the higher prices, but even the insane prices scalpers are/where charging.
I dont think PC gaming is going anywhere.
nVidia & AMD are basically still selling out of every single card they can make in minutes. And that's 9 months+ on from launch.
Yes crypto drove some of that, but so did gamers.

 

[Jamie Medford]

Apparently £586.99 is what I will pay. Asus 3060 Ti coming tomorrow. Decent upgrade from my struggling 750 Ti.

 

[KeanuIsLife]

Apparently £586.99 is what I will pay. Asus 3060 Ti coming tomorrow. Decent upgrade from my struggling 750 Ti.

That's a very nice upgrade and not too bad price for right now!

 

[KiNgPiN83]

It will be interesting to see how the 40x0's and AMD's equivalents pan out if miners aren't involved next time round. I can imagine there will be this seasons scalpers ready to go as well as the new would be scalpers that are up for making some easy profit. (But missed out on that this time round..) Could be interesting. Of course supply will be a massive factor...

 

[Angilion]

Has this crisis shown you nothing?

It's shown me how fragile modern economies and manufacturing are. Over-extended supply chains and a deliberately chosen inability to adapt to any disruption in anything.

People are clearly willing to not only pay the higher prices, but even the insane prices scalpers are/where charging.
I dont think PC gaming is going anywhere.
nVidia & AMD are basically still selling out of every single card they can make in minutes. And that's 9 months+ on from launch.
Yes crypto drove some of that, but so did gamers.

I think you're mistaken in thinking that £1000+ graphics cards, selling at two or more times an already high MSRP, are a viable and sustainable basis for mass market gaming.

It's true that a small number of graphics cards sell to gamers at those prices. Gamers who are either rich enough to genuinely not care how much they're being overcharged or who are willing to accept the cost of trying to portray themselves as such. But that's a small market - why would game devs target it? If the mass market for PC gaming disappears due to the extremely high cost of hardware for it (which I think will happen if things continue as they are) then all PC gamers will get is quick and dirty ports of console games and some low budget indie games that wouldn't require powerful hardware anyway.

 

[Dogeared]

There are 3070 Ti's around now for £750 - fairly tempted by that, but only because I should get £300+ for my gtx1080.

 

[MCFC_ANDY]

There are 3070 Ti's around now for £750 - fairly tempted by that, but only because I should get £300+ for my gtx1080.

but when newer games are nearly hitting 10gb vram whats the point? seems a short term outlook

 

[Dogeared]

but when newer games are nearly hitting 10gb vram whats the point? seems a short term outlook

I guess I'll hold on, although the value of my GTX will obv drop in line with the RTX prices.

I'm not likely to buy any new games yet anyway - I just don't do patience

 

[ProStreet]

Managed to get the exact card I wanted today.. Asus dual oc mini rtx 3060ti for £580. Much cheaper than anywhere else..

Although I think I screwed up my order as I did guest checkout and my billing and shipping address were different.. and it hasn't been picked in over 4hrs..