How Many Years Do You Expect To Use a Card(s) in Your Main Rig?

[moonbogg]

Usually 2-3 years. It can fluctuate depending on game releases or resolution changes, but 2-3 years is pretty average I think. I usually wait until the impact will be significant.

My history to best of my recollection:

Voodoo 3 - (first DGPU ever. Convinced my sister to buy it, lol)
TNT - something (came with an e-machine I think)
Geforce 256 - (I think. I traded a knife for this)
Geforce 3 Ti200 - (first legit purchase)
Geforce 4 Ti4600 - (First complete build - threw old HP in trash)
Radeon 9700 Pro - swapped to Geforce FX 5800 Ultra (First GPU Mistake)
Geforce 6800GT SLI - (First SLI)
Geforce 7800 GTX SLI
Geforce 8800GT SLI
Geforce GTX 260-216 SLI
Geforce GTX 570 SLI
Geforce GTX 670 SLI - (Second GPU Mistake - overpriced mid range)
Geforce GTX 980Ti SLI - (First water cooled setup. Awesome sauce. I smell them. I sex them.)
RTG VEGA CROSSFIRE - (NO MORE GPU MISTAKES) - ok ok, we'll see

 

[poofyhairguy]

Actually I'm not sure its as straightforward for the yearly upgraders. Its just case by case. Someone that bought a 390 last summer would be in great shape if they wanted to upgrade at the same price bracket this summer with Polaris 10.

Yeah but someone who bought a 290(x) in 2013 didn't have a good upgrade path from AMD in 2014. Or in 2015. They could just buy the same card for cheaper or with more RAM. Especially if they are 1080p gamers (as most are), then the Fury X wasn't even a consideration.

Meanwhile someone who bought a 780 in 2013 got to upgrade to a 980 in 2014. Then in 2015 they got to upgrade to a 980 ti. Then this year they get a 1080. Every card gives a boost at 1080p.

If you like to buy a faster card every year Nvidia is your huckleberry.

 

[Killer_Croc]

I am trying to go based on warranty period for video cards now. If a video card has a warranty for 3 years then I assume it will be good for that time period and then I can warrant an upgrade afterwards. I've used video cards for longer than 3 years but at some point they become bottlenecks or require sacrificing performance especially when it's going past 3+ years. I did have periods where I would upgrade in between 1-2 years but I no longer do so.

 

[Excessi0n]

I purchased a 660Ti three years ago and picked up a second for SLI a year after that. I'm currently waiting for Nvidia/AMD to release their big chip cards for this generation, at which point I'll buy whichever's faster after overclocking. That won't happen until the end of this year or the start of the next, so it'll be 2.5-3 years since the last upgrade.

I expect that card will last me some time. Two or three years for sure, unless something comes up earlier that needs more power (high refresh-rate 4K OLED screens at a reasonable price, or something like that).

 

[boozzer]

I need a gpu that is 50+% better than my current one and at 300$ or lower. years doesn't matter.

 

[cytg111]

580->780->1080(i think).

 

[IllogicalGlory]

My buying habits so far have been very stupid.

6670 DDR3 (prebuilt) -> 7850 -> 7850/7870 -> 7870/7870 -> 670 -> 670 SLI -> 980 -> 290.

No more wasting my time and money with pointless sidegrades and incremental upgrades. Not buying anything until Vega/GP100, hopefully I'll get somewhere around 3x my 290 on those. See, between my 670 SLI, my 980 and 290, all them (subjectively) felt the same. Not making that mistake again.

 

[cytg111]

My buying habits so far have been very stupid.

6670 DDR3 (prebuilt) -> 7850 -> 7850/7870 -> 7870/7870 -> 670 -> 670 SLI -> 980 -> 290.

No more wasting my time and money with pointless sidegrades and incremental upgrades. Not buying anything until Vega/GP100, hopefully I'll get somewhere around 3x my 290 on those. See, between my 670 SLI, my 980 and 290, all them (subjectively) felt the same. Not making that mistake again.

Username checks out .

 

[.vodka]

9600XT -> 7600GT -> 4850 -> 6850 -> R9 290

So yeah, that would be 3-4 years for me.

 

[railven]

Guess I'll keep the cards I've bought in the last 4 years to myself....

 

[poofyhairguy]

Guess I'll keep the cards I've bought in the last 4 years to myself....

Why? Go for it.

Even if you are the lowest value GPU buyer the midrange can provide (so like someone that hopped from a 680 to a 780 to a 980) it can't be that bad. Somewhere out there someone bought two Titan Xs right before the 980 tis dropped, at least that is the sense of perspective I like to have in life. There is always someone who did better than you, and someone who did worse.

 

[thestbar]

I have an ancient GT430 1GB DDR3 since 2010
Now I am about to upgrade my GPU I think I will keep it for 3-4 years

 

[railven]

Why? Go for it.

Even if you are the lowest value GPU buyer the midrange can provide (so like someone that hopped from a 680 to a 780 to a 980) it can't be that bad. Somewhere out there someone bought two Titan Xs right before the 980 tis dropped, at least that is the sense of perspective I like to have in life. There is always someone who did better than you, and someone who did worse.

Welps....

5870 > 5870 2GB > 7970 > CFX 7970 > 660 Ti > SLI 660 Ti > 780 > (Borrowed) 680 > CFX 290X > 980 Ti

Sold the 7970's while they had good value expecting to jump on 290X. 660 Ti was a card I had bought a while back for my hybrid PhysX adventures, but became my crutch. 290X were sold out almost immediately, couldn't stomach single 660 Ti on 1440p, snagged refurb from Microcenter super cheap, hated SLI just as much as CFX. Sold em both, got 780 Lightning after giving up on inflated 290/290X prices (Actually bought 780 Lightning from refurb bin, it had artifacts but RMA'd got brand new one in sealed box from MSI). Still not ready to give up AMD/ATI loyalty, Fury X broke my heart (and it was sold out every where), got 290X CFX thinking I'd just water cool em and hold out, but that power draw, good god! Returned em and just snapped bought 980 Ti. Haven't looked back.

 

[Redentor]

Cirrus Logic 1MB (1994) -> Voodoo 2 -> Radeon 7000 -> GeForce Ti4800 -> Geforce 8800GT -> Radeon HD7850 (Now)

So, about 4 years.

 

[DaveSimmons]

It depends on when there is a new game out that I want to play and that does not run well enough on my current card.

Fallout 4 finally got me to upgrade my GTX 680ti to a 980ti because of the major slowdowns in some areas at 1080p.

I'll probably ignore the 1080 and 1080ti and AMD equivalents and wait for at least the 1180ti / AMD Fury III

 

[lehtv]

4870X2 in 2010 (performance wasn't the issue, noise was)
560 Ti in 2011
7950 in 2013
GTX 970 in 2014
used GTX 460 in 2015 (downgrade)
R9 390 in 2015 (sidegrade from GTX 970)

So, 1-2 years. Although I'm sort of hoping to keep this R9 390 for longer than the previous cards. I don't know when I'll need more performance, depends on what I'm going to be playing. Possibly a new card next year, possibly the year after that.

 

[DiogoDX]

Guess I'll keep the cards I've bought in the last 4 years to myself....

I have a old gt520 and a 260x for emergencies. The gt520 saved me once in a bad bios flash situation.

 

[provost]

Currently on my first real AMD card which is the Fury. I collected a few Nvidia top end cards over the last 2-3 years which are either collecting dust or relegated to a secondary rig here or there. I do have a 7950, but never used it much so didn't have much of point of reference until buying the Fury. I am quite pleased with the Fury mainly for two reasons;
1. It performs as expected, and I don't have to keep fretting about having the optimization support dropped after playing a total of 2 games and a couple of launch time benches.. Lol; and
2. It didn't cost me the kind of price that I paid for my supposedly high end Nvidia cards with limited optimization support period.
I do realize that there will always be faster cards as the tech moves forward, and at some point AMD will also have to focus on optimizing for newer gen. But, what I don't expect is any gpu companies cutting off optimization support as soon as it has pumped and dumped a new release, and cleared its sales channel for a new sku. Perhaps that warranty period for these gpus should be more clearly spelled out to include "software optimization" warranty as well as the hardware warranty.
To answer OP's question, if I am happy with my gpu , I may upgrade every year, as long as the new release is exciting enough in "absolute performance terms" and not just relative to some gimmicky benchmark performance metric using the last sku from the same company, and as long as the performance is lasting, and not fleeting which only endures until such time that the gpu company has to hit its next quarterly numbers. I also don't think we can treat this industry as an Apple type annuity phone model, no matter how much some may wish it to be the case... Lol...mainly because a mobile phone serves as a multi functional utility, and fulfills the most critical utility of communication.
Anyway, Sorry to digress. I am looking forward to the Polaris and Vega releases from AMD.

 

[TazFTW]

8800GT -> GTX 460 -> GTX 970 I don't remember what I had before the 8800 but I'm almost certain it was an ATI card. So I guess 3-4 years. I'm keeping an eye on the Pascal/Polaris/Vega talk as I think its time to upgrade my monitor and I want a new card to be able to drive it.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

Yeah but someone who bought a 290(x) in 2013 didn't have a good upgrade path from AMD in 2014. Or in 2015. They could just buy the same card for cheaper or with more RAM. Especially if they are 1080p gamers (as most are), then the Fury X wasn't even a consideration.

Meanwhile someone who bought a 780 in 2013 got to upgrade to a 980 in 2014. Then in 2015 they got to upgrade to a 980 ti. Then this year they get a 1080. Every card gives a boost at 1080p.

If you like to buy a faster card every year Nvidia is your huckleberry.

This actually makes sense if you completely ignore the fact that the 290x is now pretty much faster that all those cards but the 980ti and its not even getting blown out by that in some dx12 games.

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk

 

[swilli89]

Yeah but someone who bought a 290(x) in 2013 didn't have a good upgrade path from AMD in 2014. Or in 2015. They could just buy the same card for cheaper or with more RAM. Especially if they are 1080p gamers (as most are), then the Fury X wasn't even a consideration.

Meanwhile someone who bought a 780 in 2013 got to upgrade to a 980 in 2014. Then in 2015 they got to upgrade to a 980 ti. Then this year they get a 1080. Every card gives a boost at 1080p.

If you like to buy a faster card every year Nvidia is your huckleberry.

I see you are talking about; but look a little deeper. A 290X=390X, a 390X matches a 980 which no one will argue with. Some cases its starting to beat..

Now think about what you said. The person who bought the 780 "got to upgrade" because relative to game demands, their card got slower over time while the 290x actually got better.
The 290x owners simply didn't need to upgrade in 2014 and 2015. How is this not more commonly recognized? They freaking didn't need to upgrade at all!

So your argument doesn't really hold any tangible meaning.

Your last statement should read "If you like to keep up with old AMD cards Nvidia is your huckleberry."

 

[96Firebird]

I get about 2 years out of my cards before I repupose them or sell them. This depends on if I have time for gaming, as well.

Thank God both my Nvidia cards held their value so well, so I can still sell them without losing too much money after that 2 years.

 

[Raduque]

I went from an HD3850(2007) to a GTX460 (2010). I went to laptop gaming with an 860m in 2013, so I guess every 3 years for me. Though the GTX460 is still going in a family member's PC, but will be upgraded this year to a GTX960, after which it'll be retired to a shelf.

 

[Flapdrol1337]

I always want a significant boost for a similar price.

But my current card is a 100 euro 670, so maybe I have to change my ways.

 

[techne]

2010: HD 5770 1GB
2013: HD 7850 2GB (HD 5770 => wife)
2016: Polaris? ?GB? (HD 7850 => wife)

Being at most a casual gamer, I'm interested in the "pro" aspects of the upcoming Polaris (better performance, HVEC coding, more memory for video rendering, lower power consumption).

My vote: I'm not planning to buy another one in 5+ years.