Opinions on graphic card upgrade addiction

[dlamb2471]

Ok so this one is probably flame bait to the max, but I'm curious to see how many other people in this forum feel like I do.

I have a good line of friends to sell my "old" hardware at good prices to, and I have an addiction to getting the latest hardware. So in this spirit, I just sold my 6950 to a good friend for $200 and upgraded to the Sapphire 7950 OC edition. I've got 8 gig of quality RAM and an i7 2600 to back it up, although I am only running at 1080P (love my 56 inch Samsung LED tv).

I like playing the latest games, although I rarely play them through...but damn if I don't just hate it when I can't turn the settings to "max".

The inspiration for this latest upgrade was mainly Arkham City and The Witcher 2...

Thoughts, feelings? Am I an idiot with more $$$ than sense?

 

[Quantos]

Whatever floats your boat...

I don't think I know anyone who doesn't have at least one hobby or activity that they spend mindlessly on.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Are you asking for people to insult you? You are sure setting yourself up. But I will give a serious answer. If you have the disposable income, buying computer parts is a lot better way to use it than a lot of other things you could be doing. If you are depriving yourself or your family, if you have one, of what they really need, then yes, you have a problem. You do sound a bit into yourself regarding all your toys though.

 

[gmaster456]

I upgrade when I can. But I have other hobbies I like to spend my money on too.

 

[sandorski]

Real Gamers use Ultra settings in Crisis on Intel Graphics and have a 10:1 Kill ratio in BF3.

 

[dlamb2471]

Hah hah, fair enough guys, fair enough. I have a steady girlfriend and my money is in order. I don't know why I posted such a question, just pondering the idea having gotten the new graphics card in.

 

[Mopetar]

It's probably cheaper than cocaine, gambling, or most other addictions so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

 

[skipsneeky2]

Me myself i am waiting for gtx580 or better performance out of a card for about $350 before i upgrade again.

Just purchased a 2gb gtx560 non ti not even 2 week ago and it handles BF3 pretty well but sometimes it leaves me wanting more even with the oc at times.

Can't see myself wanting a sli machine if i know myself i might fall for the 7950 eventually in a few months assuming kepler still hasn't popped its elusive line of vaporware into the market place yet.

 

[dlamb2471]

Yeah I like to avoid the pain of SLI (heat, noise, power & driver scaling/support).

 

[Binky]

Some people spend thousands to have a bit of happiness for 6 months. If you can spend $100-$200 per upgrade and it makes you happy in the pants, then you're set.

Personally, I run a generation behind and I'm a deal freak. So what makes me happy is to get the almost-new thing for a great deal. Then I sit for 2 years, and repeat. Money is irrelevant to me, the value is relevant.

Regardless, your buddies are probably happy to keep getting nearly new gear for decent prices. oh, and they can blame YOU if it breaks. I hate selling to friends. Maybe my friends are just evil?

 

[nOOky]

If you can afford it why not? I've got many addictions so I have to try and satisfy them all, but in the winter pc gaming is number 1. I've spent much more on my main hobbies, road and mountain bike riding/racing than I ever will on graphics cards...

 

[VirtualLarry]

It's probably cheaper than cocaine, gambling, or most other addictions so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

True, true.

I spend the vast majority (what little there is) of my spare income on computer parts.

I should be spending it on women and wine, but we all have our bad habits.

(My newest one is a Thuban X6 1045T on an ASrock 990FX Extreme4. I came close to picking up an FX 8120 and trying to get another same motherboard at MC.)

Guess I got tired of the same old, and decided to try something new. Though the old parts still work great, need to find them a good home.

 

[KingFatty]

Hey do the math, figure out how much you spent per hour on that 6950, assuming you owned it for more than one day and used it over a good length of time. Oh wait, you sold it for $200 instead of throwing it in the trash? So really, you rented your card and never actually suffered much loss at all, for a kick-ass hobby... seems like a good deal!

Me, I prefer to hunt my hardware deals like a big game hunter. I sat in the bushes waiting patiently, when a deadly Plextor SSD emerged into view. I burst forth with my spear and killed the beast. That's enjoyable for me, hunting the hardware deals and loving it when I get a good one like the shellshockers where they sell out really fast. I could afford whatever, but I get a kick out of hunting. So I think it's great that you also did a bit of dealing by reselling your old hardware.

This hobby is much cheaper than many other hobbies, and yadda yadda.

 

[janas19]

Real Gamers use Ultra settings in Crisis on Intel Graphics and have a 10:1 Kill ratio in BF3.

This is so not true. I've never understood the obsession with ultra high resolutions myself. Idk why, but I've never linked how fun a game can be simply to eye candy. It just seems people who do that lack an imagination, imo.

 

[djnsmith7]

I say spend your money on whatever you want, as long as your top priorities are covered & you have what you consider a fail safe.

I spend a fair chunk of change on components, but I spend a fair chunk of change on motorcycle stuff too (Arai helmets, track days, gas to the track days, race fairings, etc.).

Our hobbies are one of the main reasons why we work so damn hard & put in those long hours. We're only young once & we're only here once.

 

[nemesismk2]

I have an addiction for sticking with the best bang for the buck video card. I have owned a Powercolor Radeon HD 4850 1GB since they were released and it has never let me down. Yes I don't use a mega high resolution and my gaming pc uses Windows XP lol

 

[PrincessFrosty]

Generally I say that if you like doing it and you dont regret your purchases then live and let live, I tend to have a high end setup but ones that don't completely destroy the bank so while I prioritise performance I'll usually be wary of price, I'm not going to pay £1000 for the best intel CPU when I can pay £200 and overclock to achieve the same performance for example.

However what I would say I have some concern with is this statement:

I like playing the latest games, although I rarely play them through...but damn if I don't just hate it when I can't turn the settings to "max".

I wrote a blog some time ago about this, I think it's a very mild type of "Gamer OCD", it's the same effect that makes people grind hours on end in an MMO, it's that little splinter in the back of your mind that lets you know the world isn't quite right until you've put the sliders up to max

You can read it here - http://www.pcgamingstandards.com/Blog.aspx?blogid=3

In summary, the settings we're exposed to in the game menus are often arbitrary and feeling the need to set them to "max" is really not very logical, we should be considering the actual visual trade off for performance in game and not obsess over "maxing" things.

 

[FalseChristian]

To OP: I here where you're coming from. I have an Intel i5 2500K overclocked to 4.5GHz and 2 GTX 460 1GB overclocked to 870/1740/4100. I rarely play any games and mostly surf the Internet and this forum but when I play a game I want to play it as intended. I don't want a slideshow, know what I'm sayin'?

 

[bryanW1995]

It's probably cheaper than cocaine, gambling, or most other addictions so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

Meh. That's not an addiction, that's an understandable desire to get faster/better/higher resolution/more AA/etc that we all share. I envy the OP in his ability to easily sell off his old stuff.

 

[wand3r3r]

I think I fit into this thread as well. I play in little bursts, I didn't play BF3 for a month and yet I back-ordered a 7970 (still have time to back out lol). I play every now and then but go without it a lot. When I play I want everything maxed and don't want the FPS to drop below the refresh rate once. It's enough to consider ping/internet lag, I don't want my PC to make it any slower.

I guess when the new borderlands 2 comes out I'll be occupied for a while, but it probably doesn't require any more then my current 560 ti. I'd like to try eyefinity, but if I don't get 60 fps I will not be satisfied. Considering bf3 is the only game I tend to play as of late, it would never run well enough for me.

It's definitely an addiction..

 

[The Sauce]

Life is all about having hobbies and having fun supporting them. As long as it does not interfere with your ability to have a normal life. I have plenty of money to buy all the latest and greatest hardware but I just can't ever bring myself to pay for bleeding edge. I usually wait for a bargain and overclock it to holy hell.

 

[nitromullet]

I tend to find that the more I read AT forums, the more I want to buy new stuff.

It's actually the same with my other hobby. I can just practice and play my electronic drum kit and be completely content with what I have, but as soon as I start lurking vdrums.com out comes the wallet. They actually have a name for it over there, GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome).

I admit, I totally get sucked into hype. I knew all about Skyrim for all of last year, and I knew it would be riddled with bugs at launch and eventually drop in price so I planned on picking it up sometime later on. Of course, after reading all the reviews and forum posts there I am an 11/11/11 buying the game on Steam. I don't regret buying it for the launch price. It's a good game, but I still bought it because of the hype.

 

[skipsneeky2]

I think I fit into this thread as well. I play in little bursts, I didn't play BF3 for a month and yet I back-ordered a 7970 (still have time to back out lol). I play every now and then but go without it a lot. When I play I want everything maxed and don't want the FPS to drop below the refresh rate once. It's enough to consider ping/internet lag, I don't want my PC to make it any slower.

I guess when the new borderlands 2 comes out I'll be occupied for a while, but it probably doesn't require any more then my current 560 ti. I'd like to try eyefinity, but if I don't get 60 fps I will not be satisfied. Considering bf3 is the only game I tend to play as of late, it would never run well enough for me.

It's definitely an addiction..

I think a 7970 is the only card worthy of replacing the 560ti.

Got myself a 2gb gtx560 non ti clocked pass 560 ti specs and on ultra i had to shut off almost all the aa options but one set to low,and shut off motion blur and it runs good but has that occasional dip to the upper 30s which drives me loopy but not enough to make me disable hbao or drop everything to high.

I am very happy with how the game looks i wouldn't mind medium or high deferred settings and no msaa but i do think a kepler high end or the 7970 will eventually fall in my rig before end of summer i plan it cause till i do its gonna bother the crap out of me LOL.

 

[Lonyo]

I bought an HD7950 despite it being horribly overpriced.

I figure if NV come out with something worthwhile I can always switch, or get another one and go Crossfire. I had money in my account and wanted to spend it. I also bought a 27" 2560x1440 monitor, so I "had" to upgrade from my HD6850 because I needed something which could cope with the resolution. That was my justification anyway.

Now all I need is Ivybridge to come out so I can actually make use of my new graphics card (yes, I bought an HD7950 NOW to use with a Q8300 @ 3GHz, talk about wasting money...)

Sometimes you gotta scratch that itch though.

 

[wand3r3r]

I bought an HD7950 despite it being horribly overpriced.

I figure if NV come out with something worthwhile I can always switch, or get another one and go Crossfire. I had money in my account and wanted to spend it. I also bought a 27" 2560x1440 monitor, so I "had" to upgrade from my HD6850 because I needed something which could cope with the resolution. That was my justification anyway.

Now all I need is Ivybridge to come out so I can actually make use of my new graphics card (yes, I bought an HD7950 NOW to use with a Q8300 @ 3GHz, talk about wasting money...)

Sometimes you gotta scratch that itch though.

That's the perpetual cycle.. I'll just upgrade the monitor for now, then well now I need a new card (or vice versa in my case)...

I am just debating a samsung P2770HD as it's available locally 2nd hand, not very old and ~1/3 off the price of a new one. My original plan was to just update the video card but now it feels like the screen should be as well, but I don't want a slow screen (5ms) but that came up for sale now... Plus 27" and only hd is pretty weak, but it's hard to resist.

I'd like a higher resolution screen, but there is never a card capable of running them so your always stuck with the never ending need to upgrade. I guess that if/when I get a nice 2560x1440 or so screen I'll just keep a standard 1920x1080 beside it to game on.