Question Why Should I Buy a Good Graphics Card?

[southleft]

Why should i even bother buying a good graphics card when a new upcoming XBox or Playstation costs the same or less?

Let's say my existing rig has a good enough cpu, RAM, power supply, and airflow to support an upgrade of the graphics card. If i want a new card good enough to last a few years it's probably going to be something along the lines of an RTX 2070 Super. Currently, those start at around $499 and go up to around $629 at Newegg. A few months from now i can probably get the latest PS5 or XBox-whatever for around $499 with a couple of games thrown in. My point is that G-cards have become so pricey that it may no longer be worth pursuing PC gaming, especially if you're not committed to it long-term.

Another scenario which is even more likely is that a big upgrade to the G-card would then leave your 3-to-5 year old cpu (and maybe RAM, too) as weak links in the chain, thus holding back the G-card from giving you its top performance. In this situation the cost of upgrading is much higher altogether.

The third scenario is choosing to subscribe to one of the cloud gaming services. If you choose, say, a $10/month gaming service you could play for about 5 years for the same cost as buying an RTX 2070 Super or a new game console.

Then there's even one last scenario that applies to at least a few of us. We have a living room PC built as a combined gaming rig and HTPC. This means that the PC must run quietly at all times except when you're gaming. Then the question arises of how noisy an RTX 2070 Super or an equivalent Radeon would be. Yes, we have a "quiet" sound-damped case; yes, we have a Noctua cpu cooler and case fans; yes the PC is situated to one side and towards the rear of the TV cabinet., and the existing G-card is pretty quiet. Anything less than these precautions will allow us to hear the PC running, and that wouldn't be acceptable to us.

I started gaming back in 1998 with Quake, Need For Speed, etc. by hard-modding a couple of Dell PCs (haha). Can still remember the excitement of installing a Geforce 4 Ti4200 - triffic! Then came building my own rig several times over the years. These days it's used more for TV, movies, music (a lot), internet, etc., and gaming is only about 25% of the time.

This brings me back to the question: Why bother spending $500-$600 on a really good G-card when there are so many other options?

 

[UsandThem]

Why bother spending $500-$600 on a really good G-card when there are so many other options?

Because a person wants to play video games on their PC?

Why ask why?

 

[killster1]

didnt read the whole post it seemed very long rant about how xbox online service is better then a gfx card. UMM you get what you pay for. If you think you are happy with ps5 or xbox1 titles then get the console and be happy paying their service and play it until it dies and have someone hopefully repair it for you or buy another whole console. with computers it seems to last forever (sure a card dies but you can replace it) with xbox you cant exactly change any parts and you are forced into what ever they say.

When i did play games i liked mouse / keyboard or using a xbox 1 adapter / controller. never liked fps with joystick ;( also already own 1 thousand pc games on steam, also own alot on xbox1 and 360 but nothing compared to pc. (unless you count RGH 360 )

 

[Ottonomous]

1 - Consoles will be surpassed easily in 1-2 GPU cycles and prices will fall
2- CPU performance increments aren't that big anymore, sockets can support multiple CPU generations and MT support will be better with this upcoming console gen. so just additional cores on the same chipset/socket
3- steam
4 - sffpc is worlds apart from a few years ago, you can build immensely powerful machines at <11L, Velka 3 and skyreach S4 mini can accomodate 2070 Supers

don't discount the PC, you'll miss out. The value proposition long-term can be better too.

 

[happy medium]

I see what your saying.
Why not buy a PS5 and new xbox for $1000$ play at 1440p @60fps and get all the exclusives.
Grab a mouse keyboard adapter and your all set.
Do they still have PC exclusive games?
Good ones? Not really.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

I can't see it either. $700 for an RTX 2080 Super to just squeak by XBox Series X gpu. $320 Ryzen 7 3700X cpu. Factor in a $180 X570 board so you get PCIE-4.0 for SSD and $80 for 16GB DDR4-3600 and you're at $1280 + tax for the gpu and platform upgrade, not to mention SSD, case, power supply. Double the cost to get minimally above XBox Series X. Blech, no thanks.

Though I have to add SARSCoV2 will probably kill off 2020 console releases.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Why does a few year old machine need a $500-$650 video card to game????
OP what sort of expectations do you have regarding gaming?
Why one or the other, why not both, console & PC?

 

[LOUISSSSS]

so play your xbox, lol

 

[DAPUNISHER]

This brings me back to the question: Why bother spending $500-$600 on a really good G-card when there are so many other options?

For myself: Because I already have hundreds of PC games I cannot migrate to console. And if I am going to buy a game, it may as well be on PC, because I can always get it running even many years later. For instance: I have been playing some of the older games in my libraries, like Thief 2 and 2006 Ghost Recon Advanced War Fighter, DF: Black Hawk Down, that I had not played on newer hardware, and on a 3600+2070 Super, they are spectacular. Being able to max out everything@1440p, updated high res textures <insert your fav mods here> changes the experience in a most positive way. Nor am I at the mercy of Sony, as to if they will give me BC on their latest console or not. MS gets a pass there, because they are letting us play our games on either PC or console going forward, a nice feature that ends that worry to large extent. But again, why choose the console over PC, if I cannot bring my library with me? Need to pay for gold? Not have the flexibility of PC for how I play my games years from now?

Too many unanswered questions at this time, for me to favor the plug and play, hassle free? gaming PC/console, MS is going to be selling soon. I read industry rumors that the biz model will be to significantly shorten the MS console hardware cycle. Every 2-3 years there will be a new, substantially more powerful model available. It is not a bad idea. They are telling you there will be no issue playing on your old console, even now. But you will get better performance and eye candy with your new box, which sounds exactly like they are emulating the PC upgrade dynamic. With the difference being everything is PnP and ready to game it up OOB. I would rather pursue the upgrade path on PC, which I know so well, and can control and micromanage. I am however open minded to what MS is doing, and if the value/ price to performance ratio is bonkers, I will definitely buy in. But given how they abandon stuff so often, I have trust issue with that sort of idea, long term.

 

[Bouowmx]

High refresh rate (>= 144 Hz) is silky smooth. FPS and racing will benefit immensely from high refresh rate.

Still, in my opinion, there is no point in getting a NVIDIA graphics card today: it is past the half way point of the current generation (17 months since release).

 

[ondma]

Well, I used to make the argument that the selection of games was much better on PC. The Bastion of PC gaming was RTS games, but unfortunately there are very few if any of those coming out.

So really, if all you want is to play the latest releases, consoles would seem to me to be the way to go.

OTOH, you can game on the cheap if you already have a PC with a decent cpu by just dropping in a 200.00 gpu. Or if you have money to burn and want the absolute best visuals, I am sure PC will easily surpass the consoles.

 

[Campy]

We all know that the current GPUs aren't exactly great value, as perf/$ hasn't changed much over the past few years. Hopefully by the end of 2020 when both NV and AMD have released their next generation of cards, we'll be looking at substantially better value.

 

[mohit9206]

Personally for me i like cheap games on PC and free online multiplayer although games can be cheap on console too if you sell it quickly after finishing it.

 

[killster1]

you cant buy the global steam key on xbox720 for 20 bux tho. and 1440@60fps is not with full effects besides 60fps is shit. 1440p@ 120hz now we are talking.

I see what your saying.
Why not buy a PS5 and new xbox for $1000$ play at 1440p @60fps and get all the exclusives.
Grab a mouse keyboard adapter and your all set.
Do they still have PC exclusive games?
Good ones? Not really.

it would be cool if xbox720 had some kinda modular gpu that could be replaced / upgraded id start to be tempted. Right now i think its for children and lazy people mostly

 

[mopardude87]

I would spend $600 on a new graphics card over a $600 console for sure. You know why? The $600 card is gonna produce better graphics or better performance and well the rest of the rig can be used for anything really while a console is limited.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

OP wrote this long triggering post, never comes back.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I’m still trying to figure out why it’s one or the other, why not both and why one needs a $600 graphics on a few year old machine.

 

[mopardude87]

OP wrote this long triggering post, never comes back.

To be fair, i get friends always on about why i spend what i do on pc. I say cause its worth it, you pay to play and well if you can't do that then why question other peoples purchasing choices?

 

[SteveGrabowski]

I would spend $600 on a new graphics card over a $600 console for sure. You know why? The $600 card is gonna produce better graphics or better performance and well the rest of the rig can be used for anything really while a console is limited.

There probably will be a $600 gpu significantly better than what's in the XBox Series X by the time it launches, especially if it gets pushed back to 2021. But there likely isn't a $600 gpu out there today as powerful as the RDNA2 12TFLOPS gpu officially announced for that console, at least when it comes to rasterized performance (nothing has been revealed about RT performance). So what you buy today may age pretty poorly.

Personally I'm waiting for RDNA2 and the next Nvidia cards to see if they can push the price to performance level forward to make PC gaming more worth it to me over just buying a PS5 or Series X. What made me a PC gamer this gen was getting 60 fps in games, which was impossible in the consoles due to crap Jaguar cores. But with Ryzen 2 8C/16T officially announced in both that seems like it could be much less of a concern.

 

[Modular]

Why not live on a different part of the curve? You're not gaming on a 1440P or higher screen right now, by your own admission, so...

Go get an rx580 for 1080P gaming and only spend $160 (or cheaper used). Heck, if you're a Green-Teamer-only, grab a 1070TI on eBay right now for $150...

When you need to, go ahead and get that 2070 Super for $200 in a few years when you *actually* need to upgrade. There, now you've been gaming for 3-4 years and only spent $350.

 

[Dannar26]

I can't play World of Warcraft on a console. I *could* play minecraft on one, but it's the worst experience of any of the platforms...lacking the expedience of the mobile version and the peripherals/performance of the PC. My steam library, which has a retirement's worth of playable content, is all on PC. Same with GoG, Origin, Epic....

PC is gaming freedom my friend. You have the widest range of peripherals, mods, and adjustable settings. You have modular parts that you can assemble, troubleshoot, and replace. Need more performance? Get some RAM, a SSD, or a new GPU. Want a new OS? BAM! Want to do anything else? Edit photos? Backup the ole' family album? PC all day any day!

I understand the price point comparison; I too am a cheapskate. But I'm currently gaming 1440p above 60hz on a 5700XT. You can get that 5700XT for a lot cheaper than your new fancy console. Just playing at 1080p? I just picked up a RX580 8GB New for $135 (before tax, but free shipping) off of newegg's e-bay seller. With AMD back in the ring for CPUs prices have never been better to make a brand new rig!

Have fun building, and even more fun playing with your creation! MS and Sony can't give these things to you, and if you're a PC gamer, they can't take them away either.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I just picked up a RX580 8GB New for $135 (before tax, but free shipping) off of newegg's e-bay seller.

Hey, that sounds like a good deal (for "New"). Next time, post it in Hot Deals after you snag yours, K?

Oh, this one, still a current deal!

GIGABYTE Radeon RX 580 GAMING 8G (rev. 2.0) Graphics Card, PCIe 3.0, 8GB 256-Bit | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for GIGABYTE Radeon RX 580 GAMING 8G (rev. 2.0) Graphics Card, PCIe 3.0, 8GB 256-Bit at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

Edit: Ok, I posted a Hot Deal thread, and gave you credit for the find.

 

[Dannar26]

Hey, that sounds like a good deal (for "New"). Next time, post it in Hot Deals after you snag yours, K?

Oh, this one, still a current deal!

GIGABYTE Radeon RX 580 GAMING 8G (rev. 2.0) Graphics Card, PCIe 3.0, 8GB 256-Bit | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for GIGABYTE Radeon RX 580 GAMING 8G (rev. 2.0) Graphics Card, PCIe 3.0, 8GB 256-Bit at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

Edit: Ok, I posted a Hot Deal thread, and gave you credit for the find.

I come across stuff like this all the time. I check out the computer sections on slick deals, and r/buildapcsales on reddit. I had assumed that people knew about those.

Finding cheap hardware is a hobby of mine for some reason, guess it's because when you have a 5700XT, going up in performance means speanding $700 or more...and that just rubs me the wrong way.

 

[Guru]

Wut? Because keyboard and mouse, because open marketplace, because RPG and RTS games, because its easily upgradable, etc...

Initial PC investment might be a bit higher, but for example if you went the AMD route since Ryzen 1000 series and bought a say R5 1600, with a say RX 470 4GB, 2TB HDD, 16GB DDR3 2933MHz, you can now upgrade just the CPU and go for the $180 3600, in the meantime you might have added a 512GB SSD, in the future you might upgrade the GPU to RDNA2, something like the RX 6700, etc...

Again a PC that you planned out and build 3 years ago, might be easily upgraded over time and serve you for over 6-7 years!

It's not all about the cost, in fact if you add the fact that you can use the PC to listen to music, watch movies, stream shows, web activity, work, productivity, etc... the cost vs value is much more beneficial to you!

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Personally for me i like cheap games on PC and free online multiplayer although games can be cheap on console too if you sell it quickly after finishing it.

- Don't forget an incredibly deep library of backward compatible games, not to mention an incredibly deep backlog of games...

Personally I'm waiting for RDNA2 and the next Nvidia cards to see if they can push the price to performance level forward to make PC gaming more worth it to me over just buying a PS5 or Series X. What made me a PC gamer this gen was getting 60 fps in games, which was impossible in the consoles due to crap Jaguar cores. But with Ryzen 2 8C/16T officially announced in both that seems like it could be much less of a concern.

-I'm really hoping the next gen cards drive the resale value of the current 2080S/Ti into bargain basement territory, so I can pick it up and SSAA the crap out of new-ish games. If the SeX is as good as its promising , NV/AMD will have to price next gen cards aggressively, and by extension current gen cards cannot hold their value.

I've found it much more lucrative to pick up something in the top tier of the prior generation for a song, so I can play top tier games a generation prior to that at ludicrous settings. Makes the whole hobby much cheaper, with far less frustration with buggy unpatched games or full priced purchases that end up being duds.