working mans guide "how to finance a high end gaming habit." :)

[esquared]

This thread is getting close to being closed.

Discuss to the topic or don't post at all.


esquared
Anandtech Forum Director

 

[tential]

I think OP is severely out of touch with the "poor man" if he's advising the "poor man" to buy a $500 video card every generation. Also I found it extremely ironic that for a prerequisite, you need to have a ~$800 gaming system to begin with (oh and a $500 video card).

And I love your Nvidia bias. A true "poor man" would've bought AMD cards and mined with them, getting a massive profit. I've paid for my Radon 7950/R9-280X about 5+ times over (factoring in electricity costs) just by mining them 24/7 winter (this actually saves me on my heating bill) and part time spring/fall. I think a true "poor man" would appreciate the $2000-3000 per card in mining profits far more than a few fps in games.

This isn't bias, it's people trying to to turn this into a vendor fight. Swap any gpu you want in his guide. The point is its not much money to stay on the bleeding edge

The vast majority of posts in this thread seem to not understand the basic prerequisites happy laid out in the beginning.

He didn't say only buy Nvidia, he didn't say you couldn't mine, you're all just attempting to make this gpu/vendor centric rather than realizing his point.

If you sell your gpu and save money regularly it's pennies to upgrade..

Also, so many people are mentioning 7950, 970 770 gpus etc. He said high end gpus not mid range.
Or they say you could have waited and bought blah blah blah. Again it's about being on the high end for relatively cheap.

Not one single person in this thread has given a serious reply to happys post. It's all been about nitpicking the example he chose because it's Nvidia or "omg you had to have an $800 system to start"(is this expensive?).

Seriously this thread just shows you can't have a discussion about Financials of gpu ownership without people wanting to turn this into a which was the fastest gpu to get back in hindsight.

The whole point is you could buy the most inefficient high end gpu and still have an extremely low total cost of ownership.

The posts attacking him for not being on the high end.... That's his choice. Just because you don't own a high end rig doesn't mean you couldn't buy one. Just isn't what you want.

Not even sure why anyone in this thread cares. You apparently all mine and get gpus for free right? So why even click on this thread you can afford all the high end gpus you want!

 

[RussianSensation]

The GTX 770 was faster than the GTX 680, yet cost less. Also, it was faster than the main competition, which was the 7970 GHz.

2% faster at 1600p on launch.

HD7970Ghz cost at $80-100 less than GTX770 2GB when 770 launched. When GTX770 4GB came out, it cost $450 and 770 2GB started dipping to $380 but by then R9 280X came out at $299. Throughout the entire generation HD7970Ghz/R9 280X competed, GTX770 was never a better price/performance card. What made it worse was 770 2GB was gimped from day 1 for anyone who uses mods in Skyrim and GTA games. I remember this as I was recommending people to get $280-300 HD7970Ghz over the $400 GTX770 2GB. Those who listened sure got their $'s worth.

The upgrade path of GTX670/680 -> 780/780Ti/OG Titan -> GTX970/980 -> GTX980Ti/1080 is literally flushing $ down the toilet.

The upgrade path of HD7970/Ghz/CF -> R9 290/290X/R9 295X2 -> GTX1070/SLI is akin to getting top-of-the-line performance from 2012-2016, and having to pay $0 for it.

That's the difference between a tech savvy PC enthusiasts and a "PC 'enthusiast' with $$$". It takes 0 effort, 0 brain power, 0 knowledge to go out and buy $700-1000 flagship GPUs every 12 months. I find it much more satisfactory to my hobby to spend as little as possible on PC parts and still get close to top-of-the-line performance. That actually creates a fun challenge and reward. Similar to how tech savvy PC enthusiasts on this forum are buying i5-6400 and using BLCK overclocking on Asrock Z170 boards, instead of buying $$$ down the toilet CPUs like the i3-6100 that the OP has.


==========================================
What's missing from the OP as the absolute best legitimate way to save $ on PC gaming is to almost never buy single-player only AAA games on release. The vast majority of these AAA PC games are broken, unoptimized and often DLC-milked console games that end up coming out with GOTY versions in 12 months. Around launch date, these games often require cutting edge PC hardware to brute force their horribly rushed releases. Mafia 3, Dishonored 2, Batman Arkham Knight, Gears of War Ultimate Edition, Fallout 4, The Witcher 3, AC Unity, Dying Light, etc. etc. Buying these AAA games around launch date often cost $50-60 + $20-30 USD in DLC. These same games over time can be purchased for $5-10 and will run on a GPU 1/2 as powerful as patches and driver updates have been released.

Let's just say someone has purchased 300 Steam AAA games since 2010, each on launch date, let's say this person skipped all the DLC.

300 games x $60 = $18,000
Buying Flagship NV GPUs every 2 years assuming 50% resale value = (2010 GTX480/580 + 2012 GTX680 + 2014 GTX980 + 2016 GTX1080) = $500 * 4 - $250 * 4 = $1000
Total cost of PC gaming = $19,000 from 2010 to 2016

AMD GPU upgrade path in the same time cost $0 and buying AAA games for $5-10 would cost $1500-3,000

Now we are looking at the total cost of PC gaming of User 1: $19000 vs. User 2: $1500-3000.

The cost of PC hardware is actually very small compared to the total cost of PC software, if one were to purchase AAA PC games day 1 of release. Some of you might say well I don't own 300 AAA games, but eventually you might by 2020, 2025, 2030, etc. That's why I always say that the true high cost of PC gaming and opportunity to save the most $ is in the software. For example, purchasing these 8 games brand new on release would have cost $50-60 each, for a grand total of $400-480. Buying the same games later on with discounts would cost only $34.24.

PC Digital Game- Batman Arkham Knight Premium Edition - $6.38
Dishonored Game of the Year - PC - $4.67
Mad Max (PC Digital Download) - $4.09
Metro Redux (Metro 2033 + Last Light) - $7.50

Saints Row IV Game of the Century (National Treasure) Edition - $5
Fallout 4 or Fallout New Vegas - $3.30 each

IMO, the best way to save $ for PC hardware upgrades (other than mining) is to not buy single-player focused AAA games on release. Even if a gamer wants the latest and greatest game, waiting just 1-2 months means he'll be able to buy it for 40-50% off.

After less than 1 month of release, Dishonored 2 can already be purchased for almost 50% off. The beauty of this approach is often patches/drivers will be released with some chance the game may play better.

I think OP is severely out of touch with the "poor man" if he's advising the "poor man" to buy a $500 video card every generation. Also I found it extremely ironic that for a prerequisite, you need to have a ~$800 gaming system to begin with (oh and a $500 video card).

And I love your Nvidia bias. A true "poor man" would've bought AMD cards and mined with them, getting a massive profit. I've paid for my Radon 7950/R9-280X about 5+ times over (factoring in electricity costs) just by mining them 24/7 winter (this actually saves me on my heating bill) and part time spring/fall. I think a true "poor man" would appreciate the $2000-3000 per card in mining profits far more than a few fps in games.

They won't even build dedicated AMD rigs that make $ on the side to get free NV GPUs. They are eager to spend $700-1200 on flagship NV cards every generation but instead of spending their own money, they could also get NV cards for free but that of course requires buying AMD cards first.

I have GTX1070 SLI and a bunch of Tahiti, Hawaii and Polaris cards making $ on the side. The best of both worlds. This also makes it very easy to spot the biased posters who regurgitate how NV drivers are the best and AMD's are far behind, or how all AMD cards are furnaces.

The best way to get cutting edge PC hardware is then to save $ on software and buy AMD GPUs that make $ on the side.

 

[stahlhart]

Seriously, each and every one of you.
-- stahlhart

 

[poofyhairguy]

What's missing from the OP as the absolute best legitimate way to save $ on PC gaming is to almost never buy single-player only AAA games on release.

Exactly! The games end up being most of the cost, so if you can wait six months after release (or less) to cut 50% off that game cost it adds up quickly. To tie it back to OPs point, another nice thing about six month+ old games is they often have Crossfire or SLI support by then (for AAA games), so you can then compare value-wise the top single GPU to a CF/SLI setup and not be at a disadvantage.

So for example if we want the power of $500+ GPUs with brand new games on release day for that game, the only option is a 1080. Currently the cheapest Nvidia 1080 without a blower on Newegg is $625 shipped:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125869

Meanwhile for a lot of six month old games I can buy two 8GB AMD 480s (which in crossfire come close at least to a 1080) for $235 each (or $470 total):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150774

$155 dollars is a pretty significant savings if that option works for you, which is more likely if you buy older games (and certain games no doubt, not everything works with CF/SLI I will admit that).

Plus another nice thing about CF/SLI for budget gaming is you can buy the first card early, maybe at launch, for full price and pick up the second one for cheap as the go on sale. Also that makes it easier to get the most value back on resale, because you can sell one card before any new cards release and then get by on one until new cards release (and then take the value hit on only one card).

The problem with selling single GPU flagships at the right time is you end up with weeks or maybe even months where you don't have a real GPU because of the time gap between when a card will get max value and when the next card comes along.

It is not a strategy that works with everyone, but for a budget gamer six month old games plus SLI/CF seem like the obvious way to go. And yes in my example I did compare a Nvidia card to a AMD card but that is only because the 1060 doesn't support SLI (for this very reason I have outlined).

Also some might say " well if I can't play the games day one that isn't a high-end experience," which I can't deny. It sucks as a human to get behind the curve psychologically. I have been there with six month old games that aren't as popular with multiplayer anymore or you are reading old forum thread to have the sense of having sense of being apart of the community that likes a game. But to me that is the price paid to get top tier results for a cheap price.

 

[daxzy]

The vast majority of posts in this thread seem to not understand the basic prerequisites happy laid out in the beginning.

He didn't say only buy Nvidia, he didn't say you couldn't mine, you're all just attempting to make this gpu/vendor centric rather than realizing his point.

If you sell your gpu and save money regularly it's pennies to upgrade..

Last time I checked the title and it was "Poor mans guide "how to finance a high end gaming habit." I mentioned the total irony of all the basic prerequisites are mostly fantasy and do not actually concur with what the "poor man" have. Go ask VirtualLarry how hard some people have to scrape by with $200-300 systems and unable to afford any better.

Also, so many people are mentioning 7950, 970 770 gpus etc. He said high end gpus not mid range.
Or they say you could have waited and bought blah blah blah. Again it's about being on the high end for relatively cheap.

Stop moving goal posts. All those cards you mentioned above were the Second Fastest GPUs available on launch. If that isn't high-end, then you need to get out of your "Everyone is a Peasant" reality.

The whole point is you could buy the most inefficient high end gpu and still have an extremely low total cost of ownership.

The posts attacking him for not being on the high end.... That's his choice. Just because you don't own a high end rig doesn't mean you couldn't buy one. Just isn't what you want.

Not even sure why anyone in this thread cares. You apparently all mine and get gpus for free right? So why even click on this thread you can afford all the high end gpus you want!

Again, somehow you are detached from the reality of what "poor man" have. The "poor man" who live paycheck to paycheck can't decide on a whim to buy a $1K system as a prerequisite or lose about $200-300/year in GPU depreciation as if it were nothing.

And another fact that hadn't even been addressed here is that there is literally no need for a $500 GPU when usually the "poor man" doesn't have 1080p144 or 2160p60 displays. So they are literally wasting their money on the extra frame rate. I (and a whole bunch of others) clicked and replied because we don't actually want an actual "poor man" to read and follow this guide when there are far better options.

 

[whm1974]

Again, somehow you are detached from the reality of what "poor man" have. The "poor man" who live paycheck to paycheck can't decide on a whim to buy a $1K system as a prerequisite or lose about $200-300/year in GPU depreciation as if it were nothing.

And another fact that hadn't even been addressed here is that there is literally no need for a $500 GPU when usually the "poor man" doesn't have 1080p144 or 2160p60 displays. So they are literally wasting their money on the extra frame rate. I (and a whole bunch of others) clicked and replied because we don't actually want an actual "poor man" to read and follow this guide when there are far better options.

A person who is living to paycheck to paycheck has more important issues to worry about then trying to afford a gaming system anyway.

 

[happy medium]

Wow! I was expecting a civil conversation about how others save money when buying from the high end.
Why is it that the way I would go about it so important?

ANyway it seems to be a goal of many posters to have threads locked by destroying the the topic, derailing, attacking posters for no reason.

The thread is for you to interject YOUR way of doing things ,how do you stay at the high end?, not bash my story.

It so happens I picked a gtx680, 780 ,980 and 1080.
I have more knowledge about the cards.

I would ask the mods to clean up the thread and not to lock it.

 

[happy medium]

A person who is living to paycheck to paycheck has more important issues to worry about then trying to afford a gaming system anyway.

I agree and this thread is not for them.

poor is a term that has many meanings.
I might make 80,000 a year but to my buddy who makes $250,000, i'm poor.
but I still can buy any card I want.

 

[whm1974]

I agree and this thread is not for them.

poor is a term that has many meanings.
I might make 80,000 a year but to my buddy who makes $250,000, i'm poor.
but I still can buy any card I want.

That is still not poor. Being poor is struggling to meet the daily needs of life. Any I'll post another post on how I manage to buy high end cards.

 

[tential]

Wow! I was expecting a civil conversation about how others save money when buying from the high end.
Why is it that the way I would go about it so important?

ANyway it seems to be a goal of many posters to have threads locked by destroying the the topic, derailing, attacking posters for no reason.

The thread is for you to interject YOUR way of doing things ,how do you stay at the high end?, not bash my story.

It so happens I picked a gtx680, 780 ,980 and 1080.
I have more knowledge about the cards.

I would ask the mods to clean up the thread and not to lock it.

That's the most frustrating part. To me it's obvious, you were giving a strategy and saying that its not as expensive as people think it is to stay at the high end. Instead people chose to nitpick every single thing from gpu choice, to gpu level choice (this was for highend yet so many mid range gpus mentioned).

I think the choice of cards you used was amazing because they aren't the best cards in hindsight to a lot of users on this forum. That's irrelevant. If you purchased at time of release when there was no alternative without waiting then you can easily see its affordable. Just swap out your gpu choices. Like I could have gone 7950 to 290 to fury easily.... I just personally hate Fiji. Hate it. As an amd buyer I could read your post and apply it to my situation. Instead it seems proper are caught up on minor and pathetic details rather than an actual discussion of how to afford new high end gpus for relatively cheap.

It's great people brought up mining too, go ahead say that a a strategy no problem. If it was easy, everyone would do it though.... There's a reason very few gamers are also mining.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Mining is actually easier than I thought. Make an account on Poloniex, get an address from that account, download software and change the values in the bat file to your account number. The hardest part is choosing what to mine, or handling the heat.

OP I was trying to add to your discussion because I have had some luck lately with Crossfire. Cheap gaming is near and dear to my heart. Mining, Crossfire and Steam Sales is how I am saving a buck.

 

[happy medium]

The hardest part is choosing what to mine, or handling the heat.

Whats "handling the heat" mean?

edit
Oh I just notice a huge thread on mining...
thanks.

 

[tential]

Mining is actually easier than I thought. Make an account on Poloniex, get an address from that account, download software and change the values in the bat file to your account number. The hardest part is choosing what to mine, or handling the heat.

OP I was trying to add to your discussion because I have had some luck lately with Crossfire. Cheap gaming is near and dear to my heart. Mining, Crossfire and Steam Sales is how I am saving a buck.

Yes, this is why I don't mine. I don't want 2 R9 290s pushing heat into my room. I can't even game with a single for more than 2-3 hours without my room getting insanely hot.
This is why I was excited about Polaris, but after seeing the RX480, I wasn't side grading, and I couldn't bring myself to get Fury X at $275 due to even more power consumption.
I will try mining again when I buy 2x Vega though. I figure, if I mine with the fastest Vega chip out, and resell it, it should be a free high end GPU. At most, it's a $200-400 set of GPUs if I sell them. That's nothing for enjoying the fastest GPU I can get from AMD.

RussianSensation tried to help me with mining. I got it started, but I could not figure out the wallet for the life of me. Just insanely confusing. The whole process was for ethereum mining. It also took up a TON of space on my SSD which sucked. Main reason I removed it from my PC was to be able to fit another game, and that I wasn't using it obviously. I just got a 1TB SSD now though so no more space concerns.

If mining is easy to setup in a virtualization setup (I have no clue about this but Zen will allow me virtualization access with my server I imagine), then I may save my R9 290 and old AMD GPUs to use for mining.

 

[Elfear]

That's the most frustrating part. To me it's obvious, you were giving a strategy and saying that its not as expensive as people think it is to stay at the high end. Instead people chose to nitpick every single thing from gpu choice, to gpu level choice (this was for highend yet so many mid range gpus mentioned).

Am I understanding the guide correctly in that you buy the best cards and then sell them when the new best card comes out? Do we need a guide for people to figure that out? From my perspective, people are taking issue and offering constructive criticism because the title doesn't jive with the content of the OP. You're not really "poor" if you can buy $500-700 cards every year, even if you get something for your old card. I was poor going to college and making $8k/year. Buying the latest and greatest GPU wouldn't have worked out so well. I did by the 2nd tier cards though and had a great gaming experience (virtually the same as those who bought the halo card). That's more the kind of advice I would assume when I see a thread titled "Poor Mans Guide How to Finance a High End Gaming Habit".

 

[tential]

Am I understanding the guide correctly in that you buy the best cards and then sell them when the new best card comes out? Do we need a guide for people to figure that out? From my perspective, people are taking issue and offering constructive criticism because the title doesn't jive with the content of the OP. You're not really "poor" if you can buy $500-700 cards every year, even if you get something for your old card. I was poor going to college and making $8k/year. Buying the latest and greatest GPU wouldn't have worked out so well. I did by the 2nd tier cards though and had a great gaming experience (virtually the same as those who bought the halo card). That's more the kind of advice I would assume when I see a thread titled "Poor Mans Guide How to Finance a High End Gaming Habit".

Do we really need a roundup of benchmarks showing the 980Ti is STILL faster than the Fury X? Why should he not write his guide? It's not like we challenge reviewers saying "Hey, why did you even make this review, other people made one." Or by saying "Hey, this is obvious!"
-----------------------
For your snippet on the poor stuff I'll respond using whm1974's comment:

A person who is living to paycheck to paycheck has more important issues to worry about then trying to afford a gaming system anyway.

This again goes back to nitpicking. Instead of fostering conversation, the whole conversation has been a debate on what poor is. If we want to have a debate on what poor is, lets go make an offtopic thread and debate what poor is.

Any man with a job can/should be able to afford a high end, latest features, videocard each generation, or about every 2 years.

Maybe this should be phrased with "full time job" but again, this is OBVIOUS as toi what the OP means. If you have a full time job, and you saved up enough to buy 1 high end GPU, and you already have a high end gaming rig, then selling said GPU and buying another one is not that expensive.

While this may be an OBVIOUS thing for a moderator who has been a member here since 2004, and probably has been an enthusiast for longer, it may not be obvious to a new comer.

you're not really "poor" if you can buy $500-700 cards every year

This still is nitpicking the definition of poor, but OP didn't suggest people simply buy a $500 GPU every year. He asked people to save .75 cent a day.... $273 a year. His point is, once you are able to get your FIRST high end GPU, then you can sell it it every time a new GPU comes out and your $273 savings a year will EASILY cover the difference in GPU.

This conversation would be a lot easier though if we had clear parameters at the start of the thread, including what the definition of poor is. Apparently, poor is poorer than I thought, and a lot more people are there than I realize.
------------------
I never even considered doing what OP suggested or realized it was actually THAT beneficial until I'd say 2010-2011? Ya, long time members we get the resale value and all of that, any person who is lurking this thread like I did before I joined? This is useful, even the mining comments, phrased as harsh as they were, still beneficial.


Also, it's a guide for staying on the High End for cheap. What did you expect? For it to be so cheap that every single person on this forum would do it? Even OP has chosen not to do it. It's a guide on how you can buy really fast GPUs for relatively inexpensive prices.

If you want, you or ANYONE in this thread could create a thread with "How to stay close to high end gaming for cheap" or whatever.

-----------------------
My whole point with this post is painfully simple.
Instead of really trying to talk about gaming on HIGH END gpus for as cheap as possible, people decided to attack the OP personally, attack the OP for even suggesting it, attack OP for the cards he used in his example (Like this even matters), etc.

You've read this thread and taken it completely differently than how I have.

From my perspective, people are taking issue and offering constructive criticism because the title doesn't jive with the content of the OP.

To me, the replies have not been in an attempt to foster conversation. Many haven't been truly on topic, and just derailed the thread into a conversation about which specific GPU to pick in hindsight. But hey, you say people are being constructive, that's your take. The only take that matters given your status. I'll drop any further line of suggesting that people are not offering constructive criticism and have ulterior motives to push their favorite GPU brand/GPU/etc. I do really want to understand why people feel the way they do but I notice the average person handles money wildly different than I do.

 

[tential]

Separate post, don't want it to get clogged up with the rest of that wall of text.

Would people in the thread not pay $30 a month to always have the fastest GPU out no matter what?
Is this affordable to most people who would be "poor"?
What income level do you consider poor when discussing in this thread?

 

[poofyhairguy]

Yes, this is why I don't mine. I don't want 2 R9 290s pushing heat into my room.

It's nice during the winter for a heater though. Mining is heating up my whole upstairs this winter lol.

I personally believe if you are just going to sell off the cryptocurrency mining to an exchange deposit address (to be had with a free Poloniex account) is a very easy way to get started and get paid. A local wallet is more useful if you plan to keep crypto long term.

It's just so damn easy really. Anyone who has modded a game via a command line command could do it. It's basically free money for certain GPUs. Just be careful about wearing out a non-reference and out of warranty fan.

My launch day reference AMD 480 4(really 8)GB has paid for itself after power costs since I got it. There is less profit than that at the moment (which could change any moment) and your mileage may vary but really it's like free money.

That is the best cheap midrange gaming solution to me - cheap games (humble bundle FTW!) and mining.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Go ask VirtualLarry how hard some people have to scrape by with $200-300 systems and unable to afford any better.

LOL. I must be the definition of "poor man gaming".

I went from Core2Quad Q9300 rigs @ 2.85Ghz or so, with HD4850 512MB cards., to Haswell Pentium G3258 @ 3.6, then 4.0 after a BIOS update, with R7 260X 2GB cards, then to Skylake Pentium G4400 dual-cores, SKY OC to 4.445Ghz. Somewhere in there I had a Thuban 1045T hex-core, with SLI GTX460 1GB OC cards, was never 100% stable, so I've avoided dual-card setups since then. (Temp problems, mostly.)

My G4400 rigs have 7950 3GB cards (800/1250, stock clocks), bought them for $130 ea. at Newegg a few years back on firesale clearance.

Now, for my "main rig", I've got an ASRock B150 K4/Hyper mobo, and a week ago swapped out the G3900 Celeron for an i5-6400 after RS's suggestion, OCed to 4.455Ghz stable so far, at a whopping 1.410V, with a Sapphire Radeon RX 460 4GB Nitro card, hooked up to a 40" 4K UHD HDR TV. (TV is Niiice.)

But now, I'm faced with trying to play games at 4K60, with an RX 460. LOL! Actually, Skyrim (vanilla) is playable, amazingly enough. At least, good enough to manage for now.

Maybe I'll get an RX 480 4GB, though I'd like an 8GB model, for longevity. Too often, I've bought the lower-RAM-size models, and they've become obsolete too fast. (7950 3GB cards excepted, haven't had any issues with them.)

Would love to play Watch Dogs 2, but I don't think this newly-upgraded rig is anywhere close to being able to play that. Maybe if I upgrade the GPU.

 

[happy medium]

LOL. I must be the definition of "poor man gaming".

Dam larry , if you took all your low end stuff and sold it, you could have the rig of all high end rigs!

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yeah, I've tried for a few weeks to sell my brand-new G3258 @ 4.0Ghz rig, w/16GB DDR3 and GTX950 2GB, for $450, BYOOS. No takers.

It's pretty-much the same sort of build as mentioned on geforce.com, the budget G3258 / GTX950 build for $450. Not exactly identical parts, but comparable. I figured SOMEONE might want one, but either no-ones interested in desktop PCs anymore, or the types of gamers that might want a $500-ish gaming rig, all heard the "news" that the G3258 OC wasn't "good enough" for modern games. Which is basically sort of true, but by the same token, my i5-6400 OCed isn't even enough for Watch Dogs 2 either, so that's that, I guess.

http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/guides/geforce-gtx-950-micro-atx-pc-build-guide

I built a few of those, but with 120GB SSDs, and 16GB DDR3 instead of 8GB. Can add 1TB HDD for $50 or so.

Edit: Not used parts, all-new. The G3258 rigs I listed as my personal rigs were on different boards, with different GPUs, and only had 8GB RAM.

Edit: Not to get too off-topic, but that GeForce guide for a budget build is the kind of thing that true budget gamers go for. They don't get $800 quad-core gaming rigs given to them... nor $500 video cards.

So, how can one ascend from the "budget gamer ghetto", to join the PCMR?

To move from a budget rig like that, to the stuff that Happy is talking about? That's where his "guide" (sorry Happy) is kind of lacking in detail.

 

[casiofx]

Yeah, I've tried for a few weeks to sell my brand-new G3258 @ 4.0Ghz rig, w/16GB DDR3 and GTX950 2GB, for $450, BYOOS. No takers.

It's pretty-much the same sort of build as mentioned on geforce.com, the budget G3258 / GTX950 build for $450. Not exactly identical parts, but comparable. I figured SOMEONE might want one, but either no-ones interested in desktop PCs anymore, or the types of gamers that might want a $500-ish gaming rig, all heard the "news" that the G3258 OC wasn't "good enough" for modern games. Which is basically sort of true, but by the same token, my i5-6400 OCed isn't even enough for Watch Dogs 2 either, so that's that, I guess.

http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/guides/geforce-gtx-950-micro-atx-pc-build-guide

I built a few of those, but with 120GB SSDs, and 16GB DDR3 instead of 8GB. Can add 1TB HDD for $50 or so.

I would think $450 is pretty steep for used parts. Is that a whole rig with psu, casing, hard disk and all?
I sold my i5 4440 + b85 + r9 290 for $235
Lower priced because selling to family member and colleague

 

[happy medium]

So, how can one ascend from the "budget gamer ghetto", to join the PCMR?

Mabe if everyone that has kids started a gaming system fund , mabe .25 a day, by the time kids reach 8 years old they will have a few thousand for their first gaming system.
Chances are if you game, your kids will also.

 

[casiofx]

LOL. I must be the definition of "poor man gaming".

I went from Core2Quad Q9300 rigs @ 2.85Ghz or so, with HD4850 512MB cards., to Haswell Pentium G3258 @ 3.6, then 4.0 after a BIOS update, with R7 260X 2GB cards, then to Skylake Pentium G4400 dual-cores, SKY OC to 4.445Ghz. Somewhere in there I had a Thuban 1045T hex-core, with SLI GTX460 1GB OC cards, was never 100% stable, so I've avoided dual-card setups since then. (Temp problems, mostly.)

My G4400 rigs have 7950 3GB cards (800/1250, stock clocks), bought them for $130 ea. at Newegg a few years back on firesale clearance.

Now, for my "main rig", I've got an ASRock B150 K4/Hyper mobo, and a week ago swapped out the G3900 Celeron for an i5-6400 after RS's suggestion, OCed to 4.455Ghz stable so far, at a whopping 1.410V, with a Sapphire Radeon RX 460 4GB Nitro card, hooked up to a 40" 4K UHD HDR TV. (TV is Niiice.)

But now, I'm faced with trying to play games at 4K60, with an RX 460. LOL! Actually, Skyrim (vanilla) is playable, amazingly enough. At least, good enough to manage for now.

Maybe I'll get an RX 480 4GB, though I'd like an 8GB model, for longevity. Too often, I've bought the lower-RAM-size models, and they've become obsolete too fast. (7950 3GB cards excepted, haven't had any issues with them.)

Would love to play Watch Dogs 2, but I don't think this newly-upgraded rig is anywhere close to being able to play that. Maybe if I upgrade the GPU.

What kind of cooler did you used for the 1.41volt i5 6400? That's like aio liquid cooler's territory
How much did you paid for the i5 6400 + mobo + cooler?
I got myself 6600k + z170 + hyper 212x for 341.5usd excl vat. I ran 4.5ghz on 1.3v, temp hovers around 70C in games when cpu usage is near 100%, ambient 29C
Just comparing which set is better upgrade path

 

[tential]

LOL. I must be the definition of "poor man gaming".

I went from Core2Quad Q9300 rigs @ 2.85Ghz or so, with HD4850 512MB cards., to Haswell Pentium G3258 @ 3.6, then 4.0 after a BIOS update, with R7 260X 2GB cards, then to Skylake Pentium G4400 dual-cores, SKY OC to 4.445Ghz. Somewhere in there I had a Thuban 1045T hex-core, with SLI GTX460 1GB OC cards, was never 100% stable, so I've avoided dual-card setups since then. (Temp problems, mostly.)

My G4400 rigs have 7950 3GB cards (800/1250, stock clocks), bought them for $130 ea. at Newegg a few years back on firesale clearance.

Now, for my "main rig", I've got an ASRock B150 K4/Hyper mobo, and a week ago swapped out the G3900 Celeron for an i5-6400 after RS's suggestion, OCed to 4.455Ghz stable so far, at a whopping 1.410V, with a Sapphire Radeon RX 460 4GB Nitro card, hooked up to a 40" 4K UHD HDR TV. (TV is Niiice.)

But now, I'm faced with trying to play games at 4K60, with an RX 460. LOL! Actually, Skyrim (vanilla) is playable, amazingly enough. At least, good enough to manage for now.

Maybe I'll get an RX 480 4GB, though I'd like an 8GB model, for longevity. Too often, I've bought the lower-RAM-size models, and they've become obsolete too fast. (7950 3GB cards excepted, haven't had any issues with them.)

Would love to play Watch Dogs 2, but I don't think this newly-upgraded rig is anywhere close to being able to play that. Maybe if I upgrade the GPU.

Since you've come to the thread, I think you're a poor example to use in this thread. You've spent a LOT on hardware you didn't need.

It seems people in this thread are taking poor to mean living pay check to pay check unable to afford the massive amount of purchases we've gone through with you over on the CPU section.

Hence why I posed my questions. I want people to define this income level they're labeling as poor.