Everyday gaming and choice of gpu (financial perspective)

Hello everyone,

First off, this is not a question specifically about DCS which, as we all know, is quite demanding on cpu and gpu.

My question is about a very average gamer, playing AAA titles at the "holy grail" performance 60 fps on high setting (playing mmos, shooters, rts etc)

Does it make more sense to buy a 800$ gpu now and keep it for 4 years or a 400$ now, use it for 2 years, then another 400$ gpu at the time and keep it another 2 years ? (numbers dont really matter, it's mainly a question of X $ for 4 years or X/2 for 2 years then same upgrade)

That question could apply to cpus as well but i feel like cpus are rarely the bottleneck for this scenario.

Some gpu reviews include a Cost-per-frame chart and older cards 1 or 2 generations back (so 2 or 4 years usually) always seem to be interesting, hence my question.

Looking forward to read your thoughts on which approach is the most efficient.

Well I have a 2080. Performes well in all games except DCS in vr. So I go to the 3080. But I think for Normal gaming I can keep it for Another 2 years. In your position go for the 3070 should cost 500 dollars and some more performance than the 2080ti.

from a financial perspective? stick to board games

do you have 800 available or 400 or 0

do whatever you enjoy more

One important factor that you've left out is the resolution you're going to use it for.

Hi,

That's more of a look at the gpu history and upgrade cycle discussion than anything really specific. Let's assume the resolution stays the same over all the years played. Again, I used 4 years as an example but I could also use one big gpu every 6 years or 2 mid range gpu every 3 years at half the price.

Although, I'd say 5-6 years is probably the maximum years one could used a high end gpu and sustain the performances i described above.

for 400 you get half the performance now and in 4 years the full performance for the other 400

for 800 you enjoy full performance for 8 years

for 0 you get no performance for 8 years

if money is no issue you are an ... and the decision is easy for you :-)

Hello,

the regular upgrade strategy gives more options. You can reevalute where you´re at and how things have evolved.

Unfortunately, there might a lower bound on how much you have to spend to get to certain level. I personally don´t like to migrate my complete software packages to a new system. Therefore I invest more and stick with that for longer. A graphics card upgrade along the way gives you a bit more life for your other components and you could carry it over to a newer CPU.

I guess, the used market is no real option?! 800$ new -> sell for 200$ and get a new one?

:juggle:

From a Financial perspective, in my opinion, it is best to avoid the purchase of brand new GPUs .. so, since I started playing DCS on 2013 I have opted for the purchase of second hand GPUs.

I have found that on my country I can get for around US$ 300 a GPU from two generations ago, and thanks to this lower cost I'm able to change GPU every 18 months, currently being with a nVidia 1070ti.

At least for me, there is no way I could afford a brand new card with the same performance.

From what I've seen, it's probably better to do the $800 and skip GPU generations. You usually get a 20% boost per GPU generation, so if you skip a generation, your looking at a 40-50% performance improvement when you upgrade. $400 for only a 20% improvement just doesn't feel worth it.

I personally have the notion of upgrading every other gen, or even every 2 gens. Whether a person has money to burn or not, upgrading is like resale : if you can't get at least double, it wasn't worth the trouble.

I have a 1080ti. 2000s were waaay overpriced and seems 30-40% faster maybe? 3000s are better priced and 30-40% faster than the 2000s? Seems like a good time to upgrade (for me) and I only gained by skipping the 2000s. If I get a 3080 I should roughly double my horsepower, and for the low-low cost of what, $700-800? Further offset if I can sell my 1080ti for $300-400 in the meantime.