Do you buy a new GPU every generation?

[Colif]

I am curious as so many videos are made saying how bad the value of upgrading from previous to next is, when I sit here thinking... its a waste of money buying a new card every generation, better to try and get some usage out of the card before you buy another. They aren't changing that much each generation to really notice a big jump.

It might be the price difference. Most of the videos are USA based and pricing for some of these cards is massively different in other countries. I wish a 4090 was only 1600.

Really, up until this month I normally only replace GPU if it dies, I have never thought to sell it. Its value is in how long it lasts me before I need a new one.

 

[Alm]

I don't buy every GPU generation but up until now I have tried to upgrade my PC every 3 - 4 years. The PC I want now is so expensive I may wait a lot longer to upgrade. I think my current setup should last me another couple of years.

 

[Colif]

One of the reasons I upgraded now is I wanted to stop using my 2070 Super before it dies. I can remember thinking in recent years, if it dies I would have all sorts of hassles replacing it. My previous 980 had died in the week before I got the 2070, I had wanted to use it as a spare.
My current spare GPU is a 960 and it wouldn't like my 1440p monitor. Having something better will make me feel better. That and 2070 Super have been impossible to get for 2 years or more, Nvidia stopped making them before releasing the 30 series.
2070 is a good card but it can't run 1440p games at 144.
It also doesn't really support Freesync.

All the reasons I bought a 7900xt.

Might even install it this week. Weather just needs to play nice.

Seems I have recently bought every 2 generations as well, but prior to the 960 it wasn't so often.
I won't be looking for a new GPU for a few years now.

 

[Alm]

My CPU is a i7 9700 so I think when I upgrade I should do the whole lot. I have a 3070 so the GPU is newer than the CPU. I really want to get into 4k gaming and now that DDR5 is a thing I'll try to shoot for that when I come to upgrade.

Currently a prebuilt is around £2500 - £3000 for what I want whereas my current PC was probably around £1500 - £1800

 

[Colif]

I am not thinking about a new PC. Current one only 2 years old, I try to get at least 5 years out of one.
Upgrading GPU has happened on every PC I can remember.
The lack of any AGP GPU was the reason I actually upgraded entire PC 17 years ago.
But I think every other PC had at least one new GPU in it, some had several.

I would need ddr 5 as well. I haven't seriously looked at it. I might give it a few years, I don't know which CPU maker to look at next, I am on 6 PC and have had 3 of each so far. So could go either way.

 

[Alm]

It's probably wise to give DDR5 a few years. It's not like games will require it or really make use of it for a while anyway. It would alienate a huge portion of PC gamers. Also, as new tech it's expensive.

 

[Colif]

I have yet to see a game that requires a certain type of memory, its almost always just a certain amount.
Are there are any that require ddr4 now?
The amount might in a way suggest it has to be DDR4 as there is probably a max size dimm for each generation. I can't seem to find a table that shows it all

Only ddr3 I can find that is 128gb is a set of 8 sticks. 32gb is 2 x 16gb sticks. Max dimm size is 16gb. I think some ddr3 mb had 8 slots but most only had 4 so most ram is likely 64gb. I don't know if thats a board limit though. More a physical one.

Where the next split is between DDR4 & 5, I don't know. Its still reliant on CPU/MB supporting more I think. I suspect the CPU controller is what is restricting how much is on boards. Right now, max dimm size is basically stuck at the max amount of ram you can use on the motherboard.

All the new ones (apart from Threadripper and super silly high end) max out at 128gb of ram.

You can get 128gb dimms of DDR4 & DDR5 so we have to wait until the Motherboard limit is raised before you may see the dividing line between both.

And games that require 128gb or more of ram won't happen any time soon. Majority of PC only have 16gb or less now. While I see a lot of new PC with 64gb of ram on Tom's Hardware, those are just the outliers of the crowd who always buy the next generation of hardware.

The majority are way behind

So game demands are likely to see a base of 16gb for a while to come. Recommended might creep higher but most people don't have top end PC's. You catering to a small percentage of your players who are all impressed by shiny graphics.

We used to get people asking questions in the laptop area who thought their potatoes were still high end.

Meanwhile, in another universe...

My new GPU has 20gb of vram
My PC only has 32gb of ram
shared amount of ram would be 16gb

Its really good that the shared amount is only taken if needed as it would suck if everytime you added ram, the PC gave half of it to the GPU, and I wouldn't need a GPU with 36gb of ram

Needing lots of ram to play games is a waste unless you can find other uses for it besides gaming.

 

[ZedClampet]

Not for my desktop, no. I do every other generation. Or at least I was. I'm mostly using my laptop now, so I think I may skip 2 generations for the desktop. I still only have a 1080p monitor, anyway.

 

[Alm]

I have yet to see a game that requires a certain type of memory, its almost always just a certain amount.
Are there are any that require ddr4 now?
The amount might in a way suggest it has to be DDR4 as there is probably a max size dimm for each generation. I can't seem to find a table that shows it all

No, you're right. I was thinking future games might be like the PS5's faster storage and be so graphically intensive that they might require it. But that's unlikely.

 

[Colif]

PS5's faster storage

IS that anything other than having PCIe 4 nvme drives?
Is it like direct storage? https://devblogs.microsoft.com/directx/directstorage-1-1-coming-soon/

its similar to direct storage but not the same as most people on PC don't use an APU (although the Ryzen 7k series blurs the lines a little by having APU cores but they not amazing graphics) - link
Unified memory makes sense on consoles.

 

[Ryzengang]

I think every other generation makes the most sense (although it obviously will vary a lot from person-to-person). If every generation is 2 years apart, then this basically equates to 4 years per GPU which seems about right to me. I have an RTX 3080 right now, and even though I could upgrade right now, it just doesn't make much sense to me. The performance gains aren't high enough to justify it. But by time the next generation of GPUs comes out, the 3080 will be 4 years old and there will be a greater number of more demanding titles out by then.

 

[Colif]

Normally I only replace my Video card if it dies. So I wouldn't say I worried about generations until maybe the last 3 GPU.
I had a 980 and then next card was a 2070, and now 2 generations later I switched team and got 7900xt. If Nvidia didn't charge like a bull and use a possibly difficult PSU connector, I may not have swapped.

So guess I too make them last at least 4 years in most cases... except the 2070 Super is only 2 years old. It also hopefully breaks pattern of only replacing GPU if they die.

It makes sense as the prices these days, you need 4 years to save between cards.