Weekend Question: When are you planning your next GPU upgrade?

[PCG Jody]

I ask the PCG staff a regular Weekend Question and post the answers on the site. If you'd like to throw in an answer here, I'll squeeze the best into the finished article!

This week the question is: When are you planning your next GPU upgrade?

Thanks to Nvidia's RTX 3070 announcement this conversation has been coming up on our work Slack, among my buddies who get together to play Vermintide 2 every Wednesday, in the comments section, and basically everywhere this week. Are you regretting your last upgrade? Thinking about your next one? What from, and what to?

 

[drunkpunk]

I still have my 1080 Ti Founders Edition which has served me quite well. I skipped the 2000 series for two reasons, one being price, the other being a habit of not adopting the first run of new technology. I'm definitely thinking it's time to upgrade, and I'll either go for a 3090 or wait for the Ti series to be announced.

 

[IndecentLouie]

Im currently using a 4gb 1050 ti and don't plan on upgrading for another 2 or 3 years. The card is perfect for everything i'm throwing at it and lowering a Graphic setting or two to improve FPS is totally okay with me.

It's going to take a really special game or a hardware failure to make me upgrade early (touch wood)

 

[Zloth]

About time to upgrade my whole PC pretty soon. The only thing I like about it right now is the case! Current card is a 1080 so definitely not regretting getting it.

 

[badman]

The most graphics-heavy game I'm running (or 'running') is Star Citizen, but my 1070 SC has little problem doing that. I never turn the options to an 'ultra' setting, because I think it adds little to a game. I'm only upgrading when I have to turn most options to 'low', so that happens every 5-7 years or so. Still have some time left I always skip a few generations with Nvidia, maybe I'll step in again when they announce the next RTX series.

 

[Frindis]

I got an Acer Nitro N50-600 with I7-8700, GTX 1070. The PC sounds like an industrial fan and warm enough to make an omelet with. I'm getting rid of it before it burns my apartment down and probably investing in RTX 3070 somewhere in November month.

 

[Johnway]

When will i plan my next GPU upgrade? Probably when i get a new PC. I'm quite happy with my GTX 1070 as it runs most of the games at a high level. The concern atm is that everything else will be a bottleneck like my skylake processor, motherboard etc. So it might be better to just do it when everything else needs to be replaced.

That's of course, if my graphics card dies (had a scare this week) or if games run so poorly and i desperately need to replace it to improve framerates.

 

[Shadowclash10]

So, I have a RTX 2060S and a Ryzen 7 2700. And 16gb RAM/500gb ssd. I'll probably up my RAM to 32gb soon, and buy an M.2 1tb nvme ssd, and install an old sata 1tb hdd that I have lying around. I don't plan to upgrade my GPU for a while yet - even though the 3070 is so enticing. I'd say I'd upgrade my gpu around the RTX 4000/5000 - so another gen or two. I'd guess that around then is when I'd struggle to run games at 1440p med/low 60fps.

 

[McStabStab]

I’ve got a 1080ti with a EKWB on it. I probably will spring for a 3000 series but I cringe thinking about going through all that install again.

 

[Sarafan]

I have a GTX 1060 and I'm very tempted to do an upgrade right now. Probably I'll manage to wait until Nvidia releases RTX 3060 graphics cards. My target is definitely mid-range and everything above will be an overkill. Maybe it's going to be a good idea to buy something from the older generation, especially when RTX 3060 will have only 6 GB RAM. In this case I'll probably get an RTX 2060 Super or... wait for RTX 3060 Ti.

 

[Ryzengang]

New hardware, especially GPU's, is always exciting. For me it can be difficult to balance excitement with practicality. I have a 2070 Super right now. Realistically, in the next 2 years or so (whenever the 4000 series launches) is there really going to be a game that I want to play that will struggle enough on a 2070 Super to necessitate an upgrade? The 3080 is very enticing, but I think for me it just seems unlikely that it'll be worth it. That's a long way of saying that I will probably upgrade when the next architecture (e.g. RTX 4000) launches.

 

[Mazer]

No time soon, so I'm currently relying on my eyesight to deteriorate at the same rate that my PC slides into obsolescence so I don't notice the graphics settings lowering over time.

 

[XoRn]

I usually wait a generation or two. Since I have a 1070, I'll have to see how the 3070 bench's in comparison and if I can get a good upgrade for around 400, I will.

 

[FreezerBurn]

Sadly, I have two hobbies Building mountain bikes and Building PCs. I'll usually upgrade my PC once a year. I'm planning on upgrading this month with a 10700k processor, LGA1200 motherboard and hopefully I can grab a 3080. My name is FreezerBurn and I'm a Parts junkie....

 

[Zloth]

Come on @FreezerBurn! Parts is parts!

 

[FreezerBurn]

Come on @FreezerBurn! Parts is parts!

Sadly yes. I upgrade my computer, than I take those parts and put them into my son's computer. After that I take those parts and put them into my daughter's computer. Then I take those parts and put them in a box... there is no steps after that.

 

[Nrp211]

I currently have a 8600k with 32gb of ram and a 2070 Super with a 4K monitor. I’d like to upgrade something this fall, but trying to decide between a 3080, or a 3070 with a new CPU. If a new CPU trying to decide between keeping current Z390 and getting a i7 9700k or up to a new mobo and a 10600k. Playing a ton of FS2020 and would love to be able to run at 4K. Ideally I’d like to just do the 3080 but don’t know if my current CPU would be a bottle neck. Any suggestions?

 

[Hyderzz]

Currently running an Asus Strix GTX 1070ti, i wasn't going to upgrade initially but i bought a 3440x1440 resolution ultrawide monitor and my gpu struggles at medium settings on alot of titles, some i can get away with high. RTX 3080 is going to provide 2.5x difference to my 1070ti .

 

[Brian Boru]

I don't recall ever upgrading a GPU, only storage and—once—RAM. I don't buy new games so there's no big incentive to fork out the same $$ that would get a budget machine for a grandkid

I build to balance 4 parts—mobo, CPU, GPU, RAM. So it's always been new builds for me rather than upgrading any of those 4. This keeps our PCs handling everything for 4-5 years comfortably.

Oldest build is GF's 2014 i5 with a GTX 970—great card. That'll be first for a new build if I don't do both together—budget will be an issue. Ideally I'd like to hold out for the next gen nVidia's so the 30XXs drop into the price sweet spot—assuming real-life cards perform as promised, there doesn't seem to be any point considering 20XX.

Other PC isn't a build, it's a 2017 Dell Alienware Aurora R6 which I 'inherited' when herself couldn't get Win10 working properly on it—it works great but I hate opening it up even for a dusting, it's just not upgrade-friendly. I'll probably trade it to her nibs since she doesn't play any AAAs apart from Civ rarely, and it could last another few years easily. Besides, that would allow more budget for my shiny build moo-ha-ha.

I hope to build next year.

 

[MaddMann]

Personally I am a little miffed, but it is to be expected. I purchased my 2080 ti, then a deal for a second one fell in my lap. Now those two together will still be just "on par" with a single 3090. Whether I upgrade or not will depend on if I find any reason to after cyberpunk comes out. If it turns out a 3090 will benefit me more, I will likely be looking at a complete rebuilt sometime in January so long as the state I am in doesn't burn down before then =P

Things that hold me back from upgrading is the new parts that will be needed just to power the 3090. Its not a big obstruction in moving forward, but its something that does give me pause. The other that makes me want to wait is the software. I jumped on the RTX bandwagon pretty quick which is new for me, it also reminded me why I wait. I hope to allow more patches and wider availability to happen.

 

[DXCHASE]

Throw me into the "i need an upgrade" crowd. Been running with 2 pc's that are going on 4-5 years now, one for my wife and one for me, while my wife shares hers with our son, at this point in time, hes old enough to have his own, so ill be moving my wifes PC (i5 4690k, gtx980) to his room, my wife will get mine (i7-4790k, gtx 1080) and i will be throwing together a new one with a 3080...hopefully.

 

[SomeJoeShmo]

Probably next week or so my man

 

[Rolfil]

I'll wait and see what AMD's Big Navi is like before deciding. It will be that or an RTX3080. Definitely a big upgrade from a GTX1060 6gb as I'll be making the leap to 4k.

Both almost certainly mean a new CPU and Motherboard as I'm running a Ryzen 1600X on a B350 motherboard. I'll probably go with a new Ryzen 5000 series CPU and will upgrade the memory as well as mine is currently 2400mhz.

I've been saving for the past couple of years and now seems like a good time for an almost complete rebuild.
I would have like to wait for 5nm and DDR5 but that's looking at possibly late 2022 which is just too far off for me.

 

[ZedClampet]

I'll eventually upgrade to the 3000 series. I always claim I'm not going to upgrade so long as I can play my games properly, but I always end up upgrading anyway. But I think I'm going to require myself to get a new monitor before I can get a new GPU. I have literally never seen a 4k screen, not even in a store.