Should I wait for a future-proofing GPU?

[Zberg]

I realize title is ironic, but do you think the radeon VII will create enough competition to drive down the price of NVIDIAs line-up?  If it wasn't insanely expensive I would just go for the 2080ti but it's hard to go for a GPU that costs almost as much as everything else in my system.  I would prefer a big, single flagship card that can get be through 4-5 years, but man 1300+ for the non-founders cards is crazy.  I went with a budget set-up in the meantime (cheap 970 on ebay to SLI with my current old card, and a relatively low cost 1440p 144hz monitor I bought used off a buddy) to see if I can wait out a price drop.  Any hope in sight?

[Skiiwee29]

highly unlikely, especially if the rumors are true of low yields on Radeon VII chips. Any effects on this likely will come if AMD has a MASSIVE launch with TONS of available cards at a cheaper price. As it sits right now, the Radeon VII is at the same price point at the RTX 2080 and they perform comparably according to AMD. 

[dgsddfgdfhgs]

4 minutes ago, Zberg said:

1440p 144hz monitor I bought used off a buddy) to see if I can wait out a price drop.  Any hope in sight?

no gpu right now is good enough to sustain 1440p /144hz . simply saying not any future proofing for any gpu right now... not this gen at least

 

[Neftex]

if you can, wait for summer when ryzen is launched, rumor is they will also launch aggressively priced navi cards

[Skiiwee29]

1 minute ago, Neftex said:

if you can, wait for summer when ryzen is launched, rumor is they will also launch aggressively priced navi cards

no Navi cards in the future. Only the Radeon VII for now. 

[Neftex]

@Skiiwee29 im not here to argue, radeon vii is february release of very small quantity and not very appealing price point

rumor is rumor and it says navi is launching in summer, believe it or dont - its your decision

 

then again, this thread is about "future proofing" and i dont think navi mid range fits that idea

[Jurrunio]

16 minutes ago, Zberg said:

do you think the radeon VII will create enough competition to drive down the price of NVIDIAs line-up?

Nope, because Radeon VII cannot do anything raytracing related.

[Mooshi]

Future-proofing exists in the same sense dry water does. 

[dalekphalm]

37 minutes ago, Zberg said:

I realize title is ironic, but do you think the radeon VII will create enough competition to drive down the price of NVIDIAs line-up?  If it wasn't insanely expensive I would just go for the 2080ti but it's hard to go for a GPU that costs almost as much as everything else in my system.  I would prefer a big, single flagship card that can get be through 4-5 years, but man 1300+ for the non-founders cards is crazy.  I went with a budget set-up in the meantime (cheap 970 on ebay to SLI with my current old card, and a relatively low cost 1440p 144hz monitor I bought used off a buddy) to see if I can wait out a price drop.  Any hope in sight?

It's extremely unlikely that the Radeon VII will bring down prices, given how expensive the thing is to start with.

 

We won't know for sure until we get official third party benchmarks from the likes of Gamers Nexus, LTT, Jay, etc - but from what we've seen, it looks to be pretty expensive for a gaming card.

 

Though it's a kickass price for a compute card.

 

Here's my suggestion:

Decide on your budget. Buy the best card available right now within your budget. Be satisfied.

 

Why? Because there is always* a new GPU launch on the horizon. If you wait for the next best thing, you'll always be waiting.

 

*Note: This rule doesn't apply if a new GPU launch is literally a few weeks away, etc*

[dalekphalm]

24 minutes ago, Neftex said:

@Skiiwee29 im not here to argue, radeon vii is february release of very small quantity and not very appealing price point

rumor is rumor and it says navi is launching in summer, believe it or dont - its your decision

 

then again, this thread is about "future proofing" and i dont think navi mid range fits that idea

We might see NAVI in 2019, but if that were the case, we'd be looking at near the end of the year.

 

Plus, those same rumours also claim that the first NAVI cards are going to be mid-range at best, and since the OP wants 1440p/144Hz, mid-range just isn't going to cut it.

 

We probably won't see high end NAVI at all in 2019.

 

With all of that in mind, rumours are rumours. Sometimes they're right. Sometimes they're wrong. Take it all with a grain of salt.

[Neftex]

4 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

Why? Because there is always* a new GPU launch on the horizon. If you wait for the next best thing, you'll always be waiting.

that may be true but theres not always new architecture and 7nm node on the horizon.

also personally feel really bad buying now when there was no competition for quite some time - knowing the prices shouldnt be what they are

[dalekphalm]

Just now, Neftex said:

that may be true but theres not always new architecture and 7nm node on the horizon.

also personally feel really bad buying now when there was no competition for quite some time - knowing the prices shouldnt be what they are

Sure but 7nm? When? We have no idea. NAVI has no release date. Rumours suggest maybe summer. But the older rumours were in 2018, which obviously weren't true. Even in the case of "summer", that could be August, which is 7 months from now.

 

Should you wait 7 months for a GPU? Maybe, if you didn't need a new one right away. But it's not like a GPU you buy right now is going to suddenly perform worse after the new cards come out.

 

If you want to help the competition, then intentionally buy an AMD GPU, even if it's not the best GPU for the tier you want to buy.

 

I would suggest that the OP just buys the best GPU he can afford that is available for purchase right now. No sense in waiting for "maybe" a summer release on new GPU's.

[CorruptedSanity]

6 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

Decide on your budget. Buy the best card available right now within your budget. Be satisfied.

 

Why? Because there is always* a new GPU launch on the horizon. If you wait for the next best thing, you'll always be waiting.

My sentiments exactly!  Applies to all tech basically.

[mr moose]

If you set your requirements high then you need to set your budget high.  To answer your question succinctly, No, no there is no hope in sight.

 

It does not matter whether you are buying this years cards, last years cards or waiting for a next gen card.  My advice to people who want to play now and want satisfactory gaming,  is to bite the bullet on a 1060 or 570 and enjoy 1080 gaming at mostly max settings. Other wise while you might get 1440@60 in the future its going to be a while before it is affordable let alone good enough to last 3-4 years as well.  Plus the future of anything is a gamble, especially in tech. 

[Mick Naughty]

Get a 1080ti if getting the new flagship isn’t an option. 

[THraShArD]

I managed to upgrade my 5yo + system and extend it another 5+ years.  It's tricky to get the right parts at the right time to beat the game these companies play with us

[Zberg]

Well I found a pretty sweet deal from the Newegg ebay store for a GTX 2080; just over 600$.  I can deal with that.  Hell I can use this for a nice FPS jump on this 1440p 144hz monitor and SLI it later on when prices get much better.  Really I could have bought 2 and beat the performance of a 2080ti on a good amount of games for less $ than I can find any of them online (the lowest I keep seeing is 1199 for the founders, 1200-1300+ for the non-reference cards).  

 

Also if anyone is looking for a couple EVGA GTX 970's, hit me up