Buying Ampere? Ti or not Ti, That is the Question

[farmfowls]

I know there's been a lot of threads asking should I buy this or should I buy that and there will be a lot more but I wanted to ask the question with a little more depth and see what your guys' thoughts were. When new graphics cards come out and I look to buy them I've pretty much... no I've always waited for a non-reference Ti version of the top end non-Titan card. So 780 ti, 980 ti, 1080 ti, 2080 ti etc. Now the reasons I had originally developed this process to buying GPU's have changed and this is what I wanted to focus this question/discussion around. 

When the early Titans were released, they had double precision FP64 capabilities, which was great for rendering but not so much for gaming. So the overall consensus was that the Ti version of the top end GPU (excluding the Titan in those times) was the best card for gaming. Nowadays though I'm hearing that Titans are absolutely fine for gaming with the only caveat being the steep price. And in 2020 it's looking like the Titan is being re-branded as the 3090. As a Canadian, the 3090 is not $1499 for me, it's $2000. So if money is no issue and you simply want the "bragging rights" AND you're not really considering performance output per dollar, then the 3090 is probably the way you want to go in 2020. Whether it is worth it, I think depends on your situation and individual reasons you have. (I'm also assuming that if going the 3090 route you would have the option for a non-reference version as it is the new Titan but I guess that could have changed as well)

 

Now, another thing that I was not aware of until recently was that NVIDIA had starting binning their cards for the Founders editions and other Manufacturers are getting what's left over. This kind of makes me wonder whether I should wait for the non-reference cards as I have in the past or if I should go with NVIDIA for the fist time. It's the first time I've ever asked that and I'm really not sure anymore. 

 

So now to my overall question. With the current climate in the GPU market as it stands today with everything mentioned above, for the people who usually go for the Ti card AND only purchase one card per generation, should one wait for the Ti version once again? Or have things changed to such a degree that they should go another route like the 3090 or maybe even the straight 3080? And if going the Ti route is in fact the better choice, is reference or non-reference the smarter choice nowadays? I guess this will also depend on the price should a 3080ti release and I have heard nothing on that front. And considering the whole Covid situation, and the shortage of literally everything that exists, is waiting even a good idea considering that?

[Helpful Tech Witch]

You missed out on a pun in the title.

"Buying Ampere? Ti or not Ti, That is the question"

[soxsure]

I get it, really. I friggin hate waiting. But as far as I know there is also a 3080 with 20gigs coming sooner or later. And I'd say something inbetween the 3080 20g and the 3090.

Just my quess. So waiting it is (alteast for me).

[farmfowls]

10 minutes ago, TheTechWizardThatNeedsHelp said:

You missed out on a pun in the title.

"Buying Ampere? Ti or not Ti, That is the question"

You're 100% right and I give you full credit. I'm changing the title now.