How often do people usually upgrade gpu?

[Rdpruitt]

I’m seeing all these people saying that’s it’s time to upgrade their 1060s/1080s to a 20 or 30 series card, while I’m sitting here, having upgraded my only pc from an AMD 5570 to a 2080 ti last year of course that’s an extreme, but I don’t think every generation or every other generation is worth upgrading from. How often do you guys upgrade?

[r2724r16]

Personally, I only upgrade when I'm not satisifed with my GPU's performance.

[Haro]

10 hours ago, Rdpruitt said:

How often do you guys upgrade?

Depends, every person has different needs etc, i personally would like to upgrade mine next year or the year after. 

depends if you need the extra horse power/ different features etc.

[.Apex.]

Same here I only upgrade when I need to, my last GPU was an R9 280 bought in 2014 and just this year I've upgraded to the RTX 2060S, I could've lasted a couple more years with the R9 280 on 1080P Medium, it held up surprisingly well.

[Moonzy]

enthusiast = every release

 

for high end user, every other generation i guess?

ie 900 -> 20 series, 10 -> 30 series

 

for average users, more like 2-3 gen gap, when they feel like it's too slow to play modern games that they want to play

 

personally i upgrade near every major release, but i have my own reasons

[GDRRiley]

every other gen unless like in the case of my 970 being replaced by my rx580 I needed more VRAM. I got on 1440p 5 years ago and the 970 doesn't have enough.

I'll be getting whatever is the midrange 4-600$ one from AMD

[dfsgsfa]

$100ish card in 2yrs

$200ish card in 3~4 yrs

gtxxx80ti gets new card every new gen

 

got a $330 gtx970 in 2014, still rocking great, 6 year! holly sheet

cant wait for rtx4000 to arrive

 

[Godlygamer23]

It depends, but I upgraded from my 970 to the 1070 a year and a half(actually, it was right before the cryptocurrency craze) after it was released, but I skipped last generation and will probably get a 3070 a few months after they launch. 

 

Don't worry about the idea of "when people upgrade generally". Worry about when you personally feel you should upgrade, or look at performance analyses of games and see if you think you need to upgrade. 

[dfsgsfa]

2 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

about when you personally feel you should upgrade, or look at performance analyses of games and see if you think you need to upgrade. 

you can always downgrade graphic settings

low~med is still much better than most console (not) gamers

 

[Godlygamer23]

Just now, dfsgsfa said:

you can always downgrade graphic settings

You can do that too. I did that with Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Horizon Zero Dawn. I used the included screenshots within the menus to help reduce settings whilst not reducing the game's visual fidelity too much. 

[BobVonBob]

What others have said, whenever performance isn't good enough. My 970 has held up for years, but it's starting to show its age, especially with much of the rest of my desktop being from 2012. Hoping to be in a situation where I can upgrade some time around autumn next year.

[Kilrah]

Pretty much every generation if there's a big enough difference.

 

Technically the 2080S I bought in January was intended as a stopgap in the first place, because the 1070 I was using in my desktop had to go into my ITX build and the old 970 I still had wouldn't have cut it, just not enough VRAM to run 4K. Wouldn't have gotten a 20 series otherwise, not enough improvement from 10 series.

[Godlygamer23]

10 minutes ago, dfsgsfa said:

got a $330 gtx970 in 2014, still rocking great, 6 year! holly sheet

I'm still using it on my test bench. Great card. If I do indeed upgrade to a 3070, the 1070 will replace it.

[Sarra]

I got a 980 when I built my last machine. I fully intended to buy a 1080TI, however, the prices were ludicrous, so I never did.

 

Then, 2080TI, but the same deal.

 

So now, I'm looking at a 3080. I don't care if there's a 3080TI later, my machine is 6 years old now and I'm ready to upgrade.

 

Typically, I upgrade every 4-8 years.

[Gunner Doom]

I plan to upgrade only when it either starts malfunctioning past warranty, or it gets to the point where minimum required specs are too high that I can't run new games at all or its unplayable even at like 720p.

 

Had a 8800gt for years before that died (2007-2010) swapped with 6870 until it died ~2014, was only playing gw2 on IGPU for several months until I got a 960, that card still works. Then I was looking to buy a VR capable card. When the 20* series came out I felt the 2070 was too expensive so I ended up getting a 1070ti for $350. Great card as it runs DOOM VFR and Eternal fast at 1080p, I think the 2GB of VRAM on the 960 would have bottlenecked it.

 

If the 30* ends up being as powerful as Nvidia claims it is tempting to save up more for a better card, but I think my 1070ti can still run games for much longer, the next series of cards may be out by then.

[Fatih19]

It also depends on the game you play. If you only play indie titles, you could just get a midrange card today and never upgrade because you don't need anything more powerful.

 

I'd upgrade when I feel like I need to compromise quality too much in exchange for framerate. Right now, I'm using an RX 580 8 GB, Frostpunk won't run on a consistent 60 FPS unless it's on low preset. So I'm really tempted to upgrade to a card more suited for 1440p gaming.

[Uttamattamakin]

Until recently I have only used laptops so the GPU upgrade went with upgrading the whole computer.  However with the latest laptop a TB3 Dock with a 1080 has been what I have used.  The 1080 does everything I want gaming wise.  

 

It is likely I will skip every other generation of GPU's.  That way the gains will be more dramatic.  Not like going from 640x480 to 1024x768 was. Going from a 1080 to something even better than a 2080 Ti would be a pretty good boost. 

[DesolationGod]

usually once it stops performing well  or it fails. In my current case, i got a 1060 6gb, great still for most 1080p but given i upgraded to a 1440p 144hz monitor, time for gpu upgrade as the 1060 struggles.

[vong]

I've got a 1080 ti and it unfortunately isn't up to it for my needs anymore which is kinda crazy for a card that's only just over 3 years old. It's still a beast but if I can't get over 85fps at high-max settings playing at 3440x1440p on newer titles then it's time to move on.

[warmongerp]

Since I only play online games a pretty long time, I just recently upgraded from a 1060 to a 1660 super (+ Ryzen 3600) just because Apex/CoD/Battlefield frames were getting a little to choopy, I don't see myself upgrading the next 2/3 years, I also play 1080p so yeah

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

9 hours ago, Rdpruitt said:

 only pc from an AMD 5570 to a 2080 ti last year of course that’s an extreme

550Ti still running, beat ya. 

 

Maybe will upgrade once we see what Nvidia does with the 50 and 60 cards for 3000 series. Was thinking of just getting a RX 470 or 480 during Black Friday since those are the kinds of value for money on the entry side. But with how good the 3070 is supposed to be, really intrigued how the 3060 and even 3050 will perform. 

[Lord Vile]

12 hours ago, Rdpruitt said:

I’m seeing all these people saying that’s it’s time to upgrade their 1060s/1080s to a 20 or 30 series card, while I’m sitting here, having upgraded my only pc from an AMD 5570 to a 2080 ti last year of course that’s an extreme, but I don’t think every generation or every other generation is worth upgrading from. How often do you guys upgrade?

Depends, I have a 2060S that I only upgraded to/moved across from a Vega 56 because I swapped my case. Might get a 3070 because it’ll run cooler at the same settings

[Sarra]

4 hours ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

550Ti still running, beat ya. 

 

Maybe will upgrade once we see what Nvidia does with the 50 and 60 cards for 3000 series. Was thinking of just getting a RX 470 or 480 during Black Friday since those are the kinds of value for money on the entry side. But with how good the 3070 is supposed to be, really intrigued how the 3060 and even 3050 will perform. 

I still have a 550 TI. It doesn't run, but as soon as I get around to using thermal epoxy to mount a new HSF to it, I'll potentially be running it again...

[Pixel5]

for it always depends how the performance is, i have gone from something like a HD4870 to a 980ti when it just came out and this was my biggest upgrade yet.

That 980ti has been going strong for years now letting me play most stuff on high details without an issue but ever since upgrading to a 1440p 165hz display its not keeping up anymore.

Also the new Flight Simulator has shown it whos boss so im gonna either upgrade to a 3070 or buy a 2080Ti for below 500€ when the prices plummet.

[moggers]

In the old days (1987-2007), you genuinely needed to upgrade everything everything every couple of years! It was brutal.

 

These days, when it makes sense. The 3080 looks like a very good performance upgrade from my 1080, until I consider that it’s only got 2gb more VRAM. For what I do, which is a mix of unreal engine dev, photo/video editing, machine learning + gaming I actually use the vram. However - this is all as a hobbyist - I don’t make money from it (other than making my skills better for work).

 

So I’d want to see more of a leap if I’m going to be spending. The 3090 is overkill and a little too pricey if I’m not making money out of it, but if a 3080ti with 16gb comes out for £750 I’d probably go for it.

 

The 1080 itself was a forced buy at the time. A GPU failure during the crypto boom (I wasn’t mining) meant I was stuck. Everything was ridiculously priced - but I was extremely lucky to find a 1080 in amazon warehouse France for cheap (cheaper than retail 1060 6GB) At the time, so it made the most sense.