News You might want to wait before upgrading your graphics card — here’s why

Moose and Squirrel

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Mar 12, 2022
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Nope. Don't do that. The next gen cards will be high end, expensive, and exclusive. Talk about hard to get. It'll be a year or more before more midrange cards are around and longer than that before they're affordable.

The current gen cards are pretty good. I have a 3060. So far it plays everything at 4k with all the knobs turned up. I have no idea what I'd need 3-4x the power of that for.
 

brian.myers00

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I don't agree with this take. A. You aren't trying very hard at this point if you want a rtx3000 series gpu and can't find it. There are easily 30 series gpus available at near msrp all over the place. B you have no assurances you will be able to meet the performance needs of a future gpu with your current system unless you just built it. Is your power supply good enough for unannounced gpu power requirements? If your cpu going to throttle a 3080 or 3090 just imagine how much performance you will waste on a next gen gpu without additional upgrades. How about a next gen gpu wanting to utilize more bandwidth via pci gen 4? Have a pci gen 4 capable motherboard? C. New series video cards even without shortages sell out for 1-2 months at launch traditionally. D. If you are looking for midrange to low end note that Nvidia currently has a strategy of releasing high end parts first. The 3060 and 3050 came out months after the 3080 and 3090 so expect to wait months more from a 4000 series on top of waiting for that launch.
 

Mateu

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Nope. Don't do that. The next gen cards will be high end, expensive, and exclusive. Talk about hard to get. It'll be a year or more before more midrange cards are around and longer than that before they're affordable.

The current gen cards are pretty good. I have a 3060. So far it plays everything at 4k with all the knobs turned up. I have no idea what I'd need 3-4x the power of that for.
So I have a 3090, had it since October 2020. I simply hit the add to cart button for 5 minutes strait on EVGA website the day they released and ended up in EVGAs queue. Took a month but I got the email. I'll do the same for the 4090.
As to your 3060 playing everything at 4k Ultra. I'm not sure what games your playing. I Play CP 2077, Squad, Star Citizen, Hunt showdown and many others. At 4K Ultra some games I'm in the 80s to 90's. Other games it's 50's to High 60's. This is with 6200mhz DDR5 and a 12900k along with my 3090 all Overclocked.
There is plenty of room for more GPU power, and frankly until a graphics card can saturate my 144HZ 4K monitor, right now the 3090 is barely enough for 60 to 80 fos average on the most demanding games.
Frankly it may be the 5090 or 6090 until 4k 144fps average is attainable.
 

Moose and Squirrel

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So I have a 3090, had it since October 2020. I simply hit the add to cart button for 5 minutes strait on EVGA website the day they released and ended up in EVGAs queue. Took a month but I got the email. I'll do the same for the 4090.
As to your 3060 playing everything at 4k Ultra. I'm not sure what games your playing. I Play CP 2077, Squad, Star Citizen, Hunt showdown and many others. At 4K Ultra some games I'm in the 80s to 90's. Other games it's 50's to High 60's. This is with 6200mhz DDR5 and a 12900k along with my 3090 all Overclocked.
There is plenty of room for more GPU power, and frankly until a graphics card can saturate my 144HZ 4K monitor, right now the 3090 is barely enough for 60 to 80 fos average on the most demanding games.
Frankly it may be the 5090 or 6090 until 4k 144fps average is attainable.

Doom 2016, Doom Eternal, Halo Infinite, Flight Simulator, Forza 5 and a ton of old school emulation up to Switch/PS3/Xbox games. None drop below 60fps.

Not exactly crap games, but I expected this take. Yeah, you can find games that beat down most cards. I just don't play that many of them, and neither do most other people.

Remembering again that the most commonly used graphics card with steam worldwide is a 1060.

Most popular games will run great on a mid range gtx 3060-3070ti.

Waiting for the next new 1000w gpu so you can have 350fps on a badly coded game engine isn't really my bag.
 
May 5, 2022
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Doom 2016, Doom Eternal, Halo Infinite, Flight Simulator, Forza 5 and a ton of old school emulation up to Switch/PS3/Xbox games. None drop below 60fps.

Not exactly crap games, but I expected this take. Yeah, you can find games that beat down most cards. I just don't play that many of them, and neither do most other people.

Remembering again that the most commonly used graphics card with steam worldwide is a 1060.

Most popular games will run great on a mid range gtx 3060-3070ti.

Waiting for the next new 1000w gpu so you can have 350fps on a badly coded game engine isn't really my bag.
3 of those 5 games barely run at 1080p 60fps on a 3060. The last thing you're doing is playing them in 4k and not dropping under 60fps. One of them you're probably not even getting 30fps.

Just because something is the most common doesn't mean it can actually play games well. It just means that a large majority of the world cannot afford a better card or have no idea how much smoother actually playing a game 144fps+ is than over 30-60fps.
 

John Pombrio

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Mar 12, 2013
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That is a never-ending cycle if you "hold off for the next BEST THING" for computer hardware. Buy the gear that fits your budget and needs when you need/want an upgrade or a new machine. That has always been the best course of action. All tech companies deal in FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) when talking (or leaking) about their upcoming gear just to keep you from buying another company's products. Just because an announcement may be around the corner, when you will be able to buy the latest card at a reasonable price has always been a concern in the past few years. With inflation, China shutdowns, a war, a pandemic, and the spectre of a revival in crypto mining, who knows what will come. Buy the gear that fits your needs when you need it at a cost you can afford.