GPUs. Just how much is too much?

[AlienALX]

OK so a guy on Youtube that I watch from time to time was talking about the price of the new Titan X. He then asked the question, just how much is too much?

Right so I want you to read this carefully and I want you to post exactly how YOU feel with YOUR opinion and YOUR thoughts. What I mean by that is, don't post and tell me how much you would like to spend on a GPU I want to know *exactly* where your limitation is. Your TRUE limitation, the one that would allow your head to rule when Nvidia start talking their BS.

In every mind we have limiters. Even for an Aspie like me we have them. Mine are probably set far higher than yours (which is why I've been in a lot of trouble over my life though thankfully never with the law) and we all know where we should stop. However, that varies from person to person.

So, ladies and gents, I ask you this.... How much is too much? what manufacturer would have to post a price that is too high for you and how much is that price?

Of course I won't be impervious to this myself and so I will give my answer and my reasons. Can we please NOT start arguing over WHY these GPUs cost what they cost nor can the fanboys start blaming any one. Simple question, simple answers please.

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OK. So back in the mid to late 90s I was young free and single and living with my mother in a house that was paid off when my dad died. This meant we only had to pay bills, council tax etc and I was earning very well. To make it worse I worked for a PC business and I could get anything for trade price. Obviously I had the best of everything and was running SLi when that meant having a main GPU and two Voodoo 2 cards. My limit then was? pretty much every penny I had.

Now I am older (42) and obviously things have changed. I now have a lovely lady wife and a couple of step kids however, the step kids are now pretty much grown up and are becoming self dependent as the days pass. However, I have a lot more sense that I did when I was 20 and so I always limit myself to £500 no matter what. I may spend a little on better cooling but yeah, never spend any more than £500. And no GPU, no matter how good it is will make me spend more. I initially sold three of my old GPUs in order to fund a 1080 without breaking my wallet out but it came in at more than that so I bowed out and bought a Titan X used.

 

[Davva2004]

Good question mate.

With me, it's a question of "how do I achieve the result I want without spending a single penny more than I have to?"

My next rig is a perfect example of that. When I design rigs, I start with the monitor. For ages I've been a 1080p gamer, but now I want to upgrade to a 34" ultrawide 1440p.

So my next decision is what hardware do I need to get to allow me to game at that resolution, ideally at around 60fps with all the eye candy turned up full. I also want to take advantage of variable frame rate technology.

I'm not a fanboy or anything like that, so I read reviews of just about every card before I decide, and in this particular case I've decided to go for a Freesync monitor and a pair of RX480s. This will get me the result I want, and is significantly cheaper than a GTX1080 and Gsync monitor combo. If the GTX1060 was SLI capable and Gsync monitors weren't such a huge jump in price, I'd also look at that option, but Nvidia killed that option with their decision on the 1060.

 

[AlienALX]

Good question mate.

With me, it's a question of "how do I achieve the result I want without spending a single penny more than I have to?"

My next rig is a perfect example of that. When I design rigs, I start with the monitor. For ages I've been a 1080p gamer, but now I want to upgrade to a 34" ultrawide 1440p.

So my next decision is what hardware do I need to get to allow me to game at that resolution, ideally at around 60fps with all the eye candy turned up full. I also want to take advantage of variable frame rate technology.

I'm not a fanboy or anything like that, so I read reviews of just about every card before I decide, and in this particular case I've decided to go for a Freesync monitor and a pair of RX480s. This will get me the result I want, and is significantly cheaper than a GTX1080 and Gsync monitor combo. If the GTX1060 was SLI capable and Gsync monitors weren't such a huge jump in price, I'd also look at that option, but Nvidia killed that option with their decision on the 1060.

As the saying goes, every man has his price. Only in this instance it's that reversed

I need a max price. The cliff price that you have in your head that things fall over if they are too expensive, completely regardless of what your heart wants.

It's a personal question yes, but every one has that limit.

 

[MadShadow]

Well, I'm 16 so I don't have a huge amount of money to be spending on GPUs, but I'd say £300 is probably the upper limit if I were to upgrade from my 380.

 

[Warchild]

Well my limit is probably raising the bar a little. Considering we earn much higher salaries in Norway, my threshold is somewhat different. But like you said, we all have a limit.

Sadly I think we are now at a point where my limit has been reached. I always said to myself that I would never spend more than 8000Nok for 1 GPU and that had to include the cost of a waterblock too.

Back then 8000nok was pretty much £800. but now when I look at Nvidias price gouging, I think I'm done with PC gaming altogether. Without the competition, Intel and Nvidia are just crippling us so bad.

1080 cards right now are now between 7500 and 9000 (preinstalled block) and that is where I have to draw the line. I have always been an SLI/Crossfire fan as I love seeing to cards in the case. But that ends now.

I have 2 980Ti cards, and I think I am going to have these for a very long time.

 

[Excalabur50]

I have to admit that unless I won lotto the new gen cards are too expensive for me 1200-1300au is too rich and the 1080ti that i'd like to get is likely to be 1600-2000au which is beyond a joke.
There's no way I'd spend 4000 on 2 cards so I will be sticking with my 980ti's
TBH I think we are being gouged too much for PC's now and if manufactures are not careful they will price themselves out of the market and no one will buy.

 

[Doomslayer]

I have to admit that unless I won lotto the new gen cards are too expensive for me 1200-1300au is too rich and the 1080ti that i'd like to get is likely to be 1600-2000au which is beyond a joke.
There's no way I'd spend 4000 on 2 cards so I will be sticking with my 980ti's
TBH I think we are being gouged too much for PC's now and if manufactures are not careful they will price themselves out of the market and no one will buy.

I would say the GTX180Ti will come in at $1500-1600 where the new Titan will come in at $1800-2000.

I keep saying this every time it will not stop people from buying Nvidia cards the shops will still sell them.

 

[RobM]

for me its £250 as an absolute limit.
As a 53 year old veteran with a mortgage and now unable to work due to health issues thats likely to fall further, infact my current PC was built Dec 14 to a £400 budget including windows 8.1
This year I was able to add and SSD and get an r7 370 along with a new case.

I am hoping Zen offers good things, as of now I am looking at a rebuild using 2nd hand parts I scoure ebay constantly in the hope of finding a bargain listed wrongly even considering buying faulty kit to attempt repairs lol.
Realisticly right now my limit would be £120

 

[Spiderz]

Like RobM I'm struggling to look at anything above £250 or even new hardware as what I have still does what is needed. Since starting to work full time, the gaming side of things has just not happened much in the last few years but want to keep the performance incase the odd game comes out that I can enjoy with the likes of my brother.
Everything seems to have jumped up a price bracket ( xx60 series at old xx70 prices, i5s getting close to old i7 money etc) and as much as the new stuff is pushing the game on, the desire to be at the top end of it is waning.

The needs now are for low power, low noise and that seems to be bringing the threshold "buying price" down since performance isn't being chased.

 

[Dark NighT]

For me the limit is 400 euro really, it used to be higher and i wanted the big dogs, but these days a step lower and possible overclocks make the top end series a bit worthless, especially for the games i currently play and plan to keep on playing until star citizen is properly released, and even then i wont go full mad on whatever gpu is out then.

With current pricing its just insane people still buy them, they really shouldn't in my opinion.

 

[Dicehunter]

£600 is my limit, Anything over that is pure urine extraction.

Nvidia are charging these ludicrous prices because from testing the waters with the likes of the first Titan they know people will pay anything.

We need AMD to come out with a card that kicks Nvidia's behind all over the place but at less of a stupid price.

 

[Thelosouvlakia]

Last year I finished high school and achieved access to Engineering University, my grandma wanted to give me a money gift so I could build a computer, she said I could have up to 3000Euros at my disposal. Although I could have gone x99 and buy an 295x2 and a 4k monitor I simply chose to save. I decided I'm going 1080p and two of the best cards I could get were either the 290 or the 970. I went for the 290. It's not about how much money I can spend on a gpu, it's the whole setup. I like to balance things.

So if you want a number, I say 350-400Euros max

 

[AlienALX]

£600 is my limit, Anything over that is pure urine extraction.

Nvidia are charging these ludicrous prices because from testing the waters with the likes of the first Titan they know people will pay anything.

We need AMD to come out with a card that kicks Nvidia's behind all over the place but at less of a stupid price.

Be honest though dude, was £600 your maximum before the 1080 came out?

I will be honest, £500 has always been my absolute maximum and that's taking for granted that I actually have £500 to spend because I can't afford holidays and niceties if I dump money into my PC. That works OK during the winter months but in the summer buying PC parts is absolutely the last thing on my mind.

But yeah, I had the cash for a 1080 but £500 really was my limit so I simply didn't bother.

 

[Dicehunter]

Be honest though dude, was £600 your maximum before the 1080 came out?

I will be honest, £500 has always been my absolute maximum and that's taking for granted that I actually have £500 to spend because I can't afford holidays and niceties if I dump money into my PC. That works OK during the winter months but in the summer buying PC parts is absolutely the last thing on my mind.

But yeah, I had the cash for a 1080 but £500 really was my limit so I simply didn't bother.

No need for the unnecessary sly dig, I am being honest.

I paid £650 for the Fury X when that came out and then got a refund for it less than 2 weeks later due to it leaking and proceeded to get a 980 Ti for over £100 less, After that I decided I would never pay more than £600 for a card again.

I got my 1080 for £599 before the prices shot up.

 

[spolsh]

£500 is my limit, but, before I got a 980ti my limit was £250, so ... It's fluid but at the moment I wouldn't go over £500.

 

[Warchild]

£600 is my limit, Anything over that is pure urine extraction.

Nvidia are charging these ludicrous prices because from testing the waters with the likes of the first Titan they know people will pay anything.

We need AMD to come out with a card that kicks Nvidia's behind all over the place but at less of a stupid price.

We keep saying this though, and AMD keep letting us down. What we need or would love is a third brand to come to town and enter the market but that will never happen now.

 

[Mysterae]

The answer to this question will vary so wildly due to people's personal circumstances.

I always like to see an improvement in my purchase, selling the old gpu's and then assessing what that upgrade will cost.

When I punted my GTX 670 SLI to go to 780Ti SLI the net cost was about £700 for a pretty massive step in performance - it was worth it.

When I punted my GTX 780Ti SLI to go to 980TI SLI the net cost was again about £700 for a big step in performance - I could justify it.

So the trend for me is about £700 per upgrade it would seem.

However, if the 1080Ti is about £800 upon release and a guess at the resale value of my 980Ti's I imagine an upgrade would cost about £1,100. Way too much. I'll more than likely be skipping this generation due to Nvidia's greed.

 

[AlienALX]

No need for the unnecessary sly dig, I am being honest.

I paid £650 for the Fury X when that came out and then got a refund for it less than 2 weeks later due to it leaking and proceeded to get a 980 Ti for over £100 less, After that I decided I would never pay more than £600 for a card again.

I got my 1080 for £599 before the prices shot up.

It wasn't a sly dig. I remembered soon after I had posted it that you had a 980ti Classy which must have cost £600. I was just curious as to whether you had set a new limit with the 1080 but obviously not.

I'm just trying to get people to be honest. The problem is it seems to be a bit of a gray area. People don't seem to want to admit that they have limits. I'm not saying that about you as obviously that's not the case but yeah, just looking for info is all

 

[Dicehunter]

It wasn't a sly dig. I remembered soon after I had posted it that you had a 980ti Classy which must have cost £600. I was just curious as to whether you had set a new limit with the 1080 but obviously not.

I'm just trying to get people to be honest. The problem is it seems to be a bit of a gray area. People don't seem to want to admit that they have limits. I'm not saying that about you as obviously that's not the case but yeah, just looking for info is all

The 980 Ti Classified I bought cost exactly £589.99 at OCUK but after price matching and a phone call later they did it for £550, So 100 quid cheaper than the Fury X which I returned due to leakage.

After that £600 was my limit, Anymore and it's urine extraction territory.

 

[Dawelio]

I got my 1080 for £599 before the prices shot up.

I recently noticed this on the 1080 Strix... Any idea why? And/or if they will come back down pressumebly? :mellow: