Why spending $$$$ for a top of the line gfx card may be worth it

[NJspeed]

What do you guys think of this..?

Think about it - Is it really cheaper to upgrade your card every year to a 6-12 month old card... or is it worth it to get a top of the line card and not upgrade for 24 months.. Hmmm.. People should think about that more.. at least I need to. It's easy to think your saving money by buying a card once it comes down in price.. but the only problem is you have to constantly be doing so in order to keep up with speed.

Check out this situation:

Last year I bought a 9800 Pro 128 for $250, this year a X800 XL for a similar price - Both cards were considered fast at the time, and also reasonably priced. However, next year I'll have to upgrade again to stay fast... probably to one of these newer cards like the X1800s or the 7800.. since they'll be slightly older and cheaper come next spring or summer.

Now instead... if I just dished out a bunch more money for a top of the line card, and just held on to it, I'd probably be spending the same amount of money over the course of 2 years... only difference would be I'd have one of the best cards out (for a little while) instead of constantly having a slightly older and slower card.

Example being, I could have just bought an X850 XT for $500 last year instead of the 9800 Pro 128, and I'd still be using it now instead of the X800XL, and I could continue to use it for at least another year. I'd have spent the same amount of money but I'd have had a much better card the ENTIRE time. Then in a year, buy another top of the line card and hold it for 24 months. I think this is what I should start doing.

Think about it.

 

[Lemonking]

I hate upgrading,what I hate yhe most is that it prolly cost no more thne 30$ to make a grafix card and yet they sell it for 800$ which is gay

 

[CptStern]

it's not always just the vid card ...take my example ..I have a 9800pro but I only have agp so there's no real use in spending extra cash now to get a another year out of my computer when the card I have now should do me well for at least another 6 months (hopefully) ..I'd also have to get a new power supply as 350 W isnt enough for the higher end cards ...and if I'm changing the power supply I might as well get one that's SLI cuz later on I'll want 2 cards

 

[Quixoticism]

I hate upgrading,what I hate yhe most is that it prolly cost no more thne 30$ to make a grafix card and yet they sell it for 800$ which is gay

Because people are willing to pay that much for it :hmph: :angry: :flame: :sniper: :x

 

[CptStern]

no it's because few people buy it ..it costs a lot more to manufacture goods in small batches ..for every top of the line card there's 1000 cheap on-board cards. High end cards is a niche market ..plus the RD (research & development) plus the higher quality parts etc make it a risky part of their business where their profit margins are probably lower than on their mass produced cards ...this is pretty much how every business works

 

[D€vIL²]

I was sick of upgradeing that why I got a VERY high-end computer.

see sig

 

[Quixoticism]

Huh.
When I got sick of upgrading I decided to keep the computer I already have...

 

[Asus]

Except a X800XL is a lot faster than a 9800XT. And a 9800XT is just slightly ahead of the 9800Pro. Otherwise yes, buying higher end parts and holding on to them is a good idea. Only thing is many people don't end up holding on to there stuff that long since they are always seeing the newest and greatest. =p

 

[bryanf445]

Except a X800XL is a lot faster than a 9800XT. And a 9800XT is just slightly ahead of the 9800Pro. Otherwise yes, buying higher end parts and holding on to them is a good idea. Only thing is many people don't end up holding on to there stuff that long since they are always seeing the newest and greatest. =p

asus, ive seen you with the same rig for a while now. Any plans on upgrading sooner or later? Im just curious

 

[giant384]

Except a X800XL is a lot faster than a 9800XT. And a 9800XT is just slightly ahead of the 9800Pro. Otherwise yes, buying higher end parts and holding on to them is a good idea. Only thing is many people don't end up holding on to there stuff that long since they are always seeing the newest and greatest. =p

or in otherwords showing off there computers

 

[Asus]

asus, ive seen you with the same rig for a while now. Any plans on upgrading sooner or later? Im just curious

When I upgrade it will be to dual core when the higher speeds get around the 300-400$ range. I'd like to think I won't upgrade til AMD gets DDR2 although we will have to see if that holds. lol
Everything inside my case will get upgraded at that point as well. If it's about the time Intel has their new CPUs I'll be watching those but for now I'll be sticking with Athlon 64. I won't be changing my 6800GT unless some game like UT2007 doesn't play well on it. Like to hold out til I get to PCI-Express with that as well.

 

[Kyorisu]

Bought an X800 to stay fast lol.

What god like game needs that? I upgrade my gfx/mobo/cpu every 2 years. my 9600pro has kept me going for quite some time. I don't intend to upgrade until the version of the X800 I want comes down to around $500. That's quite a lot considering I payed $300 for my 9600pro. Then mobo and cpu are a piece of cake. Sitting pretty on 1gb ram 1x512 pc3100 chip and 1x512 pc4000 (obviously running at 333fsb sadly)

Well it's not like I do anything to get the money. Thankyou youth allowance.

 

[Lahire149]

NJ is right, but the only problem with that is that some of us Highschool students don't have $500 dollars to spend every few years. So i have to keep my upgrades cheap.
I'll probablly keep my AGP mobo for a long time, and my socket 478 processor for a long time too.
Cause making a good investment in PCI-e, DDR2, Socket whatever, ect. is really too expensive for some people *cough* me *cough*
But if i had the money i'd do what NJ said.

 

[NJspeed]

My problem is this huge 21" monitor makes everything look bigger, thus more blocky.... If I'm not running at high resolutions with high details, it looks kind of bad... Smaller monitors actually make things in lower resolutions look better, smoother, and more detailed, because the picture is kind of compressed. Plus I work a great job so it's not so much the amount of money, but spending it in the most efficient way, which I realize I haven't done..