How often do you upgrade your vid card for games?

9800 Pro (AGP)
7900 GT
8800 GTX

Every 2 years and $300 - $400
I usually do one video card upgrade, then build a whole new system.

9600 pro [~$100 '04]

X800XT AIW [~$300 '05]

8800GTS-320 [~$250 '07]

8800GT-512 (went through 2 of these...killed the 1st 1 w/ a bad HR03-GT mount and lots of voltage) [$200 '07]

8800GTS-512 (went through at least 3 of these before getting one w/ Samsung RAM that I wanted) [~$160-$360 '08]

4850-512 (bought 2 for X-fire, but 1 got lost in the mail...decided 1 volt-modded 4850 was good enough for 1680x1050 and I eventually was reimbursed by the USPS) [~$150 '08]

GTX280 (wanted a little more power for 1920x1200, and the price was right...classifieds) [$250 '09]



After I built my first PC (P4-2.4A) while in college I was eager to upgrade soon. The next year when I started working I sold that one, and moved up a notch (P4-3.0E). After that I had a bit of a lull and only did minor upgrades...mainly peripherals. Then once I got married a couple years later I started to get more serious about this hobby. Got a Q6600 rig, started volt-modding stuff, and never looked back!

The only card I really regret purchasing was the 8800GTS-512 on launch day at $360. When the 8800GT came out it actually went up in value for a little while, and I thought something similar might happen w/ the GTS. I also thought I bought the version that came w/ Crysis, but it did not. The 8800GTS is an awesome card, but it rapidly decreased in value. Now I wait, and buy used if I can.

I voted every year, and $200-$300.

I don't really have much time for gaming... and on top of that I still only have my HDTV which only does 1360x768. So the game hasn't been invented yet that I can't run on my 8800GTS at that resolution.

My main priorities right now are 1. New Hard Drives 2. New PSU.

Once I get those out of the way there'll be room to start thinking about a new video card... but I don't see it happening before the year is up. (No new game is going to MAKE me upgrade my video card.)

I typically push my cards as long as possible because I was in hs and poor. In college I atleast have 2 jobs and upgrade a little more.

Radeon 32MB
AIW Radeon 32 DDR
Radeon 8800le 128mb(got it new for $70 on sale)
7800GTX (first high end card I bought, also bought on launch day thanks to internship after hs)
8800GTX (snagged for $200 new in oct)

I think im about to break my trend of buying stuff to last, Im dieing to get my hands on a gtx295 and I may go for it.

Technically I already have since I've scooped up a few 8800gt cards lately for folding.

I suppose I should give my upgrade path thus far:

Bought a 7800GT and wasn't satisfied, it was dead. Decided to return it...

Got a 7600GT and it performed at a better value than the 7800GT.

Friend got rid of his 7600Gt and I picked it up and SLI'd the two. They never liked each other, but I put up with all the errors. Constantly trying to troubleshoot it built character!

Finally upgraded from the SLI to a core 216, and while I like it, I'm not fond of some of the new nVidia bugs that have cropped up, and I'm fairly confident it's a broad issue ranging from geforce 8 and on. Seems that overlapping textures don't maintain thier position correctly and tend to flip back and forth between other textures. This has been tested on at least 3 cards now, and I've seen the issue on a user's video cap I've never even met... so I know it's a broad issue.
Hopefully this gets corrected in future cards/driver updates.

I usually let the games decide for me when its time to upgrade...when I cant play something with the effects or detail I want then its time. Simple as that. This last time around I picked up a second 4850 and went crossfire...first dual gpu setup for me...been working great and I feel like I saved money too

When I started using dual monitors I upgraded to something like a 8600GT I think for the dual DVI outputs. I soon started gaming though (CoD4) and the graphics quality was mediocre with plenty of chopping. From there I tried a 9600GT and ended up RMA'ing the damn thing 2 times. After my third card that still had bizzare black screen issues, driver problems, etc I ended up doing a step up to a 9800GTX. That was around 1 year ago, I have been happy ever since with this card. If I upgrade it will be because the 9800 no longer cuts the mustard, but it's still chugging along just fine atm -- I have a feeling that I will get at least another 6 months out of it -- probably more.

Oh about every 2-3 years and I try real hard not to spend much more than $200

The biggest expense is the long term power bills running GPU2 FAH 24/7 on these top tier cards. I works out to 6kwh per day just for the card. I'm paying around $300 per month and if I quit FAH I becha my bill would be cut in half.

I don't game hardly at all but I like having a top gaming card as it's nice to have the performance reserve when you need it. I love eye candy and I like it all to run very smoothly.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/25/video-onlive-streaming-game-demonstrated/

Is the end of hardware upgrading approaching? I watched the whole video in the link, it's fascinating technology. Whether it will prove to be effective on a widespread basis and if the pricing will be decent is still undetermined but I'm excited.

Jayws said:

http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/25/video-onlive-streaming-game-demonstrated/

Is the end of hardware upgrading approaching? I watched the whole video in the link, it's fascinating technology. Whether it will prove to be effective on a widespread basis and if the pricing will be decent is still undetermined but I'm excited.

Click to expand...

This is cloud computing on steroids. This is very dependent on your internet provider speed/bandwidth but more importantly how close you are to the game server. It will have to be regional and if you are in a fringe area, you might be out of luck. That being said, I'd love to be able to game on my Asus Eee netbook with mutiplayer games and not be dependent on my platform to play.

Dragonprince said:

I usually let the games decide for me when its time to upgrade...when I cant play something with the effects or detail I want then its time. Simple as that.

Click to expand...

this

i definitely felt the age of my current system when i loaded up warhammer
and insisting on running everything at 1920 x 1200 doesnt help either

gonna have to bite the bullet soon

Sadly, only every 2-3 years as of my past 2 upgrades.

ati 9550 128mb ddr agp 8x for about 3 years 50$
xfx 7600gs 256mb ddr2 agp 8x about 2 years 90$
xfx 8600gt 256mb gddr3 pcie about 1 year, sli'd later. 80$ for the first 45$ for the second
xfx 8800gts 512mb gddr3 pcie about 2 years 80$
pny 8800gt 512mb gddr3 pcie about 4 weeks, free for folding at home
evga gtx285 1gb about 4 weeks, free for folding at home

I seem to keep on the bleeding edge of hardware most of the time including graphics cards. I find our community keeps tabs on release schedules on upcoming hardware, so if a new top tier video card is being released by nVidia in a week I would remove my old nVidia card and sell it off on eBay. There are quite a few people that aren't as in-the-know for soon to be released products. If you keep your card and all of its original packaging immaculate, I can usually recoup 80%+ of its value. I turn around with that money and buy the next gen cutting edge card. Rinse and repeat...

i GENERALLY go 3 years and put $200 down. i overclock the hell out of them near the end but ever since the 7 series the umpf hasnt been there.
i'd still be using my 7900GT if the ram hadnt gone bad i bet because i got RMAd a 8600GT in its place (lame crap) sold it and bought a 9600 which is ok but its not holding up as well as cards used to be and i dont think its because of the games out, the performance difference between generations is dwindling

Niku-Sama said:

i GENERALLY go 3 years and put $200 down. i overclock the hell out of them near the end but ever since the 7 series the umpf hasnt been there.
i'd still be using my 7900GT if the ram hadnt gone bad i bet because i got RMAd a 8600GT in its place (lame crap) sold it and bought a 9600 which is ok but its not holding up as well as cards used to be and i dont think its because of the games out, the performance difference between generations is dwindling

Click to expand...

I disagree. The jump from the 7800GTX to the 8800GTX was quite nice... going forward until the GTX200 series was as you say... but GTX200 is a very solid jump from 9800GTX+. I remember when 7000 series came out... the performance increase from a 6800NU to a 7600GT was phenomenal. Almost 3 times as fast as my old 6800NU.

I upgrade every year and try to upgrade to the best mid-tier graphic card usually less than $200

For me it's every two years or so, try to spend close to $200 but somehow usually end up closer to $300. As I've gotten older my budget seems to have gone up.

I also tend to build new systems every 4 - 5 years or so, that's about as long as the overall platform seems to last for -- i.e. can't actually upgrade the GPU because the good new ones don't work in the ancient mobos.

Then it gets a little more complicated, because I have started handing my old systems down to my son, and sometimes that system wants an upgrade too. He usually gets a mid-level card ($150 or so) as an upgrade .

On a side note, I have never upgraded a CPU in 20 years of owning PCs. Memory, GPUs, hard drives, other odds and ends sure. My new builds just get reasonably high end current motherboards and CPUs.

Rattle said:

too often

Click to expand...

This. The 8800 GTX saved me for more than a year though.

I selected every year and 200-300. Thats about an average. For example, in the past year, I went from an 8800gt ($180) to an 8800GTS (step up, free), to a GTX260 216 ($209) to a 55nm GTX 260 216 (Step up, $25). I will likely not touch that card until sometime in 2010.