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How often do you upgrade your vid card for games?

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How often do you upgrade your vid card for games?

  • Every year

    Votes: 129 26.8%
  • Every 2-3 years

    Votes: 254 52.7%
  • Every 3-5 years

    Votes: 99 20.5%
  • Less than $200

    Votes: 68 14.1%
  • Between $200-$300

    Votes: 120 24.9%
  • Between $300-$400

    Votes: 43 8.9%
  • Over $400

    Votes: 40 8.3%

  • Total voters
    482

deathman20

High Speed Premium Senior
Joined
Aug 5, 2002
Per FudgeNuggets Request
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=598403

I'm putting this in the games section essentially to deter being skewed by the people like me who do not game on their PC and by the people who just fold and bench.

So, how often do you upgrade your video card for gaming? How much do you normally spend?

Please choose your selections carefully, one for the time in years and one for total amount you typically spend. You could select all of them but it would negate the stats, please only select 2 of the appropriate selections.

Edit:
Please note to select both your options before posting submitting to the poll ;) Otherwise you'll just be entering in 1.
 
Last edited:
I chose every year and $400+. Because the fact I typically upgrade 2x during a year (typically around 6 months apart) so I do tend to spend a little more then typically but as well I get a little value back from my old cards.
 
I usually skip generations in cards, but my 8800GT has been good to me since it first hit the shelves. I use a 20'' monitor. All PC games that have come out since the 8800GT (with the exception of maybe L4D and Fallout3) stink and sure as hell arent visually appealing.

Knowing that, I am a lot less into upgrading anything "just because" than I use to be.

Always spend under $300 also.
 
My 8800gt has run everything since I purchased it finely at 1680x1050. I normally go for sales/deals before I buy so I put less than $200 and roughly every two years.
 
Usually around 2 yrs for me in the $200-$300 range. This has kept me able to play most games with decent framerates (I'm not the kind who need 125 fps all the time) while only having to drop setting down near the end of the cards life.
 
It's not an exact measure, but I went for 2-3 years and $2-300. It averages out pretty close to that I'd guess. Less often and it costs more, more often and it costs almost as much :D
 
Death, may I ask why you upgrade so often? Is it just to have the best, or do you do some serious work?

I upgrade every 2-3 years, and for under $200.

First card to most recent:

6600GT > 7900GS > 8800GTS
 
Unless something bad happens, I usually get one of the higher end cards out at the time and use it until it drops off the system requirements list of games. So probably ~3-4 years, $200-$300. Of course I haven't done that in a while because of a few dead cards then upgrading to this computer.
 
Death, may I ask why you upgrade so often? Is it just to have the best, or do you do some serious work?

I upgrade every 2-3 years, and for under $200.

First card to most recent:

6600GT > 7900GS > 8800GTS

Got a 1920x1200 res to fill up and typically I need something current to keep up with some of the games I play. My last 4850's would of lasted some time but the noise was getting to me since it was on my desk. If it was under my desk it probably wouldn't of been an issue hence why I got the GTX285.

I do some serious work as well in window mode, and do some games in window mode just so I can do other activities at the same time. Hence why my figure comes in to roughly $400 averaging the cost of the initial cards + upgrade for that year (this is also taking into account the sale of old hardware to make up the differences).

As well I like something powerful so its part of the computer itch :)
 
Every 2 years, <$200 perference. Although technically I haven't actually been buying video cards long enough to actually give a trend - I try my best to be cheap, though :p
 
Crap, got trigger happy, checked the every 2-3 years, and clicked vote, while doing this I realized I could multiple check on the price range options >.< But, I would always go for less than $200 though my card was $220.
 
well its been like 6 or 7 months after i bought my 8600gts that i went to my 4850, so i put a year and less than $200.
 
For me it's around $250 every ~2 years. During the first year after an upgrade I can generally play everything on max, and during the second year I have to do more tweaking than usual. When I consistently start having performance issues with new games and tweaking doesn't significantly improve it, then I look into upgrading, which is as I said every ~2 years approx.

Tweaking is key though. Most people don't do much of it, and I'm probably fanatical about tweaking everything (BIOS settings, OS settings, memory, cache, driver settings, game-specific settings) to get the best possible performance. Except for volt modding and water cooling (too lazy and/or too expensive for me).
 
Crap, got trigger happy, checked the every 2-3 years, and clicked vote, while doing this I realized I could multiple check on the price range options >.< But, I would always go for less than $200 though my card was $220.

Heh, I did the same thing. Anyways, I was trying to hold off for 2 years instead of keeping my 1-year upgrade cycle from before. But, after 1 year, my 8800 broke, I RMA'd it, and I got back some crappy variant without fan control. So, instead of dealing with the noise for a year, I decided to just move to a 260. The upgrade's come out to about $200-$300 each year.

Though, if you've been following my other posts, you may know that this year I'll be spending much more than usual. Will be stepping this card up to either a 285 or 295, so in the $350 to $500 range this time.
 
Every couple years on average, spend around 200-300, although I have splurged a couple of times on a $400+ card..
 
Awww, theres no "whenever a new ones come out"?

Checked off once a year, though it's more like whenever a faster one is released and increases performance enough to warrant the price of two of them. (maybe three...or four?)
 
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