Buy now or wait for 8XXX

[neilmckee5]

I have been building a rig over the last few months and am now looking at graphics cards, it was always going to be one of the last things added as i am not a big PC gamer.... yet.

It has been built mainly because my other PC is a few years old and struggling, but i also wanted to get into gaming on the PC to some extent.

I have seen lots on deals around the £150 mark for 7850s or cards around that spec. This will be plenty for an first gaming PC.

I have heard that the 8000 range will be coming out in March, does anyone know if the prices will drop significantly on the 7000 series when the new cards are released?

I am not in any major rush, so would it be worth my while to wait a month or two and see how the prices change?

 

[mokrunka]

Are you stuck on ATI for some reason? If you're not in a rush, you can wait. IMO, the nvidia cards have better driver support, and better cost/benefit ratio.

 

[ssjwizard]

Assuming that the performance gains are as large as AMD is claiming, and the nVidia Titan is also out by then, I would guess the 8xxx series wont drop the price of 7xxx stuff by a whole lot. At least not initially.

 

[neilmckee5]

No not at all, sorry should have mentioned that!

Just happened to be the last few deals i had seen were for the 7850.

I was just wondering will it be like when the haswell CPUs are released the ivy bridge are not expected to drop much in price?

Didnt want to grab a card now in what seems like a bargain and in 2 months time they are 20% cheaper or whatever.

 

[ssjwizard]

Didnt want to grab a card now in what seems like a bargain and in 2 months time they are 20% cheaper or whatever.

Technology is a brat like that. In 2 months time your card will still be worth a good bit, in 6-8 months that 20% will probably happen. Its just the way of things, any hardware you buy will be outdated in a year, and not sufficient to serve its purpose in 5-6(or less depending on how picky you are).

 

[EarthDog]

8000 series has been pushed back until LATE this year or perhaps in to next. Get what is out now. 7850 2GB.

 

[Knufire]

Yeah, new GPUs shouldn't be out for a long time, especially in the budget range (usually super expensive cards come out first).

But, in general, the constant 20% drop every few months is a never ending cycle. The market moves so fast, there's ALWAYS something to wait for. You eventually just have to just stop waiting and buy.

 

[Ivy]

As long as people can afford that stuff it works, so supply and demand is always in need of coins. But personally its sufficient to renew the stuff once every 2-3 years without much performance lack at all. Currently a 7870 is handling my gaming smooth, which will be the case for the next 2 years at least. So i see not much reason getting new stuff every couple months, not even yearly, in most cases. Although the 6000 to 7000 series jump was kinda huge. However, the 8000 series jump may be much smaller, so its not comparable and may not be a critical upgrade for most mainstream gamers.

Im afraid that the mainstream consumers are soon tired and are not renewing theyr stuff a lot anymore. Only enthusiasts may still drag the stuff through any kind of time travel.

But definitely, other hardware got longer lifetime. CPU around 3-4 year. RAM and PSU almost forever, so GPU surely is a hardware with high grade of "aging". Luckily its easy to exchange a GPU.

The bad stuff is that a GPU may be builded with lesser quality and thats why its one of the parts with almost highest manufacturing failure i ever had. However, a properly working GPU may be running almost forever, so its not a general tech issue but the issue of its insanely short live and cost sensitive production methods.

 

[neilmckee5]

Excellent. Thanks for the info! I guess it's time to just keep an eye out for a decent deal

 

[hokiealumnus]

I just deleted a ridiculous amount of trash from your thread neilmckee5. Please accept my apologies for their behavior.

 

[Janus67]

@puckr I'm going to assume English isn't your primary language, so to sum it up there are rules here and just because you have first amendment rights doesn't mean you can say anything that you want anywhere.

To answer the op and stay on topic, keep an eye on a good 7-series deal and you will not be disappointed.

 

[madhatter256]

AMD is slacking due to layoffs and other market commitments from what I have read.

I'm contemplating on whether or not buy a 7970 or wait until the nvidia 7xx series comes out.

 

[Zenos]

AMD is slacking due to layoffs and other market commitments from what I have read.

I'm contemplating on whether or not buy a 7970 or wait until the nvidia 7xx series comes out.

What do you have currently?

 

[hokiealumnus]

Guys, unless puckr responds with an on topic post, disregard and do not reply to his posts. That way we don't have to clean up others' posts as well. Believe me, if it's not on topic, it will be gone in short order.

 

[Janus67]

AMD is slacking due to layoffs and other market commitments from what I have read.

I'm contemplating on whether or not buy a 7970 or wait until the nvidia 7xx series comes out.

If you wait til Titan and assuming they put out a comparable/better card in the same price range then you should be able to bet that AMD will lower prices to stay competitive.

 

[neilmckee5]

I just deleted a ridiculous amount of trash from your thread neilmckee5. Please accept my apologies for their behavior.

No probs, its the internet... there will always be idiots thanks.

Thank for all the info guys!

 

[fornoob]

If you wait til Titan and assuming they put out a comparable/better card in the same price range then you should be able to bet that AMD will lower prices to stay competitive.

Regarding the HD 7970 or 7950, I wouldn't count on it. The margin is already so low compared to what Nvidia is doing. Remember that the HD7970 was around 550$ not so long ago and is now around 350$ for some models. The margin is already away.

Nvidia seems not to want to decrease the prices, instead of what they propose quite funny bundle (I first thought it was a troll ). Good for AMD so far but let's see what could happen this year