Is this the right time to buy a new GFX?

V

vvilliamm

Gawd
Joined
Mar 26, 2007
Messages
593
im thinking of buying a new gfx but is this the right time? or should i wait till the end of the year for the new ati series 6? i know theres a time in a year when a whole bunch of new cards come out

currently
used gtx 280 - 160
new hd 5830 - 175 after bing etc

should i buy a card now?
 
no one knows when the 6 series are coming out.

besides, ATI is holding pretty good against current Nvidia lineup

i'd say it's a long time until something totally new comes out.
 
You are always going to see something better come out "just after" you buy something new. Buy something whenever you need it. You'll never be able to time it perfectly anyway.
 
vvilliamm said:
im thinking of buying a new gfx but is this the right time? or should i wait till the end of the year for the new ati series 6? i know theres a time in a year when a whole bunch of new cards come out

currently
used gtx 280 - 160
new hd 5830 - 175 after bing etc

should i buy a card now?
Click to expand...

I'm guessing the earliest we will see the Southern Island GPUs is around October.
 
It always is the right time to buy a new graphics card. You can wait forever, but there will always be something better.
 
As others have say, there is no right time to buy a card, there's always something new coming soon.

Just ask yourself why you feel the need to. If you are encountering low fps or unable to run max quality with your current games, and you wish to improve on those, go right ahead.

If you are happy with its current performance, and just want to be prepare for future titles, then its best to wait until you actually need it, when the new games are out. Then you'll be able to see people benchmarking that new game, and look at the latest offering.
 
Altrough 5830 is slower of the two cards I'd go for it since it's new and will have warranty.
 
I don't know if your current rig is in your sig, but it depends on what gpu your computer has now.

For my money, I'd buy the GTX280 every time out of those two. Killer card. I have one in my second rig downstairs and its a very fast card.
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
 
Hornet said:
As others have say, there is no right time to buy a card, there's always something new coming soon.
Click to expand...

This is straight up bullshit. There are good and bad times to buy a card, and right now is a bad time. The 5870 now costs more than it did at launch 9 months ago, which means if you buy one now you're getting raped. You lose 9 months of useful life on the card and don't get compensated with any price drops like cards usually have. The "if you keep waiting for the next big thing you'll never buy a computer part" rhetoric is the product of poor analytical skills. When a part comes out that is a good performer and reasonably priced, the best time to buy is at launch. The worst time to buy is over halfway into the lifespan when prices have remained stagnant. Someone buying a 5870 right now will probably have over double the depreciation per month of someone who got one at launch.
 
I get the HD5830 for $175. Its a great card.

DX11
Good preformance
Quite
usesless power than the GTX285
 
Considering that OP has a GTX 280, that video card will handle most modern games quite well. Now if you feel your performance isn't good enough, and you have the power supply to handle it, you could purchase either a gtx 480 or 5870, then sell your old GTX 280. Another option is just to buy another 280 to SLI and improve performance that way.

Whether or not you wait is up to you. You also have not mentioned any of your system specs like power supply, monitor resolution, do you want 3d game, physx, surround, eyefinity, etc. What your main application will be - games, rendering, encoding, cuda, folding, etc.
 
Funny you ask, a few months ago, I would have said 5870 all the way. Things are pretty even right now, except the 480 can cook your breakfast, lunch and Dinner from the CPU heat.

I put myself from a "buy a 5870 now" to a "wait for next revision/spin" state of mind. My 4870 STILL runs everything great.
 
Of those 2 choices id get the GTX 280 and save some money for the next big line to launch from AMD.
 
nowie said:
You are always going to see something better come out "just after" you buy something new. Buy something whenever you need it. You'll never be able to time it perfectly anyway.
Click to expand...

Agreed, this happens every time I try to buy something. If you see a good deal, jump on it and don't look back.
 
AlucardCasull said:
Agreed, this happens every time I try to buy something. If you see a good deal, jump on it and don't look back.
Click to expand...

Strange, I've been timing it perfectly for a long time now.

8800GT for $200 at launch, soon after they were selling for a lot more and in massive shortages
GTX 280 for about $440 after bing cashback at launch, then another a month later for $350. Sold them around the 5970 launch for around $450 total, meaning I paid $340 for 1.5 years of usage on an extreme system that served me really well and destroyed every game I threw at it.
5970 at launch for 525 after bing cashback. Sold a few months later for $725.

The 480s I have right now will probably give me a heavy loss, but I knew that buying them. But $900 for the pair was worth the extra $175 to me over what I could get for my 5970. The point being, someone who drops $400 on their 5870 right now is going to see it be worth probably $200-$225 in 5-6 months. That's a huge loss to take for such a short period of time on a single-gpu system that's in the midrange, and it's easily predictable. It isn't rocket science to realize that the depreciation curve on a 5870 bought right now will be very steep.
 
yea i figure there was a sweet spot of time to buy a card. but it seems like now buying a new hd 5850 -5870 is a good idea? but instead buy a gtx 280 play at 1280x720 until the new chips come out?
 
anonmoniker said:
Strange, I've been timing it perfectly for a long time now.

8800GT for $200 at launch, soon after they were selling for a lot more and in massive shortages
GTX 280 for about $440 after bing cashback at launch, then another a month later for $350. Sold them around the 5970 launch for around $450 total, meaning I paid $340 for 1.5 years of usage on an extreme system that served me really well and destroyed every game I threw at it.
5970 at launch for 525 after bing cashback. Sold a few months later for $725.

The 480s I have right now will probably give me a heavy loss, but I knew that buying them. But $900 for the pair was worth the extra $175 to me over what I could get for my 5970. The point being, someone who drops $400 on their 5870 right now is going to see it be worth probably $200-$225 in 5-6 months. That's a huge loss to take for such a short period of time on a single-gpu system that's in the midrange, and it's easily predictable. It isn't rocket science to realize that the depreciation curve on a 5870 bought right now will be very steep.
Click to expand...

anonmoniker said:
This is straight up bullshit. There are good and bad times to buy a card, and right now is a bad time. The 5870 now costs more than it did at launch 9 months ago, which means if you buy one now you're getting raped. You lose 9 months of useful life on the card and don't get compensated with any price drops like cards usually have. The "if you keep waiting for the next big thing you'll never buy a computer part" rhetoric is the product of poor analytical skills. When a part comes out that is a good performer and reasonably priced, the best time to buy is at launch. The worst time to buy is over halfway into the lifespan when prices have remained stagnant. Someone buying a 5870 right now will probably have over double the depreciation per month of someone who got one at launch.
Click to expand...

What he said... /\

I also was one of the few lucky ones to get an 8800GT for 229 at launch. I'm trying to decide whether to get a gtx 280 for 170 or a 5830 for ~175. I don't want to SLI my 8800gt's.

And my analysis has led me to believe that the natural ebb and flow of buying video cards is this. Typically you dont want to buy a high end card close to the launch of a new series. There are factors that sometimes affect this but anonmoniker explained those pretty well. Well for this current situation that is.
 
I for one think that if you are ready to build or upgrade then you should just do it. Really, how badly could it turn out? Lets say someone goes and buys a 5870 today. That card rocks and will continue to rock for a very long time. The only people who would disagree with me are the ones who SLI their GTX480s.

For example, I wanted to build a PC and I was in between jobs so I used some of my newfound free time to put one together. I knew at the time that AMD was going to be releasing their 890 chipset but there was no fixed release date. I also knew that fermi was coming out but again no release date. I went ahead and built my PC with a 5850 and a crosshair III 790fx board, and it kicks ass and I have no regrets. Now that crosshair IV and fermi is out, my components are not suddenly obsolete and any new program or game that comes out doesn't need 890fx or fermi to run, so I have no worries.
 
Yeah I wouldn't buy a new video card in today's market. The used GTX 280 sounds like a hell of a deal, I've had mine for a while and I see no reason to upgrade.

More importantly, which GPU are you running currently? Getting a 5830 or a GTX 280 would be entirely dependent on what you're currently running OP.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top