Let's play a game: Explain this to me - (a VC choice and cost discussion)

DarkSideA8

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You're a gamer running a 27" 1440p 144hz VRR monitor. You have a high end rig with a great CPU, Mobo and plenty RAM. The new Shiney video cards come out - and they offer some nifty new features over the previous generation.

Awesome!

Shiney 1 is a fantastic, enthusiast class card offering one hundred and eleventy seven percent performance improvements over the previous Gen. Shiney 2 is a good card focused on the more mainstream gamer. Still much better than the last generation - it just can't quite push the frames its big brother can - but it costs $400 less.

The reviews come out. At 1440p, Old 1ti+x was a beast, pushing New Intense Game to 117 FPS. Shiney 1 destroyed Old 1, getting a whopping 189 FPS in New Intense Game - the new FPS king! Even Shiney 2 is better than Old 1. It's only getting 151 FPS, but so much better than what gamers had before. A 17 game average shows Shiney 1 pulling 185 - 228 FPS in the most popular /demanding titles. Shiney 2 only gets 148 - 183.

So... The problem presented to community: Which card do you purchase, and why?


(for fun, let's say they're both in stock at a store near you)
 
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The best one that fits in your budget would be the way I go. Unless one or the other is complete garbage in price to performance which doesn’t appear to be the case in your scenario.
 
my budget is my first limiting factor. I will shop within that and ignore anything outside of it for my use. Within that budget features required is next on my list for selection. If card 2 can do everything i need for that much less i am getting it. But if card 1 has a feature I desire/require and card 2 does not, then if i can afford it i would get that. I personally dont have to have the top end most over powered things. I like to have what i need plus some headroom for growth because it will be several years before i upgrade/build again.
 
The best one.

Because if I get the second-best one, several months down the line I'll sell it at a loss and get the best one anyway.

It's not rational, but I know it would happen. 😁
 
Okay - well, the objective of my 'game' was pretty obvious; to try and find out why people would buy the over-priced card given the hardware limitations that effectively render it unnecessary.

The lower price card overperforms what the monitor can display. The higher priced card's 'better' performance will never be seen by the player.

So... why spend the extra $400 on the Shiney 1?
 
Okay - well, the objective of my 'game' was pretty obvious; to try and find out why people would buy the over-priced card given the hardware limitations that effectively render it unnecessary.

The lower price card overperforms what the monitor can display. The higher priced card's 'better' performance will never be seen by the player.

So... why spend the extra $400 on the Shiney 1?
Better question: why not buy Shiney 1 and a better monitor to go with it? 😁

(I get it tho, and you're right - no sense buying the flagship when the next tier down is sufficient to saturate your display.)
 
Okay - well, the objective of my 'game' was pretty obvious; to try and find out why people would buy the over-priced card given the hardware limitations that effectively render it unnecessary.

The lower price card overperforms what the monitor can display. The higher priced card's 'better' performance will never be seen by the player.

So... why spend the extra $400 on the Shiney 1?
Will never be seen by the player? How do you know that? Games become more demanding over time.
 
Will never be seen by the player? How do you know that? Games become more demanding over time.
Yeah -- but over what timescales? I expressly made the Shiney 2 more than capable of running all current (including New Intense) at above the monitor's refresh rate. Likelihood is that Shiney 2 survives as a competitive card until the new cards are released.

See - this is what I think is missing from reviews and analysis; the use-case scenario. People just look at frames, and only recently are talking about CPU limits... but not thinking about other hardware limitations, like monitors.

As far as I can tell the 90 and 80 or 69xt and 68xt cards are really focused on the 4k market... and yet people are desperate to get them with lower frame pushing requirements, 'just because'. Look at some of the reviews - 3070 getting 140 fps in Witcher 3 at 1440p.
Better question: why not buy Shiney 1 and a better monitor to go with it? 😁

(I get it tho, and you're right - no sense buying the flagship when the next tier down is sufficient to saturate your display.)
That's my goal; I'm watching for the fast refresh 4k IPS 32s next year - and for those I need a 3080 or 6800xt.

But I see so many reviewers doing really detailed reviews of cards - but not really giving good advice to their readers on why to choose a given card.
 
I'd buy Shiny 2. It fulfills the capabilities of the monitor you suggested I have, and costs way less. I don't need extra frames that I can't display.
 
Shiney1 - it will give me drastically more FPS than I need for my current 2560x1600 display, however it likely won’t be powerful enough when I upgrade to a 120-144hz 4K display.

Even if I don’t get around to upgrading my display, it will still fold better than shiney2, and invariably it will spend 10x the time folding as it does gaming.
 
Yeah -- but over what timescales? I expressly made the Shiney 2 more than capable of running all current (including New Intense) at above the monitor's refresh rate. Likelihood is that Shiney 2 survives as a competitive card until the new cards are released.

See - this is what I think is missing from reviews and analysis; the use-case scenario. People just look at frames, and only recently are talking about CPU limits... but not thinking about other hardware limitations, like monitors.

As far as I can tell the 90 and 80 or 69xt and 68xt cards are really focused on the 4k market... and yet people are desperate to get them with lower frame pushing requirements, 'just because'. Look at some of the reviews - 3070 getting 140 fps in Witcher 3 at 1440p.

That's my goal; I'm watching for the fast refresh 4k IPS 32s next year - and for those I need a 3080 or 6800xt.

But I see so many reviewers doing really detailed reviews of cards - but not really giving good advice to their readers on why to choose a given card.
If you're looking for high-refresh 4k, you're gonna want Shiny 1.

My 3440x1440 @144hz can fully utilize my 3090 on more modern titles with all the eyecandy turned on. I don't like sub-100 framerates, so this was the buy for me. 4K will take an even greater toll.
 
I don't think I would notice if my performance dropped slightly below 144fps so I would probably go with the $400 cheaper option. If I had the money to burn though I'd be tempted to go for the more expensive one, because it would probably mean a year or two longer that I could avoid upgrading while still keeping a high enough frame rate. Then again, saving $400 now and probably having much less depreciation later by buying the cheaper option would basically pay for another high end GPU in a couple years, so that seems like the most logical option. You'd have 144+fps now and for several more years, and you might get improved raytracing and other features earlier when you upgrade to the next 2nd best card.
 
Shiny1, I’ll take the extra FPS knowing each game will not be fully optimized. I rather have extra FPS to I keep my above my target hertz vs the one that will fall down below it every so often (explosions, mall scene, overly complex botw 4K).
 
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