Price/Performance Be Damned - Does anyone just like tinkering with new cards?

I have a 290 with a h55 on it and all I play is csgo. I too like to benchmark, the is [H] after all.
 
Thats the main reason i bought both AMD and Nvidia cards.. personally i think AMD are more funny in terms of tinkering and test because tend to present more issues than nvidia and its funny for me all the process of troubleshooting..
 
Yes, that is the hidden reason behind some of my upgrades. But I rationalize it by telling myself I need the upgrade in order to run a particular game better (for instance, I upgraded from a Radeon 7870 to an Nvidia gtx 780 after telling myself I needed to play Borderlands 2 and Batman with physx enabled).
 
Yeah I'm more or less the same way. Right now I'm really wanting to grab a 980 and see just how it stacks up against my 690. Even with me knowing that 980ti could be out in a few months I just want to tinker around with the 980 and then pick up the next best card when it comes out. I've always been like that. I love to tinker lol. Usually though it pays off because I build a lot of gaming systems for people so I can always sell off the 980 later when I get something better.


On the flipside, the 690 has performed amazingly well in games that support SLI and don't break 2gb vram usage. It's only the few games that literally won't support SLI (idTech5 games) or games like Skryim that don't work well with SLI and upcoming games that will use way more than 2gb that I'm worried about. Also there's the fact that I'm really looking at upgrading to an ROG Swift soon, so I know as soon as I do that I'm going to be struggling to maintain at least 60fps @ 2560x1440 in newer games nevermind the 120fps @ 120hz that I try to maintain right now on my VG248QE @ 1080p.

Yeah there's G-Sync and all, but I'd prefer to stay as close to a locked 120fps as possible so I can use ULMB and have zero ghosting like a CRT screen.
 
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Yes, I love overclocking new cards and messing with new hardware. It took a month for me to get my 3570k stable at 4.6ghz, good times.
 
For sure.
Am running a 290 with AC Xtreme III and 290x BIOS, is easily quick enough and very quiet, with decent clocking headroom and plenty of VRam.
Yet I find myself eyeing up the 970 and 980 cards.
I wont pull the trigger on one though, too much sense atm :p
 
I love tinkering with new cards, just not enough to do it with my own money until I'm in need of an upgrade. I also think it's more fun seeing big gains over incremental ones.
 
The Satisfaction of getting a card is over once I put it in the PCI express 3.0 slot then the thrill is over. Then I get a raise by comparing specs on Steam or back of a Retail box and wonder how the card rates =)
 
I never consider price vs performance when I buy a card I get the top dog.

But I wouldnt mind trying a 970
 
I rarely have a card for more than 4ish or so months lol.

Maxwell is tempting me for suuuure.
 
Yep. I don't even have new games to try with my GTX 980. I just wanted to see how powerful it is. I bought the EVGA SC and it OC'ed to 125%, +80 GPU, +350 mem. Not bad!
 
I used to like tinkering with new cards when the performance and feature differences were larger between generations.

Now with the stagnation of the last few years the fun has gone out of it for me... :(
 
I wish... I've always purchased mid-range cards.

GeForce FX 5600 -> GeForce 6800 (AGP) -> GeForce 7800 (this one being an exception) (AGP) -> AMD 4870 -> AMD 5770 -> AMD 7870.

I have a hard time justifying spending over like $250 for a video card. These 970s really have me interested. WIth the new games coming out now requiring more and more VRAM, I'll be interested to see if we see any 6GB versions. Wonder how the 960ti will shape up.
 
Definitely, though having a way to realize that performance beyond benchmarks is even better. The Swift @120-144Hz and 1440p will chew up even SLI 980s.
 
I like tinkering with cards as much as the next guy here. But the prices have going up to a point (before 970) that I had to say enough is enough. Buying a $700 card and getting hosed 50% everytime you sell has made me a firm believer in going second tier or last years best. Over the years that frees up a lot of money for other upgrades and still have a pretty good rig that plays the software I need.
 
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Not really, seldom any features in new cards i would specifically use or get excited over to make me sell current ones for.

For me it is soley performance, if my card isn't performing, time for something new.
 
I'm with Cmustang: midrange for life!

The best part of a new card is shopping around for the best deal for me.

Then once I install it and get a massive performance increase, I have fun trying out all my games. then I add a decent overclock (basically, whatever the card can do without a mod), and I'm done.

But if I'm not getting a massive performance increase, it's no fun. I don't believe in "change for the sake of change."
 
I been away from NVidia since 260GTX other then some budget cards like 460GTX 768Mb and a 560GTXSE for HTPC..

The new cards are driving prices down on used cards so I pick up a MSI Twin Frozr Gamer 770GTX 4Gb for $200 as the guy just payed over $400+ 6 months ago for the card.. so it gives me a chance to try Nvidia again without the new price tag and I'm going wait this out abit as I think AMD going bring 50% performance over the 290x and I may try a 970GTX or with ever AMD brings out..


but.. I been there as I have owned EVGA 7900GTO SLi / 7900GT/8800GT/6800GS SLi/6800 Ultra/8800TS320Mb/FX5900XTX/4600Ti/9800GT/260GTX/4890XT/5850CX/6950/7950CX/280/290 so I have learn (how much money) I have wasted over the years and I feel no better off trying to keep the lastest and greatest going because I always fall behind the pace.
 
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Can't stop doing it. I've owned around 200 GPU's in the past 3 years alone. Its like a disease.. "ooooh that might be fun to play with... oh god why am I doing this..."

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In the past, I have very much been a generation to generation guy. Had to have the latest and greatest on the market.

While I realise that I've already skipped a generation with the 780's and the current 980's would give a mega boost over my 680, I get the feeling something really sweet is just around the corner... Totally got upgrade blue balls right now, but I get the feeling it will be worth the wait.

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No, I buy computer parts to use them. I use my GPUs to game. I replace them when I need to.
 
Flogger23m said:
No, I buy computer parts to use them. I use my GPUs to game. I replace them when I need to.
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Exactly this for me. My computer is mostly as set and forget as I can. I'll get my CPU overclock and leave it, then my GPU overclock and leave it. I'll upgrade my GPU once in my full system life cycle, and replace my CPU/RAM/Mobo about every five years.
 
Cmustang87 said:
Exactly this for me. My computer is mostly as set and forget as I can. I'll get my CPU overclock and leave it, then my GPU overclock and leave it. I'll upgrade my GPU once in my full system life cycle, and replace my CPU/RAM/Mobo about every five years.
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I've done a "half" GPU upgrade so far in my current systems life cycle. Went from a single 680 to SLI 680s. Bought the 2nd one used.
 
It's all about tinkering. If I could afford it I'd build a completely new computer every week. Even a downgrade is exciting as an opportunity to tinker. But it's also frustrating as I can't afford the best of everything and usually end up with worse benchmark scores than others with similar systems.

I went through a few GPUs, but mostly middle class as I couldn't afford any better.

S3 Virge - > Voodoo1 -> Riva128 -> TNT -> Savage3D (for 1 week)-> TNT2 -> Rage Fury (2 days)-> Radeon -> Geforce2 GTS -> R9000 -> R8500 -> R9600XT -> R9800PRO -> GF7600GT -> X1950PRO -> R5770 -> R5850 -> GTX660 SLI -> 290x -> 290x CF
 
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Picked up four 980s on release day at the local Micro Center to replace four Titans. Didn't need it at all. Completely overkill.
 
AdamK47 said:
Picked up four 980s on release day at the local Micro Center to replace four Titans. Didn't need it at all. Completely overkill.
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I'm jealous. I wish I had the disposable income to tinker at that level :cool:

You selling the Titans?
 
Yes... it's this very reason I just hit the buy button on an ASUS GTX 970 STRIX....

My Zotac GTX 770 is more than enough horsepower for my rig, but..... I just had to....
 
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