What is the performance jump which triggers you to buy new card?

wirk

Gawd
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Let's say you bought recently the best bang-for-the-buck, e.g. GTX 980. Suddenly out of the blue appears a new card in the same price range but with every aspect of performance better by X%. How big have to be the minimum X triggering your immediate activity to change for the new card? As this is mental experiment, we assume there is no limit on X :cool:.
 
Most of the time, i just want new toys and can't help myself, 10%.
 
I would need significant improvement in performance and power for me to upgrade. Usually about 45-50 % for me to jump on new techonology.
 
It depends if I need more power, I am the type who settles for no less than max settings though. It usually ends up being a 30% performance gain if I'm upgrading. Except when I went from a 680 to a Titan Black, I just wanted more vram.
 
When it breaks or can no longer supply the power to play a game I want to play at the desired frame rate with eye candy on.
 
It's not so much performance jump as it is the price when it comes out. 30% performance increase with price 1000% above what it's worth a year later is a total ripoff and not worth paying for. It's never worth paying for.

Unless you need it for industrial/business purposes in a way that it helps save significant time when harnessing CUDA for rendering work. Only then is a ROI possible.
 
Usually the gfx card upgrade hunt begins when I have to go from "ultra" to "very high" settings. I am very patient though and will continue research until I find a great deal or when I have to bump down further to "high/medium". At which point it's time to bite the bullet and grab the best card in the $350 range.
 
It's about more capability and requirements at given price(value) points than raw performance improvements.

For instance I sold the GTX 770 due to 2GB memory limitations going forward (texture quality is the most important single setting for me) and as 4GB cards have come down into the $250-$350 price range.
 
20% for me usually.

But new features can also trigger it as well.
 
Usually the gfx card upgrade hunt begins when I have to go from "ultra" to "very high" settings. I am very patient though and will continue research until I find a great deal or when I have to bump down further to "high/medium". At which point it's time to bite the bullet and grab the best card in the $350 range.

^This apply for me.. when I have to start to down settings to keep things at good enough refresh rate its moment to upgrade.. And generally those are 30%-40% bump.. so 30% are more or less my number to upgrade..
 
15% at or below the original price of the cards I currently have. In the past I used to do it for the advancement in shader technologies, but that has slowed down to a snail's pace to almost non-existent in recent memory.
Put me in the I just want new toys category
I would quantify that as 0% for x :cool:.
 
I upgrade when a new single card exceeds the performance of my current multi-card setup by at least 50%.

I don't upgrade often.
 
Let's say you bought recently the best bang-for-the-buck, e.g. GTX 980. Suddenly out of the blue appears a new card in the same price range but with every aspect of performance better by X%. How big have to be the minimum X triggering your immediate activity to change for the new card? As this is mental experiment, we assume there is no limit on X :cool:.

I only upgrade when I have to turn settings down in my games that make a remarkable visual difference. Any other upgrading is a complete waste of time and money. Unless you make enough money that dropping $550 tips is the norm. I would upgrade every time a new cooler came out that I wanted to try if I had it like that.

With my method of upgrading I have excess GTX 460 SLi, and HD7950 CrossfireX sitting in my room gathering dust.
 
It's not just raw performance in framerate, it's also heat put out into the room (power), thermals (for the card), oc'ability, and extra features. For example MFAA was a tangible extra that would be better on the Maxwell 2.0 cards for me, as was h.265 recording for my 4k gaming. Add in the very low heat output, performance jump, and quietness even while heavily oc'ing and it was a no-brainer to go from my 780 to a pair of GTX 970 MSI Gaming cards in SLI for 4k. Finally, I need to want the extra performance... at 4K, I do ;).

It's not so much performance jump as it is the price when it comes out. 30% performance increase with price 1000% above what it's worth a year later is a total ripoff and not worth paying for. It's never worth paying for.

This, as well. It has to be a good value, taking into account the longevity.
 
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Went from GTX 680 4GB to GTX Titan. So, roughly 25%.
 
I need to see double the performance at the same settings before I start upgrading.
 
In the past, I couldn't justify spending the money for anything over a low to mid-range card... because I wasn't making much money, so I upgraded quite frequently... every generation or two (perhaps 2x performance improvement in some cases?). With the last 2 GPU's, however, I went with a high end card and the first one (GTX295) lasted me many many years before needing to upgrade. The second (HD7990) is performing wonderfully @ 1440p without any real issues, so I'm hoping I can make it another 2-3 years before needing to upgrade again (likely, with a new system build)

It's hard to say what performance bump would justify an upgrade as I have no real problem turning settings down to get good framerates... I'd say, if anything, when my current card no longer does what I want is when I'd normally start looking at upgrading
 
I upgrade the year after prices have plummeted on current tech. I'll almost never buy new I don't like paying to beta test
 
If I'm running a single GPU, then I wait for a single GPU solution that is 100% faster in the games I play.

If I'm running multi-GPU, then I wait for a single GPU solution that at least matches or exceeds it.

Case in point: I was running a GTX 570 1.2GB, then I upgraded to a GTX 780 3GB. Totally pleased with the 780 giving me approx. double the performance. My next step was a 144hz monitor and a 2nd 780. Stellar.

My next upgrade will likely be in the generation that comes after GTX 10xx (Pascal)/R3xx (Pirate Islands), maybe even after that.
 
I buy a single GPU that is 15% faster than the dual-GPU setup I have. Then whenever I see a really good deal on a second GPU to match my first, I buy one and have a dual-GPU setup; rinse and repeat.
 
You guys are way too logical with this. All the planning ....

Makes me feel weird. I see new GPUs and think, "Oh sweet. Two of those in SLi would be badass. Sold!"

Seems to happen every time. Maybe I'm weak.
 
You guys are way too logical with this. All the planning ....

Married, kids, and all the bills and expenses that comes along with it all since I'm not exactly shitting money...so I have no choice! :p
 
LOL. Understood. I'm married but have no kids.

Shitting money... That's funny.
 
I got my GTX670 mini used on eBay for cheap, then stepped up to a 780ti used on eBay for cheap. Thanks to everyone who likes their 10% increase we get the savings passed on to us!
 
I got my GTX670 mini used on eBay for cheap, then stepped up to a 780ti used on eBay for cheap. Thanks to everyone who likes their 10% increase we get the savings passed on to us!

Yup pc platform has such great and dedicated beta testers
 
Not sure yet... still sitting here with a 260 GTX. That 970 GTX sure is tempting though.
 
I buy when I can't play games at 1280x960 high anymore (I still enjoy my CRT for gaming, and 1400x1050 is my preferred resolution, but I will drop it down to 1280 as a card ages).

75% is my minimum, taking into account excessive overclock headroom if it exists.

That's why I pulled the trigger on my last card, upgrading from an HD 4850 to the GTX 460. 60% faster stock, but since everyone was getting a free 20% overclock, it was a done deal.

Waiting patiently now for a 4GB Maxwell or something new from AMD to entice me below the $250 mark, because my GTX 460 can barely play games at 1280x960 high these days :D
 
When the previous SLI is matched and exceeded by current single card offerings.

GTX 680 SLI doesn't quite equal a GTX 980. Next iteration it probably will (GTX 1080 or whatever). Then I'll take a serious look.
 
When a single card (not sli/crossfire) fails to game on high at 50-60fps with aa off. (currently at 1920x1200)

my latest switch was from a gtx 580 to a gtx 970 which was roughly a 120% increase.

This will change if wide gamut ips 120hz monitors come out, as i will have to SLI.

I'm not interested in 4k yet unless there's a significant ppi jump so no problems there.
 
Let's say you bought recently the best bang-for-the-buck, e.g. GTX 980. Suddenly out of the blue appears a new card in the same price range but with every aspect of performance better by X%. How big have to be the minimum X triggering your immediate activity to change for the new card? As this is mental experiment, we assume there is no limit on X :cool:.

i only upgrade when what ever i have can't play the games i want at the quality i want.. but given most games i play aren't that demanding these days i'm still sporting an 8800GT.
 
I usually buy new card(s) around every 3-5 years, for me it's mostly about getting a great price. I bought my first 460 BF 2010, then my second in '12. This BF I bought two 920's for $215 and $230, respectively. I won't upgrade my card(s) unless I feel I'm getting more than a 100% performance gain or more. Years back I used to spend around $300-$400 on a single card where as now I get a hot deal on a mid-range card and double them up for big performance gains.
 
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I never really 'upgraded' GPU's, strangely enough, I seem to upgrade entire rigs...

My first computer was a HP way back when, then went for a Dell Inspiron laptop, then an Asus laptop, then a custom built one (with GTX 570). I didn't do any research into components and just got another guy to do the choosing for me.

I don't know what got me to upgrade this one now, probably because I might have a wife coming soon, so I went all out for a last minute upgrade :p.

But back to the point: I never buy anything but the latest cards because prices here NEVER drops, EVER, at least not in a significant way (EG $1500 295x is about as good as a sale as you get), so there is never any reason for me not to get the newest. I don't mind being a 'beta' tester because simply put, why buy a lesser or older card when you can get a new one for the same (or lower) price.

I think I stumbled on 970 by pure fluke so I decided it was time for a new rig.

But with the 970 sli, i may not need/have money/have time to upgrade for half a decade...
 
I never really 'upgraded' GPU's, strangely enough, I seem to upgrade entire rigs...

My first computer was a HP way back when, then went for a Dell Inspiron laptop, then an Asus laptop, then a custom built one (with GTX 570). I didn't do any research into components and just got another guy to do the choosing for me.

I don't know what got me to upgrade this one now, probably because I might have a wife coming soon, so I went all out for a last minute upgrade :p.

But back to the point: I never buy anything but the latest cards because prices here NEVER drops, EVER, at least not in a significant way (EG $1500 295x is about as good as a sale as you get), so there is never any reason for me not to get the newest. I don't mind being a 'beta' tester because simply put, why buy a lesser or older card when you can get a new one for the same (or lower) price.

I think I stumbled on 970 by pure fluke so I decided it was time for a new rig.

But with the 970 sli, i may not need/have money/have time to upgrade for half a decade...


I would love to do this but my video card upgrades always seem to be 18months after building a rig (switching out the video card from the old rig to the new one)
 
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