How much is too much for a video card?

A

adabo24

Obliviot
$300 sounds like a lot for a video card. Maybe it depends on how many games you play. Me, I never spend more then $150 on a video card (half what you spend).
 
G

gliffy

Obliviot
adabo24 said:
$300 sounds like a lot for a video card. Maybe it depends on how many games you play. Me, I never spend more then $150 on a video card (half what you spend).
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Well I can not speak for the others, but I said I was willing to spend $300 because I get a couple years of enjoyment out of it. Cheaper then paying for a movie each week in the long run, and games last more then 2 hours each.
 
werty316

werty316

Partition Master
Its all about how much are you willing to spend for better looking graphics. Spend $300 for max settings or $150 for for medium setting. $300 VGA card will also last longer than a $150; plus these days with SLi getting a $300 and then adding the another down the road is a good idea.
 
Rob Williams

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
I honestly don't even find $500 to be a lot to spend on a GPU, but that may be just me. The fact is, if you game a _lot_ on your PC and love playing new games, that $500 will go a long way.

Whenever I considering a PC part expensive, I think about how much money I spend on junk food and get-to-go coffees everyday. Those add up ridiculously fast, and you have nothing to show for it 15 minutes after buying them :)
 
B

Ben

Site Developer
I think the most I would spend is probably $250 or so. At the rate graphic cards die off, a $250 card would be worth well over $100 less just a year later. It makes more sense to buy two cheap cards every year, insead of one $600 card every other year.
 
werty316

werty316

Partition Master
Its basically all about how much you have and how much you are willing to dish out for a card. People can just get what they can afford.
 
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Merlin

Merlin

The Tech Wizard
Anyone that has the 8800GTX says it is worth it. At around 530.00 USD and the water cooled version is close to 700.00 USD.
I have the M2N32 SLI Deluxe in process of building a system. I only need the one card, mainly for the DirectX 10 games coming out next

Merlin/Deckard
 
ccdarkness

ccdarkness

Obliviot
I've just gave 250$ on Asus EN7950GT...playing Ghost Recon@1024x768 (i have 17" CRT Dell and it doesn't support better resolution at 85Hz..anyway i'm thinkin on upgradin to 20" LCD & maybe then i'll play at higher res) with all options HIGH! i think 250$ it's OK... and in 1year i want to add another EN7950GT to go SLI ... and i will be able to play maybe another year without a problem...

so i say $$250-300MAX!!!

p.s. video card is not the only thing you need to play games...
 
S

Stretch

Obliviot
fullpicture said:
I totally agree. Would be worth spending $500 for a graphics card that would last 4 years and STILL be able to play all the newest games at the highest frame rates after 4 years. However, what are the odds of that happening? With the rapid development of new graphic cards, the current generation cards will always become obsolete within a couple years. Thats why I like to spend under two hundred bucks when I buy a card because I know I will have to do it again within a couple years.
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I have to admit, there's some truth to what he's saying. Right now I have an EVGA Geforce 7800 GTX Ko Acs in my main machine. A long name for a video card you say? Well the price was equally as impressive, close to around 400 dollars at the time. Since I used to game at around 1920x1200, it was a good buy, but even then, and this is only a few years ago mind you, there were some games, like certain RTS titles, that my card simply couldn't handle at that high resolution. So the fact that you'll need to upgrade can also be tempered a bit by the knowledge of your desired resolution. I think that's one of the reasons the majority of gamers tend to lean in around 1280x1024 or thereabouts - it looks good and a medium range video card can handle it for many years with aplomb on a range of titles.
 
B

BentFez

Obliviot
I have had good luck going low (~$150) and haven't really had to upgrade more often. Picked up a 1950gt earlier in the year for around $125, expect it to last two years, but if it lasts more, that is gravy. I like having less resistance when I do want to upgrade. The fact is that I can play on these cards for years (still use a 9700 in one machine). There is definitely diminishing returns on video card performance.

Depending on the game, I do have to turn off a good bit of eye candy for the 9700, not so much for the 1950.
 
J

jwied

Obliviot
I visited Fry's electronics (a giant electronics warehouse) recently and bought a 7950GT for $199 and an 8500GT for $159. I couldn't understand why the 7000s cards could still be so highly priced with 8800s at $259. I did see the monster 8800GTX 640mb there for $500 and the sales rep told me he could order a 8800 Ultra for $700.

How much is too much? If the video card costs more than the rest of my system (minus monitor) combined... it costs too much, imo.
 
flashive

flashive

Obliviot
I used to think $100 was enough to get a videocard and I am a gamer. But seeing how my Radeon X300 just keeps on dissapointing me I'd say whatever the 8800GTS costs at the moment is what I would spend on a card :)
 
sbrehm72255

sbrehm72255

Tech Monkey
For me anything under the $300 range is pretty much ok I guess. At todays prices, that would put a 8800GTS 320 in my box, but I'm actually still happy with my 7900GT.............;)
 
sbrehm72255

sbrehm72255

Tech Monkey
Got a 7800GS (AGP version) for the wifes rig not to long ago, it ran a little over $100 after MIR, she's happy with its performance playing Oblivon..........;)
 
b1lk1

b1lk1

Tech Monkey
Came into some money and spent $500 on a video card recently. While I am not usually a fan of spending so much, it is nice to have a high end card for now.
 
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