SpyderTracks
We love you Ukraine
It's a pointless pairing yes, you'll be wasting a lot of money because the GPU won't be used to it's potential.
RTX 3080 vs 2080 Super - should I amend?
- Thread starter ThornyFloweringShrub
- Start date
I've also stated numerous of times that the 3070 is perfectly capable of running 144hz 1440p. So I don't know where the confusion would be?
ThornyFloweringShrub
Bronze Level Poster
What about for longevity? I.e. when games are more demanding in 5 or more years. Are they designed for particular resolutions? Or do you mean wasted, as in raw horesepower, so to speak?
SpyderTracks
We love you Ukraine
You never try futureproofing a GPU for a few reasons:
1/. you actually pay more for less performance
2/. you miss out on new technologies and performance improvements that come out with each release.
Say for instance you were to buy a 3080 now rather than a 3070 to pair with a 1440p screen, the extra power wouldn't be used for perhaps 4 years or so, by which time 2 newer GPU's will have been released with newer technologies.
To get the same level of performance each release on average is reduced by one tier, so the requirements of the 3070 would be outdone by the 4060
ThornyFloweringShrub
Bronze Level Poster
Correct my logic if i’m wrong. My thinking was for example, replacing a lower end GPU every 2 years costing £500 each totals £1000 over 4 years. Whilst a single £800 card lasting 4 years is costing me £200 less over 4 years. I appreciate this example is horrendously crude - but do you get my line of thought? Is this flawed?
SpyderTracks
We love you Ukraine
The figures don't equate, a low end GPU would be more like £150
ThornyFloweringShrub
Bronze Level Poster
Then why were you against the 20xx cards if I should just replace them in a couple of years? What would the lifespan of one of these cards be vs the 3070 for example?
My apologies - I’m just getting a bit confused. If the 3080 is overkill then the 20xx would by extension be adequate?
SpyderTracks
We love you Ukraine
More to the point though is say you buy a 3080 now for £800 with the expectation of it lasting beyond 4 years when the extra power would actually become of benefit. Yes, it will run that resolution longer, BUT I GUARANTEE by that point that won't matter because newer technologies will be out which make the experience much more beneficial and you'll want to upgrade anyway.
So if you'd bought a 3070 you would have saved roughly £200
You'd be looking at a 5050 roughly which would be significantly more powerful than the 3080 anyway, PLUS have the newer technology capabilities, and would cost arouund £200.
So actually you're spending around the same amount BUT getting more performance and newer technologies.
This is even more true with current technologies as Ray Tracing is only on it's 2nd generation, much of the improvements at the moment is at a hardware level by adding more RT and Tensor cores. Within 4 years, Ray Tracing capabilities will be significantly improved over what current cards can manage.
So if you'd bought a 3070 you would have saved roughly £200
You'd be looking at a 5050 roughly which would be significantly more powerful than the 3080 anyway, PLUS have the newer technology capabilities, and would cost arouund £200.
So actually you're spending around the same amount BUT getting more performance and newer technologies.
This is even more true with current technologies as Ray Tracing is only on it's 2nd generation, much of the improvements at the moment is at a hardware level by adding more RT and Tensor cores. Within 4 years, Ray Tracing capabilities will be significantly improved over what current cards can manage.
ThornyFloweringShrub
Bronze Level Poster
At the end of the day is the target not to simply maintain a good FPS at a chosen resolution? At high settings? What benefit is this newer technology going to give me other than better performance?
SpyderTracks
We love you Ukraine
2000 series are just really poor performers over the 3000 series, they have no place in the market anymore except second hand. They were a first gen product and as such were extremely expensive, that cost hasn't changed significantly with the 3000 series being released when buying new. For the same money you'll get far more performance and better Ray Tracing performance from a 3000 series card.
My point was, if you buy a 2000 series card now new, you'll have to pay significantly more than you would for the equivalent 3000 series card. Plus when it comes to reselling, you'll be lucky to get maybe 1/4 of what you paid for it. It's just incredibly bad investment in all areas.
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SpyderTracks
We love you Ukraine
Sorry, this is a really odd question.
With every new GPU, new technologies are released, these technologies are enabled in games as settings that you can adjust, each setting improves visual fidelity.
Look at graphics from 10 years ago and now, they're entirely different.
Look at graphics from 2000 series which couldn't really support Ray Tracing to a game now, there's a massive improvement.
ThornyFloweringShrub
Bronze Level Poster
Do you look at GPUs as investments then? I was thinking to use it till it didn’t provide what I want, at that point no one else would want it either...
ThornyFloweringShrub
Bronze Level Poster
Ah ok - well I come from console and away from PC for about... well a decade.
SpyderTracks
We love you Ukraine
I personally always sell on my old GPU's and put that money towards the new one.
Ok, firstly an admission...... this thread is 4 pages long..... I skimmed!
I'm hoping I've got the jist of what is being discussed and that the following actually applies....
Buying a 2080 over a 3080 due to the wait is full strength bonkers. Don't do it. The only reason it would make even remote sense would be if you were buying it 2nd hand for an absolute song. It would need to be sub £500 to make any sense at all as the 3070 is going to make it look daft.
Never.... ever........ ever..... buy a GPU with the future in mind. Always buy what you need right now for the level of gaming you want right now. It's easy to think that tomorrow new games will be released but at the same time new technologies will be released.. Spending £700 right now to have an elite level GPU that you don't need thinking that you'll have an elite level GPU in 2 years is just nonsensical. In 2 years the 3080 will be made to look as daft as my GTX1080 is right now. The 2080 I have doesn't look daft but man it looks expensive.
Think about this sort of scenario:
Buy 3080 for 1440p for £700
FFWD 2 years, you're happy with the 1440p resolution but you fancy the new tech and raytracing 5.0. You purchase a ludicrous option of the 5080 for £700 (plus inflation) as the 3080 served you so well.
Total cost over 2 years.... £1400. Gaming experience, first class 1440p gaming.
Or....
Buy 3060 for 1440p for £350
FFWD 2 years.... you're happy with 1440p resolution but you fancy the new tech and raytracing 5.0. You purchase the 5060 for £350 (plus inflation) as the 3060 has served you so well.
Total cost over 2 years.... £700. Gaming experience, first class 1440p gaming.
You get absolutely nothing for over-spending. No matter how much we try to explain this it seems to get twisted in the brain for some reason, understandably as it's unsual to consider technology as moving so fast. Most of the time, at the absolute limit, we would concede that you may get a benefit from aiming a level higher. In the above scenario the x070 cards would be the middle ground. It'll cost you £500 per time (totaling £1k) but the obvious savings speak for themselves.
I'm hoping I've got the jist of what is being discussed and that the following actually applies....
Buying a 2080 over a 3080 due to the wait is full strength bonkers. Don't do it. The only reason it would make even remote sense would be if you were buying it 2nd hand for an absolute song. It would need to be sub £500 to make any sense at all as the 3070 is going to make it look daft.
Never.... ever........ ever..... buy a GPU with the future in mind. Always buy what you need right now for the level of gaming you want right now. It's easy to think that tomorrow new games will be released but at the same time new technologies will be released.. Spending £700 right now to have an elite level GPU that you don't need thinking that you'll have an elite level GPU in 2 years is just nonsensical. In 2 years the 3080 will be made to look as daft as my GTX1080 is right now. The 2080 I have doesn't look daft but man it looks expensive.
Think about this sort of scenario:
Buy 3080 for 1440p for £700
FFWD 2 years, you're happy with the 1440p resolution but you fancy the new tech and raytracing 5.0. You purchase a ludicrous option of the 5080 for £700 (plus inflation) as the 3080 served you so well.
Total cost over 2 years.... £1400. Gaming experience, first class 1440p gaming.
Or....
Buy 3060 for 1440p for £350
FFWD 2 years.... you're happy with 1440p resolution but you fancy the new tech and raytracing 5.0. You purchase the 5060 for £350 (plus inflation) as the 3060 has served you so well.
Total cost over 2 years.... £700. Gaming experience, first class 1440p gaming.
You get absolutely nothing for over-spending. No matter how much we try to explain this it seems to get twisted in the brain for some reason, understandably as it's unsual to consider technology as moving so fast. Most of the time, at the absolute limit, we would concede that you may get a benefit from aiming a level higher. In the above scenario the x070 cards would be the middle ground. It'll cost you £500 per time (totaling £1k) but the obvious savings speak for themselves.
ThornyFloweringShrub
Bronze Level Poster
Hi Scott. I'm replying to you but I'd also like to make this a message to everyone who commented. I'm going to make this my last comment - as Scott rightly pointed out it's dragging on a bit. I imagine this is becoming quite annoying now, so my apologies for this.
Firstly, thanks for everybody who took the time to contribute.
To Scott (and others who have pointed out similarly), I'd like to give a short bit of background so you get where I was coming from. The last GPU I owned was GTX460 I stuck in my Dad's computer in secondary school. After going to higher education I got a PS4, which has stuck with me until now. I've always preferred PC games however, for example things like FSX, total war, CK2, the original insurgency were all much more my thing. I run these sort of games on a bootcamped Macbook (which was painful as you can imagine!). I wanted to build a PC for games like e.g. IL2 and play in VR (expanding on peripherals like the headset over time). Having been in my job for a while now I decided to switch to PC with the end of PS4.
Bearing in mind I have been on console, I thought I would buy a good PC which would allow me to play games at the best graphics and resolutions for a console generation. Then swap in a new GPU probably, eventually needing a new PC at some point in time. Clearly this is the incorrect way to think about it.
It seems now is a bad time to buy a PC with the bad Nvidia launch, card availability and also more research needed on my end.
I have a bit of time to think (as the 3080 is to backlogged). At the moment I am considering cancelling my order. With the intention to wait to see what comes out from AMD with cheaper cards, or the cheaper Nvidia. See what stock is available on launch with these respective cards. And also considering just sticking to console for value for money and simplicity.
Thanks all, keep safe!
DavidGilbert719
Member
"Never.... ever........ ever..... buy a GPU with the future in mind. Always buy what you need right now for the level of gaming you want right now. It's easy to think that tomorrow new games will be released but at the same time new technologies will be released.. "
Just want to say I agree with this way of thinking, I bought my PC / monitor back in May with a Ryzen 5 3600 / RTX 2070 / 1440 Monitor (Nvidia RTX 30x series not released). Although gaming was / is important I really got it to replace my old desk rig which is 10 years old so while it's now been superseded in a technical sense I don't regret my purchase decision at all, learnt a few things (like maybe getting an even higher spec 7.1 sound card for PC for surround sound in games / atmos) and it was perfect for my needs at the time, so buying for now and your current needs is a must.
NB Apologies to Mods for extending lifeline of threads, but through I wold add my two cents
Just want to say I agree with this way of thinking, I bought my PC / monitor back in May with a Ryzen 5 3600 / RTX 2070 / 1440 Monitor (Nvidia RTX 30x series not released). Although gaming was / is important I really got it to replace my old desk rig which is 10 years old so while it's now been superseded in a technical sense I don't regret my purchase decision at all, learnt a few things (like maybe getting an even higher spec 7.1 sound card for PC for surround sound in games / atmos) and it was perfect for my needs at the time, so buying for now and your current needs is a must.
NB Apologies to Mods for extending lifeline of threads, but through I wold add my two cents