Are constant upgrades cheaper

[Averst450]

I've looked around and haven't really found any good info on this. From personal experience, have you guys found it cheaper to continually upgrade your rig or run it into the ground and start from the ground up?

I've made a habit of changing parts out about yearly and I'm begging to think that it might be more economical to just use it till it's outdated and sell it off for a new one.

 

[Supernova1138]

Annual upgrades usually aren't very economical, especially if you are constantly buying high end stuff to have the latest and greatest. CPUs and motherboards can be kept for much longer than a year as CPU advancement has really slowed down, and if all you're doing is gaming having a top of the line i7 Extreme Edition doesn't really benefit you as games don't make full use of such a processor. With a midrange to high end CPU, you can easily get 4 to 5 years out of a system before a worthwhile upgrade presents itself.

For GPUs, upgrading more frequently might be more economical, if you're buying more midrange stuff, eg. where the price to performance ratio is optimal. Once you get to the extreme high end, price to performance does fall off and you tend to wind up paying a huge premium for a relatively small performance gain compared to a card one or two steps down on the GPU lineup. GPUs are still advancing relatively quickly, so more frequent upgrades with more midrange GPUs can be better for staying on top of things for newer games compared to buying the flagship card and hoping it will last you 5 years or so. Even if you do get the best graphics card available at a given time, by the time that card is 2-3 years old it will start falling behind and you'll have to dial back some graphics settings to maintain good performance on newer titles, and by the time you hit the five year mark, that top of the line card might be appearing in the minimum requirements list for the newest games, which usually isn't a good place to be.

 

[photonboy]

Completely depends on what you're doing.

For GAMING, a good quad-core CPU like the i5-3570K for example has years of life left because it's still good now, and DX12 games will make better use of the CPU and (probably) rarely benefit much from a faster CPU.

Years ago I upgrade my CPU on the same motherboard just two years later and built a new rig in another two years. Now, my i7-3770K is a few years old and I plan to keep until 2020 at least if possible.

(and GPU optimized programs will eventually work much better with a cheap GPU upgrade like video editing)

Gaming?
I'm still happily rocking my GTX680 as the upgrade benefit to me is minimal, especially since I'm good at tweaking settings.

My upgrade path?

Same i7-3770K setup, then add a PASCAL NVidia card end 2016, then replace my monitor with a GSYNC 1440p 144Hz IPS (or similar) in 2018.

So???

Summary:
I think the most important point for GAMING on PC today is build around a strong CPU, with quality parts and then upgrade the GPU in a few years but only if you'll really benefit.

Other components like the monitor are important too. If you have a good GPU (like say a GTX980) then I'd personally put money towards a GSYNC (or FREESYNC for AMD) monitor rather than upgrade the GPU again without the asynchronous monitor.

Other points:
- SSD doesn't benefit gaming much (except initial load times, level loads, and games like SKYRIM with constant loads into dungeons, new map point..)
- 8GB DDR3/4 is generally fine for gaming but I'd budget for 16GB if possible (memory is optimized for reliability in KITS so I'd buy the memory I need for the next few years since it's not overly expensive rather than add another 2x4GB kit in a few years)

 

[synphul]

Each person's needs will be different and will determine if and when they need to upgrade. A simple office pc or home pc used to print coupons off, surf youtube or other websites will remain useful a lot longer than someone who wants a cutting edge gaming machine.

Personally I don't find frequent upgrades to be very economical. A cpu typically lasts me a solid 4yrs, sometimes 5. By then enough time has passed for an upgrade to be worthwhile. Storage upgrades are done on an as needed basis. Same with ram if increasing memory size due to need, 4 to 8gb or 8gb to 16gb, that type of thing. Graphics card, it depends on the games I'm trying to play and how well my current card is performing.

I usually get 2-3yrs out of a gpu using mid range cards but I'm not a hardcore gamer playing games the day they release either. It's what works for me but may not be what I'd suggest for someone else. My own personal upgrade path, I prefer to wait until there's at least a 50% or higher performance increase to be gained from upgrading.

I would say there's a difference between blowing a huge budget for 'future proofing' (which rarely exists) and going too cheap. Somewhere in the middle is a sweeter spot. Whether amd or intel the same usually applies. Considering starting with an fx 4xxx then upgrading to a 6xxx, then an fx 8xxx and potentially needing to upgrade the motherboard to one with substantial enough vrm for the higher end 8xxx if the user went cheap the first time around. It's a lot of wasted money. Even selling off older low end parts won't make up very much of the loss. Saving up and spending an extra $50 tends to pay out better in the long run.

Intel, same thing. It doesn't make much sense to start with a pentium g, then move to an i3, then an i5 and so on. Getting a lower end cpu to get started if there's going to be the budget for an upgrade fairly soon makes sense, such as a pentium g as a temp placeholder for an i5 or i7. So long as the person plans ahead and gets an appropriate motherboard. Likewise if it was an amd build and someone were planning on an fx 8350, get a decent motherboard for the 8350 up front and use an fx 4xxx on it for the time being rather than buying a mobo twice.

Unfortunately it's not quite like it was with parts, you used to be able to wait a year or so and buy new-ish last gen tech which was still very capable for a much lower price. I'm not seeing that much anymore. An old processor I used was a p4 northwood (3.0c). New when it came out sold for around $420 in june 2003. By july 2004 someone mentioned a price drop to $204. I picked up mine off ebay as a new oem still in the package around late 2004 or early 2005 for around $115. In roughly 2yrs the price had fallen a lot. Try and buy a 2-3yr old cpu for even half the price it was when it was new, much less 1/4 of the price.

Same thing with my gpu, an hd 7850. New it was retailing around $250. A year or so after it was released the price had dropped to $189. Almost a 25% price drop. Waiting for a sale I got it for even less but that's without factoring in any sales. In november 2013 the r9 290 was $399. Now they're anywhere from $300-380 and it's been 2yrs. Prices have fallen some but again not nearly as quick. The advantage of waiting awhile and buying last year's tech for a significant savings while still getting a lot of use out of it has changed some.

Those are just my opinions and things I've noticed in pricing trends. Anymore my buying habits have changed and I'd rather buy something new in the mid-upper range depending on my needs/budget. Before I used to wait and hold off on cutting edge because there was a clear advantage. Now that that advantage has dwindled I'd rather spend a few extra dollars and get something maybe not brand new but only 4-6mo old and then have a capable system for 2-3, maybe 4yrs.

In gaming the gpu seems to need an upgrade before other parts and depending on the power requirements may involve a psu upgrade as well if it wasn't planned for ahead of time. When I replace a psu I tend to buy more than I need so if I make an upgrade in the next year or two I'm not stuck buying another power supply because I'm 50-100w short.