Is it worth short term future proofing or thinking long term?

[Cinn]

I've been thinking of upgrading the rig I built a couple of years back, and it got me thinking about whether or not it is worth doing mid-term future proofing on individual bits or just waiting and doing everything at once (inc buying a prebuilt one).

Current spec (if it's relevant)
AMD FX 8350 CPU
Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P Motherboard
EVGA 660B 80+ Bronze PSU
8Gb Crucial RAM
Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 GPU (think it has 2Gb memory)

I've already admitted that I need more RAM, but I was thinking whether or not upgrading the GPU would be worth it, and then upgrading other parts later on as they became 'obsolete' or just persevering until it all needed redoing... And that got me thinking about the general discussion on future proofing PC gaming systems... What do people think?

 

[USAFRet]

There is no "future proofing"

You basically have 2 things to change:
1. The GPU
2. Everything else.

 

[geofelt]

There is no such thing as "future proofing"
Parts and prices get better continuously, and your future needs are possibly unpredictable.. Best is to buy now what you need now, or at least in the next few months.

If you play fast action shooters, look to a graphics card upgrade first.
Make it a biggish jump, likely to a GTX1060 or better.

If you play strategy games, sims, mmo then look for a cpu upgrade, mostly to faster cores. Kaby lake is good there.
If you run multithreaded batch apps, the many threads available on ryzen should be good.

 

[10tacle]

Also keep in mind that this is a TERRIBLE market for those looking to buy a new video card at the RX 570-580 and GTX 1060-1070 levels. They are either out of stock or priced upwards of $150+ more than what they were released at. All thanks to cryptocurrency miners snapping up GPUs. I'm even seeing GTX 1080s now in the crosshairs of miners and those prices are slowly creeping up. There is no relief on the used market either for previous generation GPUs like GTX 780Tis, 980s, and RX 480s.

I took full advantage of this GPU seller's market and sold my SLI 970s for $480 and bought an EVGA 1080Ti SC2 Gaming for $740. Two months ago I'd not have gotten more than $150 each for the 970s on eBay. That right there covered the difference over a GTX 1080. I look at it like a free upgrade.

 

[g-unit1111]

There is no "future proofing"

You basically have 2 things to change:
1. The GPU
2. Everything else.

My general rule of thumb is new GPU every 2 years, full build every 4 years. But right now with Etherum the GPU market is very affected and disproportionate by the shortage. So this cripples my rule. In the end "future proofing" both short term and long term is kind of a redundancy. One - you never know when scenarios like this come up that could affect the market. Two - you also never know what future tech is going to come around. Right now 4K is ultra high end. Next it will be 8K. Then it will be 12K and so on and so forth.

 

[Cinn]

Also keep in mind that this is a TERRIBLE market for those looking to buy a new video card at the RX 570-580 and GTX 1060-1070 levels. They are either out of stock or priced upwards of $150+ more than what they were released at. All thanks to cryptocurrency miners snapping up GPUs. I'm even seeing GTX 1080s now in the crosshairs of miners and those prices are slowly creeping up. There is no relief on the used market either for previous generation GPUs like GTX 780Tis, 980s, and RX 480s.

So what kind of price wouldn't be a rip off for something like a GTX 1070? I had noticed a lot of out of stock online, but I hadn't realised it was due to anything like that, just a sale or something.

 

[10tacle]

So what kind of price wouldn't be a rip off for something like a GTX 1070? I had noticed a lot of out of stock online, but I hadn't realised it was due to anything like that, just a sale or something.

Find out what the original MSRP retail was like in a review or something (do not pay attention to NewEgg or Amazon MSRP's as they are always overinflated). If you can find one that's no more than $50 (USD) over the original release price, then jump on it. But honestly in these market conditions, you will not find that. At best you'll be paying $150 or more over actual market value.

I'd recommend getting on B&H Photo's website and choose a few 1070s in order of preference to be email notified when back in stock. They appear to not be price gouging like NewEgg. And if you do get an email notification, you better jump on that card faster than a bullet because it will be snapped up immediately. You aren't the only one out there looking.

 

[g-unit1111]

Find out what the original MSRP retail was like in a review or something (do not pay attention to NewEgg or Amazon MSRP's as they are always overinflated). If you can find one that's no more than $50 (USD) over the original release price, then jump on it. But honestly in these market conditions, you will not find that. At best you'll be paying $150 or more over actual market value.

The MSRPs are pretty accurate on Amazon and Newegg for the most part. Most 1070s are supposed to retail for $349, 6GB 1060s for $299, and 1080s for $499. MSRPs are a set price, they are determined by the manufacturer, not the retailer. What you have to watch out for are Newegg and Amazon's minion sellers as they're the ones who over inflate prices. Outlet PC is one particular nuisance who always jacks up prices to unheard of levels - at least 300% or 400% when there's a quantity shortage. Mainly CPUs and GPUs are what you have to pay close attention to. The actual GPU shortage right now created by Etherum is creating massive headaches for builders both new and experienced. Unfortunately the GPU manufacturers are providing very little to no answers at the moment.

I'd recommend getting on B&H Photo's website and choose a few 1070s in order of preference to be email notified when back in stock. They appear to not be price gouging like NewEgg. And if you do get an email notification, you better jump on that card faster than a bullet because it will be snapped up immediately. You aren't the only one out there looking.

B&H Photo is a niche store located in New York City that caters to photographers. They're just as affected by the shortage as everybody else is. But yeah I would definitely act quickly if they do come back in stock.

 

[varis]

The strategy largely depends on your personal preferences, and of course the current market conditions as mentioned:

-Do you hate the time, sweat and tears spent on system building and want to do it all in one go every decade or is it rather something you like to tinker with every weekend
-Do you actually follow PC tech or does Ryzen, Kaby Lake, Volta, Fractal Design, M.2 say nothing to you?
-What do you do with your old parts/systems
-Are you happy with your case? The cooling solution?
-How far behind the curve are you comfortable being? Are you ashamed to tell your gaming buddies you're still on a 760. It will still run World of Tanks and many strategy games just fine
-Are you looking to upgrade the monitor(s) too

Your CPU is still modern and I'd think it's good to go for a few years more - slapping on more RAM could be a good idea but watch out for compatibility issues (are you still on DDR3 btw?).

It's just hilarious if miners are going after 1080, the hashrate is significantly worse than on 1070 (which is a great if expensive card), there will be little profit in it. I suspect that it is more the gamers that are looking at prices and noticing 1080 is not that much expensive for what it gives you, plus it's in stock in places. Sell your cards from 1-2 years back and it's a cheap upgrade.

1070s are in stock in Europe, but the price has gone up like 100-150 euros in just 2-3 weeks. It may be short lived. I think the market is better for gamers 3 months down the road but who knows!

I would say wait the 2-3 weeks until Vega is launched, then get a 1080 if nothing more attractive is on the market.