Upgrade the graphics card or buy a PS4?

[Lordegor3]

Hello,

I currently own a great 2013 costum rig with GTX 670 inside.
Upgrading to a GTX 970/R9 390 will cost me the same as buying a new PS4.
It bugs me that i need to upgrade the GFX card every 3 years to max out the graphics, even though my GTX 670 is way more powerful than the PS4 GFX card.
I might need to add some RAM soon enaugh and maybe even upgrade the CPU, which all in all a costly thing to do.
So what should I do? Upgrade my rig or just leave it be and move to a console which won't change for another 5-8 years at least, and will still run all the upcoming games?

 

[inkyserifs]

I would personally go with the PC upgrade, although I see your dilemma as the PS4 is certainly an appealing buy. However I'm of the opinion that people tend to underestimate the lifespan of their GPUs.

The 970 is a very good 1080p card, and will run pretty much anything at that resolution (something the ps4 does only sometimes). You might not be able to get 60 fps maxed out on everything every time, but by turning down settings whenever you find performance suffering you will have the card working for you for a long while and still probably looking better than what consoles have to offer most of the time.

Hell, there's people playing on 750ti and getting similar-to-console visual fidelity and performance even today. Consoles give you the illusion of lasting longer, but it's not without price, as later games in a console generation tend to steadily decrease in quality or resolution as the hardware on that is just not very powerful.

Although if you're the type to NEED to max out everything available, and will feel the need to upgrade every other year or something, then just get the ps4 and don't worry about settings for the foreseeable future. It's certainly not a bad decision, as long as you're aware that the console doesn't exactly max anything out either.

 

[Epicness937]

people hugely under estimate a gpu's life. i had a card that lasted 6 years before it died so trust me it will last a long time unless you over clock the crap out of it. for 1080p gaming a 970 is a great card and a 980 is able to run almost any game at 1080p over 60fps maxed out.

 

[Lordegor3]

people hugely under estimate a gpu's life. i had a card that lasted 6 years before it died so trust me it will last a long time unless you over clock the crap out of it. for 1080p gaming a 970 is a great card and a 980 is able to run almost any game at 1080p over 60fps maxed out.

I don't want my card to last untill it dies. That's not the discussion here. I'm concerned about the need to upgrade the GFX card every 3-4 years to play games in mid-ultra settings, and it's not only the video card. You can find yourself in need of upgrading your CPU (and with that comes the need in a new motherboard because of the socket type) and the need to add more RAM.

While in a console you don't. And the developers optimise the hell out of the game for their consoles, but not the PC.
Hell, have you seen The Last of Us on PS3? The colsole was 7 years old when the game was released, and it ran the game with such beautiful visuals! Not a single PC from 2006 can do that.

It bugs me that the PS4 has a 5 year old GPU in it and the developers can do such beautiful games with it. To put it in perspective, a game on a GTX 980 should look like an eyecandy with visuals close to real life.

I feel like im being cheated for being a PC gamer when I can't match the minimum system requirements while using a GTX 670 with 2.4595 TFLOPS, and the PS4 has 1.84.

 

[ludastar]

hmm you can think about all the games you play on pc like oldergames and newer games on your pc,

also if you buy alot of games, don't expect prices to be cheap on console unlike pc there are sites like cdkeys.com and g2a.com
that give you verygood deals like AAA games for £25 when on consoles they are £60 like everyone is not loaded with money.

then you get modding support for games eg. steamworkshop for new content also on steam if you buy a game and you hate it just refund it easy as that, altho i would read the T&Cs for that there are guidlines on if a refund is valid but they are quite fair like if you have 2hours or less gameplay its refundable, but only if you buy stuff on steam not thirdparty sites

 

[Lordegor3]

hmm you can think about all the games you play on pc like oldergames and newer games on your pc,

also if you buy alot of games, don't expect prices to be cheap on console unlike pc there are sites like cdkeys.com and g2a.com
that give you verygood deals like AAA games for £25 when on consoles they are £60 like everyone is not loaded with money.

then you get modding support for games eg. steamworkshop for new content also on steam if you buy a game and you hate it just refund it easy as that, altho i would read the T&Cs for that there are guidlines on if a refund is valid but they are quite fair like if you have 2hours or less gameplay its refundable, but only if you buy stuff on steam not thirdparty sites

Game prices for PS4 are not the issue here. I can buy them through eBay second hand or new and pay 30-40$.

 

[RobCrezz]

Your 670 is still better than the PS4, the fact is the PS4 doesnt "max out the graphics". They get away with their lower performance gpus by using lower resolution and less graphical effects.

 

[maxalge]

people hugely under estimate a gpu's life. i had a card that lasted 6 years before it died so trust me it will last a long time unless you over clock the crap out of it. for 1080p gaming a 970 is a great card and a 980 is able to run almost any game at 1080p over 60fps maxed out.

I don't want my card to last untill it dies. That's not the discussion here. I'm concerned about the need to upgrade the GFX card every 3-4 years to play games in mid-ultra settings, and it's not only the video card. You can find yourself in need of upgrading your CPU (and with that comes the need in a new motherboard because of the socket type) and the need to add more RAM.

While in a console you don't. And the developers optimise the hell out of the game for their consoles, but not the PC.
Hell, have you seen The Last of Us on PS3? The colsole was 7 years old when the game was released, and it ran the game with such beautiful visuals! Not a single PC from 2006 can do that.

It bugs me that the PS4 has a 5 year old GPU in it and the developers can do such beautiful games with it. To put it in perspective, a game on a GTX 980 should look like an eyecandy with visuals close to real life.

I feel like im being cheated for being a PC gamer when I can't match the minimum system requirements while using a GTX 670 with 2.4595 TFLOPS, and the PS4 has 1.84.

hilarious...



why would you feel cheated when the ps4 is already obsolete?


cant even do 1080p most of the time and keep above 30 fps with lower than low settings...


XD

an i3 + 750 ti plays witcher 3 better AND with higher settings than the ps4...

 

[Lordegor3]

people hugely under estimate a gpu's life. i had a card that lasted 6 years before it died so trust me it will last a long time unless you over clock the crap out of it. for 1080p gaming a 970 is a great card and a 980 is able to run almost any game at 1080p over 60fps maxed out.

I don't want my card to last untill it dies. That's not the discussion here. I'm concerned about the need to upgrade the GFX card every 3-4 years to play games in mid-ultra settings, and it's not only the video card. You can find yourself in need of upgrading your CPU (and with that comes the need in a new motherboard because of the socket type) and the need to add more RAM.

While in a console you don't. And the developers optimise the hell out of the game for their consoles, but not the PC.
Hell, have you seen The Last of Us on PS3? The colsole was 7 years old when the game was released, and it ran the game with such beautiful visuals! Not a single PC from 2006 can do that.

It bugs me that the PS4 has a 5 year old GPU in it and the developers can do such beautiful games with it. To put it in perspective, a game on a GTX 980 should look like an eyecandy with visuals close to real life.

I feel like im being cheated for being a PC gamer when I can't match the minimum system requirements while using a GTX 670 with 2.4595 TFLOPS, and the PS4 has 1.84.

hilarious...



why would you feel cheated when the ps4 is already obsolete?


cant even do 1080p most of the time and keep above 30 fps with lower than low settings...


XD

an i3 + 750 ti plays witcher 3 better AND with higher settings than the ps4...

Yeah you've got a point...

 

[ludastar]

What console Devs really need to do is put options on the consoles like gamesetting like FPS option would you like 30 or 60 and change the gamesettings to acheve this framerate same with resolution from 720p to 1080p (16:9) ratio because i find consoles verylimited of stuff like that, because i prefer framerate and high resolution to lots of stuff eg SSAO and AA, like why not let people do them, its even simple because most people on consoles have no clue what a god ray is or SSAO.