When Should I Upgrade?

[HollowGrapeJ]

Hey, everybody! I wanted to see if you could help me with this question. Ok, so my plan is to wait it out until there is a graphics card capable of playing games in 4K @60FPS. I see we're getting there already with the GTX 980 ti so I'm expecting it to happen within the next 2-3 years. My current rig has a i5 4690 and a GTX 970 with G Skill Ripjaws X 2x4 (8GB) Ram. I am guessing I'll have to upgrade everything I have when I make the jump to 4K. Thinking of doing it in 2018 (I believe?) when Nvidia Volta releases. So what do you guys think? What are your upgrade plans for the next few years?

 

[MarkW]

It will happen in about 10 months. Both AMD and Nvidia will be releasing their 16nm FinFET GPU's about mid-year 2016. both companies are going to produce the largest GPU's they have ever made. Nvidia says theirs will be 17 billion transistors. AMD says 15 to 18 billion. All the cards are expected to have mountains of HBM v2 memory as well. Top end cards will have up to 32GB of memory. Mainstream cards will have 6GB to 8GB. The CEO of Nvidia recently said that the new 16nm process will allow for 65% faster transistors than the 28nm ones they have been stuck using for the past 4 years.

 

[envy14tpe]

Your locked 4690 is probably the same as my 2500k @ 4.4ghz. So, I know where your coming from. As for 4k, it seems great but right now it is the early adopters stage where people are excited and buy it but don't get to use its full potential, which will come in more time, probably 2/3 years. Look at technology, what kind of GPU and how many would you need to hit 4k@60fps? The answer: $$$ Also, is there a lot of content to watch on 4k? Most movies are not and youtube isn't even close yet. So, I think it is better to step up (to 1440p) with advancements and not jump up (4k).

On the horizon I'm looking at 1440p with a good single GPU. One day I hope the same will be true for 4k.

From what I can tell, unless you do heavy stuff on your computer for work, you are easily able to have a 4 year upgrade path to stay competitive.

 

[Gracodana]

I would keep that rig for another year and then see if the cpu's released are any good next year and then upgrade. cpu's last for a long time much longer then gpu's as envy 14tpe said. gpu's fallout out much quicker so I would up grade with pascal, I would imagine that series will get similer performance on 4k as the 980 ti does on 1440p atm.

 

[HollowGrapeJ]

I was actually considering 1440P but I went with 1080P instead because I wanted to aim for 60 FPS. I'm considering waiting for 4K to be more affordable.

 

[Gracodana]

I was actually considering 1440P but I went with 1080P instead because I wanted to aim for 60 FPS. I'm considering waiting for 4K to be more affordable.

Yeah thats a good ideawhen you can get something for 4k like the 970 is to 1080p then that is a very very good upgrade to make.