I’m Finally Happy I Bought An “Old” Graphics Card

Let me inform you about an emotional rollercoaster I’ve been on for the previous eight months. It’s a cautionary story, concerning the perils of obsessing over PC {hardware}, but additionally certainly one of celebration, a triumph in opposition to the percentages.

In 2015, I bought an all-new, pre-built gaming PC—the primary time I’d ever carried out that—and had such a implausible expertise with it that I swore I might by no means improve it, I’d simply wait a number of years and when the time got here I’d simply purchase one other new one over again. It was a great plan in concept, however by 2020 my timing was approach off.

The PC I’d purchased in February 2015, which had seen me by way of all the things from The Witcher 3 by way of to Demise Stranding, was by the center of 2020 beginning to actually present its age, because it struggled not simply on newer PC video games (Horizon particularly), however even on fundamental stuff like Photoshop.

So five-and-a-half years after my previous PC, I bit the bullet and ordered a brand new one. I used to be barely nervous, largely due to the timing of my buy; Nvidia’s 2000 sequence playing cards had been round for some time, and an all-new sequence of playing cards—seemingly providing large efficiency boosts—was certainly coming quickly.

However I play nearly all my work video games on my PC, and with Cyberpunk and a brand new Murderer’s Creed (and a great deal of different large vacation video games!) on the best way, I couldn’t afford to attend round for some hypothetical new sequence of playing cards that will or might not have been coming quickly. You gotta draw a line within the sand someplace, and necessity dictated that line for me was to be drawn in August 2020.

I received’t bore you with the complete particulars, however I ended up getting a system that included an RTX 2080 Tremendous, a card that wasn’t the best possible on the time, however which was nonetheless an enormous enchancment over the 900-series GPU it was changing. I had a pleasant case, I used to be getting new PC stuff for the primary time in over 5 years, I used to be excited!

When it arrived, and I may see what a contemporary gaming PC may do in 4K on a 32″ monitor, I used to be so impressed I wrote a weblog about rocks. For 2 weeks I used to be in heaven, downloading each current recreation I’d skipped or suffered by way of due to poor efficiency (like Management), and simply soaking all of it up.

Then, simply two weeks after my model new PC arrived, some information hit me like a truck. Nvidia was going to be releasing the 3000 sequence playing cards. I felt just a little sick. I’d waited over 5 years, hanging on by my fingernails, and if I’d solely waited two extra weeks I may have gotten in on a complete new technology of playing cards, received higher efficiency and purchased myself a lot extra time earlier than needing the subsequent improve.

If that is beginning to sound privileged or a silly factor to whine about, it’s! Nevertheless it’s additionally lots of people’s customary working process for purchasing costly tech, particularly PCs. There may be at all times new and higher {hardware} coming, and so the complete train of gaming on a PC is a highwire emotional balancing act, juggling the cash you’re spending vs the efficiency you’re getting vs the window of time till that {hardware} is changed and video games get fancier to associate with it.

And I’d utterly blown it. Spent a ton of cash on one thing that had been immediately outdated. I used to be an fool, a idiot, a sucker, and as somebody pointlessly and stupidly obsessive about top-level efficiency on a PC, I used to be going to endure for it.

OR WAS I.

After solely a matter of days my pleasure had given option to despair, however just a few weeks after that, stuff began taking place. The 3000-series launch was an absolute catastrophe, and issues haven’t improved since. Between the pandemic and continual chip shortages, these playing cards are nonetheless laborious to search out, even eight months later, and sometimes if you can discover them they’ve received ridiculously excessive costs since a lot of the inventory that does make it to cabinets will get snapped up by resellers.

So even when I’d waited that further two weeks and determined to improve to a 3000-series card, I could effectively haven’t been in a position to get one (a minimum of for an inexpensive value), and I’m removed from alone on this state of affairs. With the newest playing cards out of attain for the foreseeable future, a great deal of individuals are deciding to improve to GPUs that could be just a little bit older, however nonetheless work, and have the additional advantage of really being out there to buy.

Issues have gotten so bizarre that Nvidia themselves have resumed manufacturing of 2060 and 1050ti playing cards, lengthy after it will have been assumed they have been lifeless within the water.

With all of that, I’ve come full circle. Eight months later I’m again to being pleased with my buy and loving my “outdated” 2080, as a result of for all intents the 3000-series might as effectively not exist. And positive, all it took for that to occur was a catastrophic international pandemic, nevertheless it’s been a nasty yr and I wish to take my Ws the place I can get them.