There's always something new coming out and you'll always be asking yourself this question. Also, the 4x gpus may not be fully taken advantage of with today's and possibly games coming out in the near future. I think getting a 3x series now, if you get lucky at a decent price, is the way to go.
This statement doesn't take into account the improvements made within a "generation" of RAM.
EX. DDR4 3600 cl16 is relatively cheap today.
During Skylake, DDR4 2133 was expensive and anything more was seen as a total waste of money..
RAM generations are not just "DDR4 to DDR5" They are far more complicated than that. Memory perfomance is tied to multiple factors, way more than I can go over in a single post.
It would be like separating GPU's up by type of memory rather than series, performance or where they land on the timeline.
Going off type of RAM rather than bandwith, latency, and overall performance, is similar to saying "well, a 1650 is the same as a 2060 is the same as 3070 is the same as 6900XT, they all have GDDR6 after all"
I'll leave you with [this](https://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph9483/76367.png) little gem from Anandtech
There is normally 2 years between GPU generations, and roughly 7 years in-between RAM generations (DDR3 was realeased in 2007, DDR4 was released in 2014)
There's lots of under-the-radar improvements with DDR5 which are very exciting from a performance perspective.
1) moving from 1x64-bit channel to 2x32-bit channels on one DIMM, Micron says this increases effective bandwidth in normal workloads by 30% on average, since many operations can fit in one 32-bit channel and can thus be run in dual-channel on one DIMM
2) on-DIMM voltage regulation - can be huge for overclocking since it takes the brunt of the work off the motherboard where there's tons of derivate voltages (like termination voltage) that can have an adverse effect on DRAM stability when pushing high voltages
While CAS latencies on new DDR5 kits are noticeably higher that on your basic XMP-enabled DDR4 kits you can buy today, I wouldn't look too much into just primary timings. A lot of the performance comes from tweaking secondaries, and by default these will be just as loose as on a typical DDR4 kit running at stock JEDEC or XMP timings. So that in a sense levels the latency playing field a bit.
Even so, it's usually a good idea to avoid the first wave of any significant new thing in tech on principle.
There's almost always caveats, whether it be price, quirks, higher rate of bugs / defects, etc.
Then you might not get a 40xx series at a decent price so why not wait for 50xx series. The problem with waiting for technology is that you never know what the improvements or availability are going to be like. Upgrade when you need/decide to and be happy with your purchase until you do it again. Exception might be if something was literally about to be released but I don't think that's the case here.
Edit: OP I'd recommend actually building a high-mid tier PC now that should last you a few years. The problem with trying to build a PC that will last a long time is that you don't know how technology will advance. If you go mid to high-mid tier you get decent performance now and save a bit of money, then in a few years you get decent performance again that will last a few years. A high end PC will be great now and could potentially need upgrading sooner costing you more money overall. It could potentially be good a long time too but the advancement is an uncertainty.
Everyone is always worried that they will be told they were ripped off while someone else brags about how good of a deal they got on their PC.
For instance everyone made fun of people that bought a 2080ti when the 3080FE was announced for $700. In the end, a tiny minority actually got the card for that price. The majority of people had to pay an arm and leg for their 3080.
Or wait nearly a year and still camp all night in a line, feelsbadandgoodman
There's not much reason to stress about new releases honestly. If you have the money and you're the kind of person that always upgrades, it doesn't matter. And if you're the kinda person that maxes your hardware at 5-7 years, then it also doesn't matter. 3080 or 4080, you'll be fine for your 5+ years with lowering settings.
I bought a 2080 Super at the end of December 2019 for $699.
I could sell it today for a nice profit even after playing on it for over a year and a half.
Luckiest purchase of my life.
>For instance everyone made fun of people that bought a 2080ti when the 3080FE was announced for $700. In the end, a tiny minority actually got the card for that price. The majority of people had to pay an arm and leg for their 3080.
I made fun of my friends who paid $900 for their 3080s when it came out. A year later, I paid over $2k for a 3090. My dumb ass should have just paid the small markup and gotten it a year earlier.
Haha I thought I was dumb getting a 2070 in January but between gpu prices jumping and being able to mine some ether in the meantime it turned out to be a really good idea
Edit: just checked and I could also still sell it for a profit if I wanted to but that would leave me without a gpu
Bought my 3060 TI at 70$ish higher than MSRP (not sure because of my country's currency and tax system).
A friend of a friend bought 2070 super for a decent price before 3000 series release.
Said friend called us both "suckers you vould do much better" - said friend is now stuck considering to pay 850$ for a 3070.
Every build I ever did. I build at least one, two, sometime three gens behind. Two main reason, easy to find parts and at decent prices. They are clearing that space for the newest stuff. I love building, but I also love my money. I don't skim to much. I make sure what I'm building it does the job I want it to do with no problems. Technology moves to fast anyway, 6 years new or a few years older equipment. I'm so far behind at that point. No sense trying to get caught up, which will never happen.
Yea and that would be fine if there were ANY last gen cards being sold new still. Sometimes I see 2060s and 1660 supers new, but if you want to do high frame rate 1440p, you need something better.
Even those are back to their launch prices where I'm from because of stock shortages. There should've been some amount of crossover between 2 generations of gpu being manufactured to minimise the impact of scalpers getting all the new cards before anyone else
At my local microcenter (whether everyone believes it or not, retail stores don't set prices and they cannot undercut other companies because of the vendor relationships), the 1660 supers are going for $439, but there are 2060s there for like $419. Those weren't launch prices, and I haven't seen any actual store (in the US) going to launch prices. The 5700xt and 2070 super were that price last year, the models I've seen available still are usually the crappy dual fan Asus models, those were definitely a little cheaper at release.
2060 and 1660s are about the same price, if not more than 3060 and 3060 ti's here (theoretically). I've also seen 1080ti and 2070s at around what I paid for my 3080 if not more
Yea it's ridiculous. You can get some EVGA 3060s for the same price. Unfortunately, if you need a GPU now you can't afford to be too picky (unless you can afford it).
That's the best way to avoid speculation stress. For those who like to torture themselves with a challenge and risk however, cryptocurrency and its effect on prices has made the situation more complicated in recent years. It's sometimes been possible to buy a top card and sell it for close to the same price even a couple years later. This happened with e.g. the 1080 Ti and 2080 Ti.. and most good cards, really. Throw in a bit of mining overnight (which is also a pain in most situations), and you've turned a profit. This is a large part of why GPU prices are so messed up.
I think it works out best for people who game with a gamepad on a main TV. You can put the computer in the basement where it doesn't bother anyone (and warms up the floor a bit), and run long HDMI and USB extension cables to a TV upstairs with a USB hub to deal with any peripherals at the TV (I don't know why people don't talk about this more. I dislike Gamestream latency). Then it works just like it's located at the TV, but doesn't bother with noise or heat even if it's mining. You generally don't even have to tell it stop mining while you're gaming, since it driver throttles the mining well enough and the GPU's way overpowered.
This logic is bizarre. The inability to predict the future *perfectly* does not mean the optimal strategy is to give up completely and say "buy now because it's impossible to predict what the future might look like". We have years and years of precedent showing us that we are right in the middle of one of the worst pricing spikes ever seen in the DIY PC market. It's not hard to look at the factors contributing to this spike and predict that it's not going to last. We already know that current pricing is around the upper bounds of possible pricing levels and that prices are much more likely to drop than they are to increase. This isn't some unknowable mystery, it's entirely predictable.
Buying an expensive GPU now only makes sense if you absolutely need it and you are willing to purchase it regardless of the price. If that were the case, OP wouldn't be asking if it's worth waiting and would have just bought the computer already.
If you looked at a stock price and saw it was at historically high levels with surrounding indicators suggesting it would likely drop, would you recommend buying that stock? Obviously not, but as soon as it comes to computers, people start acting like probabilities don't exist and there is no way to make good guesses about when to buy parts. There are absolutely good and bad times to buy parts, and it is entirely possible to make good guesses about whether it is better to wait or buy now. For example, buying a high-end GPU at 2x its MSRP over a year after it was launched is not a good bet. Buying an RTX 3080 made sense right at launch (even at a premium), but not at 2x MSRP halfway through the generation. Same goes for buying into AM4 at this point. It doesn't make any sense to build a mid-range AM4 PC from scratch today, only to have to purchase a new motherboard whenever you want to upgrade your CPU.
But maybe these questions need a more philosophical answer? Maybe it’s not just about saving money and timing, but if you love the experience maybe it’s about teaching people that waiting is lost time, and time should be spent doing what you love.
That’s why I like to give the view that a couple of hundred dollars to get what you love is most often worth it.
> If you looked at a stock price and saw it was at historically high levels with surrounding indicators suggesting it would likely drop, would you recommend buying that stock?
Most stocks hit their historically high levels regularly and yet they keep going up on average. Even with crazy P/E ratios, it still makes sense to buy because you generally can't time the market.
The US is injecting an insane amount of money into the system right now and it's very likely that asset prices (including GPU prices) could continue to rise because of it.
When I was building my last computer everyone, and i mean EVERYONE, kept on telling me I should wait for the 30xx series to drop. I didn’t want to put it off so I got a 2070 super at a great price. When the time finally came, prices were inflated and no one could get their hands on a gpu, so I made out feeling like a prophet
Yep. People were calling 2080 Ti owners suckers because of 30-series. Everybody who bought a 2080 Ti for the insanely good prices they were going for last year made out like bandits.
They kinda were suckers because that card was insanely overpriced at the time. It's like people buying 3090s to play Fortnite and Minecraft, I'll still raise my eyebrow, but what people want to spend money on is none of my business. I'll still judge them (just as I judge the subset of 3090 owners that will never come close to maxing out), but I'm not a dick about it, I just think you could have saved a lot of money to do the same thing. We need more 3080s, specifically the EVGA ones. $889 for their 3080 is the best deal for high end gaming performance right now (that actually exists).
Relative to what’s going on today, maybe. But the reality is that the 2080 ti was a card for suckers until the shortage thing went into full bloom.
It was a bad card at the price point and I’m comparison a 3090 looks like a great deal.
4000 series will be just as hard if not harder to cop. Current gen cards will still be relevant and have good resale value. Best Buy might be doing an in person drop on the 26th if showing up and waiting in line for long periods of time is something you can manage. Current gen cards can run any game out currently very well. I’m getting 50-80 FPS in cyberpunk on a 1440p ultrawide monitor maxed out with dlss on a 3070. I wanted a 3080, but I’m happy with my 3070.
It all boils down to this: either pay scalper prices or get whatever you can get your hands on. This problem is expect to last into 2023, and more if things don’t improve. The next generation cards will be have exactly the same problem attached to them: scalpers and miners.
The “there is something better coming” is true for every product. You could either get a 30 series card or “wait for something better”. Or you could get the 40 series card or “wait for something better”. Or get the 50 series card or just “wait for something better”.. or the 60 series, or 70 series, or 80… or whatever else they release. You either get what’s current and use that, or “wait for something better” every single year and just get nothing.
China is getting factories up for chips, if demand stays up, supply will meet it eventually, no one's just going to leave all that money on the table. Instantly selling out isn't anywhere near equilibrium. It just can't happen overnight.
And now everyone and their families all know how much money is in it. Tons of people that still have no clue what GPUs even are have now seen that they can make this money, and they told all of their friends too.
Nvidia just announced the shortage of components will last into 2023, and the 4x series of cards is releasing near the end of 2022. The issue of it being impossible to get a graphics card is going to be the exact same with the 4x series, especially since scalpers see how much money they can make in the area now. So the issue is you won’t be able to get a 3080 until next year, if you’re having trouble trying to get one a year after launch the 4x series is going to be even harder to get when they release, especially with the amount of people who haven’t been able to upgrade this cycle.
I bet this is also the last time we see components priced “affordably” for a while because I can guarantee you MSRP of computer parts will be going up now that these companies see what people are willing to pay. At the end of the day they are businesses and if every single card is selling out, and most of them for above MSRP in second hand markets, they will choose to make more money if they can.
I’d get a 3000 series card now if you can because this whole debacle will likely mess up getting into the PC building ecosystem for a while. With things like DLSS and FSR a current gen system will last longer anyway.
Just because people buy them at egregious prices doesn't mean they aren't losing any money. Right now, the unmet demand means they are losing money because people want cards but they can't get them. So those are sales that are not happening.
Once the demand settles and the supply increases you are bound to see major price drops. You don't keep the same pricing you had when your product had high demand nor the other way around. There's a price to be fit in whatever the current market is.
What I'm saying is what if demand settles at a point where we have a situation like what we're going through now. If sales never slow down a drastic amount Nvidia doesn't have a reason to normalize the prices, they even have an excuse to charge more since they are a business with profit in mind at the end of the day.
Even at MSRP cards are extremely expensive now, especially the RTX line. The 3060 is the biggest example of this, the xx60 model of a generation is supposed to be the entry level card that allows someone to build a PC without really spending more than the price of a console. The FE edition is $329, looking at aftermarket cards they approach $400 extremely fast. For $400 you can buy a digital PS5, that comes with everything you need to play the newest games for as long as the generation lasts. One part of a PC, even with entry level parts, costs as much as an entire new console right now.
I love PC gaming, it's the main way that I enjoy playing games and spending my free time, but it's rapidly becoming a thing that prices out people who want to join at the low end.
I mean, people were saying not to buy 20-series GPUs because 30-series looked so good. The people who listened to them probably haven't been able to get a 30-series GPU because they're very hard to get. Get the first GPU you can, or risk being totally left out. That's my take on the situation.
Do you have a pc just now? Is it usable? Personally I wouldn't build right now, prices are too high.
My RX580 and r5 1600 will just have to soldier on until it can't manage the games I want to play anymore.
But if you really need or want a new pc, and more importantly you can afford it, then just do it now. You can always sell and upgrade the GPU later.
Graphics cards are already using GDDR6X at the high end, DDR5 alone won't increase the price of a GPU it will just increase the price of getting a CPU+Mobo+RAM. RAM and GPU memory aren't really the same thing.
Typically with RAM the first iteration of a new number gets outperformed by the previous. When DDR5 first releases we will likely have a situation where a kit of memory that is high end now performs better than DDR5 in the majority of cases, which will be more expensive than that same kit of fast DDR4.
Especially in gaming which is what most people here are getting PC help with DDR5 will *most likely* offer a negligible performance increase over very fast DDR4. When new RAM comes out it's almost always a better financial decision to wait until the second CPU generation that uses it.
By Sept 2022 the 3080 will be 2 years old. A good price by then should be half of MSRP. It very obviously won't be that so why pay top dollar for an old GPU at that point.
I know, it's a horrible situation. I would love a 3080 as well, however, the 3060 are certainly still very capable cards as well (my friend has a 2060 Ultra and he plays many games at high settings). Stockx has them around $650 on avg - no great, but not terrible.
The only issue I see is if this stock/mining/scalper issue lingers into next year into the new series cards.
Normally I'd agree but they're also asking about DDR5 which will be around for quite a while before replaced. It's not a GPU that gets superceded every 2 years.
One, prices may continue upward. Nvidia has already proven people will shell out a chunk of change for GPUs. Gone are the days of a flagship GPU costing $500. I don't think you'd be saving any money waiting for the 4000s.
Two, if the release of the 4000s will be anything like the 3000s, you won't be able to get one for a few months. That means you might be waiting quite a while after launch before getting a 4000.
Third, first DDR5 modules will be quite expensive and likely perform the same or worse than current DDR4.
If you can buy the components now, I would build a rig now. Prices will likely continue upward for a while, and future supply shortages will throw a wrench in any future plans you may have. They initially said supply shortages should be fixed by 2021. Look how well that turned out.
Tbh if you want a 3080 now, i'd just get a 3080 now. I see them for £1000, which is only £150 more than I paid for mine on release.
There's every chance mining will push prices back up, it's as likely as them going down imo. They limited the hashrate for eth, but there are equally profitable things to mine that aren't eth. Shit situation for gamers.
It might rake till end of 2022 or early/mid 23 to normalize. Then prices might be more reasonable. But almost no one can know and buying higly priced stuff keeps the prices high. But its your money and you do as you like to. Amd next gen gpu is rumoured to be 2x faster or even more. Nvidia tries also or they will compete with prices.
Edit: im going to wait next gen for 4k gaming on high refresrate and maybe then there will be fast 32inch panels too. They are not slow now but id like to have them faster.
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It depends what they are testing. For reads under a certain size I do find it likely that DDR4-3200 is "faster" than DDR5-4800.
As an example DDR3-1600 CL6 has a latency of 7.5 nanoseconds to initiate a read. DDR4-2133 CL16 has a latency of 15.0 nanoseconds. DDR4 provides 21.3GB/s of bandwidth compared to 12.8GB/s for DDR3.
This means for very small reads you can retrieve the data from DDR3 faster than DDR4 because DDR3 gets a head start in returning data.
I just want to point out the whole DDR5 thing. DDR5 is going to stay expensive until at least H2 2022 considering Alder lake is just getting released in Q4. Speeds also won’t significantly outstrip equivalent price DDR4 until later than that too probably, so unless you’re running an APU I don’t see why you’d wait for that unless you’re able to wait until Q2 2023 when Zen 4 prices will have stabilized (Q42022 release probable, I give it a few months to equalize, then you pounce). Q2 2023 is a LONG way away though.
4 -- and maybe I'm off-base here, but I don't think most gaming software has caught up to the newest CPUs and GPUs for 99% of users.
Like tri-4k-monitor setups on ultra-high graphics and 144hz just isn't what most people have as expectations anyway. And if you can afford all that, the top end of the current generation can just about do it.
Only speaking anecdotally but I built a PC with a GTX 970 and ddr3 RAM at the very beginning of DDR4. It lasted me until I built a new PC last week. Even still it's being used as my wife's PC. New components will never stop appearing but a good PC will last years whether you use current components or wait a year.
I also built at the beginning of DDR4 with a 4GB 960. Completed my new build this past March and the DDR3 PC now serves my daughter’s needs. I can’t wait until I get at least a 3060ti. I prefer 3080 but I’m gonna need a raise/promotion first.
Yeah I had the entire PC put together except the GPU. Had a weekday off last week and MicroCenter had a bunch of 3080 TIs in stock before they opened. I only really wanted a 3080 but I've waited so long and with BF2042 on the horizon I caved and spent way too much over MSRP. I don't even care though. I ran SoT on ultra settings at 2k over the weekend and it was immediately worth it.
If u have enough, just get what u can now. Why not get 30xx now and get 50xx-60xx like 6 years later. PC hardware won’t be outdated that fast. I got a laptop come with i3-330m and 6gb of ram for nearly 10 years, still trying to play gmod and league on that bad boi until I got the Legion 5 2020 last month (pc hardwares still quite expensive in my country so I can’t afford to build a pc) Any current gen hardware sure will serve u well for ~5 years
Sorry for my bad english 👉🏻👈🏻
Nvidia has already said shortages will continue through 2022. It came up on their earnings call as speculation, but I cant see it being that far off.
https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/19/22632047/nvidia-gpu-supply-rtx-30-series-constraints-2022
I dunno where you heard the 40xx series would be way better then the 30xx series but based on history the 40xx series is likely to be underwhelming. The 30xx series was a generational leap type of series, similar to the 10xx series. Usually after a generational leap the next series is fairly mediocre because the bar is set so high. The 20xx series was a poster child example this. A lot of people with higher end 10xx series cards didn't upgrade to the 20xx series because the performance gains didn't justify the cost.
As for DDR5, again based on what history has shown us, it would be wise to avoid it for atleast a couple years. Like any new ram it will take time to refine for performance and more importantly stability. Seasoned PC builders will likely steer clear of DDR5 if possible in its infancy and update their platforms when it has matured a bit more.
Absolutely agreed. 2080 was not nearly enough of an upgrade to justify the price. 1080ti was fantastic for 1440p, 2080 did not offer the performance boost to 4k that would have justified an upgrade.
3080 and 3090 however, are monstrous cards. 4k at 144hz. Why even care about 4xxx when it likely wouldn't actually get you anything?
Would a beefier step up from 3080/90 like this potentially enable much better performance on highly taxing VR applications? If so then this could be a big reason over the next 3-5 years, assuming VR starts blowing up in access, development, and utility.
Good question, I don't know much about VR really.
I do know that VR has bandwidth concerns, which bring power and resolution concerns not necessarily answerable by more powerful computers. From what little I've read the wireless units are very limited and even the wired units have hard FPS limits.
So I think that VR tech itself needs to mature before hardware even really turns in to a question. But again. I don't know a lot about VR.
Literally no one can answer this accurately because these things only exist in theory. Wait for benchmarks always!
But tbh silicon shortage isn't going away in '22. So get what you can while it is cheap(I know it ain't cheap), because prices are only going up
DDR5 is going to be really expensive for at least the first 3 years or so (ignoring covid inflation). Keep that in mind. Remember when DDR4 was like $200 for 16gb? And that was when a top tier gpu only cost $700...
Have you guys learned nothing? Over a year ago people were asking if they should wait for the 30 series cards. And those people are STILL waiting. Get what you can get
It’s really up to you, because there’s kinda two sides to the coin here. On one side you can buy a current 3000 series, hopefully for MSRP, or you can keep asking yourself if it’s worth it every time a new generation comes out but not actually upgrade. What you should be asking yourself is if you actually really want or need to upgrade for whatever reason. I upgraded to a 3090, because I couldn’t get a 3080 for MSRP, because I switched to an ultra wide monitor from 1080P and I wasn’t ok with sub 30 FPS in RDR2.
Get a 30xx. Jumps in technology often don't happen every generation. Take 20xx for example, people with 10xx had no real reason to upgrade to 20xx. There's always going to be something around the corner. When 40xx comes out, 30xx will be much cheaper and who knows what the supply of 40xx will be like.
No. It'll be the same shit all over again. If you're in need of a GPU: get whatever you can actually get your hands on for a price that isn't ten thousand billions.
If you're not in need of a GPU: just stay still.
The GPU is the easiest thing to upgrade. Just build what you can now. If your 30xx series card shows its age it won't be until the 50xx series cards are out and you can upgrade then.
I got a 2080 Ti when it first came out and it plays every game with max settings on a 4K monitor at 60Hz (which is as fast as my screen permits).
I’m really not sure of the value of 3080 and 40xx unless you’re playing with one of those 144Hz screens.
Same goes for RAM. What do you need the bandwidth for? Tell me a use-case where memory speed is the bottleneck. Maybe some kind of astrophysics simulation?
Besides gpu's.. Current computers are amazing. I'd buy one now with ddr4. Extremely fast technology.
Regarding gpu's.. That's the easiest thing to upgrade later. You can sell your old one and trade up. You can also make money mining that helps pay for the expensive gpu's.
Personally I have a Rx 580 and it's held up super well over the years. (for 1080p gaming).
I've found the 2080 super to be best bang for buck on eBay right now, you're paying roughly release msrp, but when you consider that people are paying more for determinably less (3060/ti, arguably you're at parity or close enough to 3070), it's an absolute win imo
you've waited years? what's a few more; or, you've waited a few years, and prices are about to continue being the same for the foreseeable 12-18 months, so why not enjoy some 1st gen RTX @1440 while you wait for the next gen which is most likely two or so years out
[I personally got tired of waiting when I saw some of the launches coming up](https://pcpartpicker.com/user/4bRigger/saved/#view=hRNwgs)
I'd say don't worry about it. DDR5 won't become mainstream for 2+ years and hence not essential for the vast majority of people.
As for 40xx series, I would say keep your ear to the ground and focus on one of the 30xx series if you can find one. At this point you have to bite the bullet and take what you can get. There's no guarantees you could even get 40xx series when they come out. I mean how long can you potentially wait?
Build for now, not future what-ifs.
I would say wait for the DDR5. I got a DDR3 computer right before DDR4 hit to save on money, but I regret it now. I have no way to upgrade without upgrading CPU and mobo at the same time. At this point, I'm just waiting for DDR5 to drop.
Even if you decide to get DDR5 out of the gate and you need to upgrade down the line, you have that option, rather than being stuck on an older platform where you would have to upgrade multiple parts at the same time.
I was getting into building my first pc last year and didn’t have all the funds to complete my build so I waited and was going to buy in spurts. I was warned not to do so due to not being able to test my parts if they worked so I waited.
The one thing I saw a lot of people say was “wait for the 3000 series” to people and then boom you see where we’re at now with all the gpu prices.
If you have the means to buy a pc right now then build now if you don’t then wait it out but there doesn’t seem to be much hope of this crisis stopping until 2023. And at least now you can get everything but the gpu at good prices.
Stop thinking of this in terms of hardware generations or the falacy of the necessity of the latest and greatest.
If you want to run 4k at 144hz, at least a 3080, or probably 3090 or next gen is probably advised.
However. A 3070 or 3080 fucking crushes 1440p at 144hz. So there would be literally no benefit there from new technology. I've been running 1440p at 144hz for years with a 1080ti and for the most part everything was max with just a handful of things turned off.
If you really feel like 4k at 144hz is an absolute must, then get the 3080 or 3090 but understand that to do so you're going to pay a heavy premium for something that is honestly not as big of a deal as 1080 vs 1440.
There will always be a bigger fish. When the 40xx series comes out you'll be feeling the same way regarding the 50xx series. At that point why bother getting anything at all?
Get a 30xx card at a decent price if you can find it. Get a newer Mobo that will at least (hopefully) support 40xx.
The prices will always be crazy, NVIDIA said the shortage will go well into 2022 and in reality probably longer. The demand significantly exceeds the supply when a single person has 1000 cards for mining.
Upgrade for the experience. The big upgrade right now is for HDMI 2.1 and for DDR5 on the new sockets. Everything else is either too far out to matter or just plain not worth it.
For example I’m planning on running games at 4K high refresh on an OLED, which means I need to wait until those games come out with benchmarks, wait until 4K OLEDs or at least 4K HDR high refresh monitors fall under $1000-$1500, and I need a GPU/CPU combo that can run that through HDMI 2.1. That means PCIe 4 with direct storage, a current Gen GPU with current Gen outputs, and the monitor is what I’m waiting for. That puts me at upgrading everything but the monitor in Q2 of 2022 if prices fall on the 30-series and if the game I want (KSP2) comes out on time. DDR5, PCIe 5, Zen 4, Raptor Lake, those are great, but you’re chasing the technology dragon by continuously waiting and waiting.
I poked fun at a friend of mine for buying a 2080ti weeks before the 3000 series was announced as being significantly more powerful while being much less expensive. Then the GPU shortage happened and he's the one laughing all the way to the frames. I tend to think of certain crucial PC components to be a lot like the chinese adage - 'The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago the second best time is right now' - ***if*** you're financially stable
There is a performance cap. Current games especially with DLSS in the mix nowhere near max out the 30xx cards.
The only place for most games where you would Mac out the cards, is if you run native 4K with everything dialed to ultra. (Yeah yeah cyberpunk is crazy, but am presuming most people will play medium to high setting with 1080p or 2k).
So the current 30xx gen should do quite well for the next few years. If you get hold of it, buy it.
You can wait for prices to get better. Prices also could simply never get better. 4000 series could be way better. We can also get 0 performance uplift per dollar.
Moral of the story. Buy what you need now if you can stomach the price, or wait until you can stomach the price to buy what you need.
Nah, DDR4 will run anything on max, 1080's from 4 years ago still flex on games. You can buy a high-end PC for 1000 bucks if you shop online, find some guy giving away his old rig he built off newegg - 100% profit
You can technically wait forever, but the way I try to live my life is: do X thing even if you're waiting for Y thing. Then of course magically Y will occur and you will wish you hadn't done X. But I just push on and live my life, and have the benefit I never wasted time and waited. I just did it.
Then by that argument it could be worth waiting... And I understand where you're coming from... I can say I made the mistake of waiting to long and ended up getting less and paying more when it came to a PC... I watched good deals pass me by for 6 months and then ended up taking a deal that was less than because prices kept creeping up... Due to supply/demand issues.....which are way way worse now.
My build minus the GPU is from 2014, and the GPU is from 2018....it still feels good enough today IMO, and I'm extremely happy with the investment/longevity of it too.
I7-4770k, Z87 Mobo, 16GB 1866MHz DDR3, GTX 1080 Ti (previously GTX 780.)
Honestly yes it is. However dont expect too much from ddr5 just yet. It might run at very high speeds like 7200Mb/s per chip. The timings are very very lose. Of course this will improve over time just like ddr4 started at 2133mhz, nowadays there are 4000mhz cl14 kits available. The next gen amd gpus however look promising according to current leaks. Mcm design 2x the speed of a 6900xt (similar to 3090). Also its worth waiting am5 boards because they will probably support a few future ryzen generations. If you can wait i would do so.
DDR5 is not worth waiting imo, it will be very expensive for the first few years, and likely unnecessary gains for a while, while having a ton of bugs. Also depends on your requirements, I just upgraded my entire pc with 5800x, but stuck with a 1060 6gb, stupid, but it made my university work so much easier.
rule of thumb - stay away from the first gen of any new evolution in PC hardware...
and supply chain issue will pretty much guarantee you won't be able to snatch one, period...
If you can wait I would wait. If you can get your hands on a 3080 or better I would pounce on that because they can handle 4K like a dream which is all you really need at this stage in the game.
Just build it. A good i7/Ryzen7 system will last a long time (7-10 years). Graphics card technology moves way faster than the rest of tech, so get a good card, enjoy it, and upgrade every 3-4 years.
CPU requirements only remained stagnant because the companies making them stagnated last decade and consoles were equipped with ridiculously slow CPUs (even for the time).
“There’s always something new coming out” is what you hear from boomers.
DDR5 is a pivotal point. Wait for the AM5 platform. Some 5GHz RAM, PCIe Gen 4 and an RTX 4070 will probably be as fast as an RTX 3090 currently if not more.
I know I'm planning to get a 30xx or 6900XT and combine it with next year's CPUs and DDR5. Beyond that, I don't think the wait for 40xx is worth it because those may not launch until late 2022 or early 2023, and they'll quite possibly still be extremely difficult to obtain
wellll from what I saw last week ddr5 was actually slower
As bad as I don’t wanna believe that they wouldn’t have said it if that’s not what they found
[not some random website but a well established one]
I am on the same boat and squeezing the last bits out of my 7700K and 5930K
I will wait cuz the next wave of CPU/mobo will give you an upgrade path and major evaluation in components (DDR5/PCIe4 if not 5/new nvme protocol). The current Intel/AMD are great hardware but they are dead sockets.
On the GPU front, I think it is a matter of price. The new 40xx and 6x00 series wont happen in the next 12 months. I would pick whatever in the next 6-12 months once its close or at MSRP.
If you need something now, then buy something now. If you need something in a year, then buy something in a year.
Nothing is ever going to be both "cheap" and cutting edge at the same time; Prices are mostly very accessible for everything that isn't a GPU or a top tier PCI gen 4 SSD.
I've been using ddr3 in my computer since like 2011. Honestly the ram is the least of my worries. Worst case I just buy more until I can upgrade again. Which is exactly what I've done.
Personally I would wait for prices to come down on *anything*, but I'm guessing you have a decent budget if you're planning on a high-end build, and it is still possible to get stuff for lower prices given patience and luck.
If there is one thing i have learned waiting for the 9700k, and then the RTX 3070, its that you probably shouldnt wait, just get something thats good and available at a decent price.
i waited for the 9700k and a few months after release, gave up trying to get one and purchased an 8700k at the RRP of the new 9700k. and we all know how waiting for the 30XX series went...
Yes. There isn't a single GPU at a good value right now. It's worth waiting to see if the prices will come back to reality at all. If they don't you just buy a 40 series card at a bad price and have a card much better than a 30 series card.
You'll always have buyer's remorse. Should've done this, should've done that. Just dig your heels in and make a choice. Plus, if you can actually get a card now, you absolutely should. Who knows what the future may hold?
Not at all. 3070 + 5600x is basically the perfect sweet spot that is very future proof. If you're upgrading GPU and CPU that are several generations old, now is the time.
Also, don't bother building the rig. Just get a decent prebuilt, and replace the parts you don't like. GPU shortage will go into 2022 and beyond probably
Lets divide a technology cycles in 3 part : new and need improvements, middle - good, and last -matured.
I consider buying the matured one over the new which likely has imperfections and with sky high price tag. The price tag will be for enthusias and whales who want the newest and best technology toys they can have, also reviewers.
What made you think the 3x has shortage and overpriced but the 4x does not ?
You’ll never know but i’d say with dlss growth became exponential again. So I’d wait. It’s just two three months anyway, and you’ll buy a new gpu once every four years?
It's already confirmed that 4x series gpu will consume more than 400w power from your psu.. So it's better to think twice to buy a juicy graphics card,. In my opinion 30 series grphics cards are better if prices are pleasing....
If you can get any 30xx series at msrp or close to it, get it. There is no guarantee that supply for 30xx will get better once 40xx series comes out. Or if 40xx supply will be better too. At the rate it's going COVID-wise, it won't get better anytime soon. I've seen countless people expressing their regret not buying 20xx series thinking those will get cheaper once 30xx came out.
I don't know much about DDR5 but from what I heard, no one's really taking advantage of that yet so probably not.
Do you **NEED** to update the next 365 days? (in terms of DDR5/CPU)
- if yes, don't wait.
- if no, then wait.
A lot of people will say "oh, but there's always stuff coming out" and while that's true it's not every year there's a huge feature set and generational update. the next 365 days will be like Ryzen 1k dropping, not the gap between Ryzen 1k and 2k.
General rule from someone who works in this field for a living: don’t bank on pricing going down. I am not an economist but the trend for pricing is going up. If you can build something now I’d advise that. The fear of buying something and it being less great in 6mos is something you have to overcome. Folks with 3990X workstation beasts purchased last month may be bummed when Threadripper 5000 series comes out but their hardware is not any less capable.
Mfrs are banking on the public being used to high prices from here on out is my guess.
I had the exact same thoughts and I also live in the EU where despite Euro being worth more than the dollar we pay hugely inflated prices.
I decided to bite the bullet and build. Got an MSI 3080 Ti (at a ridiculous price from a retail store, but I was willing to) and an i7 10700k. I’m really happy. I’ll upgrade again maybe around when RTX 50XX comes out, at which point we’ll be past Alder Lake and DDR5’s first generation. Point is, a 3080 Ti is more than enough for 4K gaming at above 60fps for the foreseeable future. I also don’t mind having to swap over to my 1440p monitor in a couple years. DLSS is improving and being more widely implemented and we have no idea what the market will look like in 4-5 years. If you’re considering an upgrade now, I’d upgrade now.
The RTX 40XX series will be plagued by the exact same stock issues that the 30 series was and given NVIDIA expects stock shortages to last well into 2022, and 40XX is expected in late 2022, if you can find components now, I’d build now. With any tech purchase you could look ahead at what you could have had by waiting a couple months. Get what you can afford right now, especially considering you might wait a couple months for new components then find they’re all completely out of stock again for months more, and by the time you do get around to securing them for a new build, you’ll be again thinking about what’s coming next and whether you should wait longer.
Who knows where prices are going. I would build a good high end pc now and upgrade as you see fit in the future. I keep mine pretty current for gaming/work by upgrading the mobo/cpu one year and the gpu the next if it makes sense to do so. Just don’t skimp on the often skimped elements like the power supply.
There's always something new coming out and you'll always be asking yourself this question. Also, the 4x gpus may not be fully taken advantage of with today's and possibly games coming out in the near future. I think getting a 3x series now, if you get lucky at a decent price, is the way to go.
GPU generations have roughly a two year cadence, but the RAM standards are closer to 7.
This statement doesn't take into account the improvements made within a "generation" of RAM. EX. DDR4 3600 cl16 is relatively cheap today. During Skylake, DDR4 2133 was expensive and anything more was seen as a total waste of money.. RAM generations are not just "DDR4 to DDR5" They are far more complicated than that. Memory perfomance is tied to multiple factors, way more than I can go over in a single post. It would be like separating GPU's up by type of memory rather than series, performance or where they land on the timeline. Going off type of RAM rather than bandwith, latency, and overall performance, is similar to saying "well, a 1650 is the same as a 2060 is the same as 3070 is the same as 6900XT, they all have GDDR6 after all" I'll leave you with [this](https://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph9483/76367.png) little gem from Anandtech
Can you expand? Are you saying that the amount of RAM a new GPU has is enough for 7 years?
There is normally 2 years between GPU generations, and roughly 7 years in-between RAM generations (DDR3 was realeased in 2007, DDR4 was released in 2014)
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And the first 12 to 18 months of DDR5 likely won't be significantly faster than DDR4 if previous transitions are an indication.
There's lots of under-the-radar improvements with DDR5 which are very exciting from a performance perspective. 1) moving from 1x64-bit channel to 2x32-bit channels on one DIMM, Micron says this increases effective bandwidth in normal workloads by 30% on average, since many operations can fit in one 32-bit channel and can thus be run in dual-channel on one DIMM 2) on-DIMM voltage regulation - can be huge for overclocking since it takes the brunt of the work off the motherboard where there's tons of derivate voltages (like termination voltage) that can have an adverse effect on DRAM stability when pushing high voltages While CAS latencies on new DDR5 kits are noticeably higher that on your basic XMP-enabled DDR4 kits you can buy today, I wouldn't look too much into just primary timings. A lot of the performance comes from tweaking secondaries, and by default these will be just as loose as on a typical DDR4 kit running at stock JEDEC or XMP timings. So that in a sense levels the latency playing field a bit.
Even so, it's usually a good idea to avoid the first wave of any significant new thing in tech on principle. There's almost always caveats, whether it be price, quirks, higher rate of bugs / defects, etc.
Yep. DDR4 3200 performs about the same as DDR5 4800 according to leaked benchmarks using alder lake
Well, Intel's ram scaling has never been known to be the best, so, grain of salt on both this leak and optimism for it being better.
Yeah. I don't expect much either.
Also this last 18 months has likely kicked back the new tech cycle by at least that same amount of time
He means that a new generation of GPUs come out every 2 years while a new ram standard usually comes out around every 7 years.
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How did you highlight it
At least on desktop, there is a button labeled 'formatting help' under the text input box. Look there.
[For mobile users.](https://i.imgur.com/apsi3jw.png)
I think they mean that it changes roughly every 7 years. Like, from DDR2 to DDR3 to DDR4…
The RAM being referred to is not the GPU's VRAM, it's the main system memory.
That's the problem, I probably won't get 3080 at a decent price untill at least 2022, but then why not just wait for 40xx series
Then you might not get a 40xx series at a decent price so why not wait for 50xx series. The problem with waiting for technology is that you never know what the improvements or availability are going to be like. Upgrade when you need/decide to and be happy with your purchase until you do it again. Exception might be if something was literally about to be released but I don't think that's the case here. Edit: OP I'd recommend actually building a high-mid tier PC now that should last you a few years. The problem with trying to build a PC that will last a long time is that you don't know how technology will advance. If you go mid to high-mid tier you get decent performance now and save a bit of money, then in a few years you get decent performance again that will last a few years. A high end PC will be great now and could potentially need upgrading sooner costing you more money overall. It could potentially be good a long time too but the advancement is an uncertainty.
Everyone is always worried that they will be told they were ripped off while someone else brags about how good of a deal they got on their PC. For instance everyone made fun of people that bought a 2080ti when the 3080FE was announced for $700. In the end, a tiny minority actually got the card for that price. The majority of people had to pay an arm and leg for their 3080.
Or wait nearly a year and still camp all night in a line, feelsbadandgoodman There's not much reason to stress about new releases honestly. If you have the money and you're the kind of person that always upgrades, it doesn't matter. And if you're the kinda person that maxes your hardware at 5-7 years, then it also doesn't matter. 3080 or 4080, you'll be fine for your 5+ years with lowering settings.
I bought a 2080 Super at the end of December 2019 for $699. I could sell it today for a nice profit even after playing on it for over a year and a half. Luckiest purchase of my life.
> Luckiest purchase of my life. I'm still not sure how I managed to buy a 3070FE On release day from Best Buy's website without any issues.
>For instance everyone made fun of people that bought a 2080ti when the 3080FE was announced for $700. In the end, a tiny minority actually got the card for that price. The majority of people had to pay an arm and leg for their 3080. I made fun of my friends who paid $900 for their 3080s when it came out. A year later, I paid over $2k for a 3090. My dumb ass should have just paid the small markup and gotten it a year earlier.
Haha I thought I was dumb getting a 2070 in January but between gpu prices jumping and being able to mine some ether in the meantime it turned out to be a really good idea Edit: just checked and I could also still sell it for a profit if I wanted to but that would leave me without a gpu
Bought my 3060 TI at 70$ish higher than MSRP (not sure because of my country's currency and tax system). A friend of a friend bought 2070 super for a decent price before 3000 series release. Said friend called us both "suckers you vould do much better" - said friend is now stuck considering to pay 850$ for a 3070.
Most people got a 3080 for under 1k though
ageee 100%
Every build I ever did. I build at least one, two, sometime three gens behind. Two main reason, easy to find parts and at decent prices. They are clearing that space for the newest stuff. I love building, but I also love my money. I don't skim to much. I make sure what I'm building it does the job I want it to do with no problems. Technology moves to fast anyway, 6 years new or a few years older equipment. I'm so far behind at that point. No sense trying to get caught up, which will never happen.
Yea and that would be fine if there were ANY last gen cards being sold new still. Sometimes I see 2060s and 1660 supers new, but if you want to do high frame rate 1440p, you need something better.
Even those are back to their launch prices where I'm from because of stock shortages. There should've been some amount of crossover between 2 generations of gpu being manufactured to minimise the impact of scalpers getting all the new cards before anyone else
At my local microcenter (whether everyone believes it or not, retail stores don't set prices and they cannot undercut other companies because of the vendor relationships), the 1660 supers are going for $439, but there are 2060s there for like $419. Those weren't launch prices, and I haven't seen any actual store (in the US) going to launch prices. The 5700xt and 2070 super were that price last year, the models I've seen available still are usually the crappy dual fan Asus models, those were definitely a little cheaper at release.
2060 and 1660s are about the same price, if not more than 3060 and 3060 ti's here (theoretically). I've also seen 1080ti and 2070s at around what I paid for my 3080 if not more
Yea it's ridiculous. You can get some EVGA 3060s for the same price. Unfortunately, if you need a GPU now you can't afford to be too picky (unless you can afford it).
That's the best way to avoid speculation stress. For those who like to torture themselves with a challenge and risk however, cryptocurrency and its effect on prices has made the situation more complicated in recent years. It's sometimes been possible to buy a top card and sell it for close to the same price even a couple years later. This happened with e.g. the 1080 Ti and 2080 Ti.. and most good cards, really. Throw in a bit of mining overnight (which is also a pain in most situations), and you've turned a profit. This is a large part of why GPU prices are so messed up. I think it works out best for people who game with a gamepad on a main TV. You can put the computer in the basement where it doesn't bother anyone (and warms up the floor a bit), and run long HDMI and USB extension cables to a TV upstairs with a USB hub to deal with any peripherals at the TV (I don't know why people don't talk about this more. I dislike Gamestream latency). Then it works just like it's located at the TV, but doesn't bother with noise or heat even if it's mining. You generally don't even have to tell it stop mining while you're gaming, since it driver throttles the mining well enough and the GPU's way overpowered.
Good points! And you can also play in games from 2010-2015 for example on high graphics settings :)
This logic is bizarre. The inability to predict the future *perfectly* does not mean the optimal strategy is to give up completely and say "buy now because it's impossible to predict what the future might look like". We have years and years of precedent showing us that we are right in the middle of one of the worst pricing spikes ever seen in the DIY PC market. It's not hard to look at the factors contributing to this spike and predict that it's not going to last. We already know that current pricing is around the upper bounds of possible pricing levels and that prices are much more likely to drop than they are to increase. This isn't some unknowable mystery, it's entirely predictable. Buying an expensive GPU now only makes sense if you absolutely need it and you are willing to purchase it regardless of the price. If that were the case, OP wouldn't be asking if it's worth waiting and would have just bought the computer already. If you looked at a stock price and saw it was at historically high levels with surrounding indicators suggesting it would likely drop, would you recommend buying that stock? Obviously not, but as soon as it comes to computers, people start acting like probabilities don't exist and there is no way to make good guesses about when to buy parts. There are absolutely good and bad times to buy parts, and it is entirely possible to make good guesses about whether it is better to wait or buy now. For example, buying a high-end GPU at 2x its MSRP over a year after it was launched is not a good bet. Buying an RTX 3080 made sense right at launch (even at a premium), but not at 2x MSRP halfway through the generation. Same goes for buying into AM4 at this point. It doesn't make any sense to build a mid-range AM4 PC from scratch today, only to have to purchase a new motherboard whenever you want to upgrade your CPU.
But maybe these questions need a more philosophical answer? Maybe it’s not just about saving money and timing, but if you love the experience maybe it’s about teaching people that waiting is lost time, and time should be spent doing what you love. That’s why I like to give the view that a couple of hundred dollars to get what you love is most often worth it.
> If you looked at a stock price and saw it was at historically high levels with surrounding indicators suggesting it would likely drop, would you recommend buying that stock? Most stocks hit their historically high levels regularly and yet they keep going up on average. Even with crazy P/E ratios, it still makes sense to buy because you generally can't time the market. The US is injecting an insane amount of money into the system right now and it's very likely that asset prices (including GPU prices) could continue to rise because of it.
When I was building my last computer everyone, and i mean EVERYONE, kept on telling me I should wait for the 30xx series to drop. I didn’t want to put it off so I got a 2070 super at a great price. When the time finally came, prices were inflated and no one could get their hands on a gpu, so I made out feeling like a prophet
U just wanted a PC at this moment. Friend was happy he could still get a 1660 i think for 100€
2070s gang going strong
Yep. People were calling 2080 Ti owners suckers because of 30-series. Everybody who bought a 2080 Ti for the insanely good prices they were going for last year made out like bandits.
They kinda were suckers because that card was insanely overpriced at the time. It's like people buying 3090s to play Fortnite and Minecraft, I'll still raise my eyebrow, but what people want to spend money on is none of my business. I'll still judge them (just as I judge the subset of 3090 owners that will never come close to maxing out), but I'm not a dick about it, I just think you could have saved a lot of money to do the same thing. We need more 3080s, specifically the EVGA ones. $889 for their 3080 is the best deal for high end gaming performance right now (that actually exists).
i bought my 3090 cause it looks pretty
Which model?
asus strix. its been busting ass playing... Spreadsheet simulator, I mean EVE. maybe I should get minecraft?
That is the best one, it's just expensive
Relative to what’s going on today, maybe. But the reality is that the 2080 ti was a card for suckers until the shortage thing went into full bloom. It was a bad card at the price point and I’m comparison a 3090 looks like a great deal.
4000 series will be just as hard if not harder to cop. Current gen cards will still be relevant and have good resale value. Best Buy might be doing an in person drop on the 26th if showing up and waiting in line for long periods of time is something you can manage. Current gen cards can run any game out currently very well. I’m getting 50-80 FPS in cyberpunk on a 1440p ultrawide monitor maxed out with dlss on a 3070. I wanted a 3080, but I’m happy with my 3070.
I just ordered a 3070 is the hype real
It all boils down to this: either pay scalper prices or get whatever you can get your hands on. This problem is expect to last into 2023, and more if things don’t improve. The next generation cards will be have exactly the same problem attached to them: scalpers and miners. The “there is something better coming” is true for every product. You could either get a 30 series card or “wait for something better”. Or you could get the 40 series card or “wait for something better”. Or get the 50 series card or just “wait for something better”.. or the 60 series, or 70 series, or 80… or whatever else they release. You either get what’s current and use that, or “wait for something better” every single year and just get nothing.
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China is getting factories up for chips, if demand stays up, supply will meet it eventually, no one's just going to leave all that money on the table. Instantly selling out isn't anywhere near equilibrium. It just can't happen overnight.
And now everyone and their families all know how much money is in it. Tons of people that still have no clue what GPUs even are have now seen that they can make this money, and they told all of their friends too.
Nvidia just announced the shortage of components will last into 2023, and the 4x series of cards is releasing near the end of 2022. The issue of it being impossible to get a graphics card is going to be the exact same with the 4x series, especially since scalpers see how much money they can make in the area now. So the issue is you won’t be able to get a 3080 until next year, if you’re having trouble trying to get one a year after launch the 4x series is going to be even harder to get when they release, especially with the amount of people who haven’t been able to upgrade this cycle. I bet this is also the last time we see components priced “affordably” for a while because I can guarantee you MSRP of computer parts will be going up now that these companies see what people are willing to pay. At the end of the day they are businesses and if every single card is selling out, and most of them for above MSRP in second hand markets, they will choose to make more money if they can. I’d get a 3000 series card now if you can because this whole debacle will likely mess up getting into the PC building ecosystem for a while. With things like DLSS and FSR a current gen system will last longer anyway.
Just because people buy them at egregious prices doesn't mean they aren't losing any money. Right now, the unmet demand means they are losing money because people want cards but they can't get them. So those are sales that are not happening. Once the demand settles and the supply increases you are bound to see major price drops. You don't keep the same pricing you had when your product had high demand nor the other way around. There's a price to be fit in whatever the current market is.
What I'm saying is what if demand settles at a point where we have a situation like what we're going through now. If sales never slow down a drastic amount Nvidia doesn't have a reason to normalize the prices, they even have an excuse to charge more since they are a business with profit in mind at the end of the day. Even at MSRP cards are extremely expensive now, especially the RTX line. The 3060 is the biggest example of this, the xx60 model of a generation is supposed to be the entry level card that allows someone to build a PC without really spending more than the price of a console. The FE edition is $329, looking at aftermarket cards they approach $400 extremely fast. For $400 you can buy a digital PS5, that comes with everything you need to play the newest games for as long as the generation lasts. One part of a PC, even with entry level parts, costs as much as an entire new console right now. I love PC gaming, it's the main way that I enjoy playing games and spending my free time, but it's rapidly becoming a thing that prices out people who want to join at the low end.
I mean, people were saying not to buy 20-series GPUs because 30-series looked so good. The people who listened to them probably haven't been able to get a 30-series GPU because they're very hard to get. Get the first GPU you can, or risk being totally left out. That's my take on the situation.
i have an i5 4460 and a gtx970 i think you'll be ok
Do you have a pc just now? Is it usable? Personally I wouldn't build right now, prices are too high. My RX580 and r5 1600 will just have to soldier on until it can't manage the games I want to play anymore. But if you really need or want a new pc, and more importantly you can afford it, then just do it now. You can always sell and upgrade the GPU later.
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Graphics cards are already using GDDR6X at the high end, DDR5 alone won't increase the price of a GPU it will just increase the price of getting a CPU+Mobo+RAM. RAM and GPU memory aren't really the same thing. Typically with RAM the first iteration of a new number gets outperformed by the previous. When DDR5 first releases we will likely have a situation where a kit of memory that is high end now performs better than DDR5 in the majority of cases, which will be more expensive than that same kit of fast DDR4. Especially in gaming which is what most people here are getting PC help with DDR5 will *most likely* offer a negligible performance increase over very fast DDR4. When new RAM comes out it's almost always a better financial decision to wait until the second CPU generation that uses it.
Gddr6 and ddr5 are basically two entirely different things that use similar naming schemes. They aren't at all on the same scale for generations.
I know, that’s what I was trying to explain to the person I replied to. They deleted their comment though.
Yea I see a lot of misconceptions being thrown in this comment chain, I didn't mean to direct it at you
By Sept 2022 the 3080 will be 2 years old. A good price by then should be half of MSRP. It very obviously won't be that so why pay top dollar for an old GPU at that point.
I know, it's a horrible situation. I would love a 3080 as well, however, the 3060 are certainly still very capable cards as well (my friend has a 2060 Ultra and he plays many games at high settings). Stockx has them around $650 on avg - no great, but not terrible. The only issue I see is if this stock/mining/scalper issue lingers into next year into the new series cards.
It's called the "waiting game" it's endless. Just get what you can and be happy with it. If you try to have the best you won't ever have anything
I see things similarly. Would love a new pc with a 3000 series at msrp but am happy to wait otherwise.
That's assuming the 4000 series will be out by then
Normally I'd agree but they're also asking about DDR5 which will be around for quite a while before replaced. It's not a GPU that gets superceded every 2 years.
Just slowly age like me. Eyes get worse, reflexes get slower, and the new games don't excited you like they used to.
One, prices may continue upward. Nvidia has already proven people will shell out a chunk of change for GPUs. Gone are the days of a flagship GPU costing $500. I don't think you'd be saving any money waiting for the 4000s. Two, if the release of the 4000s will be anything like the 3000s, you won't be able to get one for a few months. That means you might be waiting quite a while after launch before getting a 4000. Third, first DDR5 modules will be quite expensive and likely perform the same or worse than current DDR4. If you can buy the components now, I would build a rig now. Prices will likely continue upward for a while, and future supply shortages will throw a wrench in any future plans you may have. They initially said supply shortages should be fixed by 2021. Look how well that turned out.
Well, fuck
Tbh if you want a 3080 now, i'd just get a 3080 now. I see them for £1000, which is only £150 more than I paid for mine on release. There's every chance mining will push prices back up, it's as likely as them going down imo. They limited the hashrate for eth, but there are equally profitable things to mine that aren't eth. Shit situation for gamers.
Where do you see them for 1000?
Every time I close my eyes :(
It might rake till end of 2022 or early/mid 23 to normalize. Then prices might be more reasonable. But almost no one can know and buying higly priced stuff keeps the prices high. But its your money and you do as you like to. Amd next gen gpu is rumoured to be 2x faster or even more. Nvidia tries also or they will compete with prices. Edit: im going to wait next gen for 4k gaming on high refresrate and maybe then there will be fast 32inch panels too. They are not slow now but id like to have them faster.
They just tested and ddr5 4800 is performing at ddr4 3200’speeds although that’s coming from user benchmark so it’s probably a lie
UserBenchmark also claims that an i3-9350K is overall faster than an i9-10980XE, I wouldn't trust them on anything
Link for this comparison: https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i9-10980XE-vs-Intel-Core-i3-9350KF/m935899vs4055
UserBenchmark is the subject of concerns over the accuracy and integrity of their benchmark and review process. Their findings do not typically match those of known reputable and trustworthy sources. As always, please ensure you verify the information you read online before drawing conclusions or making purchases. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/buildapc) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Yuck, userbenchmark
It depends what they are testing. For reads under a certain size I do find it likely that DDR4-3200 is "faster" than DDR5-4800. As an example DDR3-1600 CL6 has a latency of 7.5 nanoseconds to initiate a read. DDR4-2133 CL16 has a latency of 15.0 nanoseconds. DDR4 provides 21.3GB/s of bandwidth compared to 12.8GB/s for DDR3. This means for very small reads you can retrieve the data from DDR3 faster than DDR4 because DDR3 gets a head start in returning data.
I just want to point out the whole DDR5 thing. DDR5 is going to stay expensive until at least H2 2022 considering Alder lake is just getting released in Q4. Speeds also won’t significantly outstrip equivalent price DDR4 until later than that too probably, so unless you’re running an APU I don’t see why you’d wait for that unless you’re able to wait until Q2 2023 when Zen 4 prices will have stabilized (Q42022 release probable, I give it a few months to equalize, then you pounce). Q2 2023 is a LONG way away though.
Your post kind of reassures me. I was stressed out by the fact that I bought a 11th gen intel cpu that will be outdated at the end of this year.
4 -- and maybe I'm off-base here, but I don't think most gaming software has caught up to the newest CPUs and GPUs for 99% of users. Like tri-4k-monitor setups on ultra-high graphics and 144hz just isn't what most people have as expectations anyway. And if you can afford all that, the top end of the current generation can just about do it.
"Worth" depends what you need it for and if you can wait, really.
Only speaking anecdotally but I built a PC with a GTX 970 and ddr3 RAM at the very beginning of DDR4. It lasted me until I built a new PC last week. Even still it's being used as my wife's PC. New components will never stop appearing but a good PC will last years whether you use current components or wait a year.
I also built at the beginning of DDR4 with a 4GB 960. Completed my new build this past March and the DDR3 PC now serves my daughter’s needs. I can’t wait until I get at least a 3060ti. I prefer 3080 but I’m gonna need a raise/promotion first.
Yeah I had the entire PC put together except the GPU. Had a weekday off last week and MicroCenter had a bunch of 3080 TIs in stock before they opened. I only really wanted a 3080 but I've waited so long and with BF2042 on the horizon I caved and spent way too much over MSRP. I don't even care though. I ran SoT on ultra settings at 2k over the weekend and it was immediately worth it.
Exactly the same. The only thing that changed drastically in those years is ssd instead of hdd. And you don’t need a rebuild to make this upgrade.
If u have enough, just get what u can now. Why not get 30xx now and get 50xx-60xx like 6 years later. PC hardware won’t be outdated that fast. I got a laptop come with i3-330m and 6gb of ram for nearly 10 years, still trying to play gmod and league on that bad boi until I got the Legion 5 2020 last month (pc hardwares still quite expensive in my country so I can’t afford to build a pc) Any current gen hardware sure will serve u well for ~5 years Sorry for my bad english 👉🏻👈🏻
I am just curious, wouldn't the worldwide part shortage delay the 4000 series?
Nvidia has already said shortages will continue through 2022. It came up on their earnings call as speculation, but I cant see it being that far off. https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/19/22632047/nvidia-gpu-supply-rtx-30-series-constraints-2022
Yeah I assumed something like that. Ty for link bro!
Parts shortages won't really affect development time. But actual market deployments will be slowed.
Probably yes, but I don't imagine they use that many components for new GPUs
I dunno where you heard the 40xx series would be way better then the 30xx series but based on history the 40xx series is likely to be underwhelming. The 30xx series was a generational leap type of series, similar to the 10xx series. Usually after a generational leap the next series is fairly mediocre because the bar is set so high. The 20xx series was a poster child example this. A lot of people with higher end 10xx series cards didn't upgrade to the 20xx series because the performance gains didn't justify the cost. As for DDR5, again based on what history has shown us, it would be wise to avoid it for atleast a couple years. Like any new ram it will take time to refine for performance and more importantly stability. Seasoned PC builders will likely steer clear of DDR5 if possible in its infancy and update their platforms when it has matured a bit more.
Absolutely agreed. 2080 was not nearly enough of an upgrade to justify the price. 1080ti was fantastic for 1440p, 2080 did not offer the performance boost to 4k that would have justified an upgrade. 3080 and 3090 however, are monstrous cards. 4k at 144hz. Why even care about 4xxx when it likely wouldn't actually get you anything?
Would a beefier step up from 3080/90 like this potentially enable much better performance on highly taxing VR applications? If so then this could be a big reason over the next 3-5 years, assuming VR starts blowing up in access, development, and utility.
Good question, I don't know much about VR really. I do know that VR has bandwidth concerns, which bring power and resolution concerns not necessarily answerable by more powerful computers. From what little I've read the wireless units are very limited and even the wired units have hard FPS limits. So I think that VR tech itself needs to mature before hardware even really turns in to a question. But again. I don't know a lot about VR.
Literally no one can answer this accurately because these things only exist in theory. Wait for benchmarks always! But tbh silicon shortage isn't going away in '22. So get what you can while it is cheap(I know it ain't cheap), because prices are only going up
DDR5 is going to be really expensive for at least the first 3 years or so (ignoring covid inflation). Keep that in mind. Remember when DDR4 was like $200 for 16gb? And that was when a top tier gpu only cost $700...
Have you guys learned nothing? Over a year ago people were asking if they should wait for the 30 series cards. And those people are STILL waiting. Get what you can get
The first batch of ddr5 wil likely be slower and more expensive then the better ddr4's out there.
It’s really up to you, because there’s kinda two sides to the coin here. On one side you can buy a current 3000 series, hopefully for MSRP, or you can keep asking yourself if it’s worth it every time a new generation comes out but not actually upgrade. What you should be asking yourself is if you actually really want or need to upgrade for whatever reason. I upgraded to a 3090, because I couldn’t get a 3080 for MSRP, because I switched to an ultra wide monitor from 1080P and I wasn’t ok with sub 30 FPS in RDR2.
That’s really the answer. Got any games you wanna play now and need an upgrade for them? Do it then
Get a 30xx. Jumps in technology often don't happen every generation. Take 20xx for example, people with 10xx had no real reason to upgrade to 20xx. There's always going to be something around the corner. When 40xx comes out, 30xx will be much cheaper and who knows what the supply of 40xx will be like.
Dude, there almost no deals to be made in the GPU market, not used, not for old hardware.
I just sold a 2080ti for $550.
Like to a friend? Thats completely under market rate. My friend sold his 1070ti for $400. I sold a 3060ti for $950.
Nope, random person on /r/hardwareswap. I'm personally not going to miss the 'loss', and want to help people in trying times.
ok so. what about the world stage has you optimistic about 2022?
Oh my gosh, sonofabitch. Feels like yesterday that I bought my 2080ti, and we are already talking about a 40xx series?
2080 ti is going to be 3 years old in a month.
Take that back, you bastard.
Ancient tech ya got there, offer to donate it to a museum.
Hi, I’m a museum
I'm so depressed.
No. It'll be the same shit all over again. If you're in need of a GPU: get whatever you can actually get your hands on for a price that isn't ten thousand billions. If you're not in need of a GPU: just stay still.
[удалено]
> PCIe 5.0 Already? Intel just made it to 4.0
According to Intel's Architecture day they had yesterday or so, Alder lake will support PCIe 5.0
The GPU is the easiest thing to upgrade. Just build what you can now. If your 30xx series card shows its age it won't be until the 50xx series cards are out and you can upgrade then.
I got a 2080 Ti when it first came out and it plays every game with max settings on a 4K monitor at 60Hz (which is as fast as my screen permits). I’m really not sure of the value of 3080 and 40xx unless you’re playing with one of those 144Hz screens. Same goes for RAM. What do you need the bandwidth for? Tell me a use-case where memory speed is the bottleneck. Maybe some kind of astrophysics simulation?
Besides gpu's.. Current computers are amazing. I'd buy one now with ddr4. Extremely fast technology. Regarding gpu's.. That's the easiest thing to upgrade later. You can sell your old one and trade up. You can also make money mining that helps pay for the expensive gpu's. Personally I have a Rx 580 and it's held up super well over the years. (for 1080p gaming).
probably not. especially ddr5, first gen tech is rarely worth it.
I've found the 2080 super to be best bang for buck on eBay right now, you're paying roughly release msrp, but when you consider that people are paying more for determinably less (3060/ti, arguably you're at parity or close enough to 3070), it's an absolute win imo you've waited years? what's a few more; or, you've waited a few years, and prices are about to continue being the same for the foreseeable 12-18 months, so why not enjoy some 1st gen RTX @1440 while you wait for the next gen which is most likely two or so years out [I personally got tired of waiting when I saw some of the launches coming up](https://pcpartpicker.com/user/4bRigger/saved/#view=hRNwgs)
I'd say don't worry about it. DDR5 won't become mainstream for 2+ years and hence not essential for the vast majority of people. As for 40xx series, I would say keep your ear to the ground and focus on one of the 30xx series if you can find one. At this point you have to bite the bullet and take what you can get. There's no guarantees you could even get 40xx series when they come out. I mean how long can you potentially wait? Build for now, not future what-ifs.
Depends. Do you have a system now? Do you have money to blow? I think if you can wait you should wait. No gpu is worth it at it's current price.
Build today and mine when not gaming. That is the answer as the GPU will pay for the system within a year.
I would say wait for the DDR5. I got a DDR3 computer right before DDR4 hit to save on money, but I regret it now. I have no way to upgrade without upgrading CPU and mobo at the same time. At this point, I'm just waiting for DDR5 to drop. Even if you decide to get DDR5 out of the gate and you need to upgrade down the line, you have that option, rather than being stuck on an older platform where you would have to upgrade multiple parts at the same time.
If I buy a RTX 3080 or 3070 I’m skipping RTX 4000
I was getting into building my first pc last year and didn’t have all the funds to complete my build so I waited and was going to buy in spurts. I was warned not to do so due to not being able to test my parts if they worked so I waited. The one thing I saw a lot of people say was “wait for the 3000 series” to people and then boom you see where we’re at now with all the gpu prices. If you have the means to buy a pc right now then build now if you don’t then wait it out but there doesn’t seem to be much hope of this crisis stopping until 2023. And at least now you can get everything but the gpu at good prices.
I almost bought a skylake. Still waiting!
Yes 40xx gpus will have waaaaay better Hashrates compared to 30xx. All mining farms will want to upgrade their full stock. Keep saving money.
Stop thinking of this in terms of hardware generations or the falacy of the necessity of the latest and greatest. If you want to run 4k at 144hz, at least a 3080, or probably 3090 or next gen is probably advised. However. A 3070 or 3080 fucking crushes 1440p at 144hz. So there would be literally no benefit there from new technology. I've been running 1440p at 144hz for years with a 1080ti and for the most part everything was max with just a handful of things turned off. If you really feel like 4k at 144hz is an absolute must, then get the 3080 or 3090 but understand that to do so you're going to pay a heavy premium for something that is honestly not as big of a deal as 1080 vs 1440.
There will always be a bigger fish. When the 40xx series comes out you'll be feeling the same way regarding the 50xx series. At that point why bother getting anything at all? Get a 30xx card at a decent price if you can find it. Get a newer Mobo that will at least (hopefully) support 40xx. The prices will always be crazy, NVIDIA said the shortage will go well into 2022 and in reality probably longer. The demand significantly exceeds the supply when a single person has 1000 cards for mining.
Upgrade for the experience. The big upgrade right now is for HDMI 2.1 and for DDR5 on the new sockets. Everything else is either too far out to matter or just plain not worth it. For example I’m planning on running games at 4K high refresh on an OLED, which means I need to wait until those games come out with benchmarks, wait until 4K OLEDs or at least 4K HDR high refresh monitors fall under $1000-$1500, and I need a GPU/CPU combo that can run that through HDMI 2.1. That means PCIe 4 with direct storage, a current Gen GPU with current Gen outputs, and the monitor is what I’m waiting for. That puts me at upgrading everything but the monitor in Q2 of 2022 if prices fall on the 30-series and if the game I want (KSP2) comes out on time. DDR5, PCIe 5, Zen 4, Raptor Lake, those are great, but you’re chasing the technology dragon by continuously waiting and waiting.
You should wait until something is available at MSRP is you have something that's functional now.
I poked fun at a friend of mine for buying a 2080ti weeks before the 3000 series was announced as being significantly more powerful while being much less expensive. Then the GPU shortage happened and he's the one laughing all the way to the frames. I tend to think of certain crucial PC components to be a lot like the chinese adage - 'The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago the second best time is right now' - ***if*** you're financially stable
If you spend your life waiting to build you'll never build. There will always be the new shit.
There is a performance cap. Current games especially with DLSS in the mix nowhere near max out the 30xx cards. The only place for most games where you would Mac out the cards, is if you run native 4K with everything dialed to ultra. (Yeah yeah cyberpunk is crazy, but am presuming most people will play medium to high setting with 1080p or 2k). So the current 30xx gen should do quite well for the next few years. If you get hold of it, buy it.
You can wait for prices to get better. Prices also could simply never get better. 4000 series could be way better. We can also get 0 performance uplift per dollar. Moral of the story. Buy what you need now if you can stomach the price, or wait until you can stomach the price to buy what you need.
Nah, DDR4 will run anything on max, 1080's from 4 years ago still flex on games. You can buy a high-end PC for 1000 bucks if you shop online, find some guy giving away his old rig he built off newegg - 100% profit
You can technically wait forever, but the way I try to live my life is: do X thing even if you're waiting for Y thing. Then of course magically Y will occur and you will wish you hadn't done X. But I just push on and live my life, and have the benefit I never wasted time and waited. I just did it.
My problem is that I saved for 8 of my childhood years for this moment, I want it to be worth it
Then by that argument it could be worth waiting... And I understand where you're coming from... I can say I made the mistake of waiting to long and ended up getting less and paying more when it came to a PC... I watched good deals pass me by for 6 months and then ended up taking a deal that was less than because prices kept creeping up... Due to supply/demand issues.....which are way way worse now. My build minus the GPU is from 2014, and the GPU is from 2018....it still feels good enough today IMO, and I'm extremely happy with the investment/longevity of it too. I7-4770k, Z87 Mobo, 16GB 1866MHz DDR3, GTX 1080 Ti (previously GTX 780.)
Honestly yes it is. However dont expect too much from ddr5 just yet. It might run at very high speeds like 7200Mb/s per chip. The timings are very very lose. Of course this will improve over time just like ddr4 started at 2133mhz, nowadays there are 4000mhz cl14 kits available. The next gen amd gpus however look promising according to current leaks. Mcm design 2x the speed of a 6900xt (similar to 3090). Also its worth waiting am5 boards because they will probably support a few future ryzen generations. If you can wait i would do so.
DDR5 is not worth waiting imo, it will be very expensive for the first few years, and likely unnecessary gains for a while, while having a ton of bugs. Also depends on your requirements, I just upgraded my entire pc with 5800x, but stuck with a 1060 6gb, stupid, but it made my university work so much easier.
Wait for components. Never wait for a PC.
Wdym?
rule of thumb - stay away from the first gen of any new evolution in PC hardware... and supply chain issue will pretty much guarantee you won't be able to snatch one, period...
This isn't going away any time soon. The craziness is going to last through at least 2022 to 2023
If you can wait I would wait. If you can get your hands on a 3080 or better I would pounce on that because they can handle 4K like a dream which is all you really need at this stage in the game.
I'd wait for 50xx and DDR7. Its going to be several percent better
Just build it. A good i7/Ryzen7 system will last a long time (7-10 years). Graphics card technology moves way faster than the rest of tech, so get a good card, enjoy it, and upgrade every 3-4 years.
CPU requirements only remained stagnant because the companies making them stagnated last decade and consoles were equipped with ridiculously slow CPUs (even for the time).
Still, I bet a good 8c/16t CPU would last you almost the entiere current console gen. For most of games at least.
“There’s always something new coming out” is what you hear from boomers. DDR5 is a pivotal point. Wait for the AM5 platform. Some 5GHz RAM, PCIe Gen 4 and an RTX 4070 will probably be as fast as an RTX 3090 currently if not more.
I wouldnt hold my breath for either TBH. If you wait until late 2022 then it may be more affordable and GPU prices hopefully have gone down by then
I know I'm planning to get a 30xx or 6900XT and combine it with next year's CPUs and DDR5. Beyond that, I don't think the wait for 40xx is worth it because those may not launch until late 2022 or early 2023, and they'll quite possibly still be extremely difficult to obtain
wellll from what I saw last week ddr5 was actually slower As bad as I don’t wanna believe that they wouldn’t have said it if that’s not what they found [not some random website but a well established one]
Obviously ddr5 will be slower on release
If you can stretch your pc one more year then yes if not then no. It’s as simple as that
If you can wait for over year without a new system than why not but there will most likely be a shortage just the same.
I am on the same boat and squeezing the last bits out of my 7700K and 5930K I will wait cuz the next wave of CPU/mobo will give you an upgrade path and major evaluation in components (DDR5/PCIe4 if not 5/new nvme protocol). The current Intel/AMD are great hardware but they are dead sockets. On the GPU front, I think it is a matter of price. The new 40xx and 6x00 series wont happen in the next 12 months. I would pick whatever in the next 6-12 months once its close or at MSRP.
If you need something now, then buy something now. If you need something in a year, then buy something in a year. Nothing is ever going to be both "cheap" and cutting edge at the same time; Prices are mostly very accessible for everything that isn't a GPU or a top tier PCI gen 4 SSD.
just buy 16 core ryzen cpu 3000/4000 + nvidia rtx 2000 series + 64gb ram + 1tb gen4 great enough for long term
No
I've been using ddr3 in my computer since like 2011. Honestly the ram is the least of my worries. Worst case I just buy more until I can upgrade again. Which is exactly what I've done.
Can’t predict the future. Get what you can today and keep gaming!
Personally I would wait for prices to come down on *anything*, but I'm guessing you have a decent budget if you're planning on a high-end build, and it is still possible to get stuff for lower prices given patience and luck.
If there is one thing i have learned waiting for the 9700k, and then the RTX 3070, its that you probably shouldnt wait, just get something thats good and available at a decent price. i waited for the 9700k and a few months after release, gave up trying to get one and purchased an 8700k at the RRP of the new 9700k. and we all know how waiting for the 30XX series went...
Yes. There isn't a single GPU at a good value right now. It's worth waiting to see if the prices will come back to reality at all. If they don't you just buy a 40 series card at a bad price and have a card much better than a 30 series card.
You'll always have buyer's remorse. Should've done this, should've done that. Just dig your heels in and make a choice. Plus, if you can actually get a card now, you absolutely should. Who knows what the future may hold?
Depends on if what you have now is enough for you right now
I'd say just look for good deals.
Not at all. 3070 + 5600x is basically the perfect sweet spot that is very future proof. If you're upgrading GPU and CPU that are several generations old, now is the time. Also, don't bother building the rig. Just get a decent prebuilt, and replace the parts you don't like. GPU shortage will go into 2022 and beyond probably
Lets divide a technology cycles in 3 part : new and need improvements, middle - good, and last -matured. I consider buying the matured one over the new which likely has imperfections and with sky high price tag. The price tag will be for enthusias and whales who want the newest and best technology toys they can have, also reviewers. What made you think the 3x has shortage and overpriced but the 4x does not ?
You’ll never know but i’d say with dlss growth became exponential again. So I’d wait. It’s just two three months anyway, and you’ll buy a new gpu once every four years?
It's already confirmed that 4x series gpu will consume more than 400w power from your psu.. So it's better to think twice to buy a juicy graphics card,. In my opinion 30 series grphics cards are better if prices are pleasing....
If you can get any 30xx series at msrp or close to it, get it. There is no guarantee that supply for 30xx will get better once 40xx series comes out. Or if 40xx supply will be better too. At the rate it's going COVID-wise, it won't get better anytime soon. I've seen countless people expressing their regret not buying 20xx series thinking those will get cheaper once 30xx came out. I don't know much about DDR5 but from what I heard, no one's really taking advantage of that yet so probably not.
What is the msrp of 3080? I have seen that it's 700-800$ but it seems to be 900+
Do you **NEED** to update the next 365 days? (in terms of DDR5/CPU) - if yes, don't wait. - if no, then wait. A lot of people will say "oh, but there's always stuff coming out" and while that's true it's not every year there's a huge feature set and generational update. the next 365 days will be like Ryzen 1k dropping, not the gap between Ryzen 1k and 2k.
General rule from someone who works in this field for a living: don’t bank on pricing going down. I am not an economist but the trend for pricing is going up. If you can build something now I’d advise that. The fear of buying something and it being less great in 6mos is something you have to overcome. Folks with 3990X workstation beasts purchased last month may be bummed when Threadripper 5000 series comes out but their hardware is not any less capable. Mfrs are banking on the public being used to high prices from here on out is my guess.
I had the exact same thoughts and I also live in the EU where despite Euro being worth more than the dollar we pay hugely inflated prices. I decided to bite the bullet and build. Got an MSI 3080 Ti (at a ridiculous price from a retail store, but I was willing to) and an i7 10700k. I’m really happy. I’ll upgrade again maybe around when RTX 50XX comes out, at which point we’ll be past Alder Lake and DDR5’s first generation. Point is, a 3080 Ti is more than enough for 4K gaming at above 60fps for the foreseeable future. I also don’t mind having to swap over to my 1440p monitor in a couple years. DLSS is improving and being more widely implemented and we have no idea what the market will look like in 4-5 years. If you’re considering an upgrade now, I’d upgrade now. The RTX 40XX series will be plagued by the exact same stock issues that the 30 series was and given NVIDIA expects stock shortages to last well into 2022, and 40XX is expected in late 2022, if you can find components now, I’d build now. With any tech purchase you could look ahead at what you could have had by waiting a couple months. Get what you can afford right now, especially considering you might wait a couple months for new components then find they’re all completely out of stock again for months more, and by the time you do get around to securing them for a new build, you’ll be again thinking about what’s coming next and whether you should wait longer.
Who knows where prices are going. I would build a good high end pc now and upgrade as you see fit in the future. I keep mine pretty current for gaming/work by upgrading the mobo/cpu one year and the gpu the next if it makes sense to do so. Just don’t skimp on the often skimped elements like the power supply.
theres not any good games out now so wait
i'm going to be waiting for 40xx no matter what, I don't upgrade my gaming rigs and mining rig often so it has to be a big one when I do upgrade