Hey everyone! I've been building a new PC roughly every 7 or 8 years, usually going for high-end components so I can still play games at nearly max settings after all that time. However, my current setup, which I built 8 years ago, is struggling to run recent games like Cyberpunk at max settings. Given the rapid advancements in graphics cards, should I still aim for top-tier options, or would it make more sense to invest in a mid-tier card and plan for more frequent upgrades, say every 4-5 years? For example, is it wiser to choose an AMD RX 9070 at a lower price instead of the GeForce RTX 5090? Would the RTX 5090 keep my PC viable for a longer time compared to the RX 9070?
4 Answers
If you can afford it, I’d suggest buying the best GPU you can to avoid the hassle of spending more down the line just to keep up with gaming trends. By the way, what resolution are you planning to game at?
The RTX 5090 is roughly twice as powerful as the RX 9070, but we can't see into the future and know how games will ramp up their performance requirements. It's a bit of a gamble either way.
You can actually get almost three RX 9070 cards for the same price as one RTX 5090. I’d recommend going with the cheaper option and just upgrading your card every 3 years instead. It might save you money in the long run!
In theory, a more powerful card like the RTX 5090 should provide longer longevity, but it's hard to predict how future game demands will evolve. We might see some unexpected requirements that could throw a wrench in the plans.
I'm thinking about upgrading to 4K with this build, but I'm not sure it's worth it just yet. I'm mainly questioning if it’ll pay off in the next 8 years.