Here's why PC gamers aren't upgrading GPUs as often as they used to

At a time where GPUs are more available than ever, it appears as though PC gamers aren't upgrading as often as they used to.

[Vits]

For me, the primary concern with new software is how it's often exclusive to a new series. This not only frustrates me but also raises questions about the lifespan of the hardware. With GPUs no longer offering significant performance boosts, they rely heavily on software enhancements.

However, this reliance is contingent on developer support. When the new 5000 series hits shelves, it's likely that the 4000 series won't be compatible with Nvidia's new software. This would negate any advantage it had over the 3000 series, leaving one to wonder why they upgraded in the first place. And the same will keep happening as we move through the generations.

AMD is a bit better in that regard as they often use open standards, which offer wider compatibility. However, they have even less developer support, and their software solutions tend to lag behind Nvidia by at least one whole generation. So if you have a 3000 series from Nvidia right now, it doesn't really make that much sense to upgrade to the 7000 series from AMD because feature-wise they are pretty similar level.

[just_looken]

The huge thing you are missing is display.

If you have a 1440p/1080p monitor there is 0 reason to leave the 3,000/amd 6,000 series those cards are cheap with many years of driver support left and can push those resolutions for you 0 issues well unless you go below the 60 series range or amd's 6400

Right now computer games are having issues because of garbage drm and or just a garbage port that even is trash on consoles like dragon dogmas 30fps BS all versions.

There is 0 reason to get a 5k/amd 7k series card unless you are doing serious rendering and or 4k gaming or you want more vram as yes games are taking up more thanks to higher native textures.

It would be a huge help if these "gaming" consoles used real hardware not some apu/igpu garbage even a 3 year old gaming laptop has better guts. A real cpu/gpu/ram/mb/psu/storage on a console would help so much on game porting/optimization for the devs.

[Vits]

I don't think that is a huge thing. Hell, I would even argue that is completely not important.
Pc Gamers in general do not care about resolution that much and therefore I don't see 4K gaming becoming a thing on Pc any time soon. It's just not worth it. Even more when right now there are many better ways to improve the visual quality of your experience before going for the resolution.

From QLED, OLED, miniLED-based solutions, Fast IPS, IPS Black, better VA panels, all of them play a much larger role than resolution in improving game visual quality. Not to mention you don't need to sacrifice refresh rate if you stay in the Full/Quad HD bracket. And refresh rate is a thing that PC gamers care about.

And let's be honest, developers are not focusing on native solutions anymore. So why bother going for higher resolution if the game is going to fake it either way? It's a waste of resources that clearly most PC gamers aren't willing to do.

[Furesis]

oh my god, these "Here's why" articles are always about the most obvious shit ever, like do people actually read these?

[Neonridr]

because they last for generations. You don't need to upgrade every 1, 2 or even 3 years. I went from a 1080ti which served me so well to a 3080 with years in between. I won't even consider upgrading until the 5000 series at the earliest, but will most likely wait for the 6000 series.

[hard joe]

not every gamer have money to upgrade every year

[just_looken]

But you do not need too on a pc if you're non 4k gamer 3 year old hardware will work for you.

[GoodGuy09]

The price obviously.

[PRIMORDUS]

I have a crazy idea, how about you lower the prices. It's not rocket science lol. They make so much money as it is, it's purely greed now.

[just_looken]

Take a look at battlemage and amd's old line of graphics cards the 6k series had been in the clearance bin many times.

[Christopher]

Because AI and Crypto folks will buy them at the higher prices.

[Fonsecap]

1st the price
2nd the lack of good boost in performance
3rd to play what? The state of the gaming industry is so awful that there isn't anything interesting and that justify the upgrade, and games are so unoptimized that even 4090 sometimes struggles to run them...

[on_line_forever]

Agreed , also there is few qualitie games so no need to upgrade soon , in fact some times I look back and play ps2 & ps1 games

[Matpan]

Cause they sell for the price of a small car...

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

Price is a bit factor, then lesser factors are the state of AAA games, I'm still using my 1080 ti.

[DustMan]

I've always got great life spans from all the video cards I've ever bought. However I do typically get the top or 2nd to the top end cards. To me it pays off in the end when I'm still enjoying gaming comfortably 5/6 years later. The 1080ti was an amazing card that still performed relatively well before I swapped it out for a 3080 I came across for a steal. I think that these top end cards are just trying to push 4k as hard as they can. Which is great...if you care. I'm still very, very happy with my 32inch 144hz 1440p monitor. Only this year have I really had to dial down some visual features to get some games to run at +60 fps. Needless to say I'm not going to splurge on a top end card anymore if it will no be viable by the time the next generation of cards come out. At this point I'll be investing in a higher tier CPU instead.

I'd considered building a box around a 4070ti, but thought. May as well hold off as the 50 series will be out soon enough, and you'll be able to find the 40 series cards used. The days of me investing in top end video cards is over. The value is no longer apparent.

[JL2930]

Because of consoles. I never or have never knew someone that upgraded each generation and I've been building PC's since 2008.