Asus Matrix 7970 - Waste of money this late?

[Moinaldo]

Hello, I'm going to upgrade my GPU, and a couple of days ago the Matrix 7970 became available... the thing is I'll be playing on 1080p mainly, and there are the radeon 8xxx rumors already... The thing is, if I buy a cheaper card (7870) I'll definitely need to upgrade again in a couple of generations, would the 7970 stay REALLY strong for at least 3 years, or would I need to upgrade almost as fast as with the 7870??

[Moinaldo]

Thanks man.

I needed some advice as I can't upgrade very often (I'm on a 9500gt right now lol) and I would have been really pissed off if I spent my hardware savings and the new card sucked in two years.

[Deleted]

You could also try out the 7950, or a cheaper 7970 if you are worried about money. Just be sure to get a 7950 with boost or a 7970 GHz edition

[BruceG87]

You could also try out the 7950, or a cheaper 7970 if you are worried about money. Just be sure to get a 7950 with boost or a 7970 GHz edition

Wat? This is bad advice. There are plenty of other card options out now spanning all price ranges that will in fact last a few generations.

To OP,
After reading your post you are concerned with future-proofing.

While an HD 7970 is the better future proof option compared to the 7870, that doesn't necessarily justify the purchase. To top it off, there is no guarantee that it would effectively last for 3 years. There are a number of other things to consider aside from just purchasing the best graphics card of this gen for something to last 3 years. Not to mention the fact that all cards die given enough time.

You said you are gaming at 1080p, why not buy a cheaper card? Then save the difference and put it away for the day when you choose to upgrade once more.

TLDR Spending more money now doesn't equal the best solution for future proofing.

[Jinto]

The better advice is to buy what you need and upgrade more often. Maybe every year and half. That said though a HD7970 will last 3 years if past cards are any indicator. ATI and NVidia's high end has typically lasted 3 years. Obviously it isn't high end by the 3rd year but still decent. To give you an example the HD5870 was released a bit over 3 years ago and today falls between a HD7770 and HD7850 in performance.

[BruceG87]

Jinto, you managed to sum up my small block of text in your first sentence. lol

[Erous]

the xx70's and xx90's are typically keepers. I have 2 4890's in the closet that I might ebay because they are still good cards.

[Lemmiwink]

You can still play most games at max with a 5870/480. Buy a high end card and it will most likely last you three years while a lower end card could be outdated in 18 months.

Then again, low end cards are so cheap that replacing them every 18 months isn't gonna cost you any more than buying the best cards. And you get to purchase new and shiny parts all the time when done that way

[Rhyseh]

My 5780 is still going fine for most games. I'm not going to upgrade for another generation at least.

[Rennadrel]

Well the 8000 series is rumored to be launching at a lower price then what the 7870 is selling for. Might as well wait until December for the 8000 series

[Llunai]

Hello, I'm going to upgrade my GPU, and a couple of days ago the Matrix 7970 became available... the thing is I'll be playing on 1080p mainly, and there are the radeon 8xxx rumors already... The thing is, if I buy a cheaper card (7870) I'll definitely need to upgrade again in a couple of generations, would the 7970 stay REALLY strong for at least 3 years, or would I need to upgrade almost as fast as with the 7870??

A card like that will do little to no good gaming at low resolutions like 1080p. You could buy something half the price and not notice a difference.

[Rennadrel]

A card like that will do little to no good gaming at low resolutions like 1080p. You could buy something half the price and not notice a difference.

You will notice it in the frame rates of anything lower then a 7870, which at it's current price might be too high with a 70% computing increase and a 21% increase in GPU performance coming from the 8870..

[Moinaldo]

Thanks for all the replys.

The problem is that here where I live is very difficult to get any high end card, and the cards being sold (low end and mid-high end) are really overpriced (like an extra $100 or more even if it's a low end card) that's why it's not that easy to be upgrading every 18 months. I'm leaning towards the 7970 (waiting for restock) planing to get it with an international courier and hoping not needing to upgrade anytime soon.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

You should be aware of your country's import and customs regulations when importing high-value items (such as graphics cards) from other countries. Customs usually charges the current sales tax rate plus an administrative fee from a certain value of goods. So say the graphics card costs 400 dollars, and that is over the limit, and sales tax in your country is 20%. You would end up paying a total of 500 dollars plus the admin fee, so maybe 530 or 550 dollars in total.

[Lemmiwink]

My MSI geforce GTX680 cost me 776$ a piece in Norway... It was the cheapest 4GB version available at the time..... :/