Any video card from $1-2 thousand dollars US is more a rich person's plaything.

I believe there's a saying about a fool and their gold parting ways which would apply in such cases for a number of buyers.

Currency is traded for people's time...if not the most precious personal resource then very close to it. A large number of those who buy such things do it mainly (though there are exceptions) for two reasons: to brag and boast (even if just to themselves) about how big and powerful their "rig" is and to out compete others in certain games.

Such types could easily wait awhile and get the same cards for half price or less, and still have a good advantage for playing games and keeping their PCs powerful/capable for a number of years. But they often don't, because that bragging and boasting is often too great a lure. In essence, such purchases are often the same as launcher based achievements....shiny and new bragging tools.

The 4090 never dropped below 1600, not one single time in several years. The 3090 TI i use never dropped below 1200, as far as I was able to detect. I got mine for 1300 and so far it was serving me well, because great quality. It was way better value than my old destroyed CPU. You may be able to get my GPU USED for 1000 if you want.... but not new! Good luck finding a new one at that price. Why? Because of rarity and very high (rare) PCB quality. Performance is not the only thing that costs money.

So, good luck with the waiting. The problem with rarity is, if the demand can barely become satisfied, because unlike coins or digital games, those cards got a limited number, then the price may barely drop.

I told already, yes you may get equal performance wasting many valuable years of your life with "worse gaming and having patience" BUT remember your time is the most valuable thing you got and yes, your time is limited.

It may be true you can exchange time for coins but, some peoples time got way more market value. So, if the market value of your time is way to low it can start to become a serious issue at some point.

To tell it more blunt, albeit provocative "you may as well just walk to your work place every single day instead of driving" because eventually the car price may drop or the car at least will be more efficient in some years. So, you have to walk ever year and as soon as 2 years has passed you realize "if I wait another 2 years I could get even more car for the coins" so in the end you will always walk and your PC always "crawling". At worst, you may have a deadly accident at some point and in the current life you may never own a single car nor any PC you could brag about, no matter to yourself only or toward others.

I never said its bad to brag or not to brag. It just does not matter to me because if I feel good or some other human, there is no reason dragging it through the dirty mire as soon as they open their mouth. It would put myself at even worse spot if I am going to put it inside a bad light, just because of a personal issue another one might not experience.

However, nope, the advancement is not that big anymore in the PC industry, "Moores Law is dead" so your hardware may keep its value longer than ever ago, but quality hardware only.

That's fair, since you got it for future proofing and consider it an investment. Sadly not everyone buys such for those reasons though.

Tbh I think the specs listed on game sites are a tad overblown, as i've been able to run a number of games at top settings and smoothly even with only 8GB (DDR6) VRAM. And with the money I saved buying cheaper, I put the difference into other upgrades for my PC and other luxuries :)

Totally depends on your demand. Obviously if you use mid or low settings and 1080 P almost anything may work OK somehow at 60 FPS at least, using 7600 XT. However, if I go graphically "all out" my GPU definitely makes sense, especially on demanding UE5 games. So far my GPU is exactly the stuff I need, not to less and not to much. A bigger GPU only makes sense if I go 120 FPS and 4k as well. It could be the case in the next 1-2 years, but not any sooner than 1 year.

I'm still on the 5000-series and it serves me well: the RX 5500 XT (released in 2019) still fulfils my need for gaming in 1080p.

The most sustainable gpu to buy is the one you already own (unless it's a really heavy energy user) as what's not produced, needn't be mined, melted, etched with lasers, provided with plastics.

Guess i always need to buy a heavy energy user, so i got a excuse in order to get me a new one once in a while.

If not allowed, important to get the biggest junk but with high performance, so it hopefully goes "boom" on time.

I prefer the first option because i got a aversion toward stuff that is not long lasting. Low performance is not nice but exploding things are just shocking.

It is same for my plasma: Because this TV is not going boom, though i gave my best abusing it almost forever but it is not gonna die, so i have to use the excuse "it is a power hog and i want 4k with 120 FPS now".

I just jumped forward three generations in Nvidia graphics card series, and not only did my quality of life not improve, it actually went down.

Just something to think about.

If one needs to play the latest titles on high-ultra settings at 4k/120hz or around that sort of spec then it makes a bit of sense. But if one can (and does) wait to buy newer games for awhile (or doesn't play on such high resolutions), it'd be a better investment to get a cheaper model card.

So then I ask: do you need/desire to play the latest games close to or on release often? or do you wait awhile?

Soooo....what are people playing to need so much?

Full map active Skyrim modded?

Crysis with Ray Tracing? ;)

Isn't Cyberpunk 2077 the new benchmark game for all hardwares ?

okay. sooo... when should I expect the classic "Users who ask for an optimization are idiots! Just purchase the most expensive hardware and be happy! It's a YOU problem if you cannot afford a normal rig!" argument here?

Of course, it's only a benchmark if it can cause your PC to burst into flames :)