What is your comfortable price range for a graphics card?

[Lew Zealand]

$250-500 but funny thing I checked my GPU purchase history at Bezosville recently and I used points to shave off prices on every one. It's a zero-sum game so those could have gone anywhere else but as it is, I've not "paid" more than $400 for a GPU.

 

[N/A]

You have to get out of you comfort zone, if not the game play won't be comfortable. for a measly 400 you can't do anything, get real, it's a demo version slideshow.
I consider getting 40% cash back 4 years down the line though. so it's more like 600.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I voted $500-$750 as that is the budget I aim for currently. That said, I am only willing to pay MSRP at most. AIB's need to keep their prices in check if they want my business.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

You have to get out of you comfort zone, if not the game play won't be comfortable. for a measly 400 you can't do anything, get real, it's a demo version slideshow.
I consider getting 40% cash back 4 years down the line though. so it's more like 600.

I agree 90% of the builds I do are with a 500-800 usd gpu not becuase people feel good spending that much it's just anything below that is either used or meh AF.

10 years ago it was $3-500 and you just felt like your were getting more for your money.

 

[Frick]

Today, in reality, with all that comes with that? I'd say €1200. Idealogically it's probably €750 though, but that is not reality.

 

[Vayra86]

I was traditionally in the 500 bracket, but I've moved to 750+ at this point, I'm afraid. I paid 850 for the 7900XT, so that was above the comfort zone. And too much, in hindsight - but I was getting eager.

Still though, with the 9070XT looking as it is, once it gets to MSRP I might sidegrade this time around and sell the 7900XT, if I can recoup most of the cost (and given the AI performance, that's not entirely impossible). Its a stretch, given current conditions. But now, I'm not eager, GPU's fine as is.

 

[Easy Rhino]

Given that games don't look all that better and are certainly not any more immersive than they were 10 years ago, $250. Let's be honest, an APU should be enough these days to run visually impressive titles at 1440p 60fps. That would be actual technological progress. Instead we are stuck with $700 GPUs to play crappy upscaled games that everyone complains about and are released unfinished and littered with DLC.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Today, in reality, with all that comes with that? I'd say €1200. Idealogically it's probably €750 though, but that is not reality.

Reality falls somewhere inbetween.

 

[yfn_ratchet]

$300-400 has always been a sweet spot for me. I have a speculative performance mark I'd like to reach before I buy again, and I'm willing to wait until something that meets my requirements manages to creep into the price range. So far, it's going to be another year's worth of a dry spell.

 

[R-T-B]

Depends on when I'm upgrading, but generally I don't like spending more than 1k-.1.25k for a upgrade even if its been years and years and my current card is basically worthless. So that's my ceiling I guess. But 99% of the time I do a deal on the forums to "trade up" and end up spending far far less.

 

[freeagent]

1500CAD is my hard cap. I paid 1300 for my 3070Ti, that mofo will die with me. And I paid 1000 for my 4070Ti.

Polar Pesos, not the American Peso.

 

[steamrick]

My limit is pretty much when there's a '2' or higher in front of a four-digit price tag. The 5090 isn't appealing, even if it were available at MSRP and the 5080 would be a downgrade to my 4090.

Honestly, I think I'd like to refrain from more PC hardware purchases for a while. I've got a fast CPU and GPU, I've got plenty of RAM and storage, the system is silent and my homeserver is running fine. It's time to sit back and enjoy the games.

Now I only need to resist the temptation to upgrade to a OLED panel when 5120x2160 OLED at 40" finally comes to market.

that being said I can't even remember the last generation I was like wow these are so awesome what a steal. It's been more like well that's the perfomance I want price sucks but whatever.

The last true 'wow what a steal' moments happened when I first really became interested in PC hardware in 2009~2010.

That's when AMD and nvidia were having a price war to the point of nvidia having negative margins on the GTX 260. They were taking a loss on the sale in order to keep market share.

Anything after that... I think the 9 and 10 series were the last with good value. The GTX 970 new for 304€ in 2016 seemed like a good deal, despite the 3.5GB of VRAM.
The GTX 1080Ti for under 800€ a couple months after launch also seems like a good deal, especially in retrospect. I got mine used for 600€ in 2018 and I kept using it until upgrading to the RTX 4090.

 

[kilo]

I voted $500 - $750. But on the lower side of that. I don't upgrade often though. This cycle with AMD will probably last me 6-10 years. I would still be more than happy with my 2070 Super, except my kid's pc is the junk yard special, 2006 edition, and can't do more than 25 fps in terraria. He's getting my old PC. Figured spending like $500 on a new, but under powered pc was good money after bad and I should just buy a new rig for me (aka expensive).

 

[Gunbound]

With most games I play now being aged with lower requirements, I've been extremely happy with results from under $50 cards. With exception of some new games like wilds if I were to play it I would seek out a budget between $150-250 and no more. I don't need 2K or 4K or super high frames. Those higher resolutions are illusions I don't need or want. 1080p is perfection.

 

[Gmr_Chick]

I chose $250-$500 because I don't play enough of the newer, horribly optimized "AAA" games to justify spending any more than that.

 

[Pawelr98]

I chose the 0-250USD range.

Honestly, I used to be the person to pay above 500USD for GPUs and that was when the prices were more reasonable.
But now? My needs for GPU power decreased and I realized there are more enjoyable things out there to spend money on.

I would probably top out at 300-350USD for a GPU if it had decent VRAM amount (sometimes I want to fire up some image AI stuff).

 

[Super Firm Tofu]

No more than $400/yr cost. If my 4090 makes it two more years, I'll hit that number. I'd really like it to be closer to $300/yr, so maybe I can eek out 5 years total from the card.

 

[LabRat 891]

TBQH, it varies 100% on what I can 'find the money for', and my level of unreasonable desire

Last 'main' GPU purchases (from recent to oldest, off the top of my head):
~$1000 new - Sapphire Radeon RX 7900 XTX 24GB NITRO+
~$630 new - Sapphire Radeon RX 7900 GRE 16GB NITRO+
~$70-110/ea used - MI25->WX9100s 16GB (Vega Frontier Edition 16GB-like)
~$60 used - Vega 64 8GB
~$200 new - Powercolor RX 6500 XT 4GB (4GB Navi 24 narrowly beat the 8GB Polaris 20, most of the time.)
~$null - MSI RX580X 8GB (surplus mining card, hand-me-down)
~$250 open box- Asus R9 290X 4GB DualCU OC
~eWaste salvage - HD 7970/280X
~Trade - XFX R9 290 4GB (VRAM failed)
~$800 new - eVGA(?) GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB (ref style)

Given "comfortable price", and no implication of it having to be new(er): I voted $0-250.
I've picked up more than a few retro and lesser cards for that kind of money, recently.

 

[steamrick]

I'd really like it to be closer to $300/yr, so maybe I can eek out 5 years total from the card.

Or just resell it on your next upgrade. That can greatly help defray the investment.

<- coming from a hypocrite that kept his 1080Ti to have a spare on hand 'just in case'.

Last GPU purchases (from recent to oldest, off the top of my head):

Wow, that's a lot of cards.

I went 680 -> 970 -> 1080Ti -> 4090
and I'd have skipped the 970 if the 680 hadn't died.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Wow, that's a lot of cards.

I went 680 -> 970 -> 1080Ti -> 4090
and I'd have skipped the 970 if the 680 hadn't died.

You are more of what the general public norm is.

 

[LabRat 891]

Wow, that's a lot of cards.

I went 680 -> 970 -> 1080Ti -> 4090
and I'd have skipped the 970 if the 680 hadn't died.

That only reaches back the last dozen or so years. The first '3D accelerator' that I can clearly remember was a 3DFX voodoo (either a 2, or one of the AIB custom gen1 models w/ a 2D accelerator on-board).
Somehow, I ended up getting that replaced w/ an ATI Rage 128... (I think it was all my hometown's Staples had, within my Dad's budget at the time.)

Out of all the cards I've owned, my 'favorite' was my Sapphire X800 GTO 256MB (It OC'd like mad ).
Other particularly memorable cards were the BFG Tech 6800 GT AGP I accidentally'd, my 1st-batch XFX HD 4890, and my HD 5870 (that I mined bitcoin on to put gas in my Jeep, in college)

You[steamrick] are more of what the general public norm is.

Correct.

"PC Gamer" no longer strongly implies "PC Enthusiast".

 

[dlgh7]

I have been building PC's since the 486 DX2. I have never spent more then $379 on a video card and really don't plan on spending more then that ever unless I by chance hit the lottery or something. I am content with my Steam Deck and PS5 at this point.

 

[Bomby569]

the only time i went crazy was during covid, there were no cards and mine died, i paid 650 euros for my 3060ti. Up until than i never had spent more than 400 euros. I don't intend to go over 500 euros unless it's a really good deal.

 

[Denver]

The most I'm willing to pay for a GPU is around $1,000, but I generally prefer something in the $500–800 range.
One of the few things I'm certain of is that hardware, especially dGPUs, won’t get any cheaper—at best, prices will stabilize at their current level.

From now on, the real magic has to happen on the software side and I’m not talking about gimmicks like fake frames.

 

[Ruru]

500EUR is my absolute limit. So far 480EUR is the most I've paid for a card (RX 6700 XT as new).