Cheap/Temporary Graphics Card

[Dazzler_3000]

Hi,

I had posed a question on reddit here: https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterra...raphics_card_while/?utm_source=reddit-android

Long story short(ish), while waiting for the RTX 2080ti reviews (and taking into account the possibility of the card being sold out for a month or two) I was thinking about perhaps ordering my set up now, buying a cheaper, temporary card (possibly even second hand) and using that until the reviews are out. If the reviews are good, I'll sell the temp card and get the 2080ti but I could be waiting until November/December for availability. If the reviews are bad, I'll sell the temp card and get a GTX 1080ti. I get the feeling that even though there's some concern currently around the RTX benchmarks it'll still likely be a step up from the 1080ti so chances are I could be waiting a few months.

A few people on Reddit suggested its not a terrible idea, and a few mentioned getting a 1050ti but I wanted to get your guys thoughts.

One of the mods here, Oussebon, had previously been a great help by giving me a set up to go for.

Headlines:

Case
COOLERMASTER MASTERCASE H500P GAMING CASE
Overclocked CPU
Overclocked Intel® Core™ i7-8700K Six Core (3.7GHz @ up to 4.8GHz)
Motherboard
Gigabyte Z370 AORUS Ultra Gaming: ATX, LG1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR4 3000MHz (2 x 8GB)
1st Hard Disk
500GB Samsung 860 2.5" EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
---The Crew 2 FREE with select SAMSUNG SSDs!
2nd Hard Disk
3TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET

Would a 1050ti be a viable temporary option? Looks like they're only about £150. My only concern was that using a cheap card could have some adverse effects on other parts of the system but that doesn't seem to be the case.

I was also given the heads up by Oussebon that the new Intel CPU's may be coming out in October so it may be a good time to hold off, but I think I'm ready to take the plunge as I'm guessing there's always something new on the horizon (plus, CPU's seem to generally be a lot cheaper than GPU's so I could upgrade in 6-12 months time without too hard a hit on the wallet).

Any advice would be great; thanks!

 

[Oussebon]

Frankly this sounds like a plan that nets you the worst of all worlds.

You waste £150 on a graphics card you know you're going to replace very soon.

Thanks to its price, GPU mining having died down a lot, and the length of time Nvidia has had as a run up to this (unlike with Pascal) I'm not sure the cards really will be unavailable at launch.

I'm guessing there's always something new on the horizon

There's always something new in a year or so, sure. But since the new GPUs aren't out until 20th September and Intel are releasing their first 8-core consumer CPUs in October, possibly early October, so maybe as little as 2 weeks after the new GPUs come out... it really doesn't make sense not to wait. That's not new tech on the horizon, that's new tech standing on your porch hammering to be let in.

Otherwise you're buying a super expensive system that will be obsolete before you even get around to installing a GPU worthy of it.

plus, CPU's seem to generally be a lot cheaper than GPU's so I could upgrade in 6-12 months time without too hard a hit on the wallet

This is a bad plan too. You're about to spend, what, £350 on an i7 8700k. The only future CPUs anyone expects to be compatible with the Z370 motherboard are the 9000 series.. i.e. the ones launching in October. So you're buying a £350 CPU only to replace it 12 months later with a £350-£450 CPU that you could have just bought outright by waiting a few weeks.

Seriously, as tempting as it is to just buy something when you have the upgrade itch and the cash lined up, all you're doing is wasting hundreds of pounds (~£500 with the CPU and the GPU) for the sake of having a weaker system that you already know you've going to upgrade few weeks earlier.

 

[Oussebon]

To put it another way.
You buy a PC tomorrow. £30 for 5 day fast track. You get it some time in the first week of September, maybe 5th Sept.

You have a 1050 ti, and any games will be so utterly GPU bound that it won't matter whether you have an i7 or a £70 Pentium.

The 2080 (ti) reviews come out on 20th Sept. You read reviews, take a few days to pick your favourite model, buy your GPU. It arrives first week of October.

At which point the Intel 9000 series CPUs come out.

What did you profit by buying a 1050 ti and an 8700k? Other than £500's of components you're going to replace, a Z370 instead of a Z390 motherboard, the hassle of upgrading, and ~2-3 weeks of medicore gaming on a 1050 ti.

 

[Dazzler_3000]

As usual, sound advice. It's just as you said, I'm counting down the days until I can place the order so I'm trying to find ways to speed it up. My thoughts were around justifying doing it through what I could make by reselling the items, so even if I did spend £500 unnecessarily, I might make £300 back. It still means throwing away £200 (or more) but that's still £200 gone so I think I need to take a breath and not rush it.

My worry is that delays or later release dates could push me out up to 2 months over when I originally was hoping to get it but, as you be said, the sensible thing to do is wait and get it right first time.

Thanks for reeling me in until I hatch some new scheme to justify getting it earlier!

 

[Oussebon]

There are rumours the 9000 series CPUs will be with vendors by early sept.. so the launch really could be quite soon. And at least we'll have performance reviews of the 2000 series GPUs on 14th Sept to tide us over.

I'm very keen to upgrade my GPU and monitor. Holding off for reviews isn't hard for me yet... holding off for the next gen if reviews are disappointing will be!

 

[Dazzler_3000]

That's exactly where I'm at. I'm worried about the wait in case it's for nought. I've been keeping abreast of the latest news and trying not to read too much into it. I think given that the RTX's are now in the hands of reviewers well likely see some performance leaks but I still want to see the full reviews. Even though there's still some questions around like for like, GTX v RTX performance I'm expecting the RTX to outperform the GTX even if it's closer to the 1.5 times as opposed to the 6x they've cleverly advertised (6x Ray Tracing performance).

 

[dussehra2018]

Graphics card prices are dropping. Just stick with the prices and get an amazing deal