Good time to buy a new system with 3090? Or should I wait longer after the Nvidia 4000 series news?
metaside
Posts: 178
Maybe some of the well-informed people here can help me with this question: I'm planning to buy a new PC with a 3000 series graphics card (probably 3090) and a Ryzen 5000 series processor (to get the best out of UE) - how long should I wait for the Nvidia news to affect prices of complete systems? 4080 might be an option, too, but I like the thought of having 24GB of VRAM and I don't want to wait very long or pay extreme prices... I see some deals online for systems with 3000 series cards right now, but should I wait a bit more at this time?
Thanks for all thoughts on this!
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Comments
Depends on whether or not your current computer is capable of handling it. If not, it'll be a much higher ticket price than just the video card (new mobo, new PS, etc.)
My thoughts on waiting for computer equipment: no matter WHEN you buy something, parts of it will be obsolete by the time you even break them in, so why wait. You only live once...
I would wait, if I were in the market for a new GPU. Check out these article and others at Tom's Hardware:
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/wait-to-buy-a-new-high-end-gpu
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/ethereum-merge-completed
Well it depends on how much horsepower you need, and if you believe Nvidia's performance numbers.
RTX 4090 $1599 24Gb G6X October 12th
RTX 4080 $1199 16GB
RTX 4080 $ 899 12GB
If the 4090 is really 2x the performance of the 3090, then price/performance is still good for the 4090 even with the discounted 3090s now. 3090 vs. 3080, for Daz I would definitely prefer to have the 24 GB VRAM over a bit faster 4080.
Even though I animate and render non-stop on my 3090, I'm not planning on upgrading. Instead if the prices come down, I might snag a second 3090 and plop it into my render machine to have two going.
I'm looking into buying a complete system since I need a better CPU for game dev in UE (everything takes super long on my current Intel system with 4 cores). I'm thinking about getting a 12 or 16 core Ryzen since those seem to be best for UE, at least from what I read about it.
And I guess you are right about waiting, but if the prices fall extremely because of all the news and new releases over the next few weeks it might make sense...
Thank you very much for the links, that's what I feared lol. I know it's a strange question, but what minimum time period for waiting would you aim for right now? Like mid-October for the 4090 release or like end of the year...?
Yeah, for Daz that makes sense. On my current system I have to composit as soon as I want to combine Ultrascenery with more than a few props lol... For some machine learning stuff it seems to help a lot, too.
Any idea what difference the VRAM makes for other applications, especially UE development?
Yeah, to me the 3090 still looks very good, especially if prices come down a bit more...
Personally, I would wait for the RTX 4070 Series.
For Daz specifically, 24GB VRAM is probably the highest priority spec to consider. A faster GPU with lower VRAM will be useless when your scene runs out of memory and falls back to CPU.
In other words, an older 3090 with 24GB will be signifigantly more valuable vs a faster 4080 or 4070 12GB/16GB if your scene exceeds 12-16GB of VRAM.
Also its probably best to wait since prices for the 3090 will only drop lower. With the recent Etheruem merge, probably going to see a lot more GPU's being sold online lowering the prices.
I read something about the 4070 having onlyx 10GB of VRAM - I would like to have more of that stuff if I invest in a new system and graphics card... I'm currently on a 2070 with 8GB and it would not be a big difference..
Yeah, I think 12GB would be the absolute minimum if I upgrade (in case I spend a lot on the CPU and other parts I might go with a 3080), but 16 or 24GB is my aim.
That's interesting. I think I will def wait for September 27 (new AMD processors) and maybe for October 12 (4090), but not much longer.
It depends on how long you can wait for it. It was almost impossible or very expensive to get a RTX 3000 at the launch and several months later.
For me, I am getting a 3090ti. Currently, with a 2070 super, upgrading to a 3090ti is going to be a huge upgrade with 4x the CUDA cores and 3 times the memory for a little over $1100 on the one I am ordering Monday. I also never buy video cards on start of life cycle either as I prefer to see how they end up working under real world conditions. I completely skipped the 1XXX cycle as I really saw no gains over my then 970 that were worth the price.
While I do rspect the tomshardware site, I don't think the cards will come down in price as much as that article makes it sound. Plus, I have the funds now, I may not have the funds in several months so ...
Why?
IMO, that only makes sense for a gamer who only occaisionally uses Daz. For more frequent Daz use, it doesn't matter how fast the GPU is if the scene doesn't fit in the card's VRAM.
I went from Titans (12GB) to 3090s and it wasn't that hard to run out of memory with 12 GB.
When the 30xx was announced, everybody kept saying not to buy before the new cards were released, but I went and bought a 2070 Super anyway - When the 30xx was released, the older cards vanished from the market and the price of the new ones skyrocketed with no cards being available.
When the ones telling to wait for the release of 30xx were waiting months for being able to find one to buy, I was happily rendering on my older generation card
The 30 series release wasn't really typical though with the tripple whammy of pandemic, high mining returns and scalpers.
I've seen one EU store say that they'll have a good supply of cards at launch - which they'll probably sell despite the price. Seeing high end 30 series prices increasing after the 4090 launch announcement
The above retailer also said that the next batch of cards may actually increase in price because of the state of the economy.
For me personally, I am saving up to buy a whole new rig with the 4090TI. My 2 cents worth - If you can honestly afford it, I'd say go with the 4000 series, be a little more patient. It has it's rewards. =]
That is exactly what I am at present, Gator - A gamer who enjoys playing with DAZ. A "middle of the road" type!!
In my case UE performance would be the most important point, so the CPU is more important than the graphics card ultimately and my budget is limited, but I def want to upgrade my VRAM to at least 12+GB. So the 3080 12GB would be the minimum for me (3060 12GB would be a much cheaper option, but it might be a downgrade from my 2070 in some aspects, so that's out of the question) and 3090TI the preferred option. 3080 10GB would not have neough VRAM, 4090 too expensive, 4070 or 4080 would probably too long to wait and probably too expensive considering the lower VRAM)...
If I really wanted it I might be able to wait ;) but 2000 for the 4090 is more than I am willing to pay at the moment and the other 4000 cards would probably be lower on VRAM than the 3090, so it will be between 3080 and 3090 for me as it seems...
That's an interesting option and comparison. 48GB would be kinda extreme... 4090 would be nice, but I would prefer to keep it at around half of that price point at the most...
benniewoodell said:
". . . second 3090 and plop it into my render machine to have two going."
Is that One system with a second card or Two systems with one card each?