When is it best to buy a new graphic card for VR?

Thomas_54

Reputable
Jan 8, 2016
1
0
4,510
I'm trying to buy a graphic card for my son, but unfortunately I can't seem to comprehend at what rate the graphic cards change and when the market is promising. The reason to why i'm asking is because a friend of mine said that the graphic cards that are out now (one in particular I was looking at was the gtx 980ti) are getting older and the oculus along with the rest of the VR technology hasn't been released yet, so if I buy now, maybe the graphic card I buy might get outdated quickly or that it might drop in price soon. I'm really desperate for a solution because I want his present to last because I can't afford buying a high-end graphic card often.

Update: Wow! a few hours and i've already got these incredibly well put answers! I can't thank you guys enough! I think it's clear I'm going to wait for the next generation of these long awaited cards and watch the new AMD's closely.
 
Unless a new range is dropping in the immediate future the best time to buy is when you need it as there is always something better around the corner.

When the GTX 9 series launched there was no 980Ti only a 980. The 980 was/is outperformed by the previous 780Ti apart from scenarios which needed extra VRAM. The 980Ti launched I think about a year after the 980. This is a trend Nvidia have followed for some time now, it allowed them to sell the 980 at 980Ti prices for a year. If Nvidia do the same which I highly suspect they will we won't see a GPU that can beat the 980Ti until some time in 2017. Unless AMD really manage to shake things up this year Nvidia really have no reason to launch a card better than the 980Ti in 2016 in my opinion.
 
For VR, the word is that AMD will be better, because nVidia is having double the latency compared to AMD. The latency gives people headaches etc if it's too high. We haven't seen any real benchmark comparisons, although it makes sense in terms of the architectural design of their GPUs.

I agree with what was mentioned before; wait for the newer GPUs. The jump to FinFET 14/16nm is worth waiting for. Generally it's good to buy when you need it. But we've been stuck on 28nm for years now, and the 14/16nm cards are being released this year, and they will be around for a while. Benchmarks have already shown a ~35 watt GPU performing like a GTX 950. Unless you have no GPU at all and you really NEED one, the best option is to sit it out right now.