Upgrade now or wait?

[Anjelous]

I'm running a 560 Ti and have since October of 2011. It's a good card and nets me 30 - 40 FPS at max settings on my most demanding PC games (Planetside 2, BF3, Mechwarrior, etc). I stay away from Crysis 3/Metro/Modded Skyrim and such because they're not sustainable at the level of graphical fidelity I'd like to play them at.

So anyway, there are many days in which I'm VERY tempted to go ahead and buy a 4GB GTX 680 from either EVGA or MSI. And I would, except my friend keeps warning me to hold off because the 700 series is going to come out this year. He says that I can then either upgrade to one of the new cards, or buy a 680 at a reduced price since it'll get a price cut.

Which is reasonable, yet I'm still tempted by all the 680s. However I WOULD certainly be annoyed if I bought one at $500 - $600 and it gets a price cut a month later. So what do you all think?

 

[vmem]

the general rule of thumb is if you can honestly ask yourself that question, and can't come up with an easy answer, you should wait. here's why:

1. price of components can only drop over time
2. newer tech will always come out. granted this will happen a bit late this year, in Q3 or Q4 (this will further lower prices of current cards)
3. You can always find some alternative use for that money in the meantime

as for upgrading, don't bother with a 4GB 680, the extra 2GB is only needed in multi-monitor set ups. to be honest even a 680 is a bit of a waste, get either a 670 (2GB), or a 7970 from AMD and you'll be a very happy camper.

as for the 700 series, that'll be coming around the holidays, so if you don't want to wait 10 months, get a 670 or 7970, both will play everything you want, and you can save the extra money for a different upgrade, or getting a second card to SLI/Crossfire later down the line

 

[pete123edgar]

or you could get a cheap 7850, gtx 660 would run games pretty well, it really doesn't matter, you can buy now and sell for a cheaper price and get a series 700(kind of a waste of money to buy now and sell) but that is up to you. Do you want to play games max now? Or want to wait?

 

[spawnkiller]

+1 i bought a 680 nearly a year ago so if you buy one now, a new card will be out soon and will be faster for sure... the 700 series is expected by Q3 or Q4 2013 so in june or later... (i expect the 770 a little faster than the 680 like the 670 is faster than the 580...) so if you can wait 6 months, wait for the 700, if you can't buy a 670 as it's only 5% slower than the 680 (reference for reference as specific cards are better than others in overclock but at stock, only 5% and you save about 100$...)

670/680 2gb is enough for single monitor 1440P so unless triple or 3d, it's ok...

*** 7970 is a good option too if you're not a fanboy or don't have any preference on brand/manufacturer...

PS: i don't suggest you to buy a 680 as the 670 is almost the same and you'll save 100$, i buyed a 680 cause i had it at 350$ (EVGA 680 SuperClocked Signature 2) that was selling about 550$ when it cames out and it's still about that price...

***I had it from a guy that only use it to bench and overclock 2 of them and then sells both of them after a month of benchmark or almost... (don't know why but he sells them so i was lucky ^^)