How long do graphics cards last?

You always hear about console gamers saying "you have to keep upgrading them to play games". Being new to PC gaming, how much of that statement is true? If I get a high end card, say 4890 or GTX275, how many years until I stop maxing out games? How many years until I have minimum settings? I know there are other factors like CPU etc, but in general. Thanks guys.

Well considering a 4890/gtx275 can't max out Crysis at 1920x1080, 0 days.

Well if u can live with running things on low grafics, a high-end gfx card will last a good4 yrs. Some last even more (classics like radeon 9800)

It will stop maxxing games out about after 6-9 months. But this depends on publishers, how often u see a game like crysis.

But then again this all depends on what games u play, and other configuration, cpu, ram.

many people over estimate the value of CPU in gaming my e8400 gtx 260/216 core setup did fine in gta 4 which was supposed to be the quad core experince type of game....

and to answer your question pretty long.... my opinion is there is still a long time till DX11 gets into full kick many people haven't even seen DX10 perform on their DX10 cards... my setup that I have has been maxing out all games at 1680x1050 resolution and there hasn't been evena hiccup in any game (you name it dead space, prototype, fallout 3 FEAR2, godfather 2 and a long list including ArmA II but thats only demo....)

you should be well off for a couple years in my opinion 2-3 easily

I think the current crop of cards are going to last along time, the newer ones will have new features though.

4890 will last about 2 years

in a realistic world an hd 4550 or 4650 would last a year if you dont mind medium to low on your games. but to max out stuff get a 9800gt or hd 3870x2 and sit quiet for a year meybe a year 1/2 that minimum. but this sint for everyone.

I have an 8800GT currently which I purchsed about 16 months ago. The card at the time couldn't max out everygame on the market, however it will provide me with graphics equal to or possibly a bit better than the current crop of consoles. I'm expecting to be able to use this card for atleast another year before it starts causing me any sluggish frame rates while still having the game look good. If I was complacent with medium/low settings I could probably get another 2-3 years out of it.

Get XFX and it will last forever ;) .

deadly you have that point right to some degree however every 3rd generation is a bit much imo by that time your card is lucky to handle the lowest demand games at all.

deadly you have that point right to some degree however every 3rd generation is a bit much imo by that time your card is lucky to handle the lowest demand games at all.

aura_enchanted

mm true enough but like moving up a generation in say cpu's isnt much with some hardware moving frm a pentium 4 to a celeron dual core isnt much.

Well considering a 4890/gtx275 can't max out Crysis at 1920x1080, 0 days.

JigglyWiggly_

[QUOTE="JigglyWiggly_"]

Well considering a 4890/gtx275 can't max out Crysis at 1920x1080, 0 days.

cs45F

they can last 5+ years but the question is will it keep up with games

You always hear about console gamers saying "you have to keep upgrading them to play games". Being new to PC gaming, how much of that statement is true? If I get a high end card, say 4890 or GTX275, how many years until I stop maxing out games? How many years until I have minimum settings? I know there are other factors like CPU etc, but in general. Thanks guys.

goofers9000

Well considering a 4890/gtx275 can't max out Crysis at 1920x1080, 0 days.

JigglyWiggly_

Graphics cards should last quite a long time. I mean - look at crysis, it's still the most demanding game out there and it's a few years old. Hardware is upgrading way faster than games are. An 8800GT is pretty old but still a great card. GPUs should last 5 years unless you want to max games constantly. Even on medium settings games will look better than consoles.