Hardware & Technical GPU upgrade. Finance or no?

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead
Hey all,
I'm in a fairly desperate for a new GPU. Mine is doing very odd things, typical of a dying GPU. (Although it's been in that state for over 2 years!)
So I actually just need a new one, despite it still running the game at 45-60fps. Lol
It's an AMD HD 6870 1GB, and it's about 7 years old, so it's served me well.

But, as per usual, I'm broke, at nearly all times, and if I ever manage to save a bit of cash for my target GPU, the GTX 1050ti 4Gb (£150~), something inevitably happens, and I need to spend it. Usually my car breaks, but this time my girlfriend had the audacity to have a birthday...!
This has basically happened 3-4 times in the last two years. Lol

So!

PC World, the store, not the magazine, now has a "buy now, lay later" on anything over £250. It's 20% interest, but my credit card is almost the same anyway. Lol

So I could get a spangly new GTX 1060 6GB for £270, and spread the cost over a year or so, fairly low impact on my income. Probably £30~ a month.

The only GPU in stock is currently a PNY GeForce GTX 1060 6GB.

Are they any good?
I wanted an AMD option, but PC World don't sell them.

Should I go for the finance option?

My current pros and cons are;
+I get a better/working GPU
+Low monthly cost
+No obvious huge chunk out of my wages

-its finance.
-i'm spending almost twice what I originally wanted.
-its not a stealthy as buying outright.

I can't justify a new GPU to my girlfriend. She'd rather I spent my money on her, obviously. Or ornaments. Or anything, as long as it's not something I want. :p
So it'll be a stealth purchase. Once it's in my PC, she won't be able to tell the difference.
(I already upgraded my CPU and motherboard that way!)

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead
 

Gortron

Gortron
AutomanUK gives some sound advice, especially regarding option 1.

Some good advice here on the credit card situation.

Another option is buy your GPU from www.scan.co.uk They also do credit, I don't think you need to spend quite as much to get it and if you pay it off in 9 months it 0% APR and 16% if you don't. They also do this which for a flat fee of £9.99 means you can get the card you wanted in the first place without borrowing more than you want to!

Hmmm the example for afforditNOW makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, so I'd call them first to explain that properly before jumping on that one. There is interest but god knows what it is :S
 
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CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead
Lol
I do love my girlfriend, she just hates gaming (which I love). And I do understand her point of view. We have loads of things we actually need for our house (including saving for a deposit to buy one!), and I need a new car soonish (mines a bin).

I'll have a look at Overclockers and scan. I didn't know they did finance. :)

Ty!
 

Dad Rock

Dad Rock
Honestly, Commander, and I say this as someone who knows what it's like to want things and have zero money to pay for them, I would suggest not borrowing money at interest to pay for a new graphics card. As another Commander mentioned above, if you can, put it on a 0% interest credit card deal, and make sure you can pay it all back before the interest kicks in. Also make sure you can afford the monthly payments.

If a £150 card breaks the bank account and you need finance for it, then it means you simply can't afford it. I'd strongly recommend popping into Computer Exchange or checking on eBay for any minimum spec £40 graphics card that'll do, and carry on enjoying the game until you've saved up enough money for the graphics card you really want.

Good luck and I hope you make the decison that's financially best for you!

o7
 

marx

marx
A policy that should serve anyone well is not to take out loans for short term financing.

Another is that if you feel you have to hide things from your significant other, it might be time to re-evaluate your relationship.

That said, in your case I'd save up some money and buy a used graphics card. As long as it's from a decent brand, and wasn't used for cryptocurrency mining, it should still be good for a couple of years. Thankfully, Elite is not a very demanding game.
 

Morbad

Morbad
I second the buy used option.

Shouldn't be terribly hard to get an early GCN (7900 series) or Maxwell part that will be a vast upgrade over what you have without costing anywhere near as much as a new 1060.

marx said:
As long as it's from a decent brand, and wasn't used for cryptocurrency mining, it should still be good for a couple of years.
Click to expand...

I've got GPUs with 30-40 thousand hours of mining on them that are in pristine condition...significantly undervolted, run at temperatures ~30C below the stock target temps, and fewer lifetime thermal cycles than cards that were gamed on a few hours a day for six months.

Can't always assume that of all mining cards, many have surely been beaten up, but with mining profitability often contingent on performance per watt, and optimal performance per watt for almost any GPU being well below stock settings, I don't think it's wise to automatically avoid parts that were used for mining either.
 

marx

marx
Morbad said:
I've got GPUs with 30-40 thousand hours of mining on them that are in pristine condition...significantly undervolted, run at temperatures ~30C below the stock target temps, and fewer lifetime thermal cycles than cards that were gamed on a few hours a day for six months.

Can't always assume that of all mining cards, many have surely been beaten up, but with mining profitability often contingent on performance per watt, and optimal performance per watt for almost any GPU being well below stock settings, I don't think it's wise to automatically avoid parts that were used for mining either.
Click to expand...
Well, I would buy such used GPUs from you, but from what passed through my hands (six cards from five different sellers - so this is just anecdote), almost all ran at factory settings. Of course, maybe said cards were running undervolted and on overclocked memory settings (as they should have been) and the would-be sellers just restored the defaults prior to selling, but it's hard to tell. So if the seller actually mentions mining, then in my opinion, it's better to be safe than sorry. Unless you're prepared for the card breaking down in a year or two, but OP probably isn't.
 

CmdrKull

C
I bought 2 (count 'em, two) used GTX 560ti's for I think $40 each and SLI'd them. They have served me well for years now. I even took one out and put it in another PC for someone else and the single 560ti has been admirable. I'm finally going to upgrade, as I've been stashing $50 a month for a long time now, but buying those used was the best move I could have conceivably done in 2014 (maybe 2015, I'm bad with dates).

One from eBay, one from craigslist (US) both the same price though.

Buy used. Do it. doooo iiiiiit.

but if you don't, the 1060 6g is a great card, although 260 sounds high. No better deals than that online?
 
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