Going All-In This Generation

Anyone else considering going all-in this generation? Since we’ve been on lockdown, the amount of time I’ve spent gaming has gone up considerably, and not being able to go anywhere or do anything else has padded my disposable income. I was lucky enough to get a PS5 and Xbox SX at launch. Now I’m thinking about upgrading to a new PC with a 3080. That would complete the next-gen trifecta.

What do you all think? I don’t see the fervor for graphics cards dying down anytime soon... so Maybe it’s just FOMO. Curious.

Have you tried getting a 3080?

I haven't tried since launch, so it might be different now. But getting a 3080 was way easier than getting the new consoles. I lucked out and got both of them as well, but seeing my friends try it seemed like a nightmare.

For a 3080 literally all I did was sit in a discord server for a week and got a FE from nvidia. The consoles seem to be going WAY faster. Which is understandable, loads more people want to buy consoles vs graphics cards. So if you were able to get the consoles and have to $$$ go for it.

Just don't pay over MSRP. I know EVGA has a list you can get on, you just put your name in and they'll notify you/reserve a card for you. So you don't have to even do anything.

Ok, but at this point you should be asking yourself if you have the time to play everything. Having all the consoles is fun for a little while, but eventually you realize that you barely use one of them. And if you get a nice PC with a 3080 in it, you probably won't be using any of them much if at all.

I'm not trying to be a downer, just saying, maybe pick and choose two things and put the rest of the money towards games and/or another hobby.

more power to you if you've got the scratch- but i'm waiting for the games to justify the expense. there isn't anything new on the market right now that makes me want to go buy a bunch of nascent hardware.

ps5 will likely be the first thing i pick up- but probably not before the new god of war shows up. by then we might have a hardware revision, so hopefully some of the kinks have been worked out.

The only thing I've been going all-in with is making my money longer. I've spent less time playing games during lockdown than ever before, and I like it that way.

@reap3r160: I tried to get a 3080 for a couple months or so after launch and gave up. I’ve managed to buy three PS5s, which I kept one for myself and sold two at cost to friends. The graphics cards, though.... they’ve eluded me. I might try that and see if I have any luck.

Unless someone knows better, I find finding a 3080 to be a fun little waste of my time. I go to online Best Buy, see the one 3080 that is 'Coming Soon'. Then I read the world weary, if not downright cynical Questions and Answers, that if you were by chance right there when 'coming soon' become 'Available', they all would be gone by the time you got one into cart.

Then there is the question of owning an X-box and a PC a bit duplicate or overlap for the money.

Then finally, is there really much out for the PS5.

The one that I am finding some depth in is PC. I've had a pretty good run lately of finding games I like, particularly (I'm not advertising) Steam. But there is of course Good Old Games and such, also.

So as long as you have an okay card, it seems to me, you don't need to have it all. And someday I may get that Nintendo whatever...

I have the XSX, PS5 Digital, and a 3080, mainly due to COVID. The free time combined with money saved from not doing any traveling was enough to justify it. Honestly, I could have done without the 3080 as I haven't felt like playing games at my desk as much as I did pre-COVID, but whatever.

I have actually liked the XSX way more than I thought I would. Game pass, combined with having missed out on a lot of recent single player games over the past two to three years has made it my most played device since it launched.

I've flirted with the idea I suppose, especially now that I have a Switch and, in using the Pro Controller, realize that in my old age I'm less dogmatic about the placement of analog sticks as I was in my twenties. Xbox Game Pass is an incredibly enticing service and the number of studios Microsoft has scooped up has me, for the first time, a little nervous I might be missing out by not owning an XBox! It's a new feeling! I'm just not robust or analytical enough to actual math it out and reason out how quickly I'd save $500 or whatever over the course of the Series X's life to justify owning two consoles rather than just buying games at the pace I already on Playstation and keeping all those beautiful trophies in one ecosystem.

Xbox Series X and PS5 are keeping me more than busy gaming thank you very much. I have no intention or need to buy a 3000 series nVidia card.

I guess I sort of am?

I got a PS5 because the launch stream (astrobot and demon souls) seemed cool and I lucked out during the brief window after the PS Direct queue had been fixed to not be skippable but before everyone figured out how to game it anyway (was playing Warframe and grinding fish to build a necramech while working my way through checkout).

Similarly, I "upgraded" my PC with a new AMD CPU and a 3070 (was tempted to keep trying for the 3080 but price wise it is a "reasonable" stepdown and it looks like we may want more vram in the next few years anyway).

Which kind of gives me the entire generation? Like, don't get me wrong, I really want an XSEX if only to appreciate a decent UI and a good UX relative to the shitshow that is a PS5 (I had to reinstall the PS4 version of Nioh on my PS5 to download my cloud save, upload my cloud save, and then re-download in the PS5 version...). But because of gamepass and MS actually remembering they ARE PC gaming it means that I just can't justify it (it helps that I grabbed an XBONEX near the start of lockdown) even as a living room box because I can just stream my steam (and maybe gamepass games?) over my network to my living room PC if I really want to have the (compressed) PC visuals and load times.

I've gone as all in as I get every generation, I suppose. I've never had a gaming PC. I'm just not going to drop $1000 dollars on any form of personal entertainment for myself. But I do always make sure I have some form of any console/handheld out at the time. This time around it's a Switch, Digital PS5, and the Series S. So no change from me on that front.

Why not "invest" in a new TV, sound system, sofa, or something that would let you enjoy the PS5/Xbox Series more?

I did that too with a Sonos Arc and LG CX!

This is currently how I feel about upgrading my GPU as well. I'm playing Valheim and PUBG these days at 120fps already, so while a 3080 would be pretty sweet to have there doesn't seem to be any imminent need to overpay or spend hours trying to track down incoming stock.

I have a PS5, which I got on launch day. I'm enjoying having it there, mostly as an excuse to finally play all the PS4 games that were on my backlist at 60fps. Just finished Ghost Of Tsushima, now starting on Persona Strikers. One thing that has made a huge difference on the PS5, which I think not enough people are talking about, is their net code has improved from the PS4 significantly - on PS4 I would have to leave a game downloading overnight, despite my insanely fast internet speed. On the PS5 I can have a game installed and ready to play within an hour, which makes the back catalogue feel much more accessible.

@heelbill: How's the Arc? Talk about going all-in . . . Sonos systems deserve their own thread entirely.

Nope. I legitimately need a new video card so will buy one as soon as my EVGA number comes up, but other than that I'm good. The impossibility of finding any hardware has quite conveniently destroyed all of my FOMO. I'm sure I'll get a PS5 eventually, but given the expected delays in video game production, I wouldn't be surprised if there's no compelling reason to bother until the end of 2022.

I have a series X, a Switch, and a decently powerful PC. I use my series X for most games, because im now a complete convert on 4k after having gotten a 4k tv. My switch gets used like 2-3 times a year, whenever Nintendo makes a new thing, and im fine with that. My PC is used for games that you really should only play on a PC. So mostly WoW classic and Civ 6 in my case. I don't see getting a ps5 anytime soon, but a 4k capable switch would definitely interest me.

I eventually will. For better or worse this is my main hobby and I have a pathological need to have all the hardware. That said, I've got a good gaming PC, a gargantuan backlog, and no games I particularly care about seem to be coming out this year, so I'm not foaming at the mouth to get my hands on any of the new stuff just yet. Happy to wait until I can just walk into a store and grab a XSX/PS5, even if it takes another year.

It's been the exact opposite for me. Not being able to just go pick up new gear killed off my compulsive need to early adopt. Then I took a good look at the current and upcoming games I'm interested in and they're all last-gen. I'm good until at least the midlife console refresh.

Or until the Super Switch. I'm just a man. I'm not made out of willpower.

I'm already legally blind and I'm getting closer and closer to needing an eye surgery that will probably realistically mean the end of me being able to play games (excepting those that can be played without sight - I'm gonna be so damn good at Divekick). I'm also approaching forty, so I'm kinda sorta leaning towards going all in as far as a new console and a TV as kind of a last gaming blast. What's kind of stopping me is Elder Scrolls VI. I'd love to have a big beefy computer for that thing, but if it's going to come out further than a couple years away, I can't really hang on that long. I mean, I hope I can, obviously, but for me personally, the clock is really ticking and this is probably the last console cycle I'll invest in.

Nothing about an upgrade is currently appealing. There's a big lack of games I want and the ones I do want will probably come to Game Pass, PC, or Switch.

Neither console feels like a necessity.