So I apparently ruffled a few feathers online lately by calling cards like the GTX 1080 and 1660 ti/super "low end." I keep being told that, in fact, these cards are NOT low end, and they're still very capable cards today. However, I want to remind people that the GTX 1080 came out 10 years ago. And while it was a powerful card for the time, and it is still reasonably powerful on paper, again, it's a 10 year old card. It lacks modern features, and can't run many modern games.
I mean, here's how I see it. The minimum requirement for modern games is a GPU with:
1) 8 GB VRAM
2) Support for ray tracing and modern APIs
3) Roughly 5-6x GT 1030 performance (yeah, I'm still using 1030s as a unit of measurement).
Generally speaking, the minimum cards that meet this are cards like:
RTX 2060 12 GB
RTX 2060 super
RTX 3050 8 GB
RX 6600
Arc A750
I would say those are, generally speaking, the minimum that you need to run modern games. Anything less than that is dated and "low end." To explain why I call some cards low end:
GTX 1070/1080/1080 ti- Lacks RT support and support for modern APIs
RX 5700 XT- Ditto, lacks RT support and support for modern APIs
GTX 1660 ti/super- Lacks RT support, support for modern APIs, and has only 6 GB VRAM
RTX 2060 6 GB- Has only 6 GB VRAM
RTX 3050 6 GB- Has only 6 GB VRAM, only 4x GT 1030 performance
RX 6500 XT- Lacks VRAM and power
"But but...it runs everything I throw at it!"
Sure, it might play what you play, and that's fine, but that doesn't mean that it runs all modern titles decently. Try playing Doom the Dark Ages on a card like that, or Gears of War E day, since that's tne newest title that's making or breaking a lot of cards.
Also, let's keep this in mind, "low end" is relative. Every low end card was once high end. Low end is what used to be acceptable 5 years ago in a lot of cases. But you gotta keep in mind, 5 years ago was 2021. A lot of the above cards are MUCH older. GTX 1000 series was sold in 2016/2017. 16 series cards were sold in 2019-2021. RTX 2000 cards were sold in 2018-2021. RX 5000 series cards were sold 2019-2020. I mean, we're talking 7-10 years old here. A RX 6000 series or RTX 3000 series card came out in 2020-2022. Most of them still work for modern games, so requirements are doing what they always did, targeting 4-6 year old cards. Stronger cards from 8 years ago still work like the RTX 2070 and above. Even a 2060 is still fine IF it has 8-12 GB RAM. Cards like the RX 6500 XT or the 3050 6 GB were specifically designed to be cut down and crappy and if you bought them, you bought crap. I mean, you should've known that. Sorry to say it but reviews were never generous to these cards.
And yeah. The market is the market. And I guess it sucks if you decided to hold onto your 2010s era card through that 2022-2025 prime age of upgrading and now you're stuck on a really dated card through RAMpocalypse, but yeah, I mean...you had years to buy. And it wasnt like the signs of the cards that are dated being dated havent been there for a while. Games started pushing modern standards in 2023 when we left the "cross gen" period between gen 8 and 9 consoles where gen 8 was cut off. And the gen 9 consoles are basically running RX 6650 XTs or 6700s. If you don't have at least the minimum mentioned above, youre gonna have a bad time. And for a while, that minimum was easily accessible for $200-300. I admit, if the market were healthier, we shouldve seen sub $200 for that stuff, but the closest we ever got was maybe $180-190 for a RX 6600.
And yeah. Idk. I'm not doing this to spec shame people. I just get annoyed when people get super defensive over their quite frankly old hardware that by historical standards is REALLY old. Like, to explain how this looks going even further back, imagine acting like your 8800 GT from 2007 wasn't old by 2016. Imagine thinking a HD 5850 or GTX 460 wasn't old in 2018 or something. You'd be laughed out of the room given you could get $80 GT 1030s back then. I get that the market has stagnated since then, and it has allowed such old cards to remain relevant for longer, but even if some of them are powerful enough, they dont have the modern RT or API support, and some of them lack VRAM. So...yeah. Again, I know the market is really REALLY terrible and that the current crisis is basically COVID 2.0 as far as pricing goes, but again. No, your 8-10 year old card isn't good any more. It's good for you if it still does everything you want it to, but it IS time to consider it "low end" or incapable of running the most demanding modern games. Because it is.
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