Basically title. I’m a digital artist in the USA and not rich by any stretch. In fact, somewhat in debt. (Aren’t we all.)

I also try really hard to not be a mindless consumer. I use old equipment as long as I can, repair, refurbish, etc…

All this talk of upcoming tariffs has me worried that, rather than being able to get a day-job at newly opened US manufacturing for electronics or something, I’ll instead be paying +60% more on like everything.

I know tech is a depreciating asset, but should I try to upgrade now to hold out for the next ~5 years or so?

I was considering hunting down a motherboard/cpu/RAM combo for instance.

Are worries about tariffs overblown? Trying to figure out how to prepare as best I can with my meager resources before everything just…keeps getting worse.

I am getting paid for my digital art, it’s not living money though. My spouse has a more stable income that enables me to keep trying.

Thanks in advance. <3

  • andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    3·
    5 months ago

    In videocards, nV 3060 likely doubled the output nV 1060 had, and CPUs albeit slower rise in numbers too. New hardware can probably last you a good ten years or more if nothing like an entirely new demanding software happens, like if we’d start to train our AIs locally en masse. Years before the war I bought myself all new components and they are still good at digital art and video rendering, even though I know a bit more modern setup can do it 2-4x quicker. It’s just obligatory smoking breaks that I don’t really mind.