Why are GPUs so expensive?

[Twinz]

I feel like we were seeing increases of x% performance @ y price point year after year...and then RTX happened and the increase in performance at various price points stalled.

 

[Gibbo]

Sorry I meant 2060 Super Gaming X but I stand by my comments its a great value for money GPU along with the RX5700XT & 2070 Super (although both of those are power hungry under heavy use ). At the end of the day unless you must have extra FPS because your display is 120-144 Hz you cannot even notice most of the time its pointless throwing more than £400-500 at these GPU's

I RMAed an MSI £720 2080 Super Gaming X Trio a few weeks ago it was a pointless upgrade for me even @ 4K. RTX enhanced games look very similar to non RTX enhanced games so its not worth it for that to me & trying all the other games I play I found there was zero noticeable difference visually or otherwise between a 3+ years old GTX 1070 & the 2080 Super so I RMAed got the 2060 Super saved £400 I then spent on other items instead!

2060 Super at £350 is not bad value!
But whilst 2070’s can be had for same money no one in their right mind would buy a 2060 Super over a 2070 when they cost same now.

 

[subbytna]

Yes you are totally wrong glad you admit it! My MSI RTX 2060 Super Gamer X is faster than a regular RTX2070 & only cost me £395 but as I had sold my older GPU it cost me only £233 to upgrade but even without that money from the old GPU sale @ £395 its a bargain. Not all etailers sell them for £430++! I notice OCUK are now selling Super 2060s sub £350 which is a good price for the performance on offer.

When you throw in power consumption the RTX2070 is way higher so is the RX5700XT especially the custom models under heavy load draw a ridiculous amount of power !

https://web.archive.org/web/2010022...did=GX-116-GW&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=927

The *60 series low/mid range card back in 2010 was £173, you're now saying the same *60 low/mid range card, that's now almost £400, is value? The *60 range of cards are now where the high end flagship cards used to be.


even in 2012 - https://web.archive.org/web/2011121...ockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-074-GI

560Ti card was less than £200

 

[StriderX]

Why is this >100 posts?

There's only one sufficient answer - enough people are buying it.

 

[Gibbo]

Why is this >100 posts?

There's only one sufficient answer - enough people are buying it.

This!

Not only that between AMD and NVIDIA they cater for every price segment and simple fact is an RX 590 at £150 will give 100+ FPS at 1080P in many games.

High performance stuff has never being cheap, the rare flagship parts built in small numbers have always carried price premiums its a fact of live and compared to years ago we have a weaker pound, inflation etc but simple facts are USD prices are not that different from years before. The problem here seems to be people wanting HOF, Strix cards at normal prices, that will never happen as they are flagship parts built in smaller numbers with flashy lights, the simple fact is the regular part will give you generally 95-99% of the performance for far less money.

If people want the all singing all dancing stuff, well it cost money. You don't go into Ford and expect to get the Focus RS for regular Focus 1.6 Zetec money, performance cost more and it always shall do. For those not wanting to pay or cannot afford, there are always options to cater for those who want lesser performance or less bells and whistles.

 

[BigBANGtheory]

If you want to stick with the car analogy... You don’t expect a Focus RS to cost GT40 prices just because it’s a bit faster than a Zetec.

 

[Emjay86]

I still remember going to a computer fair, many, many moons ago.

Picked up a top of the range Voodoo 2 card for the princely sum of £89.

*Sigh*, those were the days.

Ah the voodoo 2... what a lovely card that was!

 

[subbytna]

[closethread]​

so then....weather is a bit naff today
[/closethread]

 

[CuriousTomCat]

Okay so we have established why GPUs are so expensive. My question is, why do you all care?

There's a card for every budget, just buy a card and be happy. I'm chuffed to bits with mine and it was only £201. I have so much fun playing games on it.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

Okay so we have established why GPUs are so expensive. My question is, why do you all care?

There's a card for every budget, just buy a card and be happy. I'm chuffed to bits with mine and it was only £201. I have so much fun playing games on it.

I guess it comes down to the fact you can buy a 4K console for £400 new at launch.

Yet you can't even game at 1440p on a PC unless you spend £1000.

 

[melmac]

I guess it comes down to the fact you can buy a 4K console for £400 new at launch.

Yet you can't even game at 1440p on a PC unless you spend £1000.

haha, exaggerate much?

you can buy a PC from OCUK for £689 that will do 1440p gaming just fine. Probably do 4K better than the console does 4K anyway considering for demanding titles the consoles upscale to 4K.

 

[b00merang69]

4K tiled, or are some games actually native (like Minecraft?

Was the same before when they were real 1080p lol.

 

[djxput]

I still remember going to a computer fair, many, many moons ago.

Picked up a top of the range Voodoo 2 card for the princely sum of £89.

*Sigh*, those were the days.

*Cough* Look at my mousepad *Cough*

 

[Kelt]

*Cough* Look at my mousepad *Cough*

Hah, blast from the past!

3DFX was such a great, innovative company...until they got into financial woes (not so great) and got assimilated by the Borg.

 

[djxput]

Hah, blast from the past!

3DFX was such a great, innovative company...until they got into financial woes (not so great) and got assimilated by the Borg.

ops I cant figure out how to post a pic; glad you got it. I remember the assimilation part; nvidia bought the company and then ceased to provide any support or updates ie take em over and let em die. I refused to buy a nvidia gpu forever because of that; but have had my 970 for years - (actually just got a 5700 yesterday so just need to install it now). (new mouse pad time?

 

[Kelt]

ops I cant figure out how to post a pic; glad you got it. I remember the assimilation part; nvidia bought the company and then ceased to provide any support or updates ie take em over and let em die. I refused to buy a nvidia gpu forever because of that; but have had my 970 for years - (actually just got a 5700 yesterday so just need to install it now). (new mouse pad time?

Yeh, and frame the old one!

Use Imgur for piccies, not sure why people use anything else, it just works!

 

[PC777]

Have to give my own perspective here.

3 years ago I paid £260 for a 1060 6GB.

Just recently I paid approx £460 for 2070 super with free CoD MW, so around £400.

For that I get over double the power and performance of the 1060 6GB.

For me, it was still good value, I accept the top end is crazy but actually think the 2070 super is a good deal.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

Have to give my own perspective here.

3 years ago I paid £260 for a 1060 6GB.

Just recently I paid approx £460 for 2070 super with free CoD MW, so around £400.

For that I get over double the power and performance of the 1060 6GB.

For me, it was still good value, I accept the top end is crazy but actually think the 2070 super is a good deal.

Didn't the 2060 go up to £350 at some point too? And it initially launched around £220-£240?

People still don't take the mining craze into account which caused prices to next to double across the board.

 

[ANDREW GREEN]

I guess it comes down to the fact you can buy a 4K console for £400 new at launch.

Yet you can't even game at 1440p on a PC unless you spend £1000.

Lets see:

5700 - £250
Zen 2600 - £110
RAM - £70
MB - £60
PSU - £60
SSD - £100
Case £20

Total - £670 - for something way better than any console. And you could get a 590 for £150 if you didn't have the budget for the 5700 and game just fine at 1440p

Also if you're happy with low settings and framerates which consoles have you can use a 570 anyway

4k console gaming will use scaling and low settings

 

[Psycho Sonny]

Lets see:

5700 - £250
Zen 2600 - £110
RAM - £70
MB - £60
PSU - £60
SSD - £100
Case £20

Total - £670 - for something way better than any console. And you could get a 590 for £150 if you didn't have the budget for the 5700 and game just fine at 1440p

Also if you're happy with low settings and framerates which consoles have you can use a 570 anyway

4k console gaming will use scaling and low settings

Case for £20?
Motherboard for £60?
Questionable choice of CPU too for gaming. Worth spending less on the SSD to get the 3600.