At what point do you say GPU's are too expensive and refuse to buy?

[Bassmansam]

20k isn't really much for a car, more apt would be, I don't worry that some people spend millions on Bugatti's good luck to them, I do start to worry when all the car manufacturers decide fiestas are now 100k... and people seem willing to pay for them.

a 5090 isn't a fiesta though is it? It's the best graphics card you can get.

 

[Sythe79]

a 5090 isn't a fiesta though is it? It's the best graphics card you can get.

And nobody should care what it costs, the 5080 and below aren't the best card you can get so shouldn't be £1000+ the 5070 should be the ford focus of GPUs and should be priced accordingly.

 

[Aurhinius]

a 5090 isn't a fiesta though is it? It's the best graphics card you can get.

True but it's still just a graphics card. The fact that people are spending that amount of money on a GPU when some people can't afford to heat their homes and struggle to feed a family is a worrying state of society if you stop to think about it. Even more worrying if you don't care. Yes I do apply that to any luxury item. I'm not advocating we all live out of charity shops, though unfortunately some people do. I just think "we" need to draw the line somewhere and £2000+ on a single GPU is well beyond my line. It was not long ago you could buy an entire high performance PC for that. If you drop down one level to a 5080 you can! I'm not saying you shouldn't enjoy the fruits of your labour or your hobby though. If you feel you can justify a 5090 to yourself good on you but I don't think purchasing one will help bring the price down of the next series. I am pretty sure we would all like our hobby to be more affordable, no?

 

[DarrenM343]

True but it's still just a graphics card. The fact that people are spending that amount of money on a GPU when some people can't afford to heat their homes and struggle to feed a family is a worrying state of society if you stop to think about it. Even more worrying if you don't care. Yes I do apply that to any luxury item. I'm not advocating we all live out of charity shops, though unfortunately some people do. I just think "we" need to draw the line somewhere and £2000+ on a single GPU is well beyond my line. It was not long ago you could buy an entire high performance PC for that. If you drop down one level to a 5080 you can! I'm not saying you shouldn't enjoy the fruits of your labour or your hobby though. If you feel you can justify a 5090 to yourself good on you but I don't think purchasing one will help bring the price down of the next series. I am pretty sure we would all like our hobby to be more affordable, no?

Not purchasing one might not bring the price down either. They might just decide to not offer such a high end product to consumers/gamers. But remember, the 5090 is not aimed at only gamers, it's a workstation GPU too. Some will be buying for non-gaming use and £2000+ might not actually be bad value then.

 

[decto]

True but it's still just a graphics card. The fact that people are spending that amount of money on a GPU when some people can't afford to heat their homes and struggle to feed a family is a worrying state of society if you stop to think about it. Even more worrying if you don't care. Yes I do apply that to any luxury item. I'm not advocating we all live out of charity shops, though unfortunately some people do. I just think "we" need to draw the line somewhere and £2000+ on a single GPU is well beyond my line. It was not long ago you could buy an entire high performance PC for that. If you drop down one level to a 5080 you can! I'm not saying you shouldn't enjoy the fruits of your labour or your hobby though. If you feel you can justify a 5090 to yourself good on you but I don't think purchasing one will help bring the price down of the next series. I am pretty sure we would all like our hobby to be more affordable, no?

4 cigrettes a day for 2 years
4 Costa cappuccino a week for 2 years
4 pints of pub beer per week for 2 years
Pure gym membership for 2 years

Very ordinary things add up.... and after 2 years you still have a great GPU which you can continue to use or sell.

 

[ICDP]

a 5090 isn't a fiesta though is it? It's the best graphics card you can get.

But imagine if the car manufacturers stopped making higher end cars and just kept moving the prices of the mediocre cars up each new release and told you they were awesome new generation super cars. Eventually the best car you could buy is a Fiesta* and it costs £200,000. Yeah it’s the best car on the road by default, but is still just a ******* Fiesta*

But wait… the new Fiesta* has the awesome MSG (Multi Speed Generation) feature. For every MPH you do, the speedometer reports up to 4x speed. This way you get to feel like you’re getting places really REALLY fast. Now you can tell everyone you are getting 280 MPH on the motorway and that your top speed is 396 MPH. The manufacturer marketing tells you with a straight ******* face “faster than a Formula 1 racing car”.

This is what Nvidia have been doing. Just because a 5090 is the best by default because Nvidia stopped trying, does not make it a “great” GPU.

*Yes I know the Fiesta is no longer in production.

 

[ICDP]

4 cigrettes a day for 2 years
4 Costa cappuccino a week for 2 years
4 pints of pub beer per week for 2 years
Pure gym membership for 2 years

Very ordinary things add up.... and after 2 years you still have a great GPU which you can continue to use or sell.

Wait… are you saying that buying a 5090 for £2,500 will save me from getting cancer, cure my caffeine addiction, prevent alcoholism and help me lose weight? Wow sign me up and give me two of them please. Or even better, can I get one on prescription from a chemist? Think how much the NHS could save and reduce those waiting lists if they handed out free 5090s.

Joking aside, this has to be the most ridiculous justification for the utter joke that is current top end GPU prices I have ever read. Or is this actually satire and I missed it?

 

[stannous]

But imagine if the car manufacturers stopped making higher end cars and just kept moving the prices of the mediocre cars up each new release and told you they were awesome new generation super cars. Eventually the best car you could buy is a Fiesta* and it costs £200,000. Yeah it’s the best car on the road by default, but is still just a ******* Fiesta*

But wait… the new Fiesta* has the awesome MSG (Multi Speed Generation) feature. For every MPH you do, the speedometer reports up to 4x speed. This way you get to feel like you’re getting places really REALLY fast. Now you can tell everyone you are getting 280 MPH on the motorway and that your top speed is 396 MPH. The manufacturer marketing tells you with a straight ******* face “faster than a Formula 1 racing car”.

This is what Nvidia have been doing. Just because a 5090 is the best by default because Nvidia stopped trying, does not make it a “great” GPU.

*Yes I know the Fiesta is no longer in production.

IMHO, exactly this. I might be getting old, but 500 quid for a 7800xt had me questioning whether it was worth it.

 

[RedMogg]

I haven't felt the need to upgrade my son's 2080Ti (EVGA FTW3, water cooled). He plays tournaments at 1080p 240hz, with a 2nd 1440p monitor for editing videos & watching movies.

I replaced my 5700XT with a 7800XT (both Sapphire Nitro) when I started playing on the lounge TV (4K 144hz TCL C845K) - it was £540, which was roughly a third of the price of the 2080Ti in 2018: I built my "Money doesn't matter" rig - which very quickly got outdated and I regretted paying the ridiculous premium for the latest tech.

Now we've got AM4 PCs for all three monsters (13, 11 & 8), upgrades usually means a domino-effect for all three - buying my 5800X3D meant my son got the 5900X, middle daughter got his 3800X and youngest got her 3600X.

Staying a generation or two behind means incremental updates aren't such a massive expense and can effectively be spread across all 4 systems - obviously this will be dearer when everyone needs a new AM5 motherboard & DDR5, but again, staying a year or three behind will reduce that a.fair.whack.

 

[Roguey000]

for me its already got too expensive already - after the 30 series. I keep an eye on whats going on - see what new things come out, but im overal im disapointed how things have gone. I was a massive PC gamer, now its turning into a bit of a joke for me: stupidly priced cards (theres no reason why any card is over £1,000), a lack of innovation (all nvidia seem to doing is making fake frames to make their product seem faster) and no competition (there's simply no need to push things). nvidia are so stingy with their vram too, what does a couple of memory chips actually cost? we are looking at cards without enough before they are even launched, just so they can be out-dated by running out of vram instead of pure frame power.

Its a sad time - and the 50 series is just highlighting all the problems for me once again. You can see how disapointed how tech reviewers are too - they are passionate about new tech and they are just meh.

Its looking like new cards will be out-of-stock for 2-3 months? on that 'auction' site we already seeing cards at massively increased prices. Is that all new releases are now? nvidia could build up a stock-pile of new cards (if they wanted too), but they rather keep low stock to inflate their ego, drive up prices and make their product seem popular. People keep buying at these prices, so it keeps getting worse.

 

[hornetstinger]

for me its already got too expensive already - after the 30 series. I keep an eye on whats going on - see what new things come out, but im overal im disapointed how things have gone. I was a massive PC gamer, now its turning into a bit of a joke for me: stupidly priced cards (theres no reason why any card is over £1,000), a lack of innovation (all nvidia seem to doing is making fake frames to make their product seem faster) and no competition (there's simply no need to push things). nvidia are so stingy with their vram too, what does a couple of memory chips actually cost? we are looking at cards without enough before they are even launched, just so they can be out-dated by running out of vram instead of pure frame power.

Its a sad time - and the 50 series is just highlighting all the problems for me once again. You can see how disapointed how tech reviewers are too - they are passionate about new tech and they are just meh.

Its looking like new cards will be out-of-stock for 2-3 months? on that 'auction' site we already seeing cards at massively increased prices. Is that all new releases are now? nvidia could build up a stock-pile of new cards (if they wanted too), but they rather keep low stock to inflate their ego, drive up prices and make their product seem popular. People keep buying at these prices, so it keeps getting worse.

What is worse is the younger generation thing it's normal for these sorts of prices. £300 used to be the high end market, now you literally get bargain basement from a little well known GPU manufacturer that has it's own issues, and not any better than a 6600XT/4060.

Same for motherboard prices, getting absurd. My £200 motherboard lacks optical out. Compared to my old Intel system that was probably £150 max and had optical out

 

[Roguey000]

What is worse is the younger generation thing it's normal for these sorts of prices. £300 used to be the high end market, now you literally get bargain basement from a little well known GPU manufacturer that has it's own issues, and not any better than a 6600XT/4060.

Same for motherboard prices, getting absurd. My £200 motherboard lacks optical out. Compared to my old Intel system that was probably £150 max and had optical out

Indeed, and when you brought a 70 series it was only slightly slower (maybe 10-20% at most) than the 80 series (or whatever was the top of the series was). Now the difference between an 80 series to 90 series is double. Which is crazy - funny how nvidia just doubled the price too.

 

[McPhee]

What is worse is the younger generation thing it's normal for these sorts of prices. £300 used to be the high end market, now you literally get bargain basement from a little well known GPU manufacturer that has it's own issues, and not any better than a 6600XT/4060.

Same for motherboard prices, getting absurd. My £200 motherboard lacks optical out. Compared to my old Intel system that was probably £150 max and had optical out

Talking in pounds tends to distort things a bit, as the USD-GBP exchange rate is quite influential on UK pricing. Adjusted for inflation, the GTX 280 was $950. Then the 480, 580, 680 all launched for an adjusted $700-$750. The GTX 780 was $870 after adjustment. The GTX 980, $730. The 1080, 2080 and 3080 all launched around $850. So the average price for an *80 class GPU was maybe about $800 in today's money, with typically up to $100 of variance. It was the 4080 where prices started to shift, launching at almost $1,300 (when adjusted for inflation). And now the 5080 lands at $999. Expensive, but not utterly ridiculous.

Even if you look at mid-range, the 1070 was $379, which is $495 when adjusted for inflation. So the *70 class pricing has only gone up by $54 in real terms.

The real robbery is the degradation of performance in each series. The 5080 is not even remotely close to offering the expected performance for a next-generation *80 class card. Really, it's the 5070 Ti bumped up a tier (~30% improvement over the 4070 Ti Super). With that trend likely to continue down the stack, that means expected *70 class performance is likely to be found at $750, which is $255 over the inflation-adjusted price for a 1070

 

[nitram100]

2021 I gave up and just stuck with my 3060Ti. I Decided to stick with 1080p and spend a few years going through backlog. AAA games these days don't really interest me anyways.

 

[McPhee]

2021 I gave up and just stuck with my 3060Ti. I Decided to stick with 1080p and spend a few years going through backlog. AAA games these days don't really interest me anyways.

I'm still using a 3070m, which is pretty close to the 3060 Ti in performance terms. I think you're playing the performance of that card down TBH. I play at 3440x1440 and still manage a mix of medium and high settings in recent releases.

The 9070 could be interesting to me if the pricing is right. Performance is likely an +80%-100% improvement. Anything less than that isn't really worth the bother as I'd need to build a whole new rig.

 

[spudbynight]

I really think price isn't the only problem here with Nvidia. I think VRAM is a real problem as well.

The current Nvidia 4060 has 8GB of VRAM and is already struggling with games on that count. The 5060 and 5060 Ti are rumoured to have the same amount of VRAM. The 5070 - a card that is going to have an MSRP of $549 only has 12GB of VRAM. To get 16GB you need to jump to a 5070 Ti which has an MSRP of $749. Even the 5080 which has an MSRP of $999 only has 16GB

For current gen titles 8GB flat out is not enough VRAM. 12GB is now the least you can get away with. 16GB is realistically the least you can go for if you want any degree of future proofing. The budget Intel B580 launched with an MSRP of $249 and has 12 GB.

 

[varkanoid]

Its due to some of us getting old ( ) I'm a 55+ "gamer" and actually play less than I used to. I`ve been currently playing basically a mobile game on the PC (multiplayer) for over 2 years now on a 3090. I've got about 15-18 proper games queued up to play, eg Indy, Stalker 2 as I got a free 12 month gamepass. I wouldnt dream of spending £2000 in my current situation on a GPU. I would rather buy a new TV or go on holiday. Its long since gone of what was acceptable for myself and possibly others, (£600-£800 on top end ?)

On the flip side the younger generation will or may have that expendable money they can slap on a £2000 GPU. Thats fine its your money not going to judge it if you have that cash. Just think though spin forward to 50+ and that £2000 GPU might be a £10000 GPU when you get old and wrinkly like us.
That is generalising of course anyone could have a spare £2000 at whatever age to spend on a GPU. I guess its those of us who have lived long enough right from before a GPU card was invented to present day have seen the whole spectrum (Or CBM 64 ho ho ho) of how much they cost and can see when its bad value for money.

Also with regards to VRAM there was that new article going round saying DDR7 is quite costly and Nvidia passed on the extra cost to the AIB's hence why they then pass on the cost to customers which explains the higher pricing over FE.

 

[spudbynight]

Talking in pounds tends to distort things a bit, as the USD-GBP exchange rate is quite influential on UK pricing. Adjusted for inflation, the GTX 280 was $950. Then the 480, 580, 680 all launched for an adjusted $700-$750. The GTX 780 was $870 after adjustment. The GTX 980, $730. The 1080, 2080 and 3080 all launched around $850. So the average price for an *80 class GPU was maybe about $800 in today's money, with typically up to $100 of variance. It was the 4080 where prices started to shift, launching at almost $1,300 (when adjusted for inflation). And now the 5080 lands at $999. Expensive, but not utterly ridiculous.

Even if you look at mid-range, the 1070 was $379, which is $495 when adjusted for inflation. So the *70 class pricing has only gone up by $54 in real terms.

The real robbery is the degradation of performance in each series. The 5080 is not even remotely close to offering the expected performance for a next-generation *80 class card. Really, it's the 5070 Ti bumped up a tier (~30% improvement over the 4070 Ti Super). With that trend likely to continue down the stack, that means expected *70 class performance is likely to be found at $750, which is $255 over the inflation-adjusted price for a 1070

The pricing has gone up ahead of inflation in all cases. If one looks at MSRP it has gone up only a little bit ahead in most cases for 5000 series. The problem is when one looks at MSRP and compares it to prices on the shelves. When the 1070 launched people could buy cards at close to MSRP, the same with the 1080 at the time. The 5080 has an MSRP of $999 but the prices being charged for them are insane.

You highlight the 5080 being really a bumped up 5070 Ti and this is correct. This is a huge problem. The 50 models were dropped with the 4000 series and most people would agree the 4060 was really what should have been the 4050. This has crept up the entire product line. There was the aborted launch of the 4080 12 GB which was "unlaunched" and then launched as the 4070 Ti. This generation Nvidia seem to have learned the wrong lesson. The 5080 is the new gen equivalent of the 4080 12GB but without the "full fat" 4080 to show it up.

 

[McPhee]

I really think price isn't the only problem here with Nvidia. I think VRAM is a real problem as well.

The current Nvidia 4060 has 8GB of VRAM and is already struggling with games on that count. The 5060 and 5060 Ti are rumoured to have the same amount of VRAM. The 5070 - a card that is going to have an MSRP of $549 only has 12GB of VRAM. To get 16GB you need to jump to a 5070 Ti which has an MSRP of $749. Even the 5080 which has an MSRP of $999 only has 16GB

For current gen titles 8GB flat out is not enough VRAM. 12GB is now the least you can get away with. 16GB is realistically the least you can go for if you want any degree of future proofing. The budget Intel B580 launched with an MSRP of $249 and has 12 GB.

It'll be interesting to see what the next generation brings. As it stands, the only cards with more than 16GB VRAM are:

5090
4090
3090 Ti
3090
7900 XTX
7900 XT

We could add a potential 5000-series Titan or 5090 Ti to that list, and maybe a 5080 Super and/or Ti.

It could be a long while before developers can depend on being able to leverage more than 16GB VRAM

 

[Chrisc]

i paid £600 for my 6800, and going forward If mid tier cards are demanding £1000 then it'll be the 2nd hand market for me.

Im nearly 40, and 'making number go up' by a tiny margin really doesn't interest me anymore.