Were the nodes really cheaper back then? (If so, what made the prices go up?)
Complexity. Current nodes are so close already to what is possible in physics it requires much higher precision, complexity and much more expensive machines plus few months of time to fully produce one chip (though of course many thousands are done at the same time). Also, with initial node release yields are much lower too and it takes time for them to be better. Chips got bigger too (many more transistors and much higher complexity). Masks alone for photolithography increased in price considerably - for 14nm it was $3 mil per set, for 7nm they costed about $10 mil per set, now it's over $40 mil per set. Any error in the chip discovered in early production and you need brand new masks, so that's another 40 mil down the drain, etc.
Were the cards really less complex?
By far, yes. Much less power use = less complex (less layers) board, less components and traces, smaller, much less complex chips, etc.
I mean, compared to now they were definitely more simple but I'm pretty sure for the tech we had back then they were cutting edge tech and in no way 'simple'.
And yet tech was progressing exponentially, so by the time they went to production, they were already outdated and cost of producing them rapidly dropped down. Not much of the case anymore.
Why is is it only PC components that get more expensive as tech advances in the whole entirety of the history of humanity and why did it only start going up about 10 years ago?
It's getting more and more visible the closer we get to physical barriers - each next push is exponentially more expensive now. Also, it's more visible the more complex chips you produce, which makes mid-high end PC GPUs way more complex than console chips (as those are comparable to low-mid range usually). And lastly, console market is much bigger and hardware is subsidised by the parent company, who just want to capture as much market as they can because they will earn much more monies from selling games. Not the case on the PC at all.
Every other line of technology gets cheaper as we progress, but for some reason not for this one space...
Not true, just look for example at mini computers like RaspberryPi - they get more and more expensive with each generation. More powerful but more expensive too. What makes things cheaper is not technology progressing (in a way of how many transistors you can slap into a chip) but mass production - the bigger the market and the more you can sell, the cheaper it is per each unit.
Ultimately I don't know the answer, but I suspect it's more about shareholders and driving up stock prices than any other factor.
That adds up to the cost for sure, but the tech is getting much more expensive to design and produce now too - because of the mentioned earlier reasons.
I really don't mean to pick on you btw; you just happened to air the sentiment/excuse about pricing that irks me somewhat as it just handwaves away all responsibility like it's just some law of nature that prices are higher and there's nothing that we or corporations could do about it - when the base reality is it's us and the corporations that set the prices for EVERYTHING at every level of the process.
Everything could be cheaper, but the thing is corporations rule the big chunk of western world by lobbying, pulling strings, manipulating markets etc. That surely drives the cost of everything up. But also, average person gets more and more wealthy too each year - and with that comes inflation and raising prices, often outpacing the wealth growth of average person. Joe asks for more monies in salary, corporation charges the other joe more to cover that but then charges even more to also put a bunch into their pockets, then avoids taxes so then joe has to cover that from his higher salary etc. Loads of bad stuff. But we allow it and we consume a lot happily, so it's not going to change anytime soon.
ound parity, so going by this £1200 for 5080, £2000 for 5090 -- right smack on target for what most are guessing.
