GPU prices

[kalniel]

Yay a sensible post!

That's the feeling I'm getting as well. Gone are the days where you could buy a reasonably fast card for £150-200 and play most games on high graphical settings.

Occasionally, I use the waybackmachine website to go back to websites like Overclockers to look at old things. In this case I went back to 2008, and as you can see, gpu prices were reasonably good with the level of performance they were offering at the time (notably the 8800 gts):

http://web.archive.org/web/20080411...roductlist.php?groupid=701&catid=56&subid=927

Obviously over time there are other variables that make a difference to the prices from 2008 to now, such as higher VAT, inflation etc. But probably the biggest factor right now aside from the Brexit, is that Nvidia appear to have virtually no competition anymore, which no doubt contributes to what they now feel they can charge for their products.

I think we're seeing a bit of a parabola in enthusiast PC pricing in general. Way back, PCs were very very expensive. I couldn't afford 'real' brand cards like Roland, had to make do with knock off emulators from Orchid. Likewise, getting that 64bit ISA accelerator card.. wow.

Then gradually PCs became more popular, and cheaper. Eventually just about every household had a PC or several, and components became the cheapest I can remember seeing them.

Now PCs aren't in use as much - phones, tablets etc. have taken their place in the home, certainly in terms of having an up to date device. What happens when your market shrinks? Components get expensive again. That same (or higher) R&D cost is spread out between fewer people.

This is inevitable. We will see fewer leaps in performance, and greater costs. That is the price we pay for being PC enthusiasts (a definition I'm increasingly happy to drop out of, given I'm satisfied with less than the top end).

 

[SnuggleWalrus]

** edited **

I have to agree with Kalniel about the tablet and smartphone takeover. People and some businesses seem to take these on more than computers which helps push the prices up it seems as the demand for a gaming pc just is not there anymore (I know this doesn't apply to businesses). I'm not a particular fanboy on either side of the graphics card war but I see a lot of talk about NVidia killing AMD which if that is true in terms of what they push over a competitor then I suppose that means they could charge what they want, especially if people are actually buying it. All we need to do is look at the 1070 and 1080 sales, those are sold out pretty much everywhere so NVidia will keep prices high if we keep showing we are willing to pay that amount for certain specs / improvements over older generations.

 

[subbytna]

For me, the last time I bought a new graphics card was the 560Ti. Ever since then I've always bought the members market second hand cards. Knowing that they have usually been well looked after and to save money as I think GPU's are getting daft in their pricing now.

 

[Greebo]

Yay a sensible post!



I think we're seeing a bit of a parabola in enthusiast PC pricing in general. Way back, PCs were very very expensive. I couldn't afford 'real' brand cards like Roland, had to make do with knock off emulators from Orchid. Likewise, getting that 64bit ISA accelerator card.. wow.

Then gradually PCs became more popular, and cheaper. Eventually just about every household had a PC or several, and components became the cheapest I can remember seeing them.

Now PCs aren't in use as much - phones, tablets etc. have taken their place in the home, certainly in terms of having an up to date device. What happens when your market shrinks? Components get expensive again. That same (or higher) R&D cost is spread out between fewer people.

This is inevitable. We will see fewer leaps in performance, and greater costs. That is the price we pay for being PC enthusiasts (a definition I'm increasingly happy to drop out of, given I'm satisfied with less than the top end).

Yep, my first PC in 1992 cost me £2,100. That's probably double that in today's money.

On that basis even my behemoth now costs less and I could build a very competent gaming pc for much much less.

 

[subbytna]

The company knows they will have the diehards always buy the latest at any cost regardless and so will price high knowing that the diehards will still buy it anyway. Lots of the pricing has to do with epeen swinging too imo. To have the forum sig all up to date with the new stuff just to try to impress people you never meet in real life but "speak" to online boards like this one. Again, IMO, it also seems the epeen swinging is an issue with the younger lot, not all but most, whereas the older gents like me, in their 40+ years range, are happy to just game and not really care about having the best of the best. Ok some do want the top grade stuff and fair dues to them but they are in the 1% minority.

 

[Seanspeed]

** edited ***

I think we're seeing a bit of a parabola in enthusiast PC pricing in general. Way back, PCs were very very expensive. I couldn't afford 'real' brand cards like Roland, had to make do with knock off emulators from Orchid. Likewise, getting that 64bit ISA accelerator card.. wow.

Then gradually PCs became more popular, and cheaper. Eventually just about every household had a PC or several, and components became the cheapest I can remember seeing them.

Now PCs aren't in use as much - phones, tablets etc. have taken their place in the home, certainly in terms of having an up to date device. What happens when your market shrinks? Components get expensive again. That same (or higher) R&D cost is spread out between fewer people.

This is inevitable. We will see fewer leaps in performance, and greater costs. That is the price we pay for being PC enthusiasts (a definition I'm increasingly happy to drop out of, given I'm satisfied with less than the top end).

PC gaming itself is growing, though. And that's what these products will be marketed towards.

So I'm not sure that the general shrinking PC market affects desktop gaming GPU R&D.

 

[eddyr]

GPU's do seem to be drifting towards being an aspirational product for a section of the gaming market and satisfying the need for 'the latest and greatest'. I find myself more interested in technological progress and so long as they don't stifle the mid-market products, people can pay as much as they like for the top range. Of course 'trickle down' never really properly occurs, too much revenue to lose by allowing to much performance progression at the affordable mid range which would require a business model that is slightly less profitable (but v profitable non the less).



** not here ***

 

[kalniel]

PC gaming itself is growing, though. And that's what these products will be marketed towards.

So I'm not sure that the general shrinking PC market affects desktop gaming GPU R&D.

Most PC gaming doesn't need any kind of discrete graphics card any more. Gone are the times when you had to pick up some kind of card. Minecraft, LoL, even Facebook games almost certainly get more players than anything that needs a powerful GPU.

 

[Admiral Huddy]

closed until i have cleared the EU discussion rubbish from the thread.

 

[Gibbo]

As promised Asus GTX 980Ti is back to £359.99 until 18:00 today!

 

[Gibbo]

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