How Nvidia Won and AMD Lost the GPU War

[Jono8]

Absolutely.

All they’ve done long term is killed the golden goose.

I know nobody I’m my group of high end pc owning mates who’s planning to buy a new GPU and quite a few either already have or are planning to ditch pc gaming altogether and go console, they all concede pc gaming is better but not by being taken for mugs by Nvidia.

Yup, seriously considering an xbox one x and i honestly never thought i would say that. Nvidia can take these latest prices and shove them up their ****

The only hope is that AMD can release something at say around 2080 performance but price it at around £400-£450 next year to really pull Nvidia's trousers down.

 

[bru]

Anyone who tries to write some logical argument, is straight away branded as AMD fanboy and should be ignored.

While there is truth to this, it certainly does work both ways, any reasoned argument in favour of NVidia and your branded an NVidiot and told your stupid or some other such derogatory name.
Same goes for Intel as well, just look at the flak DG has had over his comments about people buying 9900k for 1080p gaming.

Just because one of us makes a comment that others don't agree with, cant we have reasoned discussions, rather than all the name calling.

 

[Calin Banc]

I played GOW on the PS4 and was blown away with the graphics. If I get a modern HDR/4k screen in the future which is likely because the current telly is over 4 yrs old these types of games are the bomb visually running off a 470/80. Im generally not a fan of console gaming but with limited time you cannot compete - at least that is dedicated graphics isnt exactly winning me over wanting an arm and a leg spiralling upwards over the years.

If you need to upgrade your whole system and the only thing you do is gaming, then yes, a console will be better in terms or raw price/perfomrance, but other than that, I wouldn't say is a clear win for them.
A current card, cheaper than the RX2xxx, will play those games just as well on the PC. Turn down some settings (most of the time you don't really notice them anyway) and you're good to go for years to come.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr_Ex2CR2Ac

HD7970GHz offers still today plenty of performance, more than what the base consoles of this generation provide.

I'd say that bigger prices will determine (the more advanced) PC gamer to (perhaps) upgrade less, skipping a generation or two while tweaking some settings. 7nm will bring high end performance to lower prices also.

 

[gpuerrilla]

If you need to upgrade your whole system and the only thing you do is gaming, then yes, a console will be better in terms or raw price/perfomrance, but other than that, I wouldn't say is a clear win for them. A current card, cheaper than the RX2xxx, will play those games just as well on the PC. Turn down some settings (most of the time you don't really notice them anyway) and you're good to go for years to come.

HD7970GHz offers still today plenty of performance, more than what the base consoles of this generation provide.

I'd say that bigger prices will determine (the more advanced) PC gamer to (perhaps) upgrade less, skipping a generation of two while tweaking some settings. 7nm will bring high end performance to lower prices also.

My current system I built near end of 2012. I got a 290x after an RMA on the 7990 when they ran out of stock. I think I got 5 games with it (and a free PSU) and sold 3 of them but recall playing some good titles on it. That is the point though, why "turn down settings" if your in that situation either the hardware is too expensive to upgrade (that you want), your hardware is old hat or the released games are not catering to optimise for the latter.

What we are drumming the beat on is that prices of cards are too high now, so much so that some PC die hards are just switching to consoles which myself thought would never be a consideration.

 

[Calin Banc]

Some settings are thrown there just "to be at the count" (hope that makes sense). If you have to point out where someone should look and when to notice a slight improvement in image quality, but with a significant loss of performance, I would say turn it off if you don't have the HW for it. Same goes with differences that although noticeable, they don't add that much to the experience, ergo having them ON or OFF is a bit irrelevant.

If you have a desire/compulsion to have everything "ON" just because, then sure, it's an issues, but the consoles don't run at Ultra settings as well, just at some settings that cater perfectly on that hardware (and so you "optimize" the settings for your hardware). If you don't need to have everything "on", then turning some setting off will get you through many years of gaming with the same hw.

BTW, I have a R290 with which I've played plenty of modern games, including in Eyefinity - and no, not at low settings, experiences which the base consoles will never offer.

 

[offitmassive]

I know nobody I’m my group of high end pc owning mates who’s planning to buy a new GPU and quite a few either already have or are planning to ditch pc gaming altogether and go console, they all concede pc gaming is better but not by being taken for mugs by Nvidia.

I have often thought about just sacking the whole high end (ish) PC gaming thing, sell it, get a cheap low end laptop for when you need a computer of some sort and just get a ps4 pro/xbox one x and get on with it

 

[Darujhistan]

The XBX and 4K HDR with Tomb Raider vids are pretty spectacular even if I can only see them in 1080p. Take away the Strategy games I play and in particular Paradox titles (MEIUO and Taxes Mod et al can make my old system squeal a bit) and really do I need to build a new gaming PC or just buy a new TV and an XBX? - Perhaps just upgrade the CPU, Mobo and Memory which are creaking a bit? My 580 isn't going to be taxed for years playing Grand Strategy games.

Only WOT, EU4, CK2, HOI4 playing on PC currently. And from time to time TESO.
All my "new" bought games are on XBX now.

I just went back and noticed Panos thinking along the same lines.

PC gaming is now stupidly expensive and i'd never have entertained a console before, but I could probably patch this system up, buy a new 4K HDR TV, and an XBX for about the same price as building a new gaming PC...

That's some perspective on how crazy things are now. Thank god I didn't go through with a complete new build and just bought a 580 instead and went into 'wait and see' mode until next year.

 

[offitmassive]

Do you think if the RTX2080Ti was £3200 people would still buy it?

Course they would....is the latest nV ripoff. To say they got the latest Ti gives many a royal boner and and MUST have it. What you quoted here is THE reason why i sold my 1080Ti ...not to get the latest 20xx.. but to buy a brand new AMD vega of some flavour.. to help the fund and feed under dog

buy a new 4K HDR TV, and an XBX for about the same price

You got me thinking now....

 

[Darujhistan]

So many people thinking the same thing here, scrap it and just buy an XBX.

 

[offitmassive]

So many people thinking the same thing here, scrap it and just buy an XBX.

£450 ish from currys for a decent bundle...Id still need a 4k tv though

 

[Elku]

I did the same recently and love it. I'll come back to pc building when/if things calm down but I'm having just as much fun gaming at a fraction of the cost.

 

[Jono8]

So many people thinking the same thing here, scrap it and just buy an XBX.

Yup, well now the top range of cards is lol money it makes sense.

I need a good PC for my music/composing work ( in terms of CPU and RAM) so i always thought pc gaming worked out quite well for me, as you used to be able to chuck a top of the range card in there for £400-£500 every few years ( with normally good resale value on the card you had before), making it not too much more than buying a console.

Now that even the mid range stuff is at that price point and the top range is getting on for ~£1000 or more it is just getting stupid.

The sad fact is, is that with these prices, an xbox one x which you can get with 3 new/recent games for £399 ( so effectively the console is more like £300) will play games at 4k better than any £300 graphics card you can get these days. It didn't used to be like that.

 

[offitmassive]

Just priced up my gear using ebay prices , not highest prices but like an average and its around £1100 - £1200 inc my monitor and the money back for my gpu (which hasnt been bought yet), the wireless pci kit...everything.

 

[WantoN]

I’ll keep with PC gaming; I love it. But I generally play titles that are 2 to 10 years behind the latest, and buy second hand hardware. And as others have said, there are a multitude of settings that you can disable and not even notice a difference.

Honestly I think the 20 series is a placeholder money grab. I think 7nm cards and AMDs renewed attack in 2019/2020 will see price drops that will look great compared to the car crash that is RTX, and we’ll all forget that £800 for a top end card is still a bad price.

I think these high prices are to kickstart slowed sales of the overstocked 10 series, to cover the initial development cost of RTX technology, and to pay for a chip that’s far larger than it should have been because it’s not 7nm. We’d been waiting too long and no one was interested in old tech, until RTX made it look like ‘good value’. Then everyone started snapping up 1080s and tis because they were ‘so much better value’ than RTX; I almost bought one myself.

When I look at how great the products are for PC hobbyists these days, I feel very fortunate. We have some incredible products and awesome vendors. All we need to do is vote with our wallets to keep price gouging in check. And given we’re fortunate enough to have the MM and a pretty awesome community of people here, it’s definitely doable.

It’s not that long ago that 1080p 60hz was the pinnacle of gaming nirvana, we’ve all just been sucked into the hype and somehow it’s not enjoyable anymore? I literally just moved away from 1200p@60hz, and while I adore my newer setup, my experience wouldn’t be ruined if I had to go back. And if games become too demanding, or I can’t afford/justify a suitable GPU upgrade when the time comes, then that’s exactly what I’ll do.

 

[Darujhistan]

£450 ish from currys for a decent bundle...Id still need a 4k tv though

Yeah it's still expensive, and everyone's situation is different, you've got a much better PC than I've got and you're only missing a GPU. When I saw 2080 prices, even though i'd never have bought one in a million years, It did make me stop and think 'where is this going?' even for me as a mid-range at best gamer it's still really expensive even at 27" 144HZ, Vega, Ryzen level, memory alone is £150, my PSU is 7 years old, if that went it's £100 plus...enough. I'll patch this up and that's as far as I'm going.

I've got a 5 year old TV and no console either.

 

[Darujhistan]

Just priced up my gear using ebay prices , not highest prices but like an average and its around £1100 - £1200 inc my monitor and the money back for my gpu (which hasnt been bought yet), the wireless pci kit...everything.

What would your do with your system?

 

[offitmassive]

What would your do with your system?

Separate the parts and sell them singly. Get the most i can to allow me to buy a 4k TV and XBX. Then get a low end laptop for when i NEED to

Just dont know what to do tbh. I toyed with this idea around 9 months ago then brushed it off thinking im just having a mid life crisis. But its come back again...

 

[Ian Evey]

Have a mid range pc and keep patching it up when something breaks, I love my games on the pc but very often I tend to turn my PS4 on instead these days.

 

[Jono8]

I quite enjoy looking at the 2080 page on OCUK and seeing basically all of them at 10+ stock

I can see why the 2080ti is selling because it is the best you can get and for all the people for which money is no object they will just buy that.

Who is buying the 2080's though? It is an odd price point. I don't think Nvidia have thought it through much. If you can stomach paying ~£800 for a graphics card you can likely just shell out a few hundred more for the best (2080Ti). £800 is already obscene for what it is so why would you not just get the best that is on offer?

 

[Darujhistan]

Just dont know what to do tbh. I toyed with this idea around 9 months ago then brushed it off thinking im just having a mid life crisis. But its come back again...

I think a lot depends on how much of what you play is PC only.