People saying to buy used won't fix anything and I am saying this as a person who uses mainstream parts(like most of my PC gaming mates):
1.)Because new prices of dGPUs are so high,it means secondhand prices are elevated. Unless you can't get some good B-grade/damaged box deal,the prices are too high.
2.)You could get cards which have been mined on,and not looked after. Commercial miners literally washed down cards with water,etc and there was a whole spate of secondhand cards failing.
3.)Most retailers won't give you any warranty for more than a month or two(outside one or two retailers).I have known people who have had cards fail and they are out of pocket.
A lot of brand new sub £350 mainstream dGPUs,are barely faster than what you could get for similar money in 2019! I still remember you could get an RX5700 8GB for as low as £250 in 2019. Now games are even more intensive than back then. An RX6600 or RTX3050 hasn't really moved anything forward.
Plus a lot on here only buy the latest and greatest CPUs,etc. It's not just the investment in a new dGPU,but also making sure the CPU,motherboard,SSD,etc are up to date. You could see reviews showing how Ada Lovelace was actually CPU limited by 2021 CPUs.
It's one thing if you have parts you can carry over,but it's not so great if you have to buy new parts including monitors,etc.As a person who uses mainstream parts,the cost of building a reasonable gaming PC is ridiculous now. In fact I can see better deals by buying prebuilt systems.
But the bigger issue is for many people,they simply will use a laptop for normal stuff,so a gaming desktop is an additional system. If you want to run all those older PC games,you can get a laptop with a dGPU for around £600~£700 that will do the job. A console can be had for less than £400. Most people already have a TV as a sunk cost.
Plus there are rumours of a PS5 Pro,etc. So unless mainsteam dGPUS get their act together,a console is excellent value for running AAA games.I see more and more of my friends,not bothering to upgrade their desktops that much now or replacing them with a laptop. For the older games and Indie games they are fine. For the newer AAA stuff they just get a console.
Yeah you have to justify the cost and it seems increasingly common now that you pay a lot more in hardware costs for a worse experience, 120+fps but with stutters..(Hogwarts anyone? lol) However, as has been said above, the flexibility of PC gaming can be a huge plus, I too enjoy having access to the biggest library bar none to pick from when I choose.
People who completely dismiss consoles are generally the ones trying to justify the expense to their selves due to buyers remorse.
For the older games,a cheap laptop with a dGPU for around £600~£700 is fine. For running AAA games,you need to fairly modern CPU,SSD,etc on top of the cost of the dGPU. This is where getting a console makes a lot of sense. Instead of continually upgrading parts in your PC,just get a new console for £400~£500 every few years. No need to worry about upgrading parts or anything. Plus consoles have their own exclusives too.
What is the best sub £300 dGPU now? RX6600 or RX6600XT? We had cards not far off that performance for similar money in 2019. Some of my mates,are wondering,after nearly 4 years when there will be a proper upgrade. Even an RX6700XT is only about 30% faster than an RX5700XT,and you are lucky to find a new one for £350. How is that any good after 4 years?
Nvidia has basically screwed the market,as we should have bigger reductions on Ampere and RDNA2 dGPUs,especially as Nvidia has over $5 billion of unsold inventory(apparently).
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