I personally don't consider GPUs to be luxury items, they are necessary for PC gaming as a hobby/interest so to not have them is effectively denying yourself access or going Retro
The problem is (as I see it) manufactures and the whole chain tbh shifting from gpus being a black box graphics accelerator to being a luxury consumer items like audiophile equipment, designer brands and bloody horse bridals with diamonds sewn in. Really what they are playing on is PC Gamers interest, passion (addiction?) in order to squeeze the most they can whilst using marketing and PR as the mechanism for making you think its fine.
Once upon a time you had choice among retail products you had the King Pin extreme, the RGB clown editions but you also had practical alternatives that came with tighter margins. Now you have the same three options we've always had do nothing, buy 2nd hand or pony up but they are all less attractive than they were. Even the price insensitive consumer is losing out because they get less (with more of their $$$ going into profit margins) and stagnation in software as the top end becomes ever more niche.
The market has shifted into blatant exploitation now, Nvidia and AMD want maximum $$$ for their investors and they don't care how they get it.
What would really shift the balance is if gamers started buying shares and used their shear numbers to out weigh other investor groups to pursue a more consumer friendly policies, to build growth on growing gaming rather than extracting more from the current market.
This is the problem with apathtic weaked willed PCMR cultists,the customer is always wrong and the company is always right so any crap move is OK. Then fool themselves into explaining away crap moves and excuse making.But sadly 20 years of social media indoctrination of PCMR cultists has lead to become weaked willed,apathtic Whales. I fully expect most of them would never ask for a raise at work,or go and buy something at a sale,because that would be decreasing company profits and that would be bad.
Yeah,I somehow doubt the last sentence,which is why I call these people cultists. The companies can't do any wrong.Also the irony of the people talking about what certain political parties have done in this country with their chums,which pretty much privatise everything and then make sure the public purse is overcharged for the same services,and their buddies get rich. Then the same people defending what Nvidia is doing(and some defending AMD price rises too).The cognitive dissonance is weird.
Over a decade ago you had people troll forums and comments sections of articles,saying dGPUs are luxury items,the price isn't too bad,pay more,earn more money,people are entitled,etc. One of the most infamous posters was a guy known as Rollo.
It turned out Nvidia was giving a bunch of people free hardware through an marketing company intermediate ,and once they got found out(I think someone admitted some of the details IIRC) you had all these people pushing that blurb,having to put in their social media tags they worked with Nvidia including mods on certain forums(including an infamous one over on AT forums). I have been on forums for a long time and lurked on them for nearly 20 years,and the day all these tags popped up made me realise how much companies try to set the narrative by underhand ways. OFC,Nvidia said they had just started the new program,except people were talking about it before this.
There was numerous threads on the subject at the time. But it was always pay more,GPUs are luxury items,consumers shouldn't dictate to companies what they charge,you are entitled(not the companies),etc. Classic astroturfing and some have been indoctrinated massively by this and are sprewing marketing lines from over 15 years ago.
This marketing line has been pushed one way or another for that long. It's Apple level marketing.
That's actually a relatively small increase, 7 to 5 (-2nm) added $6k, 5 to 3 (a further-2nm) is only adding $4k.
Not sure why TSMC's clients would shy away from that as like with all node shrinks you balance performance vs cost, a node shrink mainly means you can fit more into the same area so it gives you more options, do you want to put more into the same space or do you want to put the same into a smaller space.
It's all rubbish in that article. The published figures for wafer prices are probably higher than what Nvidia,AMD,Intel,etc pay because they book volume ahead of schedule and get discounts.
But even with people taking the RRP pricing for wafers,and calculating yields,its quite clear the chips don't cost as much as people think. So even if you add 20% to the price it won't translate into $100s.
The main reason is because these companies have gotten greedy and charged way too much,told their "investors" that pandemic pricing and margins over 2020/2021 would be maintained over the next few years. Except now it's not happening,as the world starts to move on and the wheels are falling off the bus now.
They are cutting volume because they can't sustain the sales because of their greedy pricing so need to massively jack up margins to compensate. This is why they all trying to make it sound like lower pricing tiers are irrelevant now,and "everyone" only buys the "high end" - you are seeing the media push this too. Yet in the realworld it's quite clear this isn't true. They are spinning stuff so their investors don't get spooked because of them overpromising because of greed.
But because we live in capitalist society,and since Nvidia,AMD and Intel are not British companies,none of us need to act like socialists to prop them up. So ultimately none of us need to be charities for them.