Why are GPUs so expensive?

[Nasher]

Also im not defending it but R&D costs and such are a lot more than they used to be for example below, that doesn't include memory costs have risen a lot from ddr/ddr2 its just the way IT related kit has gone I myself don't mind spending £500 over 3-4 years for a card.

NVIDIA Annual Research and Development Expenses
(Millions of US $)
2019 $2,376
2018 $1,797
2017 $1,463
2016 $1,331
2015 $1,360
2014 $1,336
2013 $1,147
2012 $1,003
2011 $849
2010 $909
2009 $856
2008 $692
2007 $553

It's like they are charging customers the price in 1000s as they are paying in millions lol

 

[TNA]

Also im not defending it but R&D costs and such are a lot more than they used to be for example below, that doesn't include memory costs have risen a lot from ddr/ddr2 its just the way IT related kit has gone I myself don't mind spending £500 over 3-4 years for a card.

NVIDIA Annual Research and Development Expenses
(Millions of US $)
2019 $2,376
2018 $1,797
2017 $1,463
2016 $1,331
2015 $1,360
2014 $1,336
2013 $1,147
2012 $1,003
2011 $849
2010 $909
2009 $856
2008 $692
2007 $553

Would it not be correct to say the R&D from say 2016 or there abouts is what is Turing? As you do R&D and then it takes time to apply what you learned into a product. So R&d from the last couple of years we are yet to see the fruits of?

Just saying. I do not buy that Nvidia have not been making record profits. Their share price would not have shot up like it has if not.

Also is it not funny that D.P always pops up to defend Nvidia, never any other company? Guy must be a major stake holder. Hard to take anything he says about Nvidia seriously due to this bias

 

[Scania]

Greed, end of discussion.

Look at Rockstar, they make millions with GTA V then pass off a **** poor console port as a PC version of RDR2 that can't run ultra on £1K+ GPU's....

Were taken for mugs, and we give them no reason to suspect were not!

 

[Nasher]

And then again with RDR2. For £55...

 

[EsaT]

Also im not defending it but R&D costs and such are a lot more than they used to be for example below...

No doubt most of that increase has gone to AI/computing side and not consumer graphics.

 

[Orange Nexus]

Got a R9 290 for 315£ in 2013 and finally upgraded to RX 5700 for 260£. At least it is double the performance and uses way less power.

 

[BigBANGtheory]

Got a R9 290 for 315£ in 2013 and finally upgraded to RX 5700 for 260£. At least it is double the performance and uses way less power.

yeah but it took 6yrs and that only works as a solution if the 5700 has enough grunt for your needs, where the problems really start is the higher tier particularly at 4k.

 

[Emlyn_Dewar]

The 580 was the refresh card, you're not going to get people upgrading from an RX480 to that. Even the 590 wouldn't be worth it.
Performance is just staying the same, with pricing not moving much.
Remember years back when the pricing bracket stayed the same, but the performance increased a good amount? Crazy times...

 

[The-Plethora]

I still have a 1080 and plan to keep it a while longer yet, I bought it on the day of release and it has lasted quite well. I think next time though I would just switch to something mid range. I only game at 1080p, I tried 4K but the heat, noise and loss of frame rate for me are not worth it. I still say if you bought a 8GB RX480 you got a great deal, I think the 580 and 590 are great cards for the money. I do love the lack of noise with a water cooled graphics card through and full cover waterblocks don't seem to be as readily available for more budget models.

 

[Dicehunter]

Because idiots pay it.

Hit the nail on the head.

 

[KillBoY_UK]

lack of real competition across the board, should change in 2020 though

 

[CuriousTomCat]

There's been plenty of competition from AMD over the years but people continued buying Nvidia.

Benchmarks don't matter. So many people say stuff like "I'd rather buy an Nvidia card because I've always bought them" or "I've never had An AMD card, I'd rather stick with what I know" etc.

Enthusiasts watch benchmarks but enthusiasts only make up a small part of the market.

 

[TNA]

There's been plenty of competition from AMD over the years but people continued buying Nvidia.

Benchmarks don't matter. So many people say stuff like "I'd rather buy an Nvidia card because I've always bought them" or "I've never had An AMD card, I'd rather stick with what I know" etc.

Enthusiasts watch benchmarks but enthusiasts only make up a small part of the market.

Let be honest mate. Nvidia is for cool people and AMD is for losers

Didn't you know, Nvidia drivers are much better. AMD drivers are from Windows ME days and slow to load!


Jokes aside marketing works on a lot of people, that is why there are such huge budgets allocated for it in businesses. Not to say Nvidia do not make good hardware, I like their hardware. But there are lots of brainwashed people who think their hardware is much better no matter what. I bet if you was to ask the question would you rather have a AMD Radeon 5700 XT or a Nvidia GTX 1050 a lot of people would still say Nvidia. That is how strong their marketing and mind-share is.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

Not that long ago I remember a midrange GPU costing ~£200, low end £100 and top of the range £500.

Now we are looking at top of the range costing £1500/£2000, midrange £500-£1k and low end £300.

I know there’s inflation over the past 10-15 years to take into account but RAM, CPUs, motherboards etc. have not jumped this much. Is it the lack of certain GPU components, R&D or simply greed of companies and people willing to pay the extortionate prices? (me being one of these people)

I would say to anyone looking to build a PC

Make sure your monitor is 1080p. Buy a 1660 Super. Job Done.

I've played on 1080p, 1440p and 4K and you know what it makes zero real difference to your enjoyment. It doesn't even make much difference on small screens either.

If I could choose again i'd go for a 1080P 27 inch 240hz monitor like the BenQ ZOWIE XL2740.

I would then calibrate it using my colormunki display calibrator and I imagine I would have just as good experience as anyone using a fancy monitor as most people don't calibrate or they use settings plucked from the internet which usually make them look worse because they don't understand how calibration works.

People are pushing high resolutions way higher than needed IMO. I remember back in the day gaming on CRT tv's and monitors pushing what 640 x 480? 1920 x 1080 is still high quality IMO and this is coming from someone who has Sky Q UHD, 2 x 4K tv's, ps4 pro, etc.

PC Gamers chase numbers and they are now chasing resolution. Game at 1080P and you can literally spend 1/4 of what everyone else does.

 

[TNA]

I would say to anyone looking to build a PC

Make sure your monitor is 1080p. Buy a 1660 Super. Job Done.

I've played on 1080p, 1440p and 4K and you know what it makes zero real difference to your enjoyment. It doesn't even make much difference on small screens either.

If I could choose again i'd go for a 1080P 27 inch 240hz monitor like the BenQ ZOWIE XL2740.

I would then calibrate it using my colormunki display calibrator and I imagine I would have just as good experience as anyone using a fancy monitor as most people don't calibrate or they use settings plucked from the internet which usually make them look worse because they don't understand how calibration works.

People are pushing high resolutions way higher than needed IMO. I remember back in the day gaming on CRT tv's and monitors pushing what 640 x 480? 1920 x 1080 is still high quality IMO and this is coming from someone who has Sky Q UHD, 2 x 4K tv's, ps4 pro, etc.

PC Gamers chase numbers and they are now chasing resolution. Game at 1080P and you can literally spend 1/4 of what everyone else does.

Speak for yourself. I have had all 3 resolutions myself and much prefer 4K

I know what you you mean and there is good point in there regarding price for performance, but to say it makes no difference to experience? Not true for me at all personally.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

Speak for yourself. I have had all 3 resolutions myself and much prefer 4K

I know what you you mean and there is good point in there regarding price for performance, but to say it makes no difference to experience? Not true for me at all personally.

I've moved to 1440P as 4K was too demanding. Plus at 1440P I get the best of both worlds. it's 165HZ, g sync, etc. So I get the speed and the resolution and i don't need to spend as much to max it out. However I will say you really need a 2070 super for my screen to get the best out of it unless all you play is csgo / fortnite, etc.

But if someone is complaining about GPU prices. It's a simple fix and their experience IMO won't be any difference in terms of enjoyment (enjoyment =/= visuals).

I don't understand why people are complaining it's because they want 1440p or 4K and a cheap GPU. Well that is never going to happen IMO. The best you can get is the 5700 (or XT) from AMD for a reasonable price. Well I want a ferrari but they are so expensive too. Can anyone explain why ferrari's are so expensive? I mean I can buy a dacia brand new for 50p. Why is the ferrari 50 million?

 

[Relentless81]

Because idiots pay it.

It doesn't matter how many responses this thread gets, the first sentence in the first response, it is that simple

Stop throwing your money at them and the prices will fall, that's all there is to it

 

[JasonM]

Given the incredible power of a modern graphics card I actually think there quite cheap.

The GBP being lower has not helped however.

 

[TNA]

I've moved to 1440P as 4K was too demanding. Plus at 1440P I get the best of both worlds. it's 165HZ, g sync, etc. So I get the speed and the resolution and i don't need to spend as much to max it out. However I will say you really need a 2070 super for my screen to get the best out of it unless all you play is csgo / fortnite, etc.

But if someone is complaining about GPU prices. It's a simple fix and their experience IMO won't be any difference in terms of enjoyment (enjoyment =/= visuals).

I don't understand why people are complaining it's because they want 1440p or 4K and a cheap GPU. Well that is never going to happen IMO. The best you can get is the 5700 (or XT) from AMD for a reasonable price. Well I want a ferrari but they are so expensive too. Can anyone explain why ferrari's are so expensive? I mean I can buy a dacia brand new for 50p. Why is the ferrari 50 million?

I do not think we should use car comparisons personally.

For me I do not play online or any twitch games that massively need more than 60fps so 4K is very doable for me. The Titan XP I had was perfect, but once I was done playing all the demanding games I sold it. With a 3070 I think I will be set for a long time.

Plus many new games have a in game resolution slider so I can lower resolution a little or all the way down to 1440p if needed. Recently played The Outer Worlds with my Vega 56 (overclocked) and it managed fine

But yeah, big difference from 1080p to 2160p my man, for my eyes anyways

 

[Bluntwrapped]

Nvidia present their products to and as a niche market even if the demand is there to suggest otherwise. The top end card must reek with exclusivity, in such a way you feel unique in owning it. From there it’s a done deal, feeling exclusive is priceless.

If Nvidia dropped a 2180ti tomorrow for 8 grand people would buy it. It would quickly sell out everywhere then interest would skyrocket. A £1500 2080ti wouldn’t seem so bad then..

Unless the majority can be conscious enough to fight stupidity and susceptibility, nothing is going to change. Selfishness is the enabler so around and around we go..