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Why the current prices are going to kill PC gaming

Whilst it's changed, it is in part due to the resolution differences and what it takes to drive them. This and the want for higher frame rates. The difference between 1080p high/ultra 60fps and 4k high/ultra 120fps is a different hobby. The pc game is just the same. Years ago this would be 720p to 1080p at the same fps, a much smaller jump.
I remember 800x600 or whatever before 1204x768 and like 30 fps.

so lets not play that chestnut, The only thing that changed is companies greedy profit margins.

Cheaper when it was a niche hobby.... so hopefully prices start dropping fast as that returns
 
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i was wondering if pc gaming can devolve into an ultra high end hobby, only for billionaires - you know just make 100 graphic cards and price them at 50 mill each or something like that.. like a limited membership club :D
 
My gaming circle, most of whom are vastly wealthier than I’ll ever be, have already either switched to a console and OLED TV or are thinking of doing so, it’s not just the absurdity of GPU prices, it’s everything else that you need for a decent system these days.

Unfortunately - and I hope I’m wrong - I think the industry is killing its Golden Goose.
 
Given we've seen a high end GPU increase from around £700 to £1700 in 6 years I wouldn't be supprised if the high end cards are topping 3k in another 6 years from now.
 
Same mate . I spent a small fortune on a 12700k system with 32gb ddr5 and 8tb of nvme but kept my old 1080ti waiting for theses new cards . But I am absolutely not paying those stupid prices and think this actually may be me last gaming pc build .I can easily afford it but not being taken for a mug
Yep, same for me. Got a huge tax rebate a couple of years ago but still not upgraded from my 1080Ti. Still runs all games fine at 1440p, once you've tweaked a few settings. Don't mind upgrading to something new, but only if reasonable value-for-money is there, which at present it isn't.
 
I am only playing very few games and my 1060 is screaming for a change...thought that 4050 or 4060 would be a good choice but looking at the release prices them wont sit in 300-400 more like 600-700 which is a joke. Seriously considering even Intel arc for this 330ish price ... remember i740 cards? they were not so bad ...I mean thy were some issues but when you were lucky and you board did accept it and "best" windows 95 was not playing it was fine :D (like banshee card :D)
 
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People had their chance last month with the £300 6700 (non-xt) cards.

Or this time last year with the £360 3060 and £420 3060ti deals.
 
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My gaming circle, most of whom are vastly wealthier than I’ll ever be, have already either switched to a console and OLED TV or are thinking of doing so, it’s not just the absurdity of GPU prices, it’s everything else that you need for a decent system these days.

Unfortunately - and I hope I’m wrong - I think the industry is killing its Golden Goose.
Strange all my mates who were console gamers built gaming PCs during the pandemic but we're not wealthy maybe that's why :D
 
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My main 3 gpus are a 1080ti MSI Armor i upgraded with a Arctic Accelero 3 many years ago, Dell 2080ti blower model, Asus RTX 3080ti TUF i got for about 900 a few months back. Hoping to get at least 3-4yrs out of the latter 2 and maybe the 1080ti as a HTPC card will carry on as well and play my daughters games to the end (4yr old LOL). I remember dropping 250 large for a x800 Pro in 2004 and having sweats and regrets thinking have i made the right decisions in life... geez.
 
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I remember 800x600 or whatever before 1204x768 and like 30 fps.

so lets not play that chestnut, The only thing that changed is companies greedy profit margins.

Cheaper when it was a niche hobby.... so hopefully prices start dropping fast as that returns

You can't compare that era in the same way. 120hz, 144hz+ gaming just wasn't a thing. 30 fps was widely accepted. 60 was a luxury. The performance you get per dollar/pound isn't going to keep on doubling for the same cost plus inflation over a decade later.
 
You can't compare that era in the same way. 120hz, 144hz+ gaming just wasn't a thing. 30 fps was widely accepted. 60 was a luxury. The performance you get per dollar/pound isn't going to keep on doubling for the same cost plus inflation over a decade later.
100hz was a thing on CRT monitors
 
You can't compare that era in the same way. 120hz, 144hz+ gaming just wasn't a thing. 30 fps was widely accepted. 60 was a luxury. The performance you get per dollar/pound isn't going to keep on doubling for the same cost plus inflation over a decade later.
Whilst Nvidia have you and any others conditioned into this way of thinking they will be able to charge whatever they want.

As far as I'm aware 30fps has never been accepted on pc other than pre gpu days. Try playing UT at 30fps! :cry: My Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 930sb would do 160hz at 800x600 or 1920x1440p at 73hz. Pretty sure I used to run it at 1280x1024 at 100hz
 
There has been a large increase in gpu prices over the past 6 years. When I first started getting into PC gaming, 2004 and onwards, the mid range cards were approx £200 with the high end £300+ and the stupid Ultra/XTX cards were £400. This lasted until the 1080 release in 2016 and it was £400 just like all the high end cards for the past few gens.

Then there was the first mining craze and prices shot up and the 1080ti was well over £550 for the time it was the top of the range. This was kind of OK because the price/performance for the top end cards remained the same with the 1080ti being more expensive whilst given correspondingly more performance. The 2080/2080Super/2080ti generation was a disaster with them being massively overpriced and the new features like DLSS and RT were just rubbish. The 3000 series of cards was a huge rebalancing for the price/performance ratio but the pandemic and mining idiocy created a huge supply shortage and pushed prices to silly levels, unfortunately this has shown Nv what people are prepared to pay for a gpu and have priced the 4000 cards with this in mind.

The long and the short of it is we need competition in the marketplace more than ever before and all of us should be hoping RDNA3 kicks booty and drives Nv prices down. I even hope Intel get their act together to give us even more choice but I am not holding my breath on that.
 
Forget the high end; look at the low and mid ranges. People are going to look at consoles and look at PCs and it's still a difficult decision. The RX 6600 and RTX 3060 are good enough for 4k gaming, getting near or above 60 fps without DLSS etc - just use medium settings. So I'm optimistic for PC gaming as long as the lower-priced cards don't get too expensive. It's just the higher-end cards that are silly prices.

I hope Intel and AMD give Nvidia a major shock and prices come down rapidly.
 
You can't compare that era in the same way. 120hz, 144hz+ gaming just wasn't a thing. 30 fps was widely accepted. 60 was a luxury. The performance you get per dollar/pound isn't going to keep on doubling for the same cost plus inflation over a decade later.
It's called progress. 720p HDTVs used to be a luxury but you can now buy 4k TVs for a couple of hundred quid. The ps3 was more expensive than the ps5.

Only some PC gamers try to justify scammy prices, the rest of the world expects technological progress which means better hardware for the same or even less money.
 
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