On 12/05/2025 18:00, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

Of course, you don't need any of these high-end cards, not really. If
you don't mind playing at 'mere' HD resolutions (1920x1080) and
cranking down the settings a bit, even the newest games will run on
video cards two or three generations old. Still, it's a far cry from
the heyday of video-card development (late 90s, early 2000s) where you
could scoop up the hottest card for $300 or less. (And even then we
thought the prices outrageous!).

Something I did see that I find quite plausible is that the gulf between settings has now shrunk a lot as developers understand how to get a lot
more out of medium and low settings than they did before. That doesn't
mean that a top end GPU won't look nicer but instead lower settings no
longer make your eyes bleed as much.

My personal view is that I got out of 'chasing' high end graphics
several years ago as the price you were paying seem to have ever
diminishing returns for the actual game experience. I also find you very quickly get used to what you've got so I'm sure I'd be impressed running
at native 4K but I'm also sure that in a month or so it will just be the
norm to me.

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Alas, https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/nvidia-reportedly-raises-gpu-prices-by-10-15-percent-as-manufacturing-costs-surge-tariffs-and-tsmc-price-hikes-filter-down-to-retailers

rms

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Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote at 14:31 this Tuesday (GMT):

On Tue, 13 May 2025 08:43:39 +0100, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:

On 12/05/2025 18:00, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

Of course, you don't need any of these high-end cards, not really. If
you don't mind playing at 'mere' HD resolutions (1920x1080) and
cranking down the settings a bit, even the newest games will run on
video cards two or three generations old. Still, it's a far cry from
the heyday of video-card development (late 90s, early 2000s) where you
could scoop up the hottest card for $300 or less. (And even then we
thought the prices outrageous!).

Something I did see that I find quite plausible is that the gulf between >>settings has now shrunk a lot as developers understand how to get a lot >>more out of medium and low settings than they did before. That doesn't
mean that a top end GPU won't look nicer but instead lower settings no >>longer make your eyes bleed as much.

In part, that's because video game graphics became 'good enough'
(depending on whom you ask) five to fifteen years ago. Like you said,
it's an era of diminishing returns. There's still a lot of overhead
that, with optimization, even older cards can manage gorgeous visuals.
As GPU prices go up --and gamers become less willing to spring for the
newest hardware-- developers are being forced to better optimize their
games for this 'less powerful' hardware.

It also helps that new consoles -caught by these same price
restrictions- are putting a brake on the more extravagant hardware
demands of game publishers. Even if the PC is the dominant gaming
platform, there are too many Playstation/XBox users to ignore by
making a game that looks noticeably worse on those consoles.

So nowadays even the cheapest $300 USD HP laptop can play modern
games. Maybe not that well, and without the same flash of the game
running on top-end hardware... but it works. I'd bet there are a lot
more gamers playing on hardware that struggles to provide 30fps than
those who get 120fps or even 60fps, and even if they aren't thrilled
with that limitation, they've come to accept it.

My personal view is that I got out of 'chasing' high end graphics
several years ago as the price you were paying seem to have ever >>diminishing returns for the actual game experience. I also find you very >>quickly get used to what you've got so I'm sure I'd be impressed running
at native 4K but I'm also sure that in a month or so it will just be the >>norm to me.

Same. Like I said, I used to buy multiple GPUs a year, just because I
could and it was fun. There was a noticeable difference in quality and
speed, and the price wasn't THAT outrageous. But nowadays you're
looking at 10-15% speed bumps between generations, for 2 to 10 times
the price. So why bother? I just wait three or four generations before
I bother with an upgrade.

It's almost like the lack of competition in the marketplace is making
it easier for the ensconced companies to jack up the price without
improving the quality of the goods. But that would never happen in a
free market. ;-)

Frankly, I feel like all the "super fancy HDR lighting and 8K models"
stuff is just marketing with no point besides to make screenshots look
good and make your super high-end computer feel worth it. Seriously,
would ANY game with the hyper realistic world stuff be worse off if it
was instead focused on other aspects of the game??
--
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom

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All modern GPUs are too expensive these days. I don't play much games
like I used to too. I'm OK with my old, used GeForce 750 Ti (2 GB of
VRAM) video card for older games. I also don't have 4K. Just 1080 HD. I
have a backlog of old games to play! ;)


Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

So, anybody in the market for an Asus ROG Astral Dhahab Nvidia
5090GTX? 'Cause you can get one for the cheap, cheap price of $10,600
if you're interested.*

Admittedly, this is a bit of a cheat; this is a card released only in
the United Arab Emirites and it supposedly has been gold-plated, so
it's not really intended as a consumer-level card. It's aimed directly
at oil sheiks with more money than sense. But GPU prices --especially
Nvidia offerings-- are so high already that, even without the
unnecessary bling, a $10G card doesn't seem all that out of the
ordinary. I mean, consumer-level cards are already topping $1500 at
times for the high-end; it doesn't seem so unusual that there might be
a 5090RTX (maybe with 64GB RAM or something) that goes for twice or
three times that cost. The GPU market has gone completely insane. It
makes _Apple's_ prices for their wares look downright sensible in
comparison.

Of course, you don't need any of these high-end cards, not really. If
you don't mind playing at 'mere' HD resolutions (1920x1080) and
cranking down the settings a bit, even the newest games will run on
video cards two or three generations old. Still, it's a far cry from
the heyday of video-card development (late 90s, early 2000s) where you
could scoop up the hottest card for $300 or less. (And even then we
thought the prices outrageous!).

But enthusiasts (myself included) happily paid that premium...
sometimes multiple times a year. I'd walk into a store to see what was
new, and walk out with some new hardware, purchased almost on the spur
of the moment. Now, whenever I consider a new video card I approach it
like buying car; do I need this GPU? Are there better ones? Can I
afford it? No grabbing the latest-and-hottest just to have it; these
days I gotta do research and consider how the purchase will affect my
budget for the next month or three. It's a lot less fun, I tell you
what!

And all that's assuming I can actually FIND one of these cards in the
first place, what with crypto-bros and AI-enthusiasts (mostly the same
thing, these days) scooping them up en masse before the average gamer
has a chance. Or just scalpers, hoping to make a profit as unwanted middlemen.

It's great for Nvidia, anyway. This new business model is not only
allowing them to make bank, but it pretty much kills any chance of competitors rising up to challenge the throne. Gone are the days you'd
have a dozen different chipsets vying for your attention (and
dollars). Now it's Nvidia, and trailing behind AMD/ATI and IBM. (Oh, I
guess Apple is back there too... but only if you're into mobile).

I'm not really considering getting a new GPU; not really (although if
anyone wants to toss a 5090RTX my way, I won't complain. ;-). My
4080RTX is still more than capable (and anyway, I really need to
upgrade the network storage and backup first). I just miss the more free-wheeling days of yesteryear when the prices weren't so
outrageous.

* buy one quick before they're all gone! ;-) https://rog.asus.com/me-en/graphics-cards/graphics-cards/rog-astral/rog-astral-rtx5090-o32g-dhahab-edition/

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