![]() ![]() You could balance any individual element out. ![]() The concoction of a GPU shortage pushing upgrades back, a console generation finally catching up with gaming tech, and higher GPU prices have created a tough situation for PC gamers. No easy way out Jacob Roach / Digital Trends The expectations weren’t what they are today. Here’s a review of the GTX 780 from Anandtech, where the card just barely passes 60 frames per second (fps) in Bioshock Infinite at 1440p - a game that released two months before the GPU.Ĭould you imagine the groundswell that would occur today if a flagship product barely held 60 fps in a modern game? It was a different time. ![]() You’d commonly have to upgrade your GPU to play a new game, and even the newest, fastest cards didn’t always put up the numbers. The expectations were much different for PC gaming years ago. I’m just assuming here, at least based on the Steam hardware survey and some discourse, but it’s not a crazy thought. The GPU shortage put a delay on upgrades, and when faced with higher GPU prices once the cards were finally back in stock, I can only assume a chunk of PC gamers just wanted to get a little more life out of the cards that have been able to keep up for so long. Why wouldn’t it be able to hold on for another generation? Bill Roberson / Digital Trends So yeah, a GPU from 2014 or 2015 could hold up, even up to the beginning of this year.ĭuring the GPU shortage, why would you upgrade? A five or six-year-old GPU could still play ball. Developers mostly restrained their games for those platforms. The PS4 and Xbox One were notoriously underpowered, even when they launched in 2013. Before the GPU shortage, we came off one of the best times for PC gaming. They, in their own words, “got scared and deleted” the tweet. One brave Remedy employee tried to shed some light on the minimum system requirements ahead of the game’s launch, explaining why the game wouldn’t run on older GPUs. They expected that the cards would continue to work until they decided to upgrade. Some PC gamers couldn’t stomach the idea that some popular cards were aging out of relevance. It doesn’t explicitly require an RX 6000 or RTX GPU to run, but I wouldn’t spend $50 to roll the dice trying to play it on anything older. ![]() It’s one of the most beautiful games I’ve ever played, but unless you fork over some good cash for a GPU upgrade, you probably won’t be able to play it. This became clear to me with Alan Wake 2. There’s also an expectation problem with games and how they should challenge GPUs. It’s not just a monetary expectation that’s the problem - be it consumers expecting a certain GPU for their dollar or shareholders expecting a certain return. An expectation problem Jacob Roach / Digital Trends And the GPU shortage definitively set a new bar for those. Nvidia and AMD have expectations of their own expectations to hit certain marks for their earnings reports. Now, there’s a new game every other month asking you to upgrade for the optimal experience. Maybe you could rest on a GPU for five years previously. Two years ago, your $500 would buy you a certain level of performance. What I care about is that when you’re looking to upgrade in 2023, you’ll probably have to settle for a lower class of GPU compared to what you could in previous years. There’s inflation and conversations of Moore’s Law being dead, and yada yada. It’s not GPU shortage levels of tough, but it’s certainly harder than in generations past. With less GPU for your dollar, upgrades are tough decisions. There are good deals, with AMD usually undercutting Team Green, but it doesn’t change the situation with GPU prices as a whole. In all reality, though, AMD’s lineup is priced in accordance with Nvidia. Some cards are more expensive than the previous generation others are less expensive. AMD doesn’t have much of a spot in this conversation, either. It’s a dead horse, and I don’t want to beat it, but the issue is worth mentioning. It doesn’t matter one way or the other - this generation, you’re spending more money for the same class of graphics card. In other cases, like the RTX 4080, it’s massive at around $500. In some cases, like the RTX 4070, the price hike is reasonable at around $100. Each of Nvidia’s RTX 40-series GPUs is more expensive than the last-gen version of the same card, short of the RTX 4060 Ti and RTX 4060. Yes, graphics cards are more expensive than they used to be. We have to talk about price first because that’s the major point of contention as we close out the year. The price jump Jacob Roach / Digital Trends Steam Year in Review 2023 is live - here’s how to see your Steam Replay AMD might have a new graphics card next month, too ![]()
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