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> If you look at gaming builds from the last few years it's always a 1080/2080. Since you added this after I started writing, I think your idea of what hardwar

by lhl 6y ago

> If you look at gaming builds from the last few years it's always a 1080/2080. Since you added this after I started writing, I think your idea of what hardware most gamers have is just plain wrong. One only has to look at the Steam Hardware Survey results to see just how few people buy the top-end cards: https://wccftech.com/nvidia-geforce-amd-radeon-discrete-gpu-market-share-q3-2019/ https://wccftech.com/nvidia-geforce-amd-radeon-discrete-gpu-... You can corroborate this w/ JPR's market reports which consistently show that mainstream and midrange cards (<$250) account for almost 80% of AIB sales: https://www.jonpeddie.com/press-releases/the-add-in-board-market-decreased-in-q417-from-last-quarter-amd-gained-mark/ https://www.jonpeddie.com/press-releases/the-add-in-board-ma... This also doesn't account, as you've seen from the used market, that most gamers on a budget upgrading can simply sell their previous card and effectively only pay a fraction of the price every time they are upgrading.

globular-toast 6y ago
Sorry for editing my comment. I see that I was mistaken, or perhaps misled, about what kind of card is actually required to be able to have a decent gaming experience today. You've convinced me that the mid to upper-mid tier is not really that much different to how it was back then. I also should consider that while I was earning a pittance back then compared to what I earn now, I lived with my parents and didn't own a car or anything else really apart from my PC.
- lhl 6y ago
  Yeah, to be fair, I think that perception that everyone is gaming on (or even needs) very high-end GPUs has of course been purposefully cultivated by GPU vendors (while most sales are from mainstream cards, most profits are from enthusiast and high-end cards). Gamers in particular also seem to get overly hyped for the halo products, and treat whichever brand has better performance there very aspirationally. Nvidia's marketing has also been especially effective at jacking up prices on the highest-end the past couple years. Now that consoles are basically gaming PCs, good gaming performance for AAA titles is increasingly anchored by each console generation, so there's a bit of a shift every 4-5 years - one happening now. There's also an insanely large backlog of games and a huge amount of F2P and competitive games that aim to be playable on iGPUs, which have also advanced considerably over the past few years.

by lhl 6y ago

globular-toast 6y ago

Sorry for editing my comment. I see that I was mistaken, or perhaps misled, about what kind of card is actually required to be able to have a decent gaming experience today. You've convinced me that the mid to upper-mid tier is not really that much different to how it was back then. I also should consider that while I was earning a pittance back then compared to what I earn now, I lived with my parents and didn't own a car or anything else really apart from my PC.

lhl 6y ago
Yeah, to be fair, I think that perception that everyone is gaming on (or even needs) very high-end GPUs has of course been purposefully cultivated by GPU vendors (while most sales are from mainstream cards, most profits are from enthusiast and high-end cards). Gamers in particular also seem to get overly hyped for the halo products, and treat whichever brand has better performance there very aspirationally. Nvidia's marketing has also been especially effective at jacking up prices on the highest-end the past couple years. Now that consoles are basically gaming PCs, good gaming performance for AAA titles is increasingly anchored by each console generation, so there's a bit of a shift every 4-5 years - one happening now. There's also an insanely large backlog of games and a huge amount of F2P and competitive games that aim to be playable on iGPUs, which have also advanced considerably over the past few years.