Unrelated to the topic of the article, looking at the graph made me realize that GPUs didn’t use to be so expensive, and the change is not so recent.
I have been gaming on PCs since I was a kid, first on a 286 in DOS. I don’t remember what were the first games, but I think it was ASCII graphics. Sprites were of course even better.
I have been building my own computers for decades. I never wanted to spend more than necessary, so I only updated things every now and then, and I always picked a good value GPU from the budget to mid tier.
I always understood that PC gaming has a niche where people build monster configurations with powerful GPUs to run games at max settings with unnecessary high resolution and frame rates. It makes sense for a hobby, it’s cool. But you don’t actually need that much power to enjoy games, right?
What I just realized is that the slice of people who look for high performance GPUs for games is likely much bigger than I thought. At some point the industry made consumers believe that you need 4k and 120 fps (or maybe more). That the point of PC gaming is to beat the specs of consoles. But that’s so not true. A PC is great because it’s a general purpose open platform to run whatever software you want. If a game is not fun at mid setting full HD 30 fps, it’s not fun. How many of the people dishing out north of $300 on a GPU are competitive e sports players or popular streamers? Probably most of them are not. 90% of the progress in GPU hardware is likely spent on generating frames that are not perceived at resolutions that are not seen.
I’ve been playing games on PC since my IBM XT, and I think that you’re statement “How many of the people dishing out north of $300 on a GPU are competitive e sports players or popular streamers? Probably most of them are not.” is completely off for a few reasons. I bought video cards that cost in that range in the 90s, hell they didn’t even do 3D acceleration then. I have never been an esports player, and that wasn’t even a thing back then. Higher end GPUs have always been expensive niche products that were targeting people that wanted the best performance and were willing to spend probably unwise amount of money for it. The chart in the post was showing the top of the line Nvidia cards, maybe of which were essentially “SLI in one card” halo products that most people weren’t buying. If you think that $300 is actually still a reasonable price for a decent GPU, you are misinformed. The last GPU I owned that was less than that was Nvidia Riva TNT from STB that was which was $250 or so in 1998. My fancy 2D only card that I owned years before that was even more expensive (it was a Number Nine video card if you’re curious). My current GPU was a super good deal at under $700 when I got it, and I never produce “frames that are not perceived”, I still have a 60Hz monitor. I just like high resolutions and less GPUs struggle with playing things even remotely smoothly unless I turn down many of the settings.
Yes, I can still technically play many of these games on the steam deck or use a cheap GPU, but it will be play and look poorly, especially on my rather large high resolution monitor that I use for work.
1440p 170hz is an enormous difference compared to 1080p 60hz. Especially in something like Path of Exile, where you’re reading a lot of small text, the resolution is very meaningful.
If you’ve tried high refresh rate, 60hz feels unbearable afterwards, it’s massive.
The problem lies moreso in unoptimised AAA slop games which use all your GPU for shitty graphics.
You just accurately spelled out what my intuition was yelling, but I lacked the contextual vocabulary to describe. Thank you! (Adventure on my dad’s Leading Edge 286 was a blast!)
That means you remember the thrill of getting the Diamond Multimedia Viper SVGA card (or similar)and being able to “crank up” the resolution beyond 800x600.
This is a really good take, i’ve just been living off friends hand me down hardware and having a great time playing non demanding indie stuff on my 980ti
Unrelated to the topic of the article, looking at the graph made me realize that GPUs didn’t use to be so expensive, and the change is not so recent.
I have been gaming on PCs since I was a kid, first on a 286 in DOS. I don’t remember what were the first games, but I think it was ASCII graphics. Sprites were of course even better.
https://cdn.mobygames.com/screenshots/2255336-prehistorik-dos-level-1-begins.png
I have been building my own computers for decades. I never wanted to spend more than necessary, so I only updated things every now and then, and I always picked a good value GPU from the budget to mid tier. I always understood that PC gaming has a niche where people build monster configurations with powerful GPUs to run games at max settings with unnecessary high resolution and frame rates. It makes sense for a hobby, it’s cool. But you don’t actually need that much power to enjoy games, right?
What I just realized is that the slice of people who look for high performance GPUs for games is likely much bigger than I thought. At some point the industry made consumers believe that you need 4k and 120 fps (or maybe more). That the point of PC gaming is to beat the specs of consoles. But that’s so not true. A PC is great because it’s a general purpose open platform to run whatever software you want. If a game is not fun at mid setting full HD 30 fps, it’s not fun. How many of the people dishing out north of $300 on a GPU are competitive e sports players or popular streamers? Probably most of them are not. 90% of the progress in GPU hardware is likely spent on generating frames that are not perceived at resolutions that are not seen.
I’ve been playing games on PC since my IBM XT, and I think that you’re statement “How many of the people dishing out north of $300 on a GPU are competitive e sports players or popular streamers? Probably most of them are not.” is completely off for a few reasons. I bought video cards that cost in that range in the 90s, hell they didn’t even do 3D acceleration then. I have never been an esports player, and that wasn’t even a thing back then. Higher end GPUs have always been expensive niche products that were targeting people that wanted the best performance and were willing to spend probably unwise amount of money for it. The chart in the post was showing the top of the line Nvidia cards, maybe of which were essentially “SLI in one card” halo products that most people weren’t buying. If you think that $300 is actually still a reasonable price for a decent GPU, you are misinformed. The last GPU I owned that was less than that was Nvidia Riva TNT from STB that was which was $250 or so in 1998. My fancy 2D only card that I owned years before that was even more expensive (it was a Number Nine video card if you’re curious). My current GPU was a super good deal at under $700 when I got it, and I never produce “frames that are not perceived”, I still have a 60Hz monitor. I just like high resolutions and less GPUs struggle with playing things even remotely smoothly unless I turn down many of the settings.
Yes, I can still technically play many of these games on the steam deck or use a cheap GPU, but it will be play and look poorly, especially on my rather large high resolution monitor that I use for work.
1440p 170hz is an enormous difference compared to 1080p 60hz. Especially in something like Path of Exile, where you’re reading a lot of small text, the resolution is very meaningful. If you’ve tried high refresh rate, 60hz feels unbearable afterwards, it’s massive.
The problem lies moreso in unoptimised AAA slop games which use all your GPU for shitty graphics.
You just accurately spelled out what my intuition was yelling, but I lacked the contextual vocabulary to describe. Thank you! (Adventure on my dad’s Leading Edge 286 was a blast!)
That means you remember the thrill of getting the Diamond Multimedia Viper SVGA card (or similar)and being able to “crank up” the resolution beyond 800x600.
Or:
Set Blaster= A220 I5 D9Enjoy your day, fellow vintage builder.
I can do you one better, I remember interrupt 7 prior and also only having pc speaker…
This is a really good take, i’ve just been living off friends hand me down hardware and having a great time playing non demanding indie stuff on my 980ti
This is essentially why I’ve bought consoles for decades. GPU prices just reached remarkably stupid territory way too fast.