So if video card prices stay elevated for years, then what happens?

15 years ago we all complained consoles were holding game development back because developers had to make it something that could be ported to the consoles or it was a console game that was going to be ported to a PC so old standards. Now this GPU drought will do something similar, developers are going to have to spend another year with the GTX 1060 as their base level performance. It may not be all bad though, that means they have to use something other than graphics to entice us, story and mechanics will have to make a comeback.
 
Define begging......

On a serious note, I have not been a serious gamer in a few years. These prices absolutely have me balking at doing an upgrade to play any game. This build I have now is 10 years old and needs an upgrade to play some of the later releases I am interested in but am not willing to shell out for. There are more things important in life that $1500 (for just a vid card) would be better used on.

Your system looks very similar to the one I just replaced (see my sig). Honestly the difference is small - I had a 2060 in the old one and it ran games great despite the old CPU.
 
You can still get entire prebuilts for around $2k with 3080s in them. I’d do that before I pay these asinine prices.

Eventually demand will catch up. I am sure Intel ramped up development seeing this market.

Good prebuilts, or ones where multiple components are proprietary garbage that needs replaced and just move who you're paying the scam tax to?
 
Good prebuilts, or ones where multiple components are proprietary garbage that needs replaced and just move who you're paying the scam tax to?

Even if there’s a scam tax it’s a tiny % compared to GPUs by themselves. I got a cyberpower with a 3080/10900k/1TB/16GB. CPU cooling was a little questionable but fine for gaming. Ram was only 3000Mhz but ram is cheap. Rest of the components were solid MSI / ASUS.

I mean… it was $1900 -10% off bday coupon at bestbuy….
 
If GPU prices still stay this high for years, I'm pretty sure our employers will raise our pay to compensate for that.
 
This is how I convinced myself to pay 1050 USD for a 3080(Zotac). 1050/365 days is $2.87 for unlimited gaming and other uses. No financing used, If I wanted to game at the arcade in the bowling alley I would have to load a card with a $20 min to play. So for the cost of a snack a day I have access to a high end GPU.
 
Then I will move to consoles for gaming and integrated graphics for computing.
 
Your system looks very similar to the one I just replaced (see my sig). Honestly the difference is small - I had a 2060 in the old one and it ran games great despite the old CPU.
I completely forgot about that sig. The system is the same but now with a GTX 970 in it. Dying Light 2 has finally shown me the limits. Have pondered a 1080Ti from Ebay for this system but even those prices are hard to justify in an old build.
 
And he wasn't blinded permanently all the cosmic rays coming from the sun?
Thankfully, no! We joke about being allergic to the sun or that the sun is trying to kill us a lot though. Every time we pass through direct sunlight or step outside into the sun, we sneeze and we both sunburn easily...
 
I'm at the age where loading my wood stove and just sitting and enjoying the warmth is almost as enjoyable as gaming.

Rather than getting robbed on the next generation of GPUs, maybe I'll consider a new stove with a nice glass window and a big firebox.
 
Thankfully, no! We joke about being allergic to the sun or that the sun is trying to kill us a lot though. Every time we pass through direct sunlight or step outside into the sun, we sneeze and we both sunburn easily...
Oh man, me too. My grandmother also had that. Sneezing in the sun happens almost every time.
 
You can still get entire prebuilts for around $2k with 3080s in them. I’d do that before I pay these asinine prices.

Eventually demand will catch up. I am sure Intel ramped up development seeing this market.
Problem is that the pre-builts are pure garbage. Everything but the CPU & GPU ordered are just trash, to include the garbage cases they use.
 
Which is anytime over the next couple of weeks for me. Just due to the inflation, that's a conversation I am going to have.
Since Graphics card prices have increased by over 300%, i'll take a 200% raise thanks. Anything less would be unfair.
 
Play through your backlog of games and appreciate the classics which will take a couple of years.

For the first time in console history, PS5 and XSX games are 85% as good as my 5-figure priced PC with an RTX 3090, while costing 1/20th the price. The only games which are unplayable are FPS titles that need a mouse.
 
Unpopular opinoin, but i am going to mine with my 6900xt for 18 months before gaming on it. When i first got it, it was making $4.70 a day, now its making $2.20 eth and 50 cents ton dual mining. If bitcoin ends up hitting 100k in the next 18months i can cash out and have my card at a reasonable price.
 
Unpopular opinoin, but i am going to mine with my 6900xt for 18 months before gaming on it. When i first got it, it was making $4.70 a day, now its making $2.20 eth and 50 cents ton dual mining. If bitcoin ends up hitting 100k in the next 18months i can cash out and have my card at a reasonable price.
You could game AND mine on it when not gaming.
 
Unpopular opinoin, but i am going to mine with my 6900xt for 18 months before gaming on it. When i first got it, it was making $4.70 a day, now its making $2.20 eth and 50 cents ton dual mining. If bitcoin ends up hitting 100k in the next 18months i can cash out and have my card at a reasonable price.
That's how I got my 580s back in the previous Bitcoin rush. I built two entire systems, and since I'm still hodling the systems were essentially free and I've got a couple thousand bonus. May get better still. I was tempted to put them back in the mining rack this go around but couldn't be bothered.
 
I half-considered an Quadro card, but when I saw the prices there, it's just more of the same inflation. However, for mining the Quadro Axxxx cards look like better ROI. One guy posted a video of the Quadro RTX A6000 clocking at 84.9 Mh/s. Same performance as TWO 3080's.

I think the high prices are actually going higher, albiet slower than last year.
 
You can still get entire prebuilts for around $2k with 3080s in them. I’d do that before I pay these asinine prices.

Eventually demand will catch up. I am sure Intel ramped up development seeing this market.
The other hardware in it is crap relatively speaking though - if you priced out the other parts, you are overpaying significantly. 'Bronze psu' and previous gen. Intel/AMD cpu hardware.
 
What? 3080s are 95-100mh/s. LHR are still up to ~77mh/s ea
Demand for LHR cards - the cards are still the same price but now with limits on them? The problem is minders/ppl still buying these at the inflated prices. Nothing to do with tariffs, inflation - these aren't normally inflated prices. 300% increase would be equivalent to a 3rd world country's currency going into the gutter.
 
The other hardware in it is crap relatively speaking though - if you priced out the other parts, you are overpaying significantly. 'Bronze psu' and previous gen. Intel/AMD cpu hardware.
I still have a phenom X3 in a functioning box. Last Gen stuff is still great for anything. At least you get something for the insane amount of cash.
 
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I still have a phenom X3 in a functioning box. Last Gen stuff is still great for anything. At least you get something for the insane amount of cash.
Yeah, that's true. I guess I am just cynical and maybe a bit bitter - that retailers are taking advantage of customers who need a gpu and are willing to take whatever (other) hardware they can get.
 
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It will have a negative effect on PC gaming long term if prices stay high. Fact is you need new generations to get into a hobby to keep it alive. $600 for a middle of the road **60 card is not something a lot of kids can afford even taking inflation into account. It will push more kids towards consoles, even if those too are hard to find. Used to be $250-400 could get you a good gaming GPU, mid range to higher end (but not top of the line). That would be closer to $300-500 or so these days with inflation (someone can do the exact math). And right now, you're lucky if you can get the modern equivalent of a 6600 GT or X700 Pro for $500-600.

I'm sure Nvidia, AMD and even Intel are well aware of this and would like to bring prices back down if possible. PC gaming will always offer the higher end boutique for those that have the money to buy the latest and greatest, but they also need to maintain the lower end and mid range market.
 
It will have a negative effect on PC gaming long term if prices stay high. Fact is you need new generations to get into a hobby to keep it alive. $600 for a middle of the road **60 card is not something a lot of kids can afford even taking inflation into account. It will push more kids towards consoles, even if those too are hard to find. Used to be $250-400 could get you a good gaming GPU, mid range to higher end (but not top of the line). That would be closer to $300-500 or so these days with inflation (someone can do the exact math). And right now, you're lucky if you can get the modern equivalent of a 6600 GT or X700 Pro for $500-600.

I'm sure Nvidia, AMD and even Intel are well aware of this and would like to bring prices back down if possible. PC gaming will always offer the higher end boutique for those that have the money to buy the latest and greatest, but they also need to maintain the lower end and mid range market.
A decent baseball bat can cost nearly that much...
 
Is interesting to see the Steam hardware survey showing that the most used graphics cards are the 10 series. If that sort of trend continues the video card industry is going to be hurting. Something will have to break. It just won't be my wallet to purchase an over-priced piece of PC equipment.
 
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