• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Gaming hardware is impossible to afford

Strictly in response to Original Post / "

Gaming hardware is impossible to afford"​


I remember back in 2002 my first non mac computer was a dell. Don't remember specs but it was like 1200 USD

2004 ish first build, AMD athlon 3200+ 4 GB DDR1 and ati 9600 xt = 1500 ish

a few PC's in between and last build was like 3rd best i7, 16 GB DDR3 and Nvidia 9800 ( i think) 2000 with all other stuff.

So its just inflation, artificial or otherwise. And also people in general especially americans just need to learn how to save their money harder, ignore as much marketing and advertising as possible and do a WHOLE LOT of multi vector research before buying things.
 
spine said:
And the blatant false scarcity made up by the dram makers who are holding the entire world to mercy. Almost literally.
Click to expand...

Ram scarcity is real. If you had a bunch of ram, you would sell it at these prices.

Now, the ram makers are very deliberate about increasing production capacity. They've over built production many times, so they're cautious about doing it again. Otoh, I think wafers are scarce right now too, so more ram production capacity might then be limited by wafer supply... that's another reason they might be reluctant to rapidly build capacity.

All that said, I think there's two? Chinese fabs ramping up ram production, which should eventually increase supply and lower prices... even if the chinese ram doesn't make it to US retail.

All this stuff takes time though, fab projects have a long time from the decision to build a fab until volume production: at least 3-5 years, we're maybe 2ish years into the ram price ramp and the beginning looked mostly like the end of a bust, not really a new boom.
 
StevenJamesBorchard said:
Strictly in response to Original Post / "

Gaming hardware is impossible to afford"​


I remember back in 2002 my first non mac computer was a dell. Don't remember specs but it was like 1200 USD

2004 ish first build, AMD athlon 3200+ 4 GB DDR1 and ati 9600 xt = 1500 ish

a few PC's in between and last build was like 3rd best i7, 16 GB DDR3 and Nvidia 9800 ( i think) 2000 with all other stuff.

So its just inflation, artificial or otherwise. And also people in general especially americans just need to learn how to save their money harder, ignore as much marketing and advertising as possible and do a WHOLE LOT of multi vector research before buying things.
Click to expand...
The 64GB DDR5-6000 kit that cost me $210 in November 2024 now costing $1300 is not just inflation. If it was, our entire economy would be in shambles and we'd not be very worried about gaming PCs.
 
toast0 said:
. Otoh, I think wafers are scarce right now too, so more ram production capacity might then be limited by wafer supply... that's another reason they might be reluctant to rapidly build capacity.
Click to expand...
I am not sure the nuance made between ram production capacity and ram wafer production capacity... but what it take to make wafer supply is giant, the limit is the turning wafer into usuable ram capacity.

They are not that reluctant to rapidbly build capacity, they are building capacity the fastest it ever was, it is really hard to build capacit as there is a giant anti building fabs (as they use giant amount of prestine water and energy, way more than datacenter by an full order of magnitude) movement, but 2025-2026-2027-2028 will still be by far the most money to build up memory capacity ever.
 
Armenius said:
Ja, my signature PC was $3,000-something in 2023 minus the migrated parts. That included the video card. That won't even buy a 4090 or 5090 now.
Click to expand...
I always have gone bleeding edge. But I've started noticing hardware problems with my current computer and this has me freaked out (as half the stuff is out of warranty). Because just to rebuild my current PC, I'm looking at over $15000.
 
I was initially thinking of building another PC in 2027, but at this rate I'm gonna ride this thing until the wheels fall off. Luckily, it's still pretty top tier since I'm GPU-bound and the 4090's still the 2nd best card on the market.
 
My box with 270k plus was way over priced. Needed it still and it has been very helpful with work.
Wasn't pleased with the expense and I can cry about if I fuckin want to. Right to free speech and all that. Don't want to listen to people complain, shift your ass out of the thread. Low post count havin' prick.

I can afford it, doesn't mean I should pay it if I don't want to.
 
DogsofJune said:
My box with 270k plus was way over priced. Needed it still and it has been very helpful with work.
Click to expand...
That's pretty much where I'm at with upgrades. I can afford it if I need it. Not buying if I don't. Thankfully I'm in a far better position than a lot of people. Built a rig during Covid in late 2020. In early 2025 I decided I was due for some upgrades. New full build with the DDR5, plenty of M.2 storage, 5090, etc. so I'm good for a while. I can afford to replace stuff if something breaks, but other than that I don't expect to be buying hardware for a while. Well, maybe some speakers, a gaming monitor or some network gear.
 
Domingo said:
I was initially thinking of building another PC in 2027, but at this rate I'm gonna ride this thing until the wheels fall off. Luckily, it's still pretty top tier since I'm GPU-bound and the 4090's still the 2nd best card on the market.
Click to expand...
4090 is better IMO because of limited 32-bit PhysX support on the 5090.
 
Armenius said:
Does it support all games now? Because last I checked it was only for a limited number of games.
Click to expand...
The initial list was only 9 titles, but easily the most important ones that are likely still being played by a lot of people. I'm also not sure how many have been added back in since then in subsequent driver versions. Personally, I'll take the performance increase over taking a performance hit on some older titles I probably won't play again anyway. Basically everything on that list is ten plus years old. There are very few older games I'd go back and play that are that old anyway.
 
It is mainly components that contain RAM or NAND that have gone way up (GPU, SSD and RAM), most other stuff is still close to as affordable as it was 5 years ago. A 5900x is still OK until at least a year after the PS6 launches, that is more a "want" issue than "need". It is not like it was 20 years ago where your CPU was below minimum specs after 3 years.

Not so sure I would get a 5800x3D now, unless used and cheap, as it is a dead platform and even my 5070 ti was slightly held back by AM4+5800x3D in 4k. Staying with the 5900x for 1-2 more years or going with a low end, current socket setup, with low amounts of RAM (32GB) probably makes more sense.

AMD is generally much nicer priced than Nvidia, at least where I live. E.g. the 9070 XT cards have been available for close to MSRP, sometimes below, for most of the year, while stuff like the 5070 ti is generally 30-50% above MSRP when VAT is excluded. I would look at AMD at least, both used and new, if money is tight. Even something like a 7900XT, 7900 GRE etc. will be a solid upgrade over something like a 3070, even if you miss out on DLSS.
 
i bought a PC in 1995 or 1996. Computer shopper prices had JUST dropped. I don't remember being able to get a pentium system for $3K... but you could get a Cyrix one and I know because that's what I did. ....you had to REALLY want (or need) a PC back then, at least if you were a working slob in your early 20s. I took out a small loan from my then local bank in order to afford it. Guess we've come full circle lol....
 
Dan_D said:
The initial list was only 9 titles, but easily the most important ones that are likely still being played by a lot of people. I'm also not sure how many have been added back in since then in subsequent driver versions. Personally, I'll take the performance increase over taking a performance hit on some older titles I probably won't play again anyway. Basically everything on that list is ten plus years old. There are very few older games I'd go back and play that are that old anyway.
Click to expand...

That's me, too. I like some of those games, but there's almost no chance I'll go back any play any of them these days. If someone gave me a chance to trade my 4090 for a 5090, I'd take 'em up on it 100 out of 100 times :p
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top