Ideal GPU tier pricing.

[_cp]

I’m wondering what retail price points users here consider a “reasonable value” for different tiers of new graphics cards. I’m not talking about any specific cards currently available, but generally about “classes” of cards. For simplicity I will be using the following names to describe the different tiers.

Halo cards: RTX xx90, RX x9xx
Flagship cards: RTX xx80, RX x8xx
Mainstream cards: RTX xx70, RX x7xx
Entry level cards: RTX xx60, RX x6xx

I’m interested to see how the years of GPU scarcity have altered people’s perception. Of course every generation of cards will have differing “bang for the buck” at different tiers, so this is a very general discussion.

My thoughts are as follows:

Halo: $900
Flagship: $600
Mainstream: $400
Entry: $200

I feel like Halo cards generally demand a premium for maximum performance, but usually not enough performance uplift to justify the price. Flagship cards will provide most of the performance of a Halo card at a price that makes a lot more sense. Mainstream and Entry level cards provide incrementally less performance, but at a much easier price to swallow for most. The best “bang for the buck” usually falls into Mainstream or Entry, the 3080 being a notable recent exception.

I’ve found myself usually tending towards the Mainstream cards, but inflated prices have made that feel like far less of a value lately. Now that real GPU scarcity is over, and artificial scarcity can only last so long, I’m hoping this will give me some insight on where prices will settle eventually.

Edit:
I made a chart that shows how GPU SKUs from each generation stack up percentage-wise to the full die of that generation. The Kepler and Fermi cards didn't have a full die card in their first releases, so they are scaled off of the 700 and 500 series. The 40 series has a lot of similarity to the 600 series with the 80 SKU being seriously gimped compared to the full die.

 

[NightReaver]

I feel like 'bout tree fiddy is good for a gpu.

 

[emphy]

I’m wondering what retail price points users here consider a “reasonable value” for different tiers of new graphics cards. I’m not talking about any specific cards currently available, but generally about “classes” of cards. For simplicity I will be using the following names to describe the different tiers.

Halo cards: RTX xx90, RX x9xx
Flagship cards: RTX xx80, RX x8xx
Mainstream cards: RTX xx70, RX x7xx
Entry level cards: RTX xx60, RX x6xx

I’m interested to see how the years of GPU scarcity have altered people’s perception. Of course every generation of cards will have differing “bang for the buck” at different tiers, so this is a very general discussion.

My thoughts are as follows:

Halo: $900
Flagship: $600
Mainstream: $400
Entry: $200

I feel like Halo cards generally demand a premium for maximum performance, but usually not enough performance uplift to justify the price. Flagship cards will provide most of the performance of a Halo card at a price that makes a lot more sense. Mainstream and Entry level cards provide incrementally less performance, but at a much easier price to swallow for most. The best “bang for the buck” usually falls into Mainstream or Entry, the 3080 being a notable recent exception.

I’ve found myself usually tending towards the Mainstream cards, but inflated prices have made that feel like far less of a value lately. Now that real GPU scarcity is over, and artificial scarcity can only last so long, I’m hoping this will give me some insight on where prices will settle eventually.

I suspect that, despite marketing departments' efforts, mainstream remains closer to the $200-$300 range than the already high-end $400 and that, now that most of the crazyness is leaving the market, we will be seeing a focus shift from the manufacturers.

 

[Decko87]

I suspect that, despite marketing departments' efforts, mainstream remains closer to the $200-$300 range than the already high-end $400 and that, now that most of the crazyness is leaving the market, we will be seeing a focus shift from the manufacturers.

Yeah is se the RX 6600 through RX 6650 XT as "mainstream" and they're essentially 1080p to low end 1440p solutions. Don't get wrong, they're great cards, it's just wild we're so far away from 4k being "mainstream" still.

 

[madpistol]

Yeah is se the RX 6600 through RX 6650 XT as "mainstream" and they're essentially 1080p to low end 1440p solutions. Don't get wrong, they're great cards, it's just wild we're so far away from 4k being "mainstream" still.

What do you consider "4K mainstream"? If 4K 30fps is the benchmark, we're already there. 4K 120fps? A 4090 is super close, but on the newest titles, it's still not there.

Last generation of premium consoles (Xbox One X, PS4 Pro) were not even capable of convincingly doing 4K30. Remember 4K is 4x the resolution of 1080p and requires a ton of memory bandwidth and processing power to game on natively. It's a wonder that the 4090 is as powerful as it is considering how slow transistor development has been in the last 4-5 years.

 

[Decko87]

What do you consider "4K mainstream"? If 4K 30fps is the benchmark, we're already there. 4K 120fps? A 4090 is super close, but on the newest titles, it's still not there.

Last generation of premium consoles (Xbox One X, PS4 Pro) were not even capable of convincingly doing 4K30. Remember 4K is 4x the resolution of 1080p and requires a ton of memory bandwidth and processing power to game on natively. It's a wonder that the 4090 is as powerful as it is considering how slow transistor development has been in the last 4-5 years.

4k 60 IMO, 30 isn't playable. The current consoles aren't capable of 4k30 either, especially with increase quality of assets games will be getting over the next few years. I think we're another two generations from a 4k60 experience in a 400 dollar card.

 

[GotNoRice]

Halo: $900
Flagship: $600
Mainstream: $400
Entry: $200

Yeah I totally get this. I wish it was still this way also. I remember buying my GTX 680 for $500 back when it was the fastest single-GPU card. There was the 690 that was more expensive, but it was a dual-GPU card. I could get the same thing by eventually buying a 2nd GTX 680, which is exactly what I did (eventually bought a 3rd also).

But there are multiple reasons why it will never be like this again.

The effect that Cryptocurrency had on GPU prices will leave a lasing impact (decades). Even if there is NEVER any form of crypto-mining ever again (which is not guaranteed), prices are/will come down a LOT slower than they went up. I don't think that prices will ever fully return to where they were now that the idea of GPUs being expensive has basically become ingrained in the industry, and especially not while we are still seeing scarcity and scalping with new cards like the 4090.

There is also Bidenflation. A McDouble at McDonalds only cost $0.99 a handful of years ago now it's almost $3. A Costco trip with 2 full mega-carts used to cost $300, now I can't even get out of Walmart with a single cart for less than $500. Pickup Trucks cost over $100,000 now, and $100 won't even fill up the tank. Prices are going up, and they aren't going to be coming back down soon or ever. I'm not trying to bring politics into this, but it's impossible to discuss prices without talking about the rampant inflation that we are currently suffering through.

 

[MavericK]

I'm not trying to bring politics into this, but it's impossible to discuss prices without talking about the rampant inflation that we are currently suffering through.

Corporate greed plays a pretty huge role in this as well.

 

[Decko87]

Yeah I totally get this. I wish it was still this way also. I remember buying my GTX 680 for $500 back when it was the fastest single-GPU card. There was the 690 that was more expensive, but it was a dual-GPU card. I could get the same thing by eventually buying a 2nd GTX 680, which is exactly what I did (eventually bought a 3rd also).

But there are multiple reasons why it will never be like this again.

The effect that Cryptocurrency had on GPU prices will leave a lasing impact (decades). Even if there is NEVER any form of crypto-mining ever again (which is not guaranteed), prices are/will come down a LOT slower than they went up. I don't think that prices will ever fully return to where they were now that the idea of GPUs being expensive has basically become ingrained in the industry, and especially not while we are still seeing scarcity and scalping with new cards like the 4090.

There is also Bidenflation. A McDouble at McDonalds only cost $0.99 a handful of years ago now it's almost $3. A Costco trip with 2 full mega-carts used to cost $300, now I can't even get out of Walmart with a single cart for less than $500. Pickup Trucks cost over $100,000 now, and $100 won't even fill up the tank. Prices are going up, and they aren't going to be coming back down soon or ever. I'm not trying to bring politics into this, but it's impossible to discuss prices without talking about the rampant inflation that we are currently suffering through.

Calling it Bidenflation is inherently political, it's happening all over the world. Look at corporate profits as well. Doesn't explain all of it, but does explain a lot.

 

[GotNoRice]

Consumer gpus are by and large a luxury item. As the economy continues to worsen, fewer and fewer people will have the excess cash to spend on them.

Yeah that corresponds with traditional economics, but I do think that things are a bit different these days, particularly with regards to some technology products. It's not uncommon now to see people with iPhones that cost more than their car. Even with an expensive GPU, computer gaming is still a pretty cheap form of entertainment overall. There are plenty of people who basically live in a trailer, and don't care because they are on their computer all day. If you've ever seen the movie "Ready Player One", that is basically what things are turning into. It's not hard to "justify" spending money on your computer in that sort of situation. It's not like someone buying a jet-ski.

 

[emphy]

Yeah I totally get this. I wish it was still this way also. I remember buying my GTX 680 for $500 back when it was the fastest single-GPU card. There was the 690 that was more expensive, but it was a dual-GPU card. I could get the same thing by eventually buying a 2nd GTX 680, which is exactly what I did (eventually bought a 3rd also).

But there are multiple reasons why it will never be like this again.

The effect that Cryptocurrency had on GPU prices will leave a lasing impact (decades). Even if there is NEVER any form of crypto-mining ever again (which is not guaranteed), prices are/will come down a LOT slower than they went up. I don't think that prices will ever fully return to where they were now that the idea of GPUs being expensive has basically become ingrained in the industry, and especially not while we are still seeing scarcity and scalping with new cards like the 4090.

There is also Bidenflation. A McDouble at McDonalds only cost $0.99 a handful of years ago now it's almost $3. A Costco trip with 2 full mega-carts used to cost $300, now I can't even get out of Walmart with a single cart for less than $500. Pickup Trucks cost over $100,000 now, and $100 won't even fill up the tank. Prices are going up, and they aren't going to be coming back down soon or ever. I'm not trying to bring politics into this, but it's impossible to discuss prices without talking about the rampant inflation that we are currently suffering through.

Don't believe the narrative of general inflation causing an increase in pc component prices in particular. Gpu performance per dollar, as per historical trend, is deflating like mad. A $250 rx6600 in 2022 buys you easily more than 1.5 times the performance that the $250 rx580 did in 2017. Or, if you want to compare similar performance, today's rx6500xt can be had for around $90 cheaper now than that rx580 would have cost you five years ago.

That is, roughly, the equivalent of a tidy 8% yearly reduction in price.

 

[GotNoRice]

Don't believe the narrative of general inflation causing an increase in pc component prices in particular. Gpu performance per dollar, as per historical trend, is deflating like mad. A $250 rx6600 in 2022 buys you easily more than 1.5 times the performance that the $250 rx580 did in 2017. Or, if you want to compare similar performance, today's rx6500xt can be had for around $90 cheaper now than that rx580 would have cost you five years ago.

That is, roughly, the equivalent of a tidy 8% yearly reduction in price.

It's normal for a new generation of GPUs to be faster than the previous, which inevitably increases the performance per dollar. I fail to see how that has any relationship with inflation one way or the other.

 

[crazycrave]

_cp said = I’ve found myself usually tending towards the Mainstream cards, but inflated prices have made that feel like far less of a value lately


That is when you take AMD's magic carpet ride with free games, 3 came with the $369.00 RX 6700 = That is value when the games them self's can run 4K at any frame rate your azz can throw at them!

 

[HockeyJon]

The problem with this discussion is that none of this matters. Nvidia demonstrated it didn't when they launched the Titan for $1000 years ago and people bought them all. Now they launched the 4090 at $1600 and there were line ups to buy one at a lot of retail locations, and this is during a huge GPU surplus, so despite the fact that I think it's absolutely ridiculous and would never pay that, there are people who will, and Nvidia and AMD are there to make money. I can't say any price is "unreasonable" if they're selling everything they make. Will this slow? Maybe, we'll see, but as of now, the consumer hasn't given them a reason to adjust their prices down.

That said, with modern GPUs and consoles lagging, you can still get a great gaming experience at the mid-range, where cards are somewhat more reasonably priced.

 

[Dreamerbydesign]

Don't believe the narrative of general inflation causing an increase in pc component prices in particular. Gpu performance per dollar, as per historical trend, is deflating like mad. A $250 rx6600 in 2022 buys you easily more than 1.5 times the performance that the $250 rx580 did in 2017. Or, if you want to compare similar performance, today's rx6500xt can be had for around $90 cheaper now than that rx580 would have cost you five years ago.

That is, roughly, the equivalent of a tidy 8% yearly reduction in price.

These points make no sense in reality. Technology is expected to move forward and should not be benchmarked per dollar against years old tech. Time moves forward. Products should be judged in a current market.

 

[crazycrave]

These points make no sense in reality. Technology is expected to move forward and should not be benchmarked per dollar against years old tech. Time moves forward. Products should be judged in a current market.

The RX 6600 is what he means to compare, a RX 590, it wipes the dam floor with the RX 590 using only 100watts to do so and what cost $219, the games are now pushing $69 a piece because SONY likes it like that, and no one ask us to push beyond 1080p but our greedy self's - wanting more candy to look at.

 

[LukeTbk]

it really depends on how rich you are and how much time you game and how much graphic matter for the person.

I imagine a quite rich person that want to dedicate a lot of resource would like company to double the price of GPU and make Hopper sized 800 mm dies, pci 5.0 x16, 48 GB on 5120 bits 1280 gbs memory bus bandwith video card for games.

While people that do not game much and do not have high FPS-res monitor would prefer lower price around the board (or just in general not care about what happen past the xx70 level directly, even if indirectly it can shape games dev a little bit).

The suggesting price range-tier by the OP do feel quite reasonable to me, but I would understand why 4090-7950xt buyer would want them to push it more than that.

 

[LukeTbk]

These points make no sense in reality. Technology is expected to move forward and should not be benchmarked per dollar against years old tech. Time moves forward. Products should be judged in a current market.

What would moving forward be if not how much performance by dollars you get versus old tech ?


Yes products should be purely judged against what available right now at the price they are right now to decide what to buy, but if we talk about the technological advancement, that what we will do look at perf by $-watt over time no ?

 

[Eshelmen]

Considering there's like a billion tiers/variants now, I'd like manufacturer's to retract a bit and make lineups a bit simpler. Ti, SE, OC, OC Extreme, Super, Super OC,LE, FE - oh ffs.. shut up.

With that being said, I think this would suffice with the following examples -

Entry - $199/$249 - 1660/1660ti
Basic - $299/$349 - 3050/3050ti
Mainstream - $399/$449 - 3060/3060ti
Enthusiast - $499/$549 - 3070/3070ti
Extreme - $699/$749 - 3080/3080ti
Titan class - $899/$949 -3090/3090ti

A $1500+ GPU to play some video games is absolutely ridiculous.

 

[pavel]

Currency?

 

[LukeTbk]

I'd like manufacturer's to retract a bit and make lineups a bit simpler

I miss the generation that looked like
Geforce 3 - Ti200
Geforce 3
Geforce 3 - Ti500
it was a bit more complicated but for me the 4th one looked like
4200
4400
4600
That it.

too little for now and they could have 3 different die, a Ti that use full of it and a lower one to have better yield and just using one of previous generation die to fill the even lower than that demand, that would already be 8 SKUs available.

If it maximises die enough that we all gain from it (at least people that do not overclock).... good enough and not a big deal obviously, but it is becoming quite convulated with many model being so close like a 3060Ti a 3070

 

[Sir Beregond]

Think about it. What Nvidia has done is subtly shift everything up in obvious ways and less obvious ways. It started with the GTX 680 using what was at the time the chip that would have gone in the 60-class card for $250. So they figured out how to basically double the price of that chip by putting it in a higher branded product. Nobody cared. What should have been the GTX 680 got release as the $1k Titan (first one) and the subsequent GTX 780 and 780 Ti eventually.

From then on, the 80-class was basically mid-range chips sold for still at the time flagship prices. Now its even worse. With Ampere they rebranded their top end as "90" so that they could get away with another price hike and now they are doing the same thing with the 80-class cards they did before. The 4080 with a 379mm2 die is smaller than the GTX 980 die but now is $1200? This is getting insane.

I'm not naive enough to think that flagships would still be $500 now like the GTX 580 was. But the idea it should be $1600 is just asinine and not simply at pace with inflation and wafer costs. That's just marketing getting people used to this new way they pushed everything up and people are still buying it up.

AMD's problem is they have so far been content to just undercut Nvidia's price points. So will have to see what they do with RDNA3, but wouldn't be surprised if they raise prices too.

Ultimately I agree with _cp and Eshelmen price points. I don't think any gaming product should be more than $900-$1k for the flagship/halo product and high end should still be in the $600-$800 range. If they want to justify a card as $1600-$3000, they need to drop this bullshit with the 90-cards and make actual Titans again. The 3090 was basically the replacement for the 2080 Ti with a $300 MSRP bump, not the RTX Titan. Literally not that long ago, the top flagship card was a 1080 Ti for $699. Branding cards "90"s just obfuscated the market from the fact that they basically more than doubled the price of it now by pretending they are "Titan-ish".

$1200 and $1600 gaming cards shouldn't be a thing. I know I have a $1200 MSRP gaming card, but hey, perks when you buy used/secondhand.

 

[Ducrider748]

I normally buy used cards. I ha e bought a few new ones over the years. My two latest are a 3080 12g and a 3070ti. They were bought before prices have dropped. I was looking to upgrade and the used market was at or close to retail. A few years ago I pi ked up a 2080ti KingPin for $1000. At the time it was a good buy. Great card and worth the money at the time. Talking about the new cards out right now I have to agree with the thoughts that have been mentioned about inflation. Yes it's real yes it effects prices on everything. Do I feel manufactures are greedy? Yes but they are here to make money. Cost to make cards has gone up. Cost of R&D to build the cards . Let's not forget the cost for the manufacturer to get the cards the retailers. If you don't think it cost more to do anything. Just fill up your car run to a local restaurant eat dinner. Then go shopping. Everything now will cost 20-30 percent more. So why would you think a gpu should cost the same as a gpu from years ago when inflation was not like it is now.

 

[Denpepe]

I normally buy used cards. I ha e bought a few new ones over the years. My two latest are a 3080 12g and a 3070ti. They were bought before prices have dropped. I was looking to upgrade and the used market was at or close to retail. A few years ago I pi ked up a 2080ti KingPin for $1000. At the time it was a good buy. Great card and worth the money at the time. Talking about the new cards out right now I have to agree with the thoughts that have been mentioned about inflation. Yes it's real yes it effects prices on everything. Do I feel manufactures are greedy? Yes but they are here to make money. Cost to make cards has gone up. Cost of R&D to build the cards . Let's not forget the cost for the manufacturer to get the cards the retailers. If you don't think it cost more to do anything. Just fill up your car run to a local restaurant eat dinner. Then go shopping. Everything now will cost 20-30 percent more. So why would you think a gpu should cost the same as a gpu from years ago when inflation was not like it is now.

More sure, but I payed 879€ for my Asus TUF 3080, now a FE 4080 is around 1.469€ so another 2-300 € for the custom models that's a lot more then simple inflation, a 4090 Asus strix is 2.799€, Nvidia is taking the piss in Europe with those prices, I'm waiting to see what AMD will offer.

 

[Ducrider748]

More sure, but I payed 879€ for my Asus TUF 3080, now a FE 4080 is around 1.469€ so another 2-300 € for the custom models that's a lot more then simple inflation, a 4090 Asus strix is 2.799€, Nvidia is taking the piss in Europe with those prices, I'm waiting to see what AMD will offer.

And to think I was paying $1.79 a gallon for gas 2 1/2 Yeats ago and now its over $3 a gallon. Inflation effects everything. Not justifying it just saying it is what it is.

 

[NightReaver]

And to think I was paying $1.79 a gallon for gas 2 1/2 Yeats ago and now its over $3 a gallon. Inflation effects everything. Not justifying it just saying it is what it is.

Eh, gas comparison doesn't work. There's much more than inflation at work there.

 

[Ducrider748]

Eh, gas comparison doesn't work. There's much more than inflation at work there.

How many more things do I need to say everyone pays more for to prove inflation? It is what it is. Not that we like it.

 

[NightReaver]

How many more things do I need to say everyone pays more for to prove inflation? It is what it is. Not that we like it.

To an extent. To say "Your GPU is $1600" or gas is $4/gal because of inflation is only a fraction of the story.

 

[Ducrider748]

To an extent. To say "Your GPU is $1600" or gas is $4/gal because of inflation is only a fraction of the story.

Consider EVERYTHING involved. That fraction is a large one. Vienna sausages at my local Dollar General was 33 cents a can on sale and 50 cents a can regular price. So if it's not inflation why is it $1.75 a can now? If I go by the thinking of you it's because the manufacture trying to gouge me. No it's because it cost more to manufacture to distribute and to put on the retail shelf. Average wage at my Dollar General was $8.00 a hour two years ago. Now it's $15 a hour because people do not want to work. So now they have to sell at a higher price to keep profit margins. So fuel prices here do not effect shipping? Do the price increase in workers wages being higher mean anything? Does any of this makes and sense to you? No I am not happy about the current prices. Yes I will buy one eventually. That still does not make me think this economy is working to the guy who works and not got a raise in 5 years. It's a sad time to "want" anything right now because you have to pay so much for "needed" stuff.

Here is the facts about average wage increase.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/278349/average-annual-salary-of-an-employee-in-china/

 

[Decko87]

I’m not disputing any of your points here, but I have a question pertaining solely to graphics cards. If there hadn’t been a crypto boom, do you think an RTX 4080 would be launching at $1200?

I would, labour costs are barely anything even with their increased amount in terms of the percentage of a price of goods. He's proving nothing providing wage charts by themselves. Labor is a tiny percentage of cost of most good even made in the US which has significantly higher wages on average vs. china. It's an absurd thing to post in a vacuum. Materials, R&D, cost way more for cards, the most expensive part of cards these days is the memory.

 

[LukeTbk]

I would, labour costs are barely anything even with their increased amount in terms of the percentage of a price of goods. He's proving nothing providing wage charts by themselves. Labor is a tiny percentage of cost of most good even made in the US which has significantly higher wages on average vs. china. It's an absurd thing to post in a vacuum. Materials, R&D, cost way more for cards, the most expensive part of cards these days is the memory.

I thought Labor tendedd to be a giant percentage of company expense everywhere around the world (even the biggest spending for most company).

A lot of that R&D and materials are salary cost (just often the salary paid by a different company and the salary of people shipping, and the salary of people that made the boat and truck, etc..):

https://www2.deloitte.com/content/d...capital/us-cons-laborwise-core-data-sheet.pdf
Labor is one of the largest costs for most companies. For a typical Fortune 500 company, payroll is $1 to $2 billion per year, which averages between 50% to 60% of company spending.

For small company it tends to be 70%+

Nvidia margin are so high that it could be quite the different affair, but I doubt the total labour cost in everything that is involved in the supply chain from the mining of the material, the marketing crew, to the BestBuy shelve -Amazon truck driver to the door would be barely anything of the cost of a gpu.

 

[Denpepe]

I’m not disputing any of your points here, but I have a question pertaining solely to graphics cards. If there hadn’t been a crypto boom, do you think an RTX 4080 would be launching at $1200?

I'm not sure the crypto boom is the only reason for the stuff that is going on, even chips made on antiquated nodes were or still are in short supply, more like the millions of people who needed computers to work from home all of a sudden contributed more to price and shortages of components then the crypto boom did but who knows.

 

[Furious_Styles]

Consider EVERYTHING involved. That fraction is a large one. Vienna sausages at my local Dollar General was 33 cents a can on sale and 50 cents a can regular price. So if it's not inflation why is it $1.75 a can now? If I go by the thinking of you it's because the manufacture trying to gouge me. No it's because it cost more to manufacture to distribute and to put on the retail shelf. Average wage at my Dollar General was $8.00 a hour two years ago. Now it's $15 a hour because people do not want to work. So now they have to sell at a higher price to keep profit margins. So fuel prices here do not effect shipping? Do the price increase in workers wages being higher mean anything? Does any of this makes and sense to you? No I am not happy about the current prices. Yes I will buy one eventually. That still does not make me think this economy is working to the guy who works and not got a raise in 5 years. It's a sad time to "want" anything right now because you have to pay so much for "needed" stuff.

Here is the facts about average wage increase.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/278349/average-annual-salary-of-an-employee-in-china/

It's $15/hr now because people have better opportunities elsewhere, not because they don't want to work. It's no different in higher salary/wage positions.

 

[Ducrider748]

It's $15/hr now because people have better opportunities elsewhere, not because they don't want to work. It's no different in higher salary/wage positions.

I would agree if there was not so many jobs available.

 

[Furious_Styles]

I would agree if there was not so many jobs available.

?? Again that's demand outstripping supply. Long time coming really.

 

[MrCaffeineX]

I thought Labor tendedd to be a giant percentage of company expense everywhere around the world (even the biggest spending for most company).

A lot of that R&D and materials are salary cost (just often the salary paid by a different company and the salary of people shipping, and the salary of people that made the boat and truck, etc..):

https://www2.deloitte.com/content/d...capital/us-cons-laborwise-core-data-sheet.pdf
Labor is one of the largest costs for most companies. For a typical Fortune 500 company, payroll is $1 to $2 billion per year, which averages between 50% to 60% of company spending.

For small company it tends to be 70%+

Nvidia margin are so high that it could be quite the different affair, but I doubt the total labour cost in everything that is involved in the supply chain from the mining of the material, the marketing crew, to the BestBuy shelve -Amazon truck driver to the door would be barely anything of the cost of a gpu.

While this is true, you cannot simplify the inflation equation to just labor cost increases. Economies of scale are still at work. Depending on the company, the sheer volume of goods being moved through the supply chain equates to a minimal, though not insubstantial, increase in the cost at retail.

People are, in my opinion rightfully, wondering why a few percent increase in the cost per item moving through the supply chain has resulted in 40% plus increases at retail in some cases. Something like a video card has such a big price tag, you can't help but notice the increase between $900 and $1200, but even at a smaller level, the Vienna sausage example provided by Ducrider748 above is a great illustration. The retail price increase is much greater than the sum of increases in costs.

 

[Marvin_78]

Gaming on the PC has always been the hobby for me. As such, I have always had a cap to how much I would pay for a gfx card. In 2004 per my records I spent around $1850 to build a ground up new skt478 rig with a 5950Ugs card. In today's monies that's $2,906.80, the cost of a new 4080...

This is my history that I can still find invoices for: (no flex just letting history speak for itself regarding prices)

Spoiler

Date	Card	Price	2022 adj price
04/19/2004	GAINWARD GEFORCE FX5950UGS	$413.95	$650.42
05/01/2005	BFG 6800U BFGR68256UWC	$465.00	$706.69
10/02/2005	MSI|NX7800GTX-VT2D256E	$465.00	$706.69
12/06/2006	EVGA 768-P2-N831-AR 8800GTX	$629.99	$927.51
10/29/2009	XFX HD-587A-ZNF9 Radeon HD 5870 (Cypress XT)	$409.99	$567.21
07/29/2013	Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 OC	$322.48	$410.87
11/02/2015	ZOTAC GeForce GTX 980 Ti AMP	$599.99	$751.35
5/17/2018	EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti SC2 GAMING	$669.99	$791.93

\current point of my history/

A 10/14/2018 Nvidia RTX 2070 Review made me feel safe enough to skip the 20series and wait for the 30.. (yep...If I had only known then what I know now.)

Then the pricing went on like this:
12/06/2018 2070 $499-$629
12/06/2018 2080 $699-$899
12/06/2018 2080Ti $999-$1349
9/29/2020 3080 $699-$809
6/21/2021 3080 Ti $1199-$1499
And right now the 4080 cards are running from $2131-$3449

At the current price points for Nvidia, I am actually priced out of my 20+ year hobby. I would love to see prices come back down to hobby levels, but yeah... My 1080Ti is not happy anymore @3440x1440 and the rig is an old i7-4790, it's held its own but its tired boss and so am I.

 

[crazycrave]

I thought the RX 6600 at $209 being faster than the the RTX 3060 in the game Uncharted was interesting.

In terms of hardware requirements, Uncharted is not very demanding. In order to reach 60 FPS at the 1080p Full HD resolution you need a Radeon RX Vega 64, RX 5600 XT, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, RTX 2060 or RTX 3060. For the more complex 1440p resolution, the Radeon RX 6600 and higher are sufficient, or the NVIDIA RTX 2080 and faster. If you want 4K60, then only cards like the RX 6800 XT, RTX 3080 and faster can achieve fluid gameplay. Especially for AMD Radeon these requirements are surprisingly low, it seems the fact that the PlayStation 4 is based on AMD technology really helps the red team. If we take a closer look at individual cards it's surprising to see that the older Polaris and RDNA1 cards do relatively better than their more modern counterparts, the same is happening for NVIDIA GeForce. Guess the game really is optimized for older GPUs, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. VRAM size is a total non-issue, except maybe for 4 GB cards at 1080p, but everything else that can achieve 60 FPS at the target resolution also has enough VRAM; 8 GB or more.

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/uncharted-benchmark-test-performance-analysis/6.html

 

[Sir Beregond]

And to think I was paying $1.79 a gallon for gas 2 1/2 Yeats ago and now its over $3 a gallon. Inflation effects everything. Not justifying it just saying it is what it is.

Sure inflation affects GPU pricing but its not nearly as high a factor as people keep making it out to be when we know for a fact that Nvidia margins have been rising over the past several gens and they are making more money then they ever have. No, its not inflation that cause $1600 flagship cards.

 

[MrCaffeineX]

Sure inflation affects GPU pricing but its not nearly as high a factor as people keep making it out to be when we know for a fact that Nvidia margins have been rising over the past several gens and they are making more money then they ever have. No, its not inflation that cause $1600 flagship cards.

https://oversight.house.gov/news/pr...als-excessive-corporate-price-hikes-have-hurt