Insane GPU prices in 2022 WTF?

[dariansoris]

I remember purchasing a couple of HD6970's for $700 CDN in 2010 and thinking to myself, I'll never spend more than that again. Then I topped it with a single water cooled MSI 1080 for about $1200 CDN in 2016 and that made my head spin. But I wanted the best GPU I could afford, so it would last me 5 or 6 years, and it has, honestly the best video card I've ever owned.

Now I'm staring at its successor, the 4090 LIQUID X, for $2449 CDN in 2022. I've put together entire high end gaming PCs for less. It's made me rethink my new PC build, now I'm putting it off until the end of 2024 and the 5xxx series to save up a little more, plus the faint hope of pricing normalizing. But I fear that it'll be even more expensive next product cycle.

 

[TMCM]

I remember purchasing a couple of HD6970's for $700 CDN in 2010 and thinking to myself, I'll never spend more than that again. Then I topped it with a single water cooled MSI 1080 for about $1200 CDN in 2016 and that made my head spin. But I wanted the best GPU I could afford, so it would last me 5 or 6 years, and it has, honestly the best video card I've ever owned.

Now I'm staring at its successor, the 4090 LIQUID X, for $2449 CDN in 2022. I've put together entire high end gaming PCs for less. It's made me rethink my new PC build, now I'm putting it off until the end of 2024 and the 5xxx series to save up a little more, plus the faint hope of pricing normalizing. But I fear that it'll be even more expensive next product cycle.

We have similar builds as I am still rocking my OC'd i7 6700k. I upgraded to a 3090 from a 1080 last week and it was a very impressive upgrade. I have no doubt that I am CPU limited in many games but being able to turn on all the eye candy to max on a higher resolution again is wonderful lol

 

[psy81]

Seeing the insane prices of the RTX-4090 @ $1700 to $2000 is ridiculous. Even the RTX 4080 for $1,200 is stupid, I bought my RTX-3080 for $799 back in Nov. 2020, so why is the next gen version 50% higher now?

The RTX-1080 launch price was $599
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_10_series

The RTX-2080 launch price was $699
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_20_series

The RTX-3080 launch price was $799
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_30_series

So past trends should put the RTX-4080 @ $899, certainly not $1200.

I live in Canada so our prices are even more inflated but I noticed that ever since the Pascal line of cards (GTX 1000 series) the prices have gone up with each generation as well. Prior to Pascal the price increases were for the most part minor. Between 2010-2013, I built 3 PCs and purchased 4 graphics cards all at reasonable prices. At today's prices, this isn't happening anymore.

When the RTX 2000 series dropped I was totally in shock by the prices and it turned off from wanting to upgrade and I got roasted here when I complained about prices as people were saying if you can't handle the price you're not [H] and should leave and people making up stories that I personally messaged them... Some really weird people on here... Alot of trolls here on [H] who just bashed me and I actually took a break for a good three years. I recently upgraded knowing that if the trend continues this could be last PC in awhile but as a friend pointed out to me its not like early 2000s when PC parts were becoming obsolete within a year. You get way more use of the parts and reduces the frequency in which you need to upgrade parts. Heck I gamed on 6700K system for a good 6 years with very little issue...Have a 4k, 1440p and 1080p monitor all connected to the PC so I just game at a lower resolution if its too demanding at higher resolution.

In total I spent a little over $5,000 CAD for my new computer (not including monitor and peripherals) but as things get more expensive the frequency of my upgrades will become more and more spread out as well. Think of it as getting more value for your parts and refrain from that desire to always wanting to have the latest and greatest and you should be fine. I waited a good 6 years to upgrade. Maybe next time it will be 8 years...

 

[Legendary Gamer]

I live in Canada so our prices are even more inflated but I noticed that ever since the Pascal line of cards (GTX 1000 series) the prices have gone up with each generation as well. Prior to Pascal the price increases were for the most part minor. Between 2010-2013, I built 3 PCs and purchased 4 graphics cards all at reasonable prices. At today's prices, this isn't happening anymore.

When the RTX 2000 series dropped I was totally in shock by the prices and it turned off from wanting to upgrade and I got roasted here when I complained about prices as people were saying if you can't handle the price you're not [H] and should leave and people making up stories that I personally messaged them... Some really weird people on here... Alot of trolls here on [H] who just bashed me and I actually took a break for a good three years. I recently upgraded knowing that if the trend continues this could be last PC in awhile but as a friend pointed out to me its not like early 2000s when PC parts were becoming obsolete within a year. You get way more use of the parts and reduces the frequency in which you need to upgrade parts. Heck I gamed on 6700K system for a good 6 years with very little issue...Have a 4k, 1440p and 1080p monitor all connected to the PC so I just game at a lower resolution if its too demanding at higher resolution.

In total I spent a little over $5,000 CAD for my new computer (not including monitor and peripherals) but as things get more expensive the frequency of my upgrades will become more and more spread out as well. Think of it as getting more value for your parts and refrain from that desire to always wanting to have the latest and greatest and you should be fine. I waited a good 6 years to upgrade. Maybe next time it will be 8 years...

Prices have always been all over the place. The difference before was that we could get by with less. Less could be more sometimes.

What I mean by that is that you didn't need the best graphics card to run all your games before. In my recollection there was a period of time that we could run most games on basic hardware. Or most games would perform at playable levels on lower end graphics cards.

Also, we could combine pairs of lower end graphics cards for playable frame rates. I recall putting together dozens of builds with low end SLI for people and it was blazing. SLI eventually became a premium feature and then effectively disappeared all together. That and not all games coded for it.

High resolution gaming really started to change that, though even mid range hardware could push acceptable frames at 720 (low end hardware) and 1080P (low to mid) resolutions. The climb to 2K and 4K (and whomever plays at 8K...) is what really started the price shift.

Back in the GTX970 Era, I had two of those in SLI and I was trying to run everything at 4K resolutions. It wasn't until I picked up my 1080Ti that it became a functional reality, with the best games of the era running at 39-40 FPS. Dual and Triple Cheaper GPUs continued to lose support and you really saw this with the Pascal Series up.

The price climb as of late is more down to people willing to pay the insane prices that graphics cards companies are requesting. If people keep paying, the prices will keep climbing. I think we started to see the edge of where people are drawing the line. However, I think it's going to take a couple more graphics releases to shake the entire thing out. Most serious people will pay a grand or less, with special cases paying more for higher end parts. Not sure the market will ever align but I suspect it will hit a point where it will have to. We're just not there yet.