Translation:
We know the newest low end cards are a terrible upgrade(it’s probably downgrade for many), so they wont sell and we want to make up the loss on our artificially bloated prices by increasing them even more.
I really wish Intel would move faster, so they and AMD can start competing for proper consumer GPUs. Because nvidia has clearly made up their mind that the AI market is the way forwards and it almost seems like they’re trying to kill off their video game department by increasing prices and decreasing quality each generation.
Unfortunately, it’s quite difficult for AMD and Intel to make any big difference in the short term.
On the Intel GPU side, bluntly, they are far behind in tech, so they have to mitigate that with more aggressive pricing.
Don’t believe me? Look at the process node they use and the die size of their chips, now look at the performance and power efficiency they get compared to similar node/die size Radeon or Geforce cards. That means Intel has to spend a lot more on manufacturing but can’t charge anywhere near as much. In other words, they have to use more raw materials to make the same performance.
Intel doesn’t make money from their GPUs yet. They literally don’t want to sell too many cards because they generally lose money on each one sold. That’s why their launch was a paper launch. They’re spending right now to build expertise and expertise before doing a bigger push later.
On the AMD side, there’s some good news in that their latest generation is pretty great and has massively outsold their previous generations.
The bad news is that even if AMD has doubled sales or whatever, they were already such a small part of the overall pie that Nvidia (85%+ of the market) shitting the bed isn’t something AMD can suddenly fix.
It’d be like if all carmakers except Mazda shat the bed, Mazda can’t suddenly expand and fix the market. They could increase it a bit, probably, but filling the orders that the VW or Toyota group usually do? Impossible.
Also, whenever there’s excess demand for CPUs, AMD would prefer to service that market. It’s far higher margin.
Oh won’t someone please think of poor Nvidia?!
Initially, stores tried to manage demand by blocking tax-free purchases, hoping to discourage tourists, mainly from China, from buying cards.
For many, it still makes financial sense to fly to Japan, pick up a 5090, and either resell it or use it for.
Chinese board partners have long been suspected of selling GPUs directly to cryptocurrency miners, bypassing the consumer market entirely. Now, with the AI boom, these companies are shifting even more stock to AI server manufacturers, who are willing to pay a premium. That leaves even fewer GPUs available for regular gamers, making GPU-buying tourism a surprisingly viable option.
It does kind of illustrate how hard it is to restrict the flow of goods.
If there is economic incentive, it will happen.
Regulation only works on law abiding peasants, business/criminals don’t give any fucks about some clowns “laws”
Personally, I’d rather not have a card that could catch fire or have missing ROPs.
We are about due for cultural shift where hardware should be used until broken, which is good but… with that being said, I does kinda irk me that PC gaming/hobby won’t be easily available for this generations of kid.
They will be given spyphone with creeps like sundar and tim having root access, risks of which most of them will never understand.
And once middle aged cucks die off, this will be the new reality: enslaves population who is not even aware of their condition.
You can go for an Intel B580 and an AMD 7700 and have a decent gaming experience for well under 1000 $/€, even ignoring used parts. A Steam Deck is 420€.
It’s not like gaming is unavailable, but everything above low-end has a premium price tag at the moment. What people don’t seem to realise is that this low-end is still on paar with current gen consoles and games still look pretty good without spending 2k+ on a computer.
You are making a valid point tbh… I wonder if current teenagers actually even care to buy parts and put them together themselves like it was back in my day haha
If there is will, there is a way as they say