AM I looking at the trends of Video card correctly?

[wand3r3r]

I was giving that some thought earlier today.

I want to say I picked up a HD4870 in (early?) 2009 for about $150, and it performs generally between an HD7750 and HD7770 today. 5 years hasn't done a whole lot for performance in that price bracket.

Yeah, the price trends on p.2 reflect that.

Perhaps the most important conclusion that can be drawn from our data is what you find when you track a certain price point horizontally across the Cost Curves. Generally speaking, a doubling of power at a given price takes 2.5-3 years, depending on the price point, with much of the price drop happening early on. For example, at $250, we see the jump from 1x to 2x occur between September 2007 and June 2010. In the $300-400 range, we see the jump from 1.5x to 3x occur between June 2008 and November 2010. And we've finally doubled the speed of the GTX 480 at the $500 price point, with the R9 290 blasting its way all the way down to $400. On the flip side, between $75 and $125, there's almost no progress at all over the past three years. Note that while several cost curves appear to converge at $50, in reality, most product classes are discontinued (or their prices stagnate in the $75-$100 range) due to thin margins in that market.

http://www.thetechbuyersguru.com/VideoCardRankings2.php

I am/was shocked by how neglected the low end is, I guess they are trying to raise the prices across the board but you'd think there would still be reasonable progress not just a dead zone.

 

[Sohaltang]

Why would anyone buy a 75$ gpu? Your going to have to play on bare minimum settings. Might as well buy a new cpu with an Igpu. Not sure if there is any money to be made on the very very low end

I think the sweet spot for GPU's is about the cost of a console. The 360 and ps3 are like 200$ now and get you a fairly decent card at that price. Or for what a new console costs 400-500 you get almost top teir cards.

 

[gammaray]

Why would anyone buy a 75$ gpu? Your going to have to play on bare minimum settings. Might as well buy a new cpu with an Igpu. Not sure if there is any money to be made on the very very low end

I think the sweet spot for GPU's is about the cost of a console. The 360 and ps3 are like 200$ now and get you a fairly decent card at that price. Or for what a new console costs 400-500 you get almost top teir cards.

Cos some AMD fx cpu don't have integrated graphics (and some intel too i guess). You need to buy a low end video card if you aren't gaming or just a little...

 

[Sohaltang]

Cos some AMD fx cpu don't have integrated graphics (and some intel too i guess). You need to buy a low end video card if you aren't gaming or just a little...

Maybe Im wrong but that market got up and left. I cant see any future in sub 100$ cards.

 

[gammaray]

Maybe Im wrong but that market got up and left. I cant see any future in sub 100$ cards.

a 100$ 7770 is a lot faster than most (all of them?) integrated videochips.

 

[Bubbleawsome]

optical computing

I remember reading that, because of light speed, an optical computer with the same process as today's processors would be running an equivealent 30,000,000Ghz. Is that true?

 

[JumBie]

a 100$ 7770 is a lot faster than most (all of them?) integrated videochips.

^^^

 

[lyssword]

^^^

7770 vs integrated graphics can mean a difference of playing 10fps vs 50fps with same settings.

 

[TreVader]

The 7770 for $100 is by far the price/performance leader. I saw 7850s on sale for $120 a few days ago.


It may only be 1/3 or 1/4 the performace of a 780ti, but it's 1/7th the price.


Also, everybody wants to pitch the GTX780 as a "great deal". It's not. The only Nvidia cards that beat ATI cards in price/perf are the 660 and 770. The rest are $100 more than a card that performs just as well or better (290 vs 780, and 290x vs 780ti). The ti has a 10-15% advantage for an extra 25% price. Quit quoting newegg prices! Newegg is a HORRIBLE site to find deals on anything. It's not 2005 anymore.

 

[TeknoBug]

^ yup on the GTX660 for the value.

 

[Sohaltang]

The 7770 for $100 is by far the price/performance leader. I saw 7850s on sale for $120 a few days ago.


It may only be 1/3 or 1/4 the performace of a 780ti, but it's 1/7th the price.


Also, everybody wants to pitch the GTX780 as a "great deal". It's not. The only Nvidia cards that beat ATI cards in price/perf are the 660 and 770. The rest are $100 more than a card that performs just as well or better (290 vs 780, and 290x vs 780ti). The ti has a 10-15% advantage for an extra 25% price. Quit quoting newegg prices! Newegg is a HORRIBLE site to find deals on anything. It's not 2005 anymore.

Did you miss the part where 290x is selling for more than 780ti's right now? Please provide links for all those wanting to buy them for msrp

 

[gammaray]

Also, everybody wants to pitch the GTX780 as a "great deal". It's not. The only Nvidia cards that beat ATI cards in price/perf are the 660 and 770. The rest are $100 more than a card that performs just as well or better (290 vs 780, and 290x vs 780ti). The ti has a 10-15% advantage for an extra 25% price. Quit quoting newegg prices! Newegg is a HORRIBLE site to find deals on anything. It's not 2005 anymore.

where online does newegg get beaten on prices?

ncix, tigerdirect, mwave, frys, no,no,no and no, amazon sometimes, what else there is?

 

[tolis626]

Again,the US isn't the whole world.On this side of planet Earth,there is roughly a 100€ difference between the 290x and the 780ti,and about 70€ between the 780 and 290.

 

[Mand]

I remember reading that, because of light speed, an optical computer with the same process as today's processors would be running an equivealent 30,000,000Ghz. Is that true?

Not really, no. While some part of it is the time it takes your information particles to get from A to B, whether electrons or photons, that's not why optical computing is good. It's good because of bandwidth.

Electrical wires can only carry one thing at a time. The voltage at a particular spot is its one value, and that's all you get. With light, however, you can have one fiber or waveguide that carries a LOT of different signals, simultaneously. In the case of fiber optic telecom networks, increases in data rate of 40x are common. And, since the bulk of the cost is in the transmission and amplification equipment, that translates to a 40x reduction in cost as well.

This is the reason we have the internet. The bandwidth increase from switching our telecom networks from copper wire to fiber optics is the same sort of increase that going to optical computing would have over electrical.

 

[TeknoBug]

where online does newegg get beaten on prices?

ncix, tigerdirect, mwave, frys, no,no,no and no, amazon sometimes, what else there is?

I shop on Newegg a lot for the past 5 some odd years, and it's true it is getting more difficult to find deals on Newegg these days, my local store has better deals and even Best Buy has a price match policy that will sometimes go below Newegg's prices.

NCIX has awesome deals sometimes.

At least in Canada.

 

[tareqjj]

usually that's the case in my experience.