Can you believe...

[Arachnotronic]

How cheap graphics cards have gotten? Adjusting for inflation, a top end 7970 or 680 is dirt cheap compared to what top cards cost in the day. Heck, I remember the $650+ 8800 Ultra...

It is a great time to be a PC gamer.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

8800 series was an exception. Other gpu series were never that expensive.

 

[Jaydip]

Gtx 280 comes to mind

 

[ShintaiDK]

How cheap graphics cards have gotten? Adjusting for inflation, a top end 7970 or 680 is dirt cheap compared to what top cards cost in the day. Heck, I remember the $650+ 8800 Ultra...

It is a great time to be a PC gamer.

Yep, GPUs, CPUs etc have never been cheaper.

 

[DirkGently1]

8800 series was an exception. Other gpu series were never that expensive.

Like hell! I Paid £550 for a GeForce 7800 GTX 512, of which there weren't that many released and were in high demand at the time! Iirc, only a few hundred reached UK shores on initial release and were exclusively sold from one etailer. Only four thousand more were ever released as i remember it.

http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinions/nvidia-geforce-7800-gtx-512-preview

 

[lavaheadache]

8800 series was an exception. Other gpu series were never that expensive.

my my, how quickly people forget that the top end has always been +++$

 

[lavaheadache]

Like hell! I Paid £550 for a GeForce 7800 GTX 512, of which there weren't that many released and were in high demand at the time! Iirc, only a few hundred reached UK shores on initial release and were exclusively sold from one etailer. Only four thousand more were ever released as i remember it.

http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinions/nvidia-geforce-7800-gtx-512-preview

I have one

If you still have yours I would like to have that one too!

 

[Jacky60]

Like hell! I Paid £550 for a GeForce 7800 GTX 512, of which there weren't that many released and were in high demand at the time! Iirc, only a few hundred reached UK shores on initial release and were exclusively sold from one etailer. Only four thousand more were ever released as i remember it.

http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinions/nvidia-geforce-7800-gtx-512-preview

I did the same Dirk only for the X1900/X1950 XTX to come out weeks later and destroy it!

 

[mazeroth]

In 1997 I bought a Dell P2-300 with 64 megs of memory, 4GB HD and a Riva 128 video card for $2500. It took me a year of working at Burger King in high school part-time to buy that. That was a very good computer for its time but not high-end. Today, when I see a thread asking for help building a $2500 tower I begin to salivate. Why? Because I wouldn't even think about dropping that kind of coin on a machine because of the diminishing returns once you hit about $1500. What's even crazier is present value of that $2500 is probably near $4000-$4500. Absolute insanity. Can you imagine a 17 year-old dropping over $4000 today on just a tower? You'd think he was an idiot. Back then, no big deal.

 

[SPBHM]

HD4800 series was quite cheap for the performance...

 

[AdamK47]

Each of my three 7970s cost $580 the day they came out. The price has dropped quite a bit since then. I don't regret getting them at the time. I always have to have the latest gen card as soon as they are available.

 

[BenSkywalker]

8800 series was an exception. Other gpu series were never that expensive.

The Obsidian x24 was that price back in '98, the 7970 launched for $550, not exactly a huge price difference.

In 1997 I bought a Dell P2-300

Shortly after that, I'd say around the Celery 300A is when the value factor hit the PC market like an avalanche, at least in the enthusiast sector.

 

[Skurge]

All top end cards were $500-$600 back in the day. 9800XT, 6800U, X850XT, X1900, 7900, etc

 

[Face2Face]

I have one

If you still have yours I would like to have that one too!

I have a 7800 GTX sitting in my closet and even a 7950 GX2 - Works great last time I fired her up.

 

[lavaheadache]

I have a 7800 GTX sitting in my closet and even a 7950 GX2 - Works great last time I fired her up.

Yeah, I have 3 7950 GX2's, 2 256 meg 7800 GTX's and 1 512. The 512's are tough to come by but they are sexy cards. Looking for another one.

 

[ShintaiDK]

All top end cards were $500-$600 back in the day. 9800XT, 6800U, X850XT, X1900, 7900, etc

And corrected for inflation today. I guess you need to add another 15-20% to get "todays price".

 

[skipsneeky2]

My 8800gts 512mb was $360 new,my gtx670 was $370 new.

5 years from now i will more then likely buy the gtx870 for $370.

gtx870 does not sound appealing name wise But gtx880 does

 

[Bubba77]

Oh i fondly remember my ati 9800xt that cost 500 bucks. Came with half life 2 which didnt come out for a year. One of my fav pieces of hardware ever. Up there with my 3dfx voodoo2

 

[MarkLuvsCS]

I think the biggest difference is game development has really stagnated, instead of a near requirement to upgrade the video card every ~1.5yrs to maintain high FPS.Video cards maintain their value longer because a 3 year old card still runs new games pretty well since most seem to be console ports. Also considering the next gen consoles are going to be using AMD APUs, I can't imagine this changing drastically in the near future.

 

[skipsneeky2]

I think the biggest difference is game development has really stagnated, instead of a near requirement to upgrade the video card every ~1.5yrs to maintain high FPS.Video cards maintain their value longer because a 3 year old card still runs new games pretty well since most seem to be console ports. Also considering the next gen consoles are going to be using AMD APUs, I can't imagine this changing drastically in the near future.

My gtx670 should be more then sufficient for the next 3-4 years at lower resolution gaming.

Currently at 1440x900 and my current monitor looks great,my gtx670 can max out any game at this resolution with smooth gameplay and the monitor is starting to fail,so gonna replace it with a 1600x900 model and its gonna be more then enough for a long while.

Not in the mood much to upgrade anymore,earlier this year i tested out my 4 year old 8800gts 512b and at 1440x900 or lower,it still could handle some BF3 on medium quite well which isn't bad for a card of its age and i figured,keep a lower native resolution and i bet my gtx670 would last just as long and i could enjoy gaming without the worry of lousy performance.

 

[sigmas]

thanx for all this information.

 

[shady28]

The video card, and really the entire PC market, is far far slower moving than it once was.

I mean really, a GTX 260 is still more than enough for some 95% of the gaming market. In fact, i just ran a bench comparison of the GTX 260 vs the newer albeit lower end 6670 (as you can get a 6670 in a low profile model) - and the 260 wins.

In my estimation the GPU market hasn't moved a whole lot since the days of the 8800. Those cards are still viable for the vast majority of games today - and they were released * 6+ years ago *!!

And really, how many people really can use more than a C2D? That's a 3 year old tech and most people don't even need that.

Looks like tablets and mobile GPUs are where it's at now.

 

[blastingcap]

I don't think anyone pointed to the elephant in the living room in this thread yet: we are living in the biggest recession/depression since the Great Depression. Furthermore, many people are shifting away from desktop PCs to things such as mobile devices, consoles, entertainment hubs, etc. These factors keep a heavy lid on prices.

 

[cmdrdredd]

A few years ago I never would have imagines owning a high end SLI setup. Now it's actually doable.

 

[SKORPI0]

Think about those 8800m GTX SLI found in notebooks that cost about $1000 a few years ago.
I remember paying about $400 (used) for eVGA 8800GTS (640mb) 5 years ago.