Is there any end in sight?

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hmorphone

Senior member
Oct 14, 2005
345
0
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Insanity has overtaken us. It suddenly occurred to me that the video card market is out of control. How have we gotten to this point?

The evidence:

1) Many high end cards have doubled in price compared to what we used to pay.

2) Many high end cards have doubled in power consumption from what we used to see and are reportedly close to increasing again.

3) Many high end cards have doubled in noise from what we used to see and need an after market cooling solution to lower the noise.

4) Many high end cards have doubled in heat from what we used to see, and some of them don't run cool even with after market cooling solutions (short of watercooing.)

5) It is now considered a swell idea to cram 2 to 4 gpus into a single rig, thereby making items 1 thru 4 much worse.

6) The most popular mid to high end card is tarnished with stories of some users having to RMA two or three times.

7) Other common mid to high end cards are often referred to as leaf blowers.

8) The two most popular after market cooling solutions come down to a choice between potentially inadequate performance or superglueing your cooler to your ram, and both exhaust the heat back inside our boxes. (see #4)

9) Some manufacturers are now considering cramming even more gpus in our box for physics processing purposes. (see #5)

10) Our cards are now often sporting higher transistor counts than our cpus, and are outdated quicker than our cpus.

Sigh...:disgust:
 
DAPUNISHER

DAPUNISHER

Super Moderator CPU Forum Mod and Elite Member
Super Moderator
Aug 22, 2001
29,927
25,771
146
Doesn't effect me because I don't buy high-end. Have a 7600GT with Zalman 700cu, runs very cool&quite, powered by the PCIe slot, and meets my basic gaming needs. 590/800 OOB, $170 after MIR, and a GRAW DVD, made it a very good buy too.
 
BassBomb

BassBomb

Diamond Member
Nov 25, 2005
8,390
1
81
midrange ftw, you get a part that outperforms last generations top end, much less power consumption, much less price.. midrange cards come out twice as long as the high end (over a year before 6600GT got replaced by 7600GT)
 
C

coldpower27

Golden Member
Jul 18, 2004
1,676
0
76
The GPU makers want to make more and more money so they will ocntinue to push the ceiling on graphics cards up up up.
 
Y

yacoub

Golden Member
May 24, 2005
1,991
14
81
Originally posted by: Aflac
The price you pay for performance.
Click to expand...

"The price you pay for the easily-marketed-to consumerism of others" would be a better way to put it. If people had a bit of self control and didn't empty their wallets for ridiculous contraptions that shouldn't even be R&D'd, you wouldn't have a lot of this nonsense.
 
I

iamaelephant

Diamond Member
Jul 25, 2004
3,816
1
81
As long as people continue to pay a premium for these noisey, hot, redundantly powerful cards there will be no end.
 
I

Insomniator

Diamond Member
Oct 23, 2002
6,294
171
106
Why does it even matter. A 150 dollar video card still makes games look good and plays them fine, who cares if 1000 dollar cards are available. I could say the car market is out of control because lambos cost 400 grand, but as long as you can buy a honda for 20 then who cares. Hell Im glad that SLI and Quad-sli exists; developers can allow graphics and effects to scale higher then before.

Everyone complained when Geforce 2's werent being used to the fullest because developers had to make the games run on gargbage computers. Now developers are making games look better and better on super high end cards and people are still complaining.

Who cares what cards cost when a 150 bucks gets a 7600GT and 250 gets a 7900GT? Midrange deals are just as good as ever, if not better then before, even with the ceiling going higher.

 
K

kmmatney

Diamond Member
Jun 19, 2000
4,363
1
81
Originally posted by: BassBomb
midrange ftw, you get a part that outperforms last generations top end, much less power consumption, much less price.. midrange cards come out twice as long as the high end (over a year before 6600GT got replaced by 7600GT)
Click to expand...

:thumbsup:

buy midrange, and overclock/unlock if possible.
 
O

OBCT

Senior member
Jul 10, 2006
236
0
0
I tend to buy the current generation high-end at the end of the generation. G80 and R600 are coming out in a matter of months, so now is a great time to buy a 7800GT, 7900GT, X1900xt, etc. In June, X1900XT's were well over $400. Now you can get them for under $350 if you look around.

The biggest load of ****** IMO are Crossfire master cards. It's not worth the ridiculous price of around $500. The price hasn't budged in months either.
 
X

XJustMeX21

Golden Member
Nov 26, 2005
1,606
0
76
So you expect the performance of video cards to double every generation with no increase in heat or the power required to run them?
Its as simple as this if you want high-end performance you have to pay for it, if not buy a mid range card and quit complaining.
 
WelshBloke

WelshBloke

Lifer
Jan 12, 2005
31,792
9,751
136


1) Many high end cards have doubled in price compared to what we used to pay.

see point 10

2) Many high end cards have doubled in power consumption from what we used to see and are reportedly close to increasing again.

see point 10

3) Many high end cards have doubled in noise from what we used to see and need an after market cooling solution to lower the noise.

Happened before (that 5xxx series NV card) and see point 10

4) Many high end cards have doubled in heat from what we used to see, and some of them don't run cool even with after market cooling solutions (short of watercooing.)

see point 10

5) It is now considered a swell idea to cram 2 to 4 gpus into a single rig, thereby making items 1 thru 4 much worse.

You dont have to run SLI/Crossfire

6) The most popular mid to high end card is tarnished with stories of some users having to RMA two or three times.

Sucks but hardware probs have happened before

7) Other common mid to high end cards are often referred to as leaf blowers.

see answer to point 3

8) The two most popular after market cooling solutions come down to a choice between potentially inadequate performance or superglueing your cooler to your ram, and both exhaust the heat back inside our boxes. (see #4)

You dont have to use the stock sticky pads with the AC VGA cooler or just put a small amount of Arctic silver on them first

9) Some manufacturers are now considering cramming even more gpus in our box for physics processing purposes. (see #5)

Again you dont have to use them and it wont be happening for awhile

10) Our cards are now often sporting higher transistor counts than our cpus, and are outdated quicker than our cpus.

Just because something new comes out doesnt mean thier outdated




Fact is we are able to run games at much higher resolutions than we were able to and at higher visual quality than ever.

:thumbsup: I say

And you dont have to upgrade every 6 months


 
J

josh6079

Diamond Member
Mar 17, 2006
3,261
0
0
Originally posted by: hmorphone
Insanity has overtaken us. It suddenly occurred to me that the video card market is out of control. How have we gotten to this point?

The evidence:

1) Many high end cards have doubled in price compared to what we used to pay.

2) Many high end cards have doubled in power consumption from what we used to see and are reportedly close to increasing again.

3) Many high end cards have doubled in noise from what we used to see and need an after market cooling solution to lower the noise.

4) Many high end cards have doubled in heat from what we used to see, and some of them don't run cool even with after market cooling solutions (short of watercooing.)

5) It is now considered a swell idea to cram 2 to 4 gpus into a single rig, thereby making items 1 thru 4 much worse.

6) The most popular mid to high end card is tarnished with stories of some users having to RMA two or three times.

7) Other common mid to high end cards are often referred to as leaf blowers.

8) The two most popular after market cooling solutions come down to a choice between potentially inadequate performance or superglueing your cooler to your ram, and both exhaust the heat back inside our boxes. (see #4)

9) Some manufacturers are now considering cramming even more gpus in our box for physics processing purposes. (see #5)

10) Our cards are now often sporting higher transistor counts than our cpus, and are outdated quicker than our cpus.

Sigh...:disgust:
Click to expand...

I'll build a bridge so you can get over it.

I've always looked at it this way, if I don't like it, I won't buy it. If GPU's one day have nothing that I want from them, Nvidia/D.A.M.I.T/S3/Intel/whoever else wont get my money. Just relax, they know what they're doing. If they are gradually trying to make everyone go to strictly console gaming, then what choice will we have? All we can do is buy or not buy. All they can do is hear the reasons for which ever one of those we choose.
 
R

ronnn

Diamond Member
May 22, 2003
3,918
0
71
Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER
Doesn't effect me because I don't buy high-end. Have a 7600GT with Zalman 700cu, runs very cool&quite, powered by the PCIe slot, and meets my basic gaming needs. 590/800 OOB, $170 after MIR, and a GRAW DVD, made it a very good buy too.
Click to expand...

I feel the same about my x1900gt. Runs everything very nicely - I am somewhat happy not to have 2 top of the line cards. I like sour wine also.

 
S

ShadowOfMyself

Diamond Member
Jun 22, 2006
4,227
2
0
You cant really bash GPUs, because you get exactly what you pay for... the same cant be said for CPUs... a 1000$ FX-62 is what... 20-25% faster than a 500$ X2 5000+? At least with Gpus, a 500$ card usually IS 2x faster than a 250$ one.. actually.. a 330$ x1900xt is almost 2x faster than a 250$ 7900GT... thats more than double what you pay for... so stop complaining
 
H

hmorphone

Senior member
Oct 14, 2005
345
0
0
Well, actually, I went for a X1900GT too... Now where did you say that bridge was at josh6079?:p
 
J

josh6079

Diamond Member
Mar 17, 2006
3,261
0
0
It's ah............still undergoing construction............

No, really I understand the power consumptions/heat outputs/costs/headroom, etc. but you get what you pay for. Every industry has some kind of a "corvette" that they pimp. It is just a matter of buying smart and you can normally come out with something that meets your needs. Like many have said here, some video cards actually are what you consider lost. You just have to look around and weigh your options with some practicallity. It would be nice if companies could give us 100+fps in Oblivion at 2048x1536 with max settings, 4xAA/16xAF, HDR all in a package that costs $200, cools itself passivley, and takes up only the slot it is in--but be realistic. If you want, you could always stay behind one generation.
 
L

LittleNemoNES

Diamond Member
Oct 7, 2005
4,142
0
0
I hope there's no end. I'm a graphics whore and will find a way to afford it. You know, the current crop of cards are actually lower than last gen. The 7800GTX 512 was about $600-700-$1000 when it debut. The x1900xt was $500, IIRC. You can now get one, with some luck, for sub $300! Thats a bargain if you ask me.
 
1

1EZduzit

Lifer
Feb 4, 2002
11,833
1
0
I guess if 90% of your computer time is spent playing games then 24 inch monitors and $500 video cards are worth it.... if you have the chips that is.
 
N

Nightmare225

Golden Member
May 20, 2006
1,661
0
0
I would go with the NEC, its hands-down the best LCD for your needs

AHAHA, 1EZduzit, i can't stop laughing at your sig... :D
 
J

josh6079

Diamond Member
Mar 17, 2006
3,261
0
0
QFT. man. George Bush sucks big time and is quite possibly the worst president our country has had, not to mention stupid.

Anyways, back on topic if you love games at maximum settings and like to be on top of the times, then $500 for video hardware is to be expected, especially if you want resolutions of 16x12 or higher.
 
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