It IS all about what the market can bear. Always has been, always will be. Whether there is competition or not. Competition is a factor of course, but that "primal law" of supply and demand is tireless. Good for consumers? I don't know what to think about that. On one hand, Titan costs 1000. Tough pill to swallow, but everyone has a choice to buy it or not. Same goes for any other tier card. If AMD goes out of business, then I can see Nvidia boosting prices a bit. But they can't boost the price so much as to makes products out of reach, otherwise, people won't buy them, or just stick to low tier products and that will effect Nvidia's bottom line. They'll make adjustments. Same goes for Intel and their CPUs.
It gives NVIDIA Money for R&D...it's so simple, yet you cannot see it?
This is the viewpoint of the corporation, NOT the consumer.
That you, as a consumer, would tout their line rather than that of an end-user is very unnerving. Of course it all ultimately comes down to supply and demand, but competition is vital
for the consumer as it pressures companies to offer
better value for their services or goods. Without it, the power to pressure that supply-demand curve so it favors profit margins, with buyers capitulating because they have no alternative, the ONLY beneficiary is the corporation. And you seem to have no problems with this.
It's...one of the most disgusting things I've read on this board, really. As if giant corporations needed apologists or support from the people they are supposed to be working for sales from.
How do you figure people don't have a choice to get Titan or not? You can get a 7970 for $400 that is within 30% of it, or a 680 for $440 that is within 40%? Where is the lack of choice?
Wow. Don't you realize you have no lack of choice BECAUSE there is competition? BFG is talking about a reality where AMD is gone and that 680 is $649, and you pay it and like it. This isn't just about Titan, which is fortunately an outlier (for now) and already priming people for a much higher price-per-performance line going forward.
My point isn't that monopoly's are good, it just that duo monopolies aren't much better. All it takes is a weak showing from one company and the other immediately pounces, $550 7970s was the product of a duo monopoly, $500 GK104's were a result of weak competition in a duo monopoly.
No, $550 7970s were the result of Nvidia keeping their previous-gen flagship cards at premium prices, and AMD--bleeding money--being forced to play the same game. And that reality did not last, with massively better prices and values (for consumers!) as a result of even one other player on the market.
The difference between a monopoly and a duo-monopoly is the difference between that $550 7970 and today's $385 7970. It is VERY significant.