What are todays "mid-range" cards?

[amenx]

ie, for Nvidia, 1660, 1660ti ($219 & $279) - and/or RTX 2060 ($349), RTX 2060 Super ($399)?
for AMD: RX580, 590? (prices all over the place since release, but roughly $180 to $230 currently). Are Vega higher end cards now 'mid-range' since they've dropped in price?

What determines a mid-rangers position? Price? Performance? Model number?

 

[Glo.]

Mid Range was always GTX 1080 GTX 1070, Vega 64/56. Mainstream GPUs were always those under that performance level. GTX 1060, RX 580 and slower.

Currently: Mainstream GPU are up to GTX 1660 Ti. RTX 2060 is premium Mainstream. RTX 2080 and 2070 are still mid-range GPUs.

Its just the prices went up...

 

[VirtualLarry]

Newegg has a GTX 1660 ti (Gigabyte WindForce OC something-or-other) in their current July 4th "Early Bird" sale flyer, for like $264.99. Might jump on that if you're in the market, supposed to be a solid card.

Or maybe they'll have a RX 580/590 from a decent vendor cheap soon too, in their actual July 4th sale. (If you're in the USA, of course.)

 

[Guru]

I mean usually mid range means what most people between the cheap and the expensive gpu's can afford. That has historically meant $190-250. I mean depending on who you ask it may even be $150-250, though generally it's been that $200-250 range, plus or minus 10 dollars.

Low end usually means $150 +/- $20 and lower, high end usually means $300+, and usually there was a "premium" segment/market which has been anywhere from $500 to $1000

 

[amenx]

Newegg has a GTX 1660 ti (Gigabyte WindForce OC something-or-other) in their current July 4th "Early Bird" sale flyer, for like $264.99. Might jump on that if you're in the market, supposed to be a solid card.

Or maybe they'll have a RX 580/590 from a decent vendor cheap soon too, in their actual July 4th sale. (If you're in the USA, of course.)

Sorry didnt clarify, not looking for a GPU. Just that I have heard this oft-repeated argument that mid-range cards (since Kepler, ie, 680, 670), should be priced as earlier xx60 versions were. That since they are mid-range cards, pricing should be in line with older mid-range cards (ie, 680 for $280-300). That was at a time after 7970 released at $550. Imagine that card going up against a $300 680, as silly as it may sound . Would that have made the 7970 a mid-ranger since its only as good as the 680? Could AMDs GPU division have survived if this became the norm?

The point is, what should dictate GPU pricing? A cards position in a product line-up (ie, 3rd best), or performance relative to previous and current cards? Not really a pressing issue, lol, just it frequently crops up and is argued by some that a companys mid-range should not exceed the historic price points of earlier mid-range cards, even if it beats the competitions high end.

 

[DrMrLordX]

The point is, what should dictate GPU pricing?

Unrestricted market forces. Supply-and-demand, tempered by steady depreciation common to technology sectors. It's really not complicated.

When other factors conspire to raise or lower prices outside of what would be dictated by the market, it usually winds up being unfavorable to the consumer. Distortions in demand, price fixing, that sort of thing.

 

[bigboxes]

Sorry didnt clarify, not looking for a GPU. Just that I have heard this oft-repeated argument that mid-range cards (since Kepler, ie, 680, 670), should be priced as earlier xx60 versions were. That since they are mid-range cards, pricing should be in line with older mid-range cards (ie, 680 for $280-300). That was at a time after 7970 released at $550. Imagine that card going up against a $300 680, as silly as it may sound . Would that have made the 7970 a mid-ranger since its only as good as the 680? Could AMDs GPU division have survived if this became the norm?

The point is, what should dictate GPU pricing? A cards position in a product line-up (ie, 3rd best), or performance relative to previous and current cards? Not really a pressing issue, lol, just it frequently crops up and is argued by some that a companys mid-range should not exceed the historic price points of earlier mid-range cards, even if it beats the competitions high end.

The median price point has slowly risen, but so has your pay. I say, get what you can afford.

 

[mohit9206]

Upto $250 is mid range, anything more is upper midrange. So 1660Ti is upper midrange card.

 

[Mopetar]

It really depends on how you want to define mid-range. You can think of it either as the middle of a product stack, or you can look at it in terms of cost.

Historically, $200 - $300 is probably what most people would consider to be mid-range, but I'd say that today it's the low-end of mid-range.

If you look at in terms of product stack then the 2060 SUPER would be the middle of the range of Turing cards, but it's well outside of the normal price range. The 1660 and 1660 Ti have what would be the traditional mid-range prices.

 

[SPBHM]

a decade ago midrange was mostly $200 and under, right now I think $350 and lower can be considered mid range,

the most popular card on steam is the 1060 which was $250; 10 years ago the most popular on steam was the 8800GT which was launched at $250 (and there is inflation) but I think its price dropped a lot more over the months compared to the 1060 which had to survive the mining craze for a while, so it's a little tricky to compare, but I dare say most people buying with the intent of gaming are still looking around the $200-300 range

and $150-200 cards are still massively faster than the low end (IGPs, 1030s), I still consider the RX 570 for example to be mid range, at the same time that I'm inclined to consider the gtx 1660 ti also mid range, and even perhaps the 2060.

I'm going with $150-350

 

[railven]

The median price point has slowly risen, but so has your pay. I say, get what you can afford.

A poster after my heart! Haha.

 

[mopardude87]

Mid range to me is the $250 or less options. Of course i like the xx70 models of cards best as when overclocked they offered xx80 performance for a considerably cheaper price. I did have some buyers remorse on a 770 but the 670 and 570 before it were excellent options i much enjoyed. Besides the 770 the xx70 cards always had a nice mix of vram and performance which made then more interesting then xx60 parts.

 

[happy medium]

Midrange, a card that play most games at high detail at 1440p at 60fps.
Lower end card = 1080p 60fps,and higher end card = 4k at 45fps, enthusiast card= 4k at 60fps+.

 

[guachi]

My take:

There are three basic resolutions people game at - 1080, 1440, 2160. Mid-range to me is a card that can handle 1440 at 60+ fps at high (but not max) settings.

 

[happy medium]

My take:

There are three basic resolutions people game at - 1080, 1440, 2160. Mid-range to me is a card that can handle 1440 at 60+ fps at high (but not max) settings.

Yes I agree, high settings not ultra.
With that I think we are looking at ...
1080p cards = anything from the gtx1060 6gb/ rx580 to a vega 56/gtx1070/1660tiperformance.

Midrange 1440p = vega64/Navi 570 /rtx2060(super)/gtx1080,
performance.

Higher end, 4k at 45fps, rtx2070 super/ rtx2080/ Vega 7/navi 570xt performance .

Enthusiast, 4k at 60fps+, rtx2080 super, rtx 2080ti , rtx titan.

 

[DrMrLordX]

A poster after my heart! Haha.

Sadly, not everyone's pay is going up by much (or at all). Prices are moving regardless.

 

[bigboxes]

Sadly, not everyone's pay is going up by much (or at all). Prices are moving regardless.

I make redacted. But wages still have inched up as prices go up. $200 midrange was so long ago. It's more like $300+ for mid range these days.





No profanity allowed in the technical forums.


esquared
Anandtech Forum Director

 

[DrMrLordX]

RX480 was a midrange card @ $234 for the 8GB option ($199 for 4GB) and that was 2016. Inflation hasn't gone up by so much that midrange cards need to cost $350 today, or even $300. After inflation, $234 in 2016 is ~$250 today.

 

[happy medium]

RX480 was a midrange card @ $234 for the 8GB option ($199 for 4GB) and that was 2016. Inflation hasn't gone up by so much that midrange cards need to cost $350 today, or even $300. After inflation, $234 in 2016 is ~$250 today.

Rx480 was a midrange card when 1080p was a midrange resolution.
In June of 2016 the fastest AMD card was the 295 x2 ,8gb ,#2 was the Fury X, #3 was the vanilla Fury, #4 was the Fury nano, #5 the 390x, and the 390 and rx480 were tied for 6th place performance wise.
So the rx480 was $235 6th ranked AMD card when it was launched, I'd call that lower midrange .

They were also still using 1600x900 resolution to test with. And nothing could run 4k good yet.
https://www.techpowerup.com/review/amd-rx-480/24.html

 

[DrMrLordX]

Rx480 was a midrange card when 1080p was a midrange resolution.

So what? When I started PC gaming, 640x480 was the top resolution. Things change. Technology improves. Yesterday's midrange card isn't running today's resolutions or at today's image quality settings.

 

[Jaskalas]

Rx480 was a midrange card when 1080p was a midrange resolution.

As a person familiar with midrange cards, (1060 6gb), that resolution has not changed. My card is not adequate for reaching the higher frame rates (100+) that I desire. I feel certain that I would need to buy in the $300-$400 range in order to fully master 1080p resolution. I would not consider a higher resolution given these results (NSFW), my hardware, and my goals.

 

[Dribble]

My take:

There are three basic resolutions people game at - 1080, 1440, 2160. Mid-range to me is a card that can handle 1440 at 60+ fps at high (but not max) settings.

In this forum that might be true, but amongst the masses most people game at 1080p and don't spend stupid money on gpu's - hence to most people mid range is a card that can handle that well - so 1060, 570/580.

 

[amrnuke]

RX480 was a midrange card @ $234 for the 8GB option ($199 for 4GB) and that was 2016. Inflation hasn't gone up by so much that midrange cards need to cost $350 today, or even $300. After inflation, $234 in 2016 is ~$250 today.

I see this a lot. There are a lot of mid-range definitions.

One would be price. For AMD an entry-level RX570 can be had for $120, and the Radeon VII for $799. The mid-point between those two is $460. For Nvidia the range is $150 for the 1050/1650 and $1100 for a 2080 ti, and the mid-point is $625.

Another (IMO better) metric would be to find mid-range performance (and this is just an example - so I'll use Toms Hardware's GPU hierarchy) and see how much they are going for. For AMD the RX570 has a 48.3 and the Radeon VII has a 92.4. The mid-point is 70.35, which is smack between the RX590 ($210) and the Vega 56 ($300), so about $255. For Nvidia the 1650 sits at 42.2 and the 2080 ti sits at 98.4, for a mid-point of 70.3, around which the cheapest Nvidia model is a 1660 ti ($270). So by performance, a mid-range card costs $255-$270.

In any case, it seems that for mid-range performance, you need only pay about $255-270, not $300-$350.

If the 5700 truly equals or even comes close to the Vega64 as some have suggested, then it is not a mid-range card, and if you want that mid-range performance/price, you should bite the bullet on a 1660 ti, or if you want AMD, wait for cheaper models to come out, like the supposed 5600 line.

 

[Stuka87]

I think people confuse mainstream and midrange. Mainstream are the GPU's like the RX 580 and GTX 1660. Mid range falls above this, but below the highest end cards. Which would be the 2070/2080/5700/5700XT.

I don't think mainstream or mid range has ever had anything to do with price. Prices fluctuate as the dollar changes, as demand changes, and as inflation creeps up. I can remember when $200 was insane to pay for a video card. My Radeon 9800 Pro was $198 new, and that was crazy money for the time. My Voodoo 2 was also crazy money for the time. There have been times where high end, mid range, or mainstream have occupied the 200-250 spot (not at the same times). But currently the mainstream occupies that price area.

 

[amrnuke]

I think people confuse mainstream and midrange. Mainstream are the GPU's like the RX 580 and GTX 1660. Mid range falls above this, but below the highest end cards. Which would be the 2070/2080/5700/5700XT.

I don't think mainstream or mid range has ever had anything to do with price. Prices fluctuate as the dollar changes, as demand changes, and as inflation creeps up. I can remember when $200 was insane to pay for a video card. My Radeon 9800 Pro was $198 new, and that was crazy money for the time. My Voodoo 2 was also crazy money for the time. There have been times where high end, mid range, or mainstream have occupied the 200-250 spot (not at the same times). But currently the mainstream occupies that price area.

This is also a great way to look at it.

As an example, though,

The RX480 8GB (2016) ran Witcher 3 at 1080p at 69fps for $234 at release.

The RX570 4GB (2017) ran Witcher 3 at 1080p at 66fps for $169 at release.

The RX570 has continued to drop in price and you can run most modern games at decent detail at 1080p and at least 60fps with mins above 45-50, for $130-140 for a decent-quality RX570 card.

The RX570 is still plenty "mainstream."