Review Seagate Game Drive External SSD (2TB) review: Speedy, but expensive

[Admin]

Seagate's Game Drive External SSD performs well and looks the part of a PlayStation accessory, but similarly-performing alternatives are available for much less.

Seagate Game Drive External SSD (2TB) review: Speedy, but expensive : Read more

 

[kb7rky]

JESUS CHRIST...$100 difference between the two? I can get a 4TB SSD from Crucial for about the price of that 2TB Seagate.

 

[Avro Arrow]

JESUS CHRIST...$100 difference between the two? I can get a 4TB SSD from Crucial for about the price of that 2TB Seagate.

Well, it has always been true that there are people who are willing to pay stupid amounts of money in the name of "having the best".

Consider that there are lots of people who are insane enough to buy an RTX 4090. That card costs $1650USD, which is an astonishing 83% more expensive than the RX 7900 XTX. Meanwhile, the 4090 is only a (relatively) measly 23% faster than the XTX or 4080.

Like, sure, I can understand someone choosing an RTX 4080 Super over an RX 7900 XTX because the performance is the same and it's only $60 more. The XTX has 50% more VRAM while the RTX 4080 has DLSS and far better RT performance. This doesn't seem unreasonable to me for people who want DLSS and RT, in fact, it makes perfect sense.

However, IIRC, the RTX 4090 has out-sold both of those cards combined.

If it's "the best", there will always be rich/stupid noobs who are willing to pay.

 

[Avro Arrow]

To think I dropped around $200 on a used RTX3060, when I could have mortgaged the house on an all-new RTX4080.

Stupid me 😛

Good thing I read the articles regarding the problems those high-end cards have been having lately, like melting power connectors, cracked PCBs, etc. Saved myself a whole <Mod Edit> of headaches.

Only reason I got an RTX card was the fact that Unreal Engine won't run on anything less 😜

...not to mention older games sure look fantastic on the new card 😆

As long as Nvidia will continue to support their older cards, I see no reason to upgrade past what I have now. I don't need a 40XX series, and I'm not too sure about the rumored 50XX series.

I hear you. The only reason that I have an XTX is because Newegg had some insane open-box deal in August of 2023. I was perfectly happy with my RX 6800 XT but when I saw an ASRock RX 7900 XTX Phantom Gaming OC for (the equivalent of) only $850USD, I couldn't say no. Even now, over a year later...good luck finding an XTX for under $900USD.

Remember that, at the time, a lot of TechTubers were predicting another GPU shortage because nVidia (and probably AMD to a lesser degree) were starting to dedicate their TSMC fab allocations towards AI and other data centre applications instead of consumer-grade video cards. I reasoned that, with 24GB of VRAM, I would be able to ride out the storm (so to speak) if another GPU shortage occurred. I got lucky the first time back in 2017 when I found an R9 Fury for $400CAD while the RX 580 was around $800.

The second time, I didn't get lucky at all except that I managed to get one of those gorgeous reference RX 6800 XTs for $1700CAD including tax. As bad as that was, the XTX was selling for about $2200CAD before tax which was about $2500 with tax so I saved about $800 (compared to the insane pricing at the stores).

I'm a firm believer in using what you have until it's no longer capable of playing the games you want to play. Because of this, I'll probably keep using my R7-5800X3D and RX 7900 XTX until the second generation of AM6 comes along.

 

[BadBoyGreek]

I hear you. The only reason that I have an XTX is because Newegg had some insane open-box deal in August of 2023. I was perfectly happy with my RX 6800 XT but when I saw an ASRock RX 7900 XTX Phantom Gaming OC for (the equivalent of) only $850USD, I couldn't say no. Even now, over a year later...good luck finding an XTX for under $900USD.

Remember that, at the time, a lot of TechTubers were predicting another GPU shortage because nVidia (and probably AMD to a lesser degree) were starting to dedicate their TSMC fab allocations towards AI and other data centre applications instead of consumer-grade video cards. I reasoned that, with 24GB of VRAM, I would be able to ride out the storm (so to speak) if another GPU shortage occurred. I got lucky the first time back in 2017 when I found an R9 Fury for $400CAD while the RX 580 was around $800.

The second time, I didn't get lucky at all except that I managed to get one of those gorgeous reference RX 6800 XTs for $1700CAD including tax. As bad as that was, the XTX was selling for about $2200CAD before tax which was about $2500 with tax so I saved about $800 (compared to the insane pricing at the stores).

I'm a firm believer in using what you have until it's no longer capable of playing the games you want to play. Because of this, I'll probably keep using my R7-5800X3D and RX 7900 XTX until the second generation of AM6 comes along.

The crappy thing now is that high end Nvidia GPU prices have shifted from "priced highly due to shortages" to "because they can". Lack of real competition from AMD isn't helping the situation, and it's especially not going to improve now that AMD has pretty much said they're going to abandon high end GPUs in favor of "the 80%" and improving their APU architecture.

If you want "the best", Nvidia is now the only game left, and they'll keep pricing their GPUs to the moon accordingly.

 

[kb7rky]

Indeed..."simply because they can".

What a ridiculous business model...that seems to be working in their favor. As long as there are idiots who feel the need to have the latest and greatest GPU, Nvidia will keep cranking out the 40 series, ad infinitum...

As PT Barnum once said, "There's a sucker born every minute!" (or at least, the quote is attributed to him).

 

[BadBoyGreek]

Indeed..."simply because they can".

What a ridiculous business model...that seems to be working in their favor. As long as there are idiots who feel the need to have the latest and greatest GPU, Nvidia will keep cranking out the 40 series, ad infinitum...

As PT Barnum once said, "There's a sucker born every minute!" (or at least, the quote is attributed to him).

What makes it even worse is the poor optimization of a lot of the PC releases in recent times. Take Final Fantasy XVI as the most recent example, it struggles even on the 4080 and 4090. It's a real slap in the face to be dropping close to or north of $2k for top end GPUs, expecting they'll be able to handle anything one can throw at them and instead being disappointed that they come up short.

Granted, a lot of that is the fault of the devs who make the games who don't know how to optimize their games properly, but it's for that reason that buying the top end just doesn't make sense anymore. The last high end GPU I bought was the 3080 Ti, which I'm still using in my current PC and handles almost every game at full details at 1440p, but FFXVI was practically unplayable without turning the details down significantly. Never again will I splurge for the highest end GPUs.