Question Should gaming GPUs cost over $1,000?

[volkgren]

At the end of the day, they play games.

 

[kanewolf]

At the end of the day, they play games.

Which is much more demanding than other activities. Games HAVE to happen in realtime. Most other graphic card uses are not sub-second requirements.
Low end card DON'T cost $1000. And your performance in games will be poor. If that is acceptable, then you don't have to pay $1000.

 

[volkgren]

Which is much more demanding than other activities. Games HAVE to happen in realtime. Most other graphic card uses are not sub-second requirements.
Low end card DON'T cost $1000. And your performance in games will be poor. If that is acceptable, then you don't have to pay $1000.

That's all well and fine. However, playing a game is not worth paying $1,000 for a single component in a computer that requires half a dozen more components. First-Person Shooters, Role Playing Games, Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games, Real-Time Strategy, etc. etc. None of them are fun enough or entertaining enough to cost me over $1,000 for a GPU.

I'm just curious how many people actually defend their cost.

 

[Lafong]

should

verb

used to indicate obligation, duty, or correctness:

"he should have been careful"

I'd guess prices are what they are for reasons other than obligation, duty, or correctness.

 

[Why_Me]

$1000+ if you choose to game at 4K.

 

[hotaru.hino]

The same reason why anyone spends $50,000 for a new car when a $12,000 beater will do. Or less if you're willing to hit up the used market.

If you're just here to ridicule/judge/etc how people spend their money, then I don't know what to say.

 

[Deleted member 2838871]

$1000+ if you choose to game at 4K.

Exactly this… and I do. My first look at Hogwarts Legacy the other day in 4K Ultra had me picking my jaw up off the floor.

The best looking PC graphics I’ve seen… ever?

 

[KyaraM]

$1000+ if you choose to game at 4K.

And even then you don't have to pay that much since both a 4070Ti and a 7900XT cost less and are perfectly capable of the resolution, with full settings 😉

 

[Why_Me]

And even then you don't have to pay that much since both a 4070Ti and a 7900XT cost less and are perfectly capable of the resolution, with full settings 😉

I play online multiplayer first person shooter games so I like to keep an average of 100+ fps.

 

[DSzymborski]

That's all well and fine. However, playing a game is not worth paying $1,000 for a single component in a computer that requires half a dozen more components. First-Person Shooters, Role Playing Games, Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games, Real-Time Strategy, etc. etc. None of them are fun enough or entertaining enough to cost me over $1,000 for a GPU.

I'm just curious how many people actually defend their cost.

I'm sorry, who exactly pointed you judge? What business is it of yours to make people "defend" their personal cost/benefit analysis?

These are entertainment products. A seller offers a particular item at a particular price at which a buyer can choose to purchase or choose not to purchase. This isn't a loaf of bread to feed your starving family.

You don't need a thousand-dollar GPU to game or even to game well. But if you want to get all the bells and whistles, from details to resolution, that's going to be expensive. And if it's not worth the money for you, well, that's great; you don't have to buy it. Exactly zero people in history have been forced to buy a GPU for their gaming rig at gunpoint.

If you've started the thread with the idea of playing some grand inquisitor who pronounces judgment on the decisions of others to decide GPUs are worth it or not worth it to them, this thread isn't going to be open very long.

In the big picture, considering what most of the people in the world live on, anyone who even has something as frivolous as a gaming rig shouldn't trying to play John Everyman, fighting those fat cat bourgeoisie with their Nvidia 4090s. In the context of a world in which two-thirds of people live on less than $10 a day, we're all quite wealthy. Cosplaying as an ascete because you "only" have a 6950 XT is a bit embarrassing.

 

[KyaraM]

I play online multiplayer first person shooter games so I like to keep an average of 100+ fps.

Which ones, out of curiosity? From what I have seen, they mostly seem not too demanding on the GPU, but I don't really follow them too closely. I'm more the MMO type myself and they mostly need CPU horsepower. My fat GPU is mostly there for single player games.

 

[nelska]

You can get a 40 series card in a laptop FOR $1k. lol. I would rather buy that and wait for them to die down to less than $500. It's almost impossible to try and build a desktop for less than $5k and not let it depreciate by the time it gets delivered to your house.

 

[KyaraM]

You can get a 40 series card in a laptop FOR $1k. lol. I would rather buy that and wait for them to die down to less than $500. It's almost impossible to try and build a desktop for less than $5k and not let it depreciate by the time it gets delivered to your house.

Sorry, but that's just nonsense... my system cost less than half that and will run for many years to come.

 

[nelska]

Sorry, but that's just nonsense... my system cost less than half that and will run for many years to come.

I mean the new line of laptops are 1tb nvme ssd. 4060. 16gb and ddr5 for like $1k. lol. That takes my build and like 10 folds it with upgrades. And its from 2016 and cost like $2500 without peripherals.

EDIT: with a 13th gen i7 13kh series. lol.

 

[TerryLaze]

At the end of the day, they play games.

$1000 and $2000 GPUs should exist,
what anybody buys them for is completely irrelevant.
As long as you don't need a $1000 GPU to game at all anything is fine.

 

[Why_Me]

Which ones, out of curiosity? From what I have seen, they mostly seem not too demanding on the GPU, but I don't really follow them too closely. I'm more the MMO type myself and they mostly need CPU horsepower. My fat GPU is mostly there for single player games.

BF1 atm.

 

[Tac 25]

mostly play e-sports titles like KOF and Street Fighter. Also having co-op sessions with friends in servers of Genshin Impact. I only game at 1080p. Even a 1050ti is enough for these. Don't need to spend 1,000 dollars.

as long as my character can move quickly without lag, then I'm happy with that.

 

[ARICH5]

Build Advice - Please review my high-end PC build

Greetings all, I have picked these parts for my new PC, please let me know if there are any compatibility issues, any recommendations/changes that I should make. I am mostly unsure about my RAM, PSU, and storage choices. I'm from Ontario, Canada in the greater Toronto area This PC will be...

forums.tomshardware.com

....this guy right here is spending more on his pc than my car is worth.
i think your question should ask "why do gpu's cost so much?" then you get into the companies price gouging, competition and chinese shipping.

 

[nelska]

Build Advice - Please review my high-end PC build

Greetings all, I have picked these parts for my new PC, please let me know if there are any compatibility issues, any recommendations/changes that I should make. I am mostly unsure about my RAM, PSU, and storage choices. I'm from Ontario, Canada in the greater Toronto area This PC will be...

forums.tomshardware.com

....this guy right here is spending more on his pc than my car is worth.
i think your question should ask "why do gpu's cost so much?" then you get into the companies price gouging, competition and chinese shipping.

exactly, if I sold my car to webuyanycar.com or whatever i wouldnt be able to afford a pc. I would literally scrape by with a laptop actually worth buying with the newer specs on it.

 

[KyaraM]

I mean the new line of laptops are 1tb nvme ssd. 4060. 16gb and ddr5 for like $1k. lol. That takes my build and like 10 folds it with upgrades. And its from 2016 and cost like $2500 without peripherals.

EDIT: with a 13th gen i7 13kh series. lol.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/FWZHPX
This is literally the same performance class as the specs you listed, just as a desktop. You can even still save money with the mainboard or PSU or cooler if you wish, or get DDR5 for the 1% performance increase it offers. Don't get blinded by pretty names on laptop parts, they are nowhere near their desktop counterparts.

exactly, if I sold my car to webuyanycar.com or whatever i wouldnt be able to afford a pc. I would literally scrape by with a laptop actually worth buying with the newer specs on it.

Hyperbole to the max. A 4070Ti is available for $800 and plays in the league of a 3090 and 3090 Ti at severely lower power consumption. I'm afraid you got worse problems than gaming if you would need to sell your car to get one of these. And then there are a plethora of lower-end desktop parts that are perfectly fine and can be had for far less. You can even build a very decent 1080p system for the money you would spend in the 4070Ti alone...

 

[ohio_buckeye]

I don’t feel like gpus should be that much but I get companies will charge that because people pay that. It just wasn’t that long ago where 700-800 got you the top of the line flagship. Companies can get that price though so they charge it. Supply and demand.

A downside to expensive higher end gpus is when we are talking 600 being cheap for a 4070 or maybe 500 for a 4060. So you kind of feel sorry for people who can’t afford as much or the people in their teens/early 20s just starting out that aren’t able to spend as much because then they have to make a lot more compromises. Although I’ve bought my share of used parts also.

 

[volkgren]

I'm sorry, who exactly pointed you judge? What business is it of yours to make people "defend" their personal cost/benefit analysis?

These are entertainment products. A seller offers a particular item at a particular price at which a buyer can choose to purchase or choose not to purchase. This isn't a loaf of bread to feed your starving family.

You don't need a thousand-dollar GPU to game or even to game well. But if you want to get all the bells and whistles, from details to resolution, that's going to be expensive. And if it's not worth the money for you, well, that's great; you don't have to buy it. Exactly zero people in history have been forced to buy a GPU for their gaming rig at gunpoint.

If you've started the thread with the idea of playing some grand inquisitor who pronounces judgment on the decisions of others to decide GPUs are worth it or not worth it to them, this thread isn't going to be open very long.

In the big picture, considering what most of the people in the world live on, anyone who even has something as frivolous as a gaming rig shouldn't trying to play John Everyman, fighting those fat cat bourgeoisie with their Nvidia 4090s. In the context of a world in which two-thirds of people live on less than $10 a day, we're all quite wealthy. Cosplaying as an ascete because you "only" have a 6950 XT is a bit embarrassing.

God gave me free will as he did you. That is somewhat of a position of judge. Posting to this thread is not a requirement to join Tom's Hardware, so I'm not "making" anyone defend anything. Promoting discussion and displaying opinions of judgement is EXACTLY the reason for this thread. If you want to extinguish free discussion based on your feelings getting hurt, then by all means, go right ahead.

Actually, I'm glad to see there are some people who can defend the purchase of $1,000+ GPUs. That's why I opened the thread.

Also, I can afford to buy multiple RTX 4090. I simply choose not to. The RX 6950 XT at $699 was the ideal card for my preference of being a casual gamer who wants to play on high/ultra settings. Games simply aren't fun enough to warrant anything higher than that, FOR ME.

*Edit: Btw, this isn't meant to judge people who buy them. It's meant to judge the prices of the GPUs. How do people justify spending that much? I've been there myself, but I suppose you could say I'm being turned off by the continuously high prices.

 

[MarsColonist]

It seems like a weird poll to me because ultimately the consumer decides if something will be sold at a given price. If the consumer decides a price is too high, they don't buy, and things are not sold at that price.

So I don't really think it's for me to decide what a GPU "should" cost, because that really depends on what consumers are willing to pay for them and what manufacturers are willing to sell them for.

If a company decides to sell GPUs and they cost $10,000 and enough consumers buy those to keep that company in business, why should I complain about that? Perhaps some of the technology from that "enthusiast" market for the wealthy would trickle down to the $500 GPUs I buy.

Furthermore, if you impose arbitrary price controls on a given product, you tend to have issues with shortages in the supply of that product... something GPU consumers probably don't want. That's just economics.

 

[Avro Arrow]

When just a video card costs more than an entire console, it's hard to justify PC gaming.

 

[Deleted member 2838871]

When just a video card costs more than an entire console, it's hard to justify PC gaming.

You're not wrong. I also have a Switch that I use to play oldschool NES/SNES games on... and an XBox Series X for some sports titles... most recent purchase being MLB The Show 23...

.... I honestly prefer everything else on PC though. Hogwart's Legacy I just started with plans for Elden Ring afterwards. I just can't see myself playing either on the XBox.