Predictions on when GPUs will be back at RRP.

[Percy1983]

BOO!

Ban him!

I picked up my 7600 from eBuyers eBay shop when they had a 15% off code, got it for £215 including Starfield. That was the best value with half decent performance I could find. They now tend to hover around the £230 mark. I play at 1440p, and I'm happy with the performance.

I am not against the idea of a 7600 and the 7600xt could be a little better, I don't really want to spend much on an 8gb card but pf course either would be a reasonable kick up from my vega. I guess I will add it as a backup plan if the correctly prices 6700xt doesn't happen. A new card does have some bonus points for not being mined on too.

[badass]

I think we get that, but my point has often been: why spend 100s of million on developing a product then don't bother to ship in any meaningful volume.

I hate current GPU pricing, so don't misunderstand me when I say this but...

GPU manufacturers know the market better than we do, and what they should do to make more money.

This ^^^^

I suspect the reason is that with elevated margins, they know they can recoup the R&D plus a little more for developing Consumer graphics cards. They then have a supply problem - with leading edge fabs like TSMC. They negotiate volumes potentially years in advance to secure a certain size production run. With all of the AI hype, being to sell the same silicon area for several times the price as an AI accelerator/professional GFX card and still not have enough capacity to meet demand it's a no brainer to allocate the vast majority to the higher payers. They may well even see the consumer gfx card side as nothing ore than a hedge of if or when the AI bubble pops. Nvidia is doing exactly this with their "SUPER" pricing. They have learnt about falling too much for fads in the industry after getting bitten several times with Crypto mining.

[Saracen999]

I honestly don't pay much attention to what's going on in this kind of market trend these days. There are two reasons, really ....

- I spent long enough doig it when paid to that now I'm not, I don't much care, and

- at my personal very micro level, all that really matters is when I come to buy, what is available an what's it going to cost, and is it worth that to me?

What does strike me as a truism, though, and it pretty much always has been, is that almost all companies will do what is best for the company (and it's managers, and shareholders) and if it ends up best for consumers it's only because that's also what's best for the company. With cosmer-focussed companies, that might be all the time, and in the past (quite a way in the past, at that) that was true of nVidia but these days (and recent yers? Not so much.

As said, we're something of an afterthought, a hedge and, it often seems, a bit of a PITA. Many of the "Super", "Ti" etc types of product range differentiation are aimed pretty squarely at the same market as those that fancy box graphics appeal to, or that are seduced by somewhat pointless marketing statistics. I mean, if we haven't learned from both printer and then more recently, camera pixel wars that simple pixel count is a LONG way from the be-all and end-all of product spec's, we're never going to wise up.

The latest examples, in addition to sticking AI on everything, is sticking 4K on it, and (as Louis Rossman pointed out) even if you actually get 4k, there's much more to quality than that.

So yes, I agree with the rationale in the above few posts, and I'm not surprised by it. I heard a claim the other day (that may or may not be true) that Google alone had ordered GPUs (for AI purposes) in quantities that would probably dwarf total cumulative consumer sales in reccent years. If anywhere near accurate, that would certainly get nVidia's attention, and consumers become a blip on the edge of their sales radar, if we're on it at all. Also if it's true, it might suggest getting a GPU sooner rather than later if wanting one any time soon, while you still can at all .... even if you have to buy "Super" or "Ti" or whatever.

The one universal truth is that nVidia will continue to do what nVidia believe is best for nVidia, and frankly, in their shoes, so would I.

[Rob_B]

Meta say they'll have 650,000 H100 equivalents by 2025 (?) of that 350,000 is actual H100s.
AWS and Google and everyone else are also buying crazy amounts for the AI gold rush. AMD have their cards too but I've not heard as much chat about them.

I should have bought Nvidia stock in 2020....

[Percy1983]

I does feel while nvidia are focussing elsewhere another company could swoop in and stamp on them pretty hard, it just seems a shame AMD are happy with a 2% market share as they have a golden opportunity to claw some of that back right now. It does seem whatever nvidia charge people will pay it, the amount of comments I see on FB/reddit and such of people waving around their 4090 size epeens. In a discussion with one they simply couldn't believe I could be happy with a vega 56 and it was just I can' afford a 4090, the reality is I can afford a 4090 but I just can't justify the cost. As they told me get a 4090 and 4k gaming is the most amazing thing you will ever see, I pointed out to them I kept my vega 56 and did things with my family instead and made some amazing memories at 576 megapixels rather than virtual memories at 8.3 megapixels. The point was completely lost on them.

[DanceswithUnix]

I does feel while nvidia are focussing elsewhere another company could swoop in and stamp on them pretty hard,

Seeing Intel still struggling with drivers, I can't seen any other companies coming into the market. If the world had standardised on cross platform Vulkan then it might be easier, but that's just not where we are.

On the upside, the latest integrated graphics look pretty impressive. The average person probably won't want a GPU.

[kompukare]

I does feel while nvidia are focussing elsewhere another company could swoop in and stamp on them pretty hard, it just seems a shame AMD are happy with a 2% market share as they have a golden opportunity to claw some of that back right now. It does seem whatever nvidia charge people will pay it, the amount of comments I see on FB/reddit and such of people waving around their 4090 size epeens. In a discussion with one they simply couldn't believe I could be happy with a vega 56 and it was just I can' afford a 4090, the reality is I can afford a 4090 but I just can't justify the cost. As they told me get a 4090 and 4k gaming is the most amazing thing you will ever see, I pointed out to them I kept my vega 56 and did things with my family instead and made some amazing memories at 576 megapixels rather than virtual memories at 8.3 megapixels. The point was completely lost on them.

Premium company, "we are not a budget brand", "it's all about margins" and other AMD slogans...

Seems they have no ambition or forward thinking.

Yes, 7nm and now 5nm wafers were and are at a premium. But - and this goes back to AMD after they bough ATI and still had their own fabs - while the latest and greatest nodes are, well, great older nodes get ignored.

A far more ambitious thing might have been looking at trends a few years ago, and designed a RNDA2 card for Samsung's 8nm. Run that wide and slow and the performance and even efficient should have been okay for the volume market. Cheap Samsung 8nm and a big die with lots of cache could have done well as volume part.

Plenty of hurdles I am sure, but AMD wouldn't even entertain that thought.

[Percy1983]

Premium company, "we are not a budget brand", "it's all about margins" and other AMD slogans...

Seems they have no ambition or forward thinking.

Yes, 7nm and now 5nm wafers were and are at a premium. But - and this goes back to AMD after they bough ATI and still had their own fabs - while the latest and greatest nodes are, well, great older nodes get ignored.

A far more ambitious thing might have been looking at trends a few years ago, and designed a RNDA2 card for Samsung's 8nm. Run that wide and slow and the performance and even efficient should have been okay for the volume market. Cheap Samsung 8nm and a big die with lots of cache could have done well as volume part.

Plenty of hurdles I am sure, but AMD wouldn't even entertain that thought.

This is it, in many respects they just need another RX580, it wasn't the fastest card but it was solid performance at a great price, imagine the the 7600 at £200, 7600xt at £225 and 7700xt at £300. I guess the bigger problem is now they have lost so much market share many still wouldn't buy but I guess there is a lot of on older cards would would pick them up, to say the 6700xt seems to be a big recommendation currently at the £280-£320 range.

Personally I don't want to buy nvidia and support the virtual monopoly but if they tempt me enough I will jump ship after a long time of ATI/AMD cards, the funny thing is I have generally ended up AMD all this time due to better value rather than loyalty and being anti nvidia is a more recent feeling.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

My mate got an RX6700XT for £200ish last year as they imported it from China. Was a rebadged ASRock Challenger RX6700XT.

[Percy1983]

My mate got an RX6700XT for £200ish last year as they imported it from China. Was a rebadged ASRock Challenger RX6700XT.

Do you know where form?, seen a few on aliexpress but not going that cheap (basically match used here after shipping and tax), seems a few used on ebay sold for £200-£250 occasionally, it does feel the bottom may finally be falling out of the 6700xt market.

[Saracen999]

My mate got an RX6700XT for £200ish last year as they imported it from China. Was a rebadged ASRock Challenger RX6700XT.

Quite a deal, but also, a bit of a punt. My experience of importing direct from China (other than very well-supported and known companies) is pretty limited but bad enough that I wouldn't do it on a £200 product of any sort, through an unknown supplier. Which means, of course, I miss out on some bargains but also, miss out on the really lousy experience, if not outright rip-off, of the bad apples in the barrel. It's a trade-off I decided on some years back.

[Percy1983]

It seems more and more places are reporting AMD are changing direction and are going to stop chasing the top end and aim for the low to mid range.

Interestingly the last time they did this it was the RX480 and RX580 which came out of it and they where really popular, from my point of view of friends and family most of them owned on at some point.

[Percy1983]

I nearly pulled the trigger on an A770 16gb for £240 but managed to not click.

Decided to wait longer now as AMD might be actually trying to get market share with the 8000 range GPUs, if the projected pricing is true it should really kick the 6/7000 range down a peg.

I am aware I am now getting to the point of never buying as there is always a better deal coming but also don't mind as I have got use to using an 'old' GPU and playing older games for now so have little urgency to upgrade.

[Rob_B]

I gave my 7600 to my son, took his 1070, didn't fancy him having a better GPU than me (!) so picked up a 6750XT for £240, more than I kinda wanted to spend on any card but for the current market it's ok I guess.

[DanceswithUnix]

I am aware I am now getting to the point of never buying as there is always a better deal coming but also don't mind as I have got use to using an 'old' GPU and playing older games for now so have little urgency to upgrade.

I seem to be in much the same boat. My Vega 56 is really getting on a bit now, but it still works for me.

This might be a reflection on there not being any modern games that I really want to play. Hogwarts was the last modern game I've played, and I never actually finished it so couldn't have been that impressed. I last upgraded because Elite Dangerous was chugging a bit, in the past it has been games like Quake that got me to upgrade. I guess atm if your PC can outpace a Steamdeck then you are probably good.

[Percy1983]

I seem to be in much the same boat. My Vega 56 is really getting on a bit now, but it still works for me.

This might be a reflection on there not being any modern games that I really want to play. Hogwarts was the last modern game I've played, and I never actually finished it so couldn't have been that impressed. I last upgraded because Elite Dangerous was chugging a bit, in the past it has been games like Quake that got me to upgrade. I guess atm if your PC can outpace a Steamdeck then you are probably good.

Also I don't pay full price for games anyway I usually leave it a few years, the only recent game I want to play is Alan Wake 2 whic is currently impossible but still costs too much anyway.

Recently played dishonoured 2 and a plague tale innocence and am now playing shadow of the tomb raider. In short playing 2015-2019 games on a 2017 caed.

With I have been using DLSSTOFSR mods and enabled rebar and it works great.