So, LTT recently put out a video talking about how ray tracing is becoming mandatory for games. And, given my own unique political perspective which bleeds into this stuff, I wanted to discuss my thoughts.
Honestly, I'm one of those relatively "anti ray tracing" people out there. People might wonder why I sometimes have "anti technological progress" views, and it ain't really that I'm against progress, I'm against progress at all costs, and I'm against CEO tech bro types trying to ram their concept of "reality" down other peoples' throats.
As I see it, ray tracing is one of the worst things to happen to the gaming industry. People think the price of GPUs is because of "inflation", but no, this crap started in 2018...with the introduction of the RTX 2000 series. Nvidia developed this super exclusive technology, backed by other technologies like DLSS, and saw fit to increase the price of hardware by 40% overnight. Prices had been relatively stable from 2010 to 2016, with you being able to get roughly the same tier of card at roughly the same price until then. And we saw relatively rapid gains. We would generally see double performance once every three years or so. Just compare the 8800 GT (2007) to the GTX 460 (2010) to the GTX 760 (2013) to the GTX 1060 (2016). Technological progress wasn't just about better GPUs, but also cheaper GPUs for the money. You would have $500-600 "80" cards become 60 cards overnight. 80 ti flagship cards would become 70 cards. 70 cards would become 50 cards. I was crazy. We saw rapid progress as the legitimate power of these cards improved rapidly and the price came down.
But...to some extent, Nvidia has always been greedy. They did try a new pricing structure with the GTX 200 cards in 2008-2009, given a lack of competition from AMD, but AMD undercut them so hard it corrected the market and kept them in check for years to come. Around 2018 or so, with the introduction of this bullcrap, it became clear that they had the high ground and that AMD had nothing to respond with. So they charged whatever they wanted, and people paid it.
Since then, GPUs have been relatively unaffordable, and now Nvidia is one of the most profitable companies ever. They've cornered the market, got 90% market share, and AMD has honestly done screw all since then. Like, they've barely tried to compete. Their RX 5000 series was technologically behind and on par with the Nvidia 1000 series. The 6000 series came up as being competitive with 2000 and 3000 series Nvidia cards, but due to less mature ray tracing and upscaling technologies, no one bought them. I mean, I did, on principle, and because eventually post COVID the price of them finally corrected the market back to a small level of sanity. But let's be honest, they were markedly worse than nvidia cards in precious ray tracing performance, and of course, upscaling, a technology that Nvidia made to compensate the insane performance costs of ray tracing.
You see, for all the talk of ray tracing being this big thing, it was never ready for prime time. The performance costs of it were crushing, and the hardware was and is expensive. A non ray traced scene can run games at like 60 FPS, the ray traced equivalent will be 25 FPS. All for people to barely notice no difference or subtle differences most of the time. Sure, there are some cases where it looks truly amazing, but these instances are rare, and largely unaffordable anyway. Because Nvidia has had no competition, every generation, their top card has gotten progressively more expensive. The GTX 1080 ti was $700 and that was the top end card for money crazed enthusiasts in 2017. The RTX 2080 Ti was $1000. Again, they decided to start gouging, bumping everything a solid price tier or 40%. Then with the 3000 series the 3090 Ti became $2000. It was COVID, GPU pricing was crazy, they could do whatever they wanted. 4090 the bubble burst but they still charged $1600. And now the 5090 is going back up to $2000.
At the lower end, GPU pricing is getting insufferable too. The GTX 1060 6 GB was $250. The 2060 was $350. The 3060 was $330, with the 3060 Ti being $400. The 4060 was $300, as people clearly signalled they werent paying more than $300 for a 60 card, but the 4060 ti was $400, with the 16 GB model being $500. We're seeing clear price creep, and 60 cards used to be the mainstream mid range option. In many ways, they still are. Even today, steam hardware survey shows most gamers aiming for 3060 or 4060 level hardware (and the 2 perform about the same). AMD equivalents can be had for $50 cheaper and consist of the 6650 XT, which I own, and the 7600.
And nothing below the slightly cheaper 6600 is worth buying. Trust me. $190 is the new entry level for PC gaming. And it's the bare minimum, already being seen in minimum requirements. It's capable of rudimentary ray tracing, it gets your foot in the door, but that's about it. Games are starting to require 2060s and 6600s which are the minimum cards from both brands actually capable of ray tracing, leaving people with 3060s, 4060s, 6650 XTs, and 7600s really only one small rung above the bare minimum. And we're seeing this, while these cards STILL cost $200-300. A $200-300 card historically got you medium high performance at 1080p 60 FPS. Sometimes it doesn't but some games were already pushing medium 2 years ago as I found out testing my 6650 XT in callisto protocol, which I got for free. And now the GPU is already pushing low, often with upscaling needing to be enabled to maintain performance.
Quite frankly, we're being priced out of PC gaming. The masses are being pushed out of PC gaming. Entry level performance is now $200ish. It used to be $100ish. $250 used to be midrange, now people are spending $400-500 a lot of the time. The high end used to be like $600-800. Now it's $1600-2000. It's insane.
Again, this isn't general inflation. If we took 2016 era pricing and adjusted it, this is what the 5000 series would cost probably.
GTX 5030- $105
RTX 5050- $140
RTX 5050 ti- $180
RTX 5060- $260
RTX 5060 ti- $330
RTX 5070- $500
RTX 5070 ti- $600
RTX 5080- $800
RTX 5090- $920
I did a little rounding, but that's around where things should be. I aint saying this is perfect either. I would like to see the entry level GPUs a little lower. But still, this is a good amount preferable to what we have. This is closer to AMD style pricing, just without the bottom below the 5050 ti model (6600). And by the way, these numbers are WITH inflation. Everything at the low end is a good 15-20% more expensive than that. The 5070 is the only product even remotely approaching its proper pricing. And the high end ones, well, again, tack on about 25-33% onto that, or double it for the top tier.
This is absolutely crazy.
But a lot of people, especially wealthy people who dominate hardware forums think this is okay. Like most PC gamers who post on hardware forums are extremely privileged. They are wealthy upper class professionals who make six figures and live picturesque little lives. They have way too much money to spend on frivolous luxuries, which are then justified by the idea that they "create jobs" for other people (so basically, we're your servants.....fun....), and they think nothing about it. They also think nothing of normal people being priced out of the market. Oh, can't afford it? Stop being poor, git gud, stop expecting the market to adapt to you, you need to adapt to the market. A nice attitude to take when you're basically a rich frick who is on the winning side of the market.
But yeah. That's basically why these discussions are insufferable. They are political, and most of the consumers for this stuff are rich hobbyists who because THEY can afford stuff, and they're willing to pay higher prices, we're just expected to suffer.
Honestly, technology is such where at some point, it's like pulling a band aid off, and yes, people are gonna have to adapt to the market. The problem is, by the time that time comes, you should be able to go to the store, and buy a $100 i3, with a $100 "50" tier card, and be able to hit that minimum rung of performance. That was always the plus side to the technological advancements. That yeah, your old hardware can't run stuff any more, but the power scaling of hardware is such where even the entry level is like goku to your old PC's yamcha.
It's like how in DBZ even the 8 year olds get super saiyan by the end of the series. Like, that used to be this legendary tier of strength, and now it's nothing because the power scaling is so insane.
But that's the problem, that's no longer happening. The lowest tier Nvidia cards from current series are no longer $100, they're $300. That 4060 is the lowest the current series gets, and I doubt the 5000 series will be any different. Sure, you can maybe get a $200-250ish AMD model, but again, that used to be the midrange. Like, you used to get that and it would be a good performer for about 4-5 years. I just got a 6650 XT like 2 years ago and it's already hitting the bare minimum because of how screwed the market is.
Honestly, this shouldn't be acceptable. Markets exist to serve people, people don't exist to serve markets, and it's ridiculous that we live like this. But that's capitalism in its raw form, can't afford things? Screw you. Have you ever considered not being poor? Seriously, this system serves like 20% of people properly and then like 80% are left to struggle to varying degrees. It's ridiculous.
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