What if prices don't fall for years...

[dirtyferret]

I bought my first stick of 8GB DDR4 ram for $55 and my second for an outrageous $69 (lowest it had been in months). Currently that exact same RAM is $89 but hit an all time high of $99 just a few months ago.

I bought my GTX1060 for $190, it is currently $440 on Amazon.

Basically I would need to pay double the amount of money to purchase those three items today.

I, personally, would not pay those current prices and would have sat on my i5-2500k, DDR3 RAM, GTX 760 build rather then upgrade over the past spring/summer. If need be I would also look into getting a console if I felt the PC build no longer was working out for me to play the games I want to play. I figure there are many people with older gaming PCs that feel the same way.

Now I expect prices to fall but let's play devils advocate and wonder what happens if they take years to fall?
How do you feel the gaming industry will re-act with high prices preventing many people from upgrading? Do you see less AAA titles coming out on the PC? Will developers sand bag graphic performance in order for older video cards to play games at very high levels? A renaissance of small & indie developers similar to Larian Studios, Obsidian, and Pubg creating more PC games?

 

[kruk]

Will developers sand bag graphic performance in order for older video cards to play games at very high levels

There is no need to sandbag. They just have to do their work properly: optimize for better performance and stop pumping games with superflouous things that are only noticable if you have eagle eyesight (GameWorks).

 

[ZenZimZaliben]

Memory manufactures are moving to 3D circuits. Old DDR2/3/4 are going to rise in price as they focus on 3D and supply dwindles. 3D memory is going to offer about 65% more storage for same footprint. A small USB Thumb drive will have 1TB.

 

[qubit]

With prices at their current stupid levels and unlikely to drop, I'm seeing more and more comments suggesting a move to consoles or sticking with the current rig. Not a healthy situation for the best gaming platform on the planet.

 

[NTM2003]

I'm still buying 32 gb for $470 on Amazon some people might not say I need it but I want a complete set because prices could go higher but hope not. More personal opinion for me I want a whole new set then what I got. Basically a different look.

 

[Vario]

If prices on these items don't fall, gamers may need to move to consoles. There are ways to (imperfectly) emulate a mouse and keyboard with console, it may end up being mainstream supported if competitive players switch to console.
Desktop PC manufacturers will have trouble selling prebuilt machines with these prices. Ultimately, it might kill desktop computing

I'm still buying 32 gb for $470 on Amazon some people might not say I need it but I want a complete set because prices could go higher but hope not. More personal opinion for me I want a whole new set then what I got. Basically a different look.

DDR4 should come down in price. I wouldn't do it but thats your decision. I bought 16GB of DDR4 recently myself and I would have bought 32GB if it was affordable to do so, the 16GB was pretty pricey for me at $220!

 

[NTM2003]

I play Xbox one x but also still mostly play on pc.

 

[Vario]

I played on PS3 a lot before I went back to desktop PC in ~2012, I have thought about going back to console if the prices don't come down on graphics cards.

I also wonder if my gpu goes out can you still get a replacement or find another one to replace it that's my worry

Don't overclock it and do make sure it stays cool with lots of airflow. It should last a very long time if you aren't rough on it.

 

[NTM2003]

I also wonder if my gpu goes out can you still get a replacement or find another one to replace it that's my worry

 

[Ebo]

I havent upgraded my pc the last 2-3 years and it works ffor me right now.

Im going console next time, its cheaper and works out of the box.

I still have 16 GB DDR4 laying arround, just in case, but they dont pay any rent and havent been unpacked, but I have them.

 

[NTM2003]

I just brought the new 1080s this past June got lucky I just hope it don't crash on me

 

[Space Lynx]

I havent upgraded my pc the last 2-3 years and it works ffor me right now.

Im going console next time, its cheaper and works out of the box.

I still have 16 GB DDR4 laying arround, just in case, but they dont pay any rent and havent been unpacked, but I have them.

I can't live without high refresh gysnc, makes action games much more immersive. But to each their own.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

so i thought I would pass you my 10 cents.

the price will drop, but not much and not for long, with the increase in performance of inbuilt gpus the requirement for a discrete part diminish and this was killing off the big two(all others had already died) for the last few years hence both companies diversification efforts and ip sell offs /partnerships FACT, they were at one point really in the shit ,both nvidia and Amd but diversification has kept them afloat.....


then mining comes along to provide a much needed shot in the arm(performance requirement /efficiency) in that it requires ever more of everything, this isnt, this round of mining crazyness but the last mining craze btw.
they develop pascal and polaris etc to hit a wider consumer potential and it worked as did the gpu compute push intel could'nt squash.

now we have better integrated gpus then discrete were not long ago by far.

without mining few were buying discrete gpus despite the great hula shouted by effectively the few(enthusiasts), every day joe, likely can still get his rx560 gt1030 ,their top end so they are'nt bothered by this , below them buy tablets laptops and such and dont know what a gpu is, soo in a few years low end discrete wont exist as it is imho and high end will as Nvidias Volta shows, lean towards what corporate not the average consumer wants and become more expensive to us.

the size of market for enthuiast gameing gpus is not as big as some think, so we ,being the bottom of the paying ladder get last dibs as it is , add in the cost and complexity increases year on year in gpu manufacture and you have an enthusiast worst nightmare, our present reality but ongoing.

even after mining subsides they wont make what is not needed or saleable yet will make what they can get good money for? compute dense cards not rendering supercards but compute supercards , you gota get used to it thats life, shit just imagine / look at being a PC AUDIOPHILE dude , they must be deeply concerned they wont have a decent soundcard to buy in the future.

memorys just getting used in sooo so much stuff atm who could make enough.

I can't believe I am this bad on pc too edit done

 

[Jetster]

Two months

 

[erocker]

I’ll buy parts when I need them... I’ll just be spending more.

 

[droopyRO]

PC gaming will not end, but what will slow down to a crawl is above 1080p(1920x1080) PC gaming.
Things like 144 fps, 1440p, ultrawide or 4k will be a luxury for the very few who will pay the "mining tax".
Manufacturers will probably battle in the RX560/GTX 1050/1050Ti (up to 4GB vRAM)price range and performance, while they pump out graphic cards with very high prices and mining capability.

 

[xorbe]

Give it 6-12 months when the entire global economy is hurting and nobody is spending ... but I digress

 

[NTM2003]

with my build I'm good for a while maybe a bigger HDD and a bigger 4k monitor I'm thinking 43 inches.

 

[Tomgang]

With the upgrades i dit last year, im good for a year or two more. Cpu is maybe old but it still does a surpricenly good job in games and gpu wise im deffenly good for at least two more years.

So only upgrade for this year is to replace that 9 year old harddrive in my pc. I dont trust its stability any more.

 

[rtwjunkie]

PC gaming will not end, but what will slow down to a crawl is above 1080p(1920x1080) PC gaming.
Things like 144 fps, 1440p, ultrawide or 4k will be a luxury for the very few who will pay the "mining tax".
Manufacturers will probably battle in the RX560/GTX 1050/1050Ti (up to 4GB vRAM)price range and performance, while they pump out graphic cards with very high prices and mining capability.

I have to agree with this. I also gave that prediction in another thread. High end GPU's will be unaffordable for all but a very very few that can and are willing to to pay $2,000 and up.

The result? 1920x1080p 60Hz monitors will stay the overwhelming standard and the gaming battle will be in the low-mid to middle end GPU market. Really, nearly every game can be maxed out or almost maxed out at that resolution.

Games will still be made ands even by AAA. They will find more efficient ways to present the visuals (CDPR already did it in 2015).

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

I have to agree with this. I also gave that prediction in another thread. High end GPU's will be unaffordable for all but a very very few that can and are willing to to pay $2,000 and up.

The result? 1920x1080p 60Hz monitors will stay the overwhelming standard and the gaming battle will be in the low-mid to middle end GPU market. Really, nearly every game can be maxed out or almost maxed out at that resolution.

Games will still be made ands even by AAA. They will find more efficient ways to present the visuals (CDPR already did it in 2015).

Overly pessimistic imho, im thinking about the next gtx 3060 or amd rx 780 but I think at that time they will be around 4-600£ but give a 4k monitor a run and a half , easily, ive used dual polaris , 1060 hybrid sli and now Vega im not too worried I think the tech performance is due a nice 2-2.5 uplift and Navi and voltaNxt can do this imho with 1000-2000 main shaders and 64 much better Rops.

 

[Komshija]

I planned to add extra 16 GB of RAM somewhere in 2018, but since RAM prices are ridiculously high, I will skip this step. Anyways, I will not switch to consoles nor upgrade my PC anytime soon. When I bought it some 19 months ago, I planned to keep it for approx. 6 years without any significant upgrades. That's why I bought a high-end system rather than the upper-middle class system that I originally envisioned (i5 6600K, R9 380X...). Earliest in late 2021 I might start to consider a whole new system, but certainly not before that unless I hit the jackpot. I hope that until then prices will normalize. Maybe even DDR5 will out by than time.

For me an upgrade isn't justified it I don't get at least twice as fast system. For instance, an upgrade from i7 6700K and R9 390 to i7 8700K and GTX 1080 isn't justified because it's way too expensive and it's nowhere near twice as fast. Having in mind that I have FHD 60 Hz monitor and that I occasionally play games, such an upgrade would be a waste of money. But after 2021, I will aim for at least 10C/20T CPU, upper-middle class GPU (such as GTX 1070 is now), 64 GB RAM, 4K monitor etc...

 

[Vayra86]

Come on, stop exaggerating people.

Prices of PC components have dropped steadily over the years. We seem to forget that with each passing year we can get more performance at a similar price, or equal performance at a lower price.

Core counts are now increasing across the board. The price point for a midrange system is going down. The performance level goes up. Quad cores are an i3 now. Even today, you can still build a powerful system that is much stronger than a console for an almost equal price. On top of that, the bonuses of a much more versatile system and all its other perks still exist.

DDR4 is something you buy once and you can make do with 8GB. That is 70-80 bucks on the entire build of, lets say, 1K. That leaves more than enough room for everything else, and still at decent performance. GPU: with 400 bucks on the 1K left over, you can still get a pretty solid one.

While parts are now relatively NOT cheap, a pretty recent period of rather cheap components is just behind us: the last 3-4 years of DDR3 and the last couple years of 28/22nm were relatively great years for component prices. It was no surprise that with the smaller nodes, and with more pressure on the smallest nodes from the mobile space, that prices would be going up. Its not 'just crypto'. Its a recalibration of the market. But its a mistake to think that this will massively affect the attractiveness the PC platform has gained over the past years. Things like E-sports and the much more streamlined and commercialized approach to PC gaming are the things that réally count. If there is anything that history has proven until today, its that PC gaming is like AMD's demise: predicted on a yearly basis, still going strong today.

Consumers are highly flexible. When the budget is thin, we find ways to get what we want anyway. Its already happening, people extend the life of their current rig, resort to lighter content, or tweak settings. While they are not necessarily buying new hardware, they are definitely still using it. To think that this will affect the market up to the extent of the games/content itself is entirely wrong; in fact it can only turn out positively, because the pressure to optimize games and content for a large range of systems will increase.

In the end, developers aren't suddenly gone because the new hardware is gone - they just adapt. Look at the most successful games in history: they are all playable on an extremely wide range of systems. Starcraft, Warcraft 3 were specifically built to run on a toaster. MOBA's: same thing. Counterstrike: same thing. The examples are endless.

 

[Liviu Cojocaru]

I think prices will go back to some sort of "normal" at some point, you have to make tech available for the masses otherwise it will be difficult to advance with technology imo

 

[trog100]

i just put together a small form factor I5 generation 4 (haswell) 16gb ddr3 machine with a 1050TI..

its small neat.. weighs next to nothing and plays games nicely at 1080 on medium settings.. it cost me about £400 quid.. i had a spare 1050TI card so built the rest of the machine around it..

i am rather pleased with the end result..

i then fitted a new motherboard and 8700K cpu to my main sli machine.. it did make me think a bit.. i know which is the best bang for buck thats for sure..

trog