Increased GPU pricing query

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
marqol

marqol

Honorable
Oct 3, 2012
89
0
10,660
Not sure how to word this without sounding like a bitter <removed by mod>. Oh well, here she goes.
After a few concerns recently I am trying to justify the spending of another high end build, and I cannot seem to even fathom any reason for this price to be so high. I understand demand and possibly newer technology costs but this much?
Since I last overhauled my entire system, it would seem prices of GPUs have increased near 92%. To put this into perspective, I had gotten 7970 x2 back then for the price of a single 980 / fury(time / quality comparison). Let alone the cost of a 980ti being $1100-1300. Although I am in Australia, and the pricing has always been high for anything computer related.
Would any of you have real answers for this 4 digit price tag?

I'll probably end up paying it anyway but for the moment I'm quite impassive on the situation.

TLDR

    Why are GPUs so expensive these days (new tech or marketing bs price tag)?
    Is it simply a demand issue causing this high price?
    Will prices of current gen products be feasible any time soon?


Hopefully I get some people who see through to my questions :)

<Watch the language.>
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
PsyKhiqZero

PsyKhiqZero

Splendid
Jun 1, 2008
3,171
0
21,960
GPU's are actually about the same price they have always been. It's just that back in the day GPU's like the 980 ti were only sold as prosumer qaudro cards.

Prices tend not to go down. Once a GPU is replaced with a newer generation prices tend to stay high on the used market as people look to upgrade to multi gpu rigs. It's not till about 2 years or so when prices on these GPU's become "cheap".

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
R

rhysiam

Splendid
Mar 24, 2013
4,366
29
26,990
A big reason for the price hike is simply the Australian Dollar. A few years ago we were on parity and sometimes even slightly higher-value than the US dollar. Great for imports! But now we're back to around 70US cents for an AU$. 7970s were launched in Australia at over $700. Adjust that to the AU$ value and you're over $1K.

The second reason is that both AMD & Nvidia have been stuck on the same fab process since your 7970. Which has never happened before. That 980ti is partly so expensive because it's a much, much bigger chip than your 7970. That means less chips per wafer, which means higher cost (there are, of course, a lot of other factors influencing cost, but that's a fundamental one). Usually we would have seen die shrinks in line with Moore's Law, which would have allowed for more transistors in the same size chip. But things are stuck.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
marqol

marqol

Honorable
Oct 3, 2012
89
0
10,660

I can see most of what you're saying, although the price differences were significant from launch to soon after. My order as stands was "2 Sapphire Radeon HD7970 3GB OC Edition with Boost $419.00 $838.00". I guess we just don't get to see that kick back as much with the new tech then.

Thanks for your replies!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom