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SvennoJ on 26 September 2022
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zero129 said:
SvennoJ said:

Will the backlash change NVidia's pricing? Is it all greed or merely reality?

https://www.eurogamer.net/digitalfoundry-2022-df-direct-weekly-rtx-4080-pricing-a-big-mistake-or-a-sign-of-things-to-come

Backing up Nvidia's position, Xbox architect Andrew Goossen spelt this out to us in plain language two years ago - the cost-per-transistor is not reducing at speed anymore. Microsoft saw no route to cost-reducing Xbox Series X effectively, hence the launch of Xbox Series S. If existing tech cannot be cost-reduced, it stands to reason that more performance will hike up prices. Meanwhile, in recent times, the PlayStation 5 has increased in cost, despite using a smaller 6nm chip. Beyond all of that, we've not even factored in out-of-control inflation and its impact on GPU prices.

There may well be mitigating factors to explain the pricing but ultimately, the market will decide what to make of the RTX 4080. The reaction is such that there's undoubtedly a golden chance for AMD to make an impact with its upcoming RDNA 3 graphics line. If Nvidia is indeed over-pricing, AMD has the opportunity to significantly under-cut its opposition. If it doesn't meaningfully offer a much better deal, we should accept the probability that big silicon commands big prices going forward, just as Nvidia suggests.

I really hope so. Like i said in the PC thread i hope AMD comes out and gives Nvidia a run for their money just like they did with Intel as Nvidia is being way to greedy here with their prices.

It will likely be like the Series S, smaller less powerful versions that are more affordable. Which Nvidia already sort of did with the 4080 vs 4090.

Part of the discussion in DF Direct Weekly this week covers the various reasons why this is happening. The backlash puts the blame squarely on Nvidia for over-pricing its products, for 'rebadging' a prospective RTX 4070 as an RTX 4080 in order to deliver an 80-class product for under a thousand dollars. However, last week, Nvidia boss Jensen Huang delivered a stark message: that cost reductions on performance, or the same performance for half the cost with a new generation are a thing of the past.

Greed or not, things are getting a lot more expensive everywhere and while Moore's law isn't dead yet, it has been slowing down a lot in the past decade. GPUs keep getting bigger as well to keep up with expectations. The results are still great, at a hefty price

Right now though, the RTX 4090 will remain the preserve of the super-affluent, delivering far superior performance than RTX 3090, even beating the 3090 Ti into a cocked hat, by quite some margin. The message is clear though: the biggest gen-on-gen upgrade with Nvidia's new line of graphics hardware comes at a price: $1599, specifically.

As discussed by myself and the team in this week's show though, the RTX 4080 pricing storm has diverted attention away from some incredible stuff. Portal RTX is built on the new RTX Remix tool, effectively opening the door for many older games to receive full path-tracing 'remasters'. Portal itself is a brilliant example of what Remix can do: classic gameplay never ages, but now the title looks breathtaking. DLSS 3? We'll have much more on that soon, but with an effectively path-traced Cyberpunk 2077 running at perfectly playable frame-rates, the potential here is astonishing: PC can now scale beyond consoles in offering a totally transformed experience as opposed to the usual staples like unlocked frame-rates, ultrawide resolutions, tweaked settings etc. All of this has been overshadowed by RTX 4080 specs and pricing.

Ray tracing isn't advancing as fast as I would have liked to see, with a hefty price tagged on.