I agree the new graphics cards market is a mess, but thats because they’re being bought for AI and crypto which is inflating prices.
However its not killing PC gaming. PC gaming is the single biggest platform, and in reality for most gamers the latest generation of cards are way over powered for most games. In a way we’ve never seen before.
The AAA part of the games industry is in crisis, because we’re now well beyond the point of diminishing returns for graphics. Graphics quality is already very high and each innovation is now having minimal impact on game quality. Its hard to innovate when you’re near photo realism - you just get closer and closer. The last generation of cards are already above what is needed to run new games well. And people arent buying $70+ games when all they offer is graphics boosts and crap gameplay - thats breaking the business model of the big publishers who lazily relied on graphics to drive sales.
The PC market has fragmented into lots of smaller indie games. Its big enough overall that a small game targeted at fans of specific genres can be high quality and successful enough. There are so many games being released all the time now that the market may even be saturated - its an amazing time for player choice.
Personally I’m in no rush to upgrade my 3070. Probably won’t until something like Witcher 4 comes out and even then maybe I won’t need to go to the highest end. Witcher 3 is 10 years old and still looks spectacular to me, Cyberpunk 2077 is 5 years old and I play it on my 3070 card and a separate PC with an integrated gpu. I barely notice the graphic quality difference between the 2 devices even though the 3070 is running at the highest settings while the iGPU PC is running at mid settings.
They are not really bought for crypto. The energy cost to mine shitcoins is so high that you don’t make any money unless you live in a country with cheap electricity. Even then, who wants a multiple year pay-off on the card at MSRP and even longer getting scalped?
At that point it’s better to order a proper bitcoin miner
I maxed out all graphics, with DLSS set to quality, and it rarely drops frames on my 3080 Ti (and 99% of the time, it happens at base camp, after I’ve had the game running for hours). Just don’t aim for 4K 144fps or you’re gonna have a bad time. In my experience, fill rate is a huge bottleneck in modern games (which is why upscalers work so well)
I’m on a 4090+9800x3d. I’m capping it at 60 with DLSS Quality and kept textures on High and It’s still sluggish and stuttery (mostly at camp like you said).
I agree the new graphics cards market is a mess, but thats because they’re being bought for AI and crypto which is inflating prices.
However its not killing PC gaming. PC gaming is the single biggest platform, and in reality for most gamers the latest generation of cards are way over powered for most games. In a way we’ve never seen before.
The AAA part of the games industry is in crisis, because we’re now well beyond the point of diminishing returns for graphics. Graphics quality is already very high and each innovation is now having minimal impact on game quality. Its hard to innovate when you’re near photo realism - you just get closer and closer. The last generation of cards are already above what is needed to run new games well. And people arent buying $70+ games when all they offer is graphics boosts and crap gameplay - thats breaking the business model of the big publishers who lazily relied on graphics to drive sales.
The PC market has fragmented into lots of smaller indie games. Its big enough overall that a small game targeted at fans of specific genres can be high quality and successful enough. There are so many games being released all the time now that the market may even be saturated - its an amazing time for player choice.
Personally I’m in no rush to upgrade my 3070. Probably won’t until something like Witcher 4 comes out and even then maybe I won’t need to go to the highest end. Witcher 3 is 10 years old and still looks spectacular to me, Cyberpunk 2077 is 5 years old and I play it on my 3070 card and a separate PC with an integrated gpu. I barely notice the graphic quality difference between the 2 devices even though the 3070 is running at the highest settings while the iGPU PC is running at mid settings.
They are not really bought for crypto. The energy cost to mine shitcoins is so high that you don’t make any money unless you live in a country with cheap electricity. Even then, who wants a multiple year pay-off on the card at MSRP and even longer getting scalped?
At that point it’s better to order a proper bitcoin miner
And then we have Monster Hunter Wilds
I stopped at Worlds. A second iteration is rarely better than the first in AAA.
I maxed out all graphics, with DLSS set to quality, and it rarely drops frames on my 3080 Ti (and 99% of the time, it happens at base camp, after I’ve had the game running for hours). Just don’t aim for 4K 144fps or you’re gonna have a bad time. In my experience, fill rate is a huge bottleneck in modern games (which is why upscalers work so well)
I’m on a 4090+9800x3d. I’m capping it at 60 with DLSS Quality and kept textures on High and It’s still sluggish and stuttery (mostly at camp like you said).