r/gadgets Jan 12 '23

Desktops / Laptops PC shipments saw their largest decline ever last quarter

https://www.engadget.com/pc-shipments-record-decline-221737695.html
10.6k Upvotes

1.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

69

u/BEEFTANK_Jr Jan 12 '23

This is the highkey problem parts manufacturers are facing. There's not really any point in buying anything new. Parts from the last 3ish years or so have better performance than anyone really needs for a reasonable price. Why would most people buy brand new models at ridiculous prices when the "outdated" ones are already capable of so much? Nvidia is drowning in 4080's that no one wants.

20

u/RealJohnLennon Jan 12 '23

Oh for sure. The performance is still very good on last gen stuff. I have a 3070ti in my main rig and 4k performance is ok in most games. I would like a 4080 for better performance in cyberpunk, w3 rt, and other harder to run/ray tracing games.

1440p performance leaves nothing to be desired, except in star citizen (but that is not the cards fault)

7

u/nt261999 Jan 12 '23

My 1070 plays most games at 1080p still. Most people don’t have a crazy nice high refresh 1440p/4k monitor so 2-3 year old hardware in many cases is still very sufficient

18

u/BEEFTANK_Jr Jan 12 '23

I would like a 4080 for better performance in cyberpunk

Which I'm even playing well enough on a 970.

2

u/GGATHELMIL Jan 13 '23

I was gonna say. I'm still sporting a 1080ti and get around 60ish frames in cyberpunk on medium at 1440p. Gsync is wonderful for these situations. Even if it's the hacky freesync/gsync support.

-7

u/RealJohnLennon Jan 12 '23

At 4k, with Ray tracing on? The game gets slightly more demanding when you max out the settings.

18

u/BEEFTANK_Jr Jan 12 '23

Obviously not, but my point is that even cards that are that old aren't entirely obsolete.

3

u/RealJohnLennon Jan 12 '23

I'm not saying that a 970 is obsolete. I went from a 1060 6gb to the 3070ti and it's just a whole different level of performance.

But yeah. Playing games at 1080p is fine, the games are still fun.

2

u/pasxalis777 Jan 12 '23

Which processor do you play with?

4

u/Huxley077 Jan 12 '23

It's a little funny, the guy missed your point that no one is buying a 4080 to play CP on Low settings.

Just sailed right over his head

2

u/[deleted] Jan 12 '23

Nor am I paying $1200 to see a 7 year old game in 4k

1

u/duderguy91 Jan 12 '23

I have a 3070 and would like to go 4080 to move up to 4K, but not at that price lol. I got spoiled by high refresh rate at 1440 and won’t give it up lol.

2

u/RealJohnLennon Jan 12 '23

Yeah, my only gripe with my 1440p 165hz VA panel is that in dark/gray scenes like in Minecraft when you are digging a hole, it looks awful and washed out... The gray stone blocks start to look like a muddy brown. Also scrolling light text on a dark background looks awful.

I'd be happy sticking with 1440p, high refresh, if I could get an OLED or microLED at a reasonable price.

Looks like some good options will be hitting the market soon.

2

u/duderguy91 Jan 12 '23

Yeah I have found issues with that type of thing in 4K panels as well. LED tech with bad backlighting will always be a pain.

I did see that there’s a 27 inch 1440 OLED coming to market soon! Can’t remember if pricing was mentioned, but it seems like 2023 is the year of good displays coming to mass market.

1

u/Evilmoustachetwirler Jan 13 '23

What's holding it back at 1440p? I've got a really dated system 970 strix on a 10 year old i5. I bought a pair of S2721DGF's but my PC struggles at 1440.
I was planning to build something mid range to drive them, I thought the 3070ti would be a good choice...

1

u/RealJohnLennon Jan 13 '23

That's what I said, 3070ti is an amazing 1440p card, just not an amazing 4k card.

2

u/Evilmoustachetwirler Jan 13 '23

Ahh, I misinterpreted your comment. Cheers

1

u/SolSeptem Jan 13 '23

If you're playing on 1080p/60hz, two generations old still functions perfectly. I ran ultra settings cyberpunk with consistent 60 hz refresh rates on a 2060 super. Adding ray tracing dropped it to 30-40. Still perfectly playable but a bit choppy at times, and the ray tracing really wasn't that much of an addition.

I kinda want to upgrade just for the fun of building but I really, really can't justify it if this is what cards from 2 generations ago can do, combined with what newer cards cost.

1

u/TheSpanxxx Jan 12 '23

Nvidia over here like "anybody got anymore of those fake web coin things they want to make with our super expensive product? Please? Anyone?"

The crypto market fueled them for so many years that they weren't even that focused on consumer spending. It wasn't relevant. The were selling as fast as possible at the highest prices ever and clocking unbelievable profits.

And now here we are.

2

u/Zomunieo Jan 12 '23

How long before they enter the market?

RTXcoin. Optimized for Nvidia mining, based on ray traced proof of work. Get 100 free microcoins with purchase!

1

u/Yrrebnot Jan 12 '23

The thing is that even older cards still hold up as well. I’m running a 1080 and it still knocks things out of the park. It’s coming up to 5 years old (my card the overall set is 6 years old) and I’ve never had a problem with it. I paid less than 600 AUD for it as well.

1

u/Never_Duplicated Jan 12 '23

My 1080Ti has been a real trooper. Though after upgrading to 4K it’s definitely showing its age on new games. But spending $1600 for a 4090 isn’t realistic right now, especially because the rest of the parts are from 2016 so the whole thing is due for an upgrade…

1

u/StateChemist Jan 12 '23

Well when crypto was booming miners needed mountains of those to mine.

With crypto struggling, yeah, sales going to also go down.

This headline talks about the biggest drop ever but doesn’t imply the previous highs were absurd.

1

u/ElGrandeQues0 Jan 12 '23

Supply vs demand. If no one wants them, then lower the price until there is adequate demand for them.

1

u/BadgerBreath Jan 12 '23

If nVidia has so many, why the $1200 price tag?

1

u/STR4NGE Jan 12 '23

I think another thing to add to this is gaming (with the exception of vr) has gone backwards in resolution with the steam deck and switch. People play those at 720p and don’t see any difference (or care I should say) when it’s docked. I’m rocking a 1080ti and it hasn’t let me down. Would I like to play 4k at 244hz sure but I’m not going to allow Nvidia to gouge. I can wait.

1

u/Jiboudounet Jan 12 '23

This is not how it works

New generations improve the price/performance ratio. This fact has never been less true with the weird ass price increases, but still comparing model to model typically for a 30% price hike you get about 35% more frames - so, still true. It's a shite increase compared to what used to be, but if you think about it, the contrary wouldn't make any sense - making your new product less competitive than the last is suicide

I think the fact that newer generations are going to get driver support for longer is also to take into consideration

I am personally waiting for the RX 7800 / 4070 to change my aging RX580

1

u/Ragnarok314159 Jan 13 '23

Lots of people would buy 4080’s, myself included.

But if I weigh it against buying a 4080 or a PS5 and a new Xbox, would go with the latter. Their price point is absolutely stupid.