PCs and Steam: Thread 01

[MartyG]

October 13, 2022 release date, missed that at first - so three weeks away (just over), for the RTX 4090.

Digital Foundry has one, so presumably, these are with reviewers already, they put up a little teaser.

[fishbowlhead]

Yikes that 4090 is a figural and literal beasty.

[MartyG]

I've had time to reflect on this and I've decided I'm not impressed. Tucking into the specs, it's becoming clear that NVIDIA is trying to pull the wool over people's eyes: the RTX 4080 12GB is the RTX 4070.

The specifications are just too different, the only reason is so that the price can be hiked up on it by calling it a 4080.

[huxley]

Portal RTX DLC free in November to current owners

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2012840/Portal_with_RTX/

[MartyG]

So the Ryzen 7XXX series launched today and, well they're all still in stock and available to buy.

I think that exemplifies that the ability to charge massive prices for new PC tech will be a real struggle right now - the last time the chips sold out in minutes. With no crypto and the scalping market being pretty dead, I think NVIDIA will also struggle to sell the RTX40XX series at the prices they've set.

Whichever way you slice it, and no matter how much NVIDIA try to justify it, there's a limit to what people will spend on a card and £899 is well above it for the vast majority of PC gamers, the market that's left for the tech companies to sell to.

I think that the cards may eventually sell out of their initial allocation, but I reckon they'll be on the shelves longer than the 30XX launch. I also think you'd be mad to spend £900 on what is really an RTX 4070.



Not sure what the numbers were at 2pm as I forgot to check, but still plenty as you can see. And that's just on eBuyer.

[Brad]

Agreed

[briareos_kerensky]

More than price what keeps me from AMD's and nVidia's latest (and that goes for Intel too), is power consumption. The 7xxx series goes up to 200W, and the 40xx series starts from a declared 300+ watts range. All that power requires cooling, so more power for cooling systems too and more waste heat.

[MartyG]

Jensen Huang was complaining in a shareholder meeting as the crypto market was crashing, that the margins on their products had dropped from 70% to 62%. More recently that margin has dropped to 45%.

The costs might have risen for NVIDIA, but the prices on those cards are way in excess of those increases. A 45% margin is massive.

[Neon Ignition]

It's and OTT push particularly at a bad time. Even if the pandemic and cost of living crisis weren't crippling households and things were prosperous, we're at a juncture where the software coming out still runs decently on cards as low as the GTX9XX and GTX10XX series. The 40XX series is a premium level that delivers neither value or any tangible benefit for the vast majority of people. If we're still going to be getting games designed with PS4 in mind in 2024 they should start reconsidering the cards beyond that too at consumer level, the drive to things like high frame rates and 8K+ isn't fast enough to warrant the pricing and tech direction NVidia is currently chasing.

[MartyG]

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X AM5 Processor 1539350 96 in stock
AMD Ryzen 9 7900X AM5 Processor 1539349 193 in stock
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X AM5 Processor 1539348 288 in stock

So, since I screen-grabbed that yesterday ...

7 7950X sold
4 7900X sold
3 7700X sold

Flying off the shelves. Probably doesn't help that the cheapest mobo is current £329 and DDR5 is still at a premium. Add in an AIO cooler and maybe having to upgrade your PSU, it's definitely not encouraging buyers.

[eastyy]

I keep seeing visa and articles on how graphics cards are dropping in price but I look on Europe and UK sites and I keep thinking....not dropping enough

[dataDave]

It's and OTT push particularly at a bad time. Even if the pandemic and cost of living crisis weren't crippling households and things were prosperous, we're at a juncture where the software coming out still runs decently on cards as low as the GTX9XX and GTX10XX series. The 40XX series is a premium level that delivers neither value or any tangible benefit for the vast majority of people. If we're still going to be getting games designed with PS4 in mind in 2024 they should start reconsidering the cards beyond that too at consumer level, the drive to things like high frame rates and 8K+ isn't fast enough to warrant the pricing and tech direction NVidia is currently chasing.

I'd love to be able to play Cyberpunk at a locked 4K/120 or 1440p/165, but it's just not worth the €400 upgrade for that alone.

That's literally the only reason I'd want to upgrade the 3080. We'll see. I might buckle if I can actually add one to a cart somewhere.

[Brad]

Too many artefacts with all these upscalers. I just stick to what the card can actually do without all the fake frame stuff. Nice an clean!

[MartyG]

I might buckle if I can actually add one to a cart somewhere.

Don't think there's much danger of lack of availability compared to last time.

Looking at the Ryzen 7XXX availability

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X AM5 Processor 1539350 89 in stock
AMD Ryzen 9 7900X AM5 Processor 1539349 193 in stock
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X AM5 Processor 1539348 285 in stock

So, since I grabbed the numbers 5 days ago ...

7 7950X sold
0 7900X sold
3 7700X sold

Of course, it's possible that they've restocked, but I think that's a little unlikely.

[MartyG]

Amazon Prime gaming titles you can pick up on PC if you have prime are out for October 2022, and are as follows:

Fallout 76 (via Microsoft Store)
Total War: Warhammer II (via Epic Store)
Hero's Hour
Loom
Glass Masquerade: Origins
Horace

and Middle-earth: Shadow of War should be added later today (not currently claimable on the link below).


Go **here** to get them