Why Do Graphics Cards Cost So Much?

Tamor writes "As an avid PC games player I'm locked into the perpetual hardware upgrade cycle like everyone else, but one thing really irks me. While other hardware has come down in price, graphics card pricing has spiralled beyond belief. Not only are graphics cards usually the single most expensive item in a gaming PC, they don't seem to be subject to the usual market forces. Instead of new generation cards forcing down the price of old cards, the old cards are simply phased out, and the likes of nVidia have a range wide enough to keep the high-end cards at the same prices for the forseeable future.

Why is this? Why does a top of the range graphics card cost so much more than an entire PS2 or X-Box system? Is it the lack of competition in the market following the demise of 3DFX or are there other forces at work. What do slashdotters thing about this pricing?"

Comments

Ask Slashdot == Crackhead Form

[bellings]

What do slashdotters thing about this pricing?

Frankly, I think that you are smoking waaaaay too much crack.

The price on the high end of the consumer market has slowly crept up in the last five years, from about $200 for the top-of-the-line 3dfx Voodoo when it came out, to about $300 for the top-of-the-line nVidia GForce 4 today.

But on the low end, the prices are as cheap as ever, while the performance on the low end is simply incredible. A GeForce4MX for $75 today is going to be faster than the best $250 card you could buy two years ago.

There are two reason why you can't walk into BestBuy and get an old TNT2 Ultra for $35. First, because just handling quality control and returns makes it not worth their time to sell you a card that cheap. Second, because despite the fact that the TNT2 was fair to decent two years ago, it is just butt-slow by comparison today. The only people buying boxed 3D cards are gamers, and they're just too smart to do something that stupid.

If you want to see how performance has improved in the last few years, check out this Tom's Hardware guide to VGA cards. And you're asking why someone wouldn't sell you one of the cards near the bottom of the chart? The question you should be asking is what kind of moron would be stupid enough to buy one of them?

Look at what goes into it

[Raetsel]

First, the (GeForce 4 Ti | Radeon 9700 | Matrox Parhelia) chip is very complex. The Pentium 4 has about 55 million transistors on it. Compare that with (approximate numbers, of course):

• 63 Million -- (GeForce 4 Ti)
• 80 Million -- (Parhelia)
• 110 Million -- (Radeon 9700)

Damn hard chips to make, even if they're not running at GHz speeds.

Now, about that memory... It's at least DDR in most cases (like my GeForce 4 Ti 4200), and runs at much higher speeds than motherboard RAM. 300 MHz (actual!), or "600 MHz DDR" in some cases. That's special stuff -- and expensive.

You're putting 128 MB of that on an add-in card, as much memory for video as I had in my entire computer last year! (Damn...)

Now, about those prices. A mid-range P-4 (2.4 GHz, 133 MHz QDR FSB) runs about $190. Top-of-the-line DDR memory isn't that bad, figure $75 for that part.

190 + 75 = $ 265

No, I don't think modern video card prices are out of line. As (enthusiasts | gamers) we're on the cutting edge, and it costs to be there.

The scary part is that I'm very seriously considering an All-in-Wonder Radeon 9700 for the new computer I'm building my wife. I keep waiting to see what becomes of nVidia's NV30... but if I don't see anything by early December, I'm going with ATI.

God, I'm a nut. Oh well, it drives the economy.