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Forget Expensive Video Cards

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the oversimplifications-are-funny dept.

Anonymous Reader writes "Apparently, the $200 in video cards does not produce the difference. While $500 video cards steal the spotlight on review sites and offer the best performance possible for a single gpu, most enthusiasts find the $300 range to be a good balance between price and performance. Today TechArray took a look at the ATI x1900xtx and Nvidia 7900gtx along with the ATI x1800xt and Nvidia 7900gt."

3 of 322 comments (clear)

  1. $300 is not expensive? by suv4x4 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wait a second, since when $300 for a friggin' video card is not expensive? Because there's $500 cards?
    If there were plenty of $2000 video cards, would $1000 be not expensive then?

    Someone's being brainwashed here...

    When a pretty good video card is in the range of $80-$160... now that's more reasonable.

  2. Re:Whatever... by X43B · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "I'm sure the $500 GFX cards only exist to make spending $300 on a single component of a computer seem reasonable."

    I'm sure you are probably joking but I think you nailed it on the head. Having a super expensive card, even if it is a low seller, has many positive benefits.

    1) You will sell some to those who want to be ub3r133t
    2) You get the publicity of being "the best" even if no one actually buys the best
    3) Perhaps most importantly, the "Wendy's Effect". It is oft quoted that no one buys Wendy's triple cheeseburger. Someone at Wendy's decided that offering it was a waste so they removed it. However, this almost immediately reduced the number of double cheeseburgers sold. Apparently when people see that there is something more expensive and more "over the top" they are much more compelled to buy the next lower version than if that same version was the high end.

  3. Cost/Performance Breakdown by Starcub · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I remember when the V1 3d cards were first ccame into the market. They were easily top of the line and the best cards went for about $200. When the next generation V2's came out, I pre-purchased the very 1st V2 SLI card (actually 2 cards bridged together) at the incredibly expensive price of about $600. It was alot, but the card literally quadrupled the performance of the V1 I had and the price very quickly fell another $200 before the V3's were out. Today you pay $500 for a top of the line single GPU card that doesn't even double the previous generation's performance. It seems video cards are becoming a disproportionally expensive component of the PC and just aren't providing the same value.