När vi står på branten av en ny generation grafikkort från Nvidia och AMD har en välbekant diskussion slagit rot på nätet – är den tidigare generationens GPU:er fortfarande värd att köpa när något nyare, glänsande och kraftfullare är i horisonten?
Jag kan reda ut det för dig: eh, ja.
Argumentet är detsamma som för de senaste generationssläppen – att det är meningslöst att köpa en produkt på gränsen till att den blir "föråldrad" och att priserna ofta inte faller tillräckligt för att göra den värd pengarna. där is logiken i detta argument, men det tar inte hänsyn till ett stort problem: GPU-marknaden har inte följt logiken på länge.
Åtminstone inte på de sätt som betyder något. Ja, i år som gått kunde du gå ner till din lokala fysiska datorbutik och ta ett nytt grafikkort med relativ lätt, vare sig det var en helt ny modell på MSRP eller den tidigare generationen som den ersatte till en välsmakande rabatt, men de senaste åren har bevisat att du helt enkelt inte kan förutsäga framtiden för en marknad, GPU eller annat.
When GPUs like the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 and RTX 2080 were first released, plenty of PC gamers and computing enthusiasts believed an upgrade from the previous generation couldn't be justified by the insanely high prices, and that waiting for the 3000 series to drop was the more sensible option – and then all hell broke loose.
Historien kan upprepa sig
Sällsynta Gundam-tema RTX 3080 GPU:er som byggdes in i en gruvrigg orsakade uppståndelse online. (Bildkredit: I_Leak_VN)
The Ampere series of cards like the GeForce RTX 3060 had a divisive pricepoint – some finding it to be reasonable, while other lamented the apparent death of affordable graphics cards – but a terrible cocktail of word issues also made them almost impossible to find.
The Cryptomarket saw a boom in Ethereum, which made the cards very attractive to miners who snapped them up in bulk for use in cryptomining farms, while the Covid-19 pandemic caused supply chain issues and a chip shortage that affected almost everything in the tech world, from computing components to cars and appliances.
All this scarcity inflated the price of GPUs to wild levels, with the GeForce RTX 3080 hitting an average resale price of almost x3 times its original MSRP during the height of the Great GPU Shortage. AMD fared a little better, though even Team Red was still blighted by shortages and scalpers.
One difference between how the two companies approached the situation was in regards to cryptomining, with Nvidia eventually re-releasing updated models of almost its entire Ampere series equipped with anti-mining preventatives.
These LHR (low-hashrate) cards weren’t completely uncrackable, but they may have helped dissuade folks from snapping up mountains of RTX 3060s. On the other hand, AMD acknowledged the situation and stated that once a customer buys a GPU, they’re free to do what they like with it.
En stor fråga är dock att denna knapphet inte bara påverkade den generationen av grafikkort – den ökade också priset på nästan alla grafikkort på marknaden. Argumentet att vänta tills nästa generations grafikkort släpptes för att knäppa upp en billigare, äldre modell eller en ganska prissatt ny release försvann helt nästan över en natt.
It's your money, your requirements and your choice
Varför är hon så glad? Vem vet, men jag slår vad om att hennes GPU gör precis vad hon behöver den till. (Bildkredit: Shutterstock)
Will this happen again? It's hard to say.
The shortage was caused by a variety of issues that just happened to occur at the same time, but should Covid-19 cause more supply chain constraints then it's likely that both Lovelace and RDNA3 GPUs could see their prices start to skyrocket due to demand. The crypto market also has every likelihood to recover given its volatility, so you shouldn’t feel like we’re out of the woods just yet.
I do have a simpler argument in all of this though: it's worth buying a new GPU if it’s worth it till dig .
Older GPUs still very much have a place in the market right now. You only have to look at the Steam Hardware Survey to see how many gamers are still using cards that are several generations old at this point, and depending on the games you play, it's likely you don’t actually need an especially powerful graphics card. Most first-person shooters and battle-royale style games intentionally keep the system requirements low to attract more players for example.
I wrote a piece several months ago off the back of the RTX 3070 Ti getting poor reviews. It was marked down for its price and performance, but the joy it has bought me is beyond value. I won’t feel bad for my choices given the circumstances given graphics cards were harder to find than gold dust. Would I have preferred an RTX 3090? Sure, but did I need one? Absolutely not.
Eftersom levnadskostnaderna blir allt högre i många länder runt om i världen är det helt enkelt ingen idé att uppgradera till "nästa stora sak" bara för att göra det, och både Ampere och RDNA2 GPU:er kommer fortfarande att vara relevanta och kapabla i flera år framöver.
If you see an especially good deal on a cheap graphics card in the coming weeks, don’t let early adopters try and convince you to wait for Lovelace or RDNA3 unless you’re happy to do so – we simply don’t know what the market will look like when they launch.