Only for terrible AAA games. Actual fun games I am fine.

Don't worry, maybe china will flood the market with cheap ram soon or something.

"Good" news is that AI companies killed the gaming upgrade market, so studios will need to target the same hardware for a while. We might even see the come back of the smart tricks to go beyond the hardware limits era.

As a kid I used to basically only play emulator games because I didn't have money for a real gpu. As an adult I basically only play indie games cause AAA games are all soulless trash.

Time to catch up on some older games you missed. More fun for less money.

Any company making games where they're pushing graphics into top graphics card territory for no good gameplay reason can go straight to hell in 2026.

I'll be DEAD and BURIED before I play PC games that require a 1000W PSU-powered graphics card.

Mine don't even show up as minimum. I game on a Thinkpad.
Doesn't keep me from playing those games. Granted, at low settings, 1280x720 resolution and 25 FPS, but the story is still the same.

***still ignores backlog

Huh? Retro GPUs are like the 8800, right? The 1080ti is still pretty new, right?!

This Steam Next Fest killed Unreal Engine for me.

Every single game with that splash screen ended up as a slide show, and not even prettier, I play 15 years old games that look better than most games I saw coming from UE5.

I used to recommend Unreal 4 for everyone, but they are already going for 6 without optimizing the 5.

No need to upgrade, just give a chance to other games, devs and engines that cares for their customers.

I got into Cassette Beasts a while ago and notice all Godot games run well on Steam Deck and my older hardware. Cry Engine looks beautiful and still run well on stuff.

Ok, I'm not a gamer, and I have a real honest question: we had fun with gamesetsin the 90's. We had LAN games in the 2000's, and over Internet quickly after. People were spending hours, days playing. Each new GPU was so much better, sharper pictures, "so realistic", etc.

Are you genuinely having more fun now than with good games from 10years ago? Even 15years ago??

Because it looks like this whole requirements thing is pure marketing, and studios needing to keep selling: "Look, shinier graphics that will make the previous generation of games you loved and found incredibly sharp and detailed when theé came out look mild and of bad quality now!"

Most of the actually good games don't need strong hardware.

Upgrade to Linux to extend the life another ten years.

Nowadays, if it doesn't run on my Steam Deck I'm not playing it 🤷🏼 too many games to play still anyways...

Still can run stardew valley and factorio just fine. But yeah, the prices are crazy. Thankfully indie games are not that demanding.

A house may be large or small; as long as the neighboring houses are likewise small, it satisfies all social requirement for a residence. But let there arise next to the little house a palace, and the little house shrinks to a hut. The little house now makes it clear that its inmate has no social position at all to maintain, or but a very insignificant one; and however high it may shoot up in the course of civilization, if the neighboring palace rises in equal or even in greater measure, the occupant of the relatively little house will always find himself more uncomfortable, more dissatisfied, more cramped within his four walls.

An appreciable rise in wages presupposes a rapid growth of productive capital. Rapid growth of productive capital calls forth just as rapid a growth of wealth, of luxury, of social needs and social pleasures. Therefore, although the pleasures of the labourer have increased, the social gratification which they afford has fallen in comparison with the increased pleasures of the capitalist, which are inaccessible to the worker, in comparison with the stage of development of society in general. Our wants and pleasures have their origin in society; we therefore measure them in relation to society; we do not measure them in relation to the objects which serve for their gratification. Since they are of a social nature, they are of a relative nature.

kmarx wagelabor and capital

I remember thinking that the 3090 is ridiculously expensive. Today, a 5080 bought for almost as much seems reasonable.

We are being conditioned.

All part of the plan, so you subscribe to game streaming.

7900s, 4090s, and 5090s will become “forbidden technology” like you see in post apocalyptic fantasy where tech is magic. But also “idoocracy cyberpunk,” as human production is diverted to launching GPUs in space which engineers… awkwardly task with busywork.

You think I’m being hyperbolic. I am not.

software that uses excessive amounts of resources is usually poorly written and shouldn't be used in the first place, so don't worry, you're not missing out on anything important :)

Don't worry, gpus don't have much growth anymore anyway, next generation of cards will be incremental. The green company has not been able to truely innovate since the 1080ti so anything you get now will be relevant for a very very very long time. Hence why they've had to change to enterprise customers to keep line going up with empty over hyped promises in ai. It will come to an end when shareholders demand returns on investment. Pop.