When I started getting into the world of hardware, graphics cards had, at best, a single slot heatsink with two fans. Now we have coolers with three or four PCI slots with three fans or even some models with four. I even remember my Gigabyte GTX 770 Windforce3X with blue LEDs that was funny and now, to look at the graphics card you have to wear sunglasses.
Please, graphics card manufacturers, stop adding things to them
Without a doubt the product for which worse the years are passing it is for graphics cards. You are have greatly increased their volume and, consequently, their weight. True, this increase implies more power, be careful, even without so much power and with better game optimizations, we could live.
Already in case graphics cards have become a luxury item, with unrealistic prices. But it is that he problem is accentuated with the additions of manufacturer customizations of graphics cards. By making eye-catching products, what is achieved is make the final product more and more expensive, making it inaccessible to many users.
We started the thing off with a bit of RGB and now, the amount of RGB from a graphics card is mind blowing. Later, some models for having large heatsinks, they started adding the backplate. This element was designed to prevent the graphics card from bending and improve cooling, something unrealistic, since the one who suffers the most from the weight is the PCIe port. In the end, it is very rare to see a graphics card without this element.
The extravagance that is coming are the LCD screens integrated into the graphics card. If I remember correctly, the first to implement it was KFA2 (Galax) on the GTX 1080 Ti HoF. So it was a simple digital display without color that showed the frequency and the temperature (and I think little else). Now LCD screens are added that allow customization and a thousand more stories, for what?
A whole set of elements that only serve to make more expensive, already in itself (sorry if I repeat myself) expensive graphics cards. As I have seen before, what starts out for very high-end models ends up expanding to the high-end and mid-range.
If you are poor, play on consoles or in the cloud
I believe that we must begin to reflect deeply on where we are moving. It doesn’t make sense that entry-level graphics cards have a price of 300 euros, at least. It starts to look like a way to exclude certain users from the PC gaming segment and send them to play on consoles or in the cloud.
I like to play on PC, the last console I had was the first PlayStation and since then, I have only played on PC. But I feel that we are going to a market where if you do not have 2000-3000 euros to set up a gaming computer, you have no place. They throw you headlong into buying a PS5 or Xbox Series X or making use of services like GeForce Now.
I want for the record that I have nothing against consoles and those who play on them, it is as legal as playing on PC. Everyone has their preferences and I understand whoever says they play on a console because they can’t afford to spend a lot of money on a computer to play a decent game.
