The card market continues to change, and the $500 card has once again become the focus. In the past, cards like the Nvidia GTX 1080 and AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT have excellent performance and allow players to enjoy 1440p or even 4K games at reasonable...
The card market continues to change, and the $500 card has once again become the focus. In the past, cards like the Nvidia GTX 1080 and AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT have excellent performance and allow players to enjoy 1440p or even 4K games at reasonable prices. However, the market has changed, and now cards over $1,000 have become necessities, which is worth a re-examination.
Many players do not need up to $1,000 cards, such as the RTX 5080 ultra-high settings and ray tracing, which are not required for most players. According to Steam hardware survey this year, the most common card is still mid-level models such as RTX 4060, and the screens exceeding 50% of the player still have a 1080p resolution. Only a small number of consumers seeking the highest performance, but manufacturers focus on small players, resulting in other consumers having to pay high prices to buy hardware that they don't need.
Nvidia has been increasing its price card since 2018, normalizing the originally seemingly extreme prices. The RTX 2080 Ti broke through the $1,000 junction and promoted it on the grounds of ray tracing and AI upgrades. However, the technology was not mature and widely used at that time, and players only prepaid high prices for the future.
Nvidia and AMD have not resisted the price increase after the market changes. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX, although called the Nvidia RTX 4080 alternative, is pushing AMD into the four-digit dollar zone. The price error will not only make players unrestrained in upgrading, but may also make new players afraid of PC games. Because high-performance cards are too expensive, novices will be willing to buy a game host.
Alternative card price certainly causes pressure on the PC assembly ecosystem. If the card costs $1,200, the computer that could solve it within $1,500 is now nearly $2,500 or more. The budget has been improved and changed to games, making the original love of the people a profit of the money.
Therefore, a $500 card should provide excellent 1440p performance and support 4K games under reasonable settings. This price allows players to enjoy high-quality games without having to pay a premium for features that most players will not use. Nvidia, AMD and even Intel should put the focus of design and promotion back to the $500 level, becoming the core of the product line.
I’ve tested multiple GPUs and here’s why $500 cards should be the ones that matter
