• GreenEngineering3475@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    We really need some competition in the GPU space.

    Mostly in the budget to midrange GPU. Many people don’t have the money to make a decent rig, when GPU prices starts from $300.

    • Alphane Moon@lemmy.worldOPM
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      3 months ago

      I of course agree there is not enough competition in the GPU and that we need more proper regulation (making drivers code public domain 5 years after release, opening up CUDA and NVlink), but I do think there is “hard floor” on budget GPUs.

      This primarily due to inflation and some of the fixed costs inherent to delivering a GPU device to the market.

      I remember back in 2004, my dad bought me 6600 GT for around $230. A great (nominal) price for what was then a solid mindranger. But that being said $230 in 2004 dollar is around $380 in modern 2024 dollars.

      It also seems that with chips being so complicated these days, even a small die with limited memory/features, still has a lot of “fixed” costs around validation, packaging and so on.

      The GPU market is definitely an oligopoly and lacks competition though.