Idiotic tariffs, indifferent retailers, depraved flippers and AI mania are making the simple act of buying a graphics card the defining misery of PC gaming in 2025.
I expanded elsewhere in this post, but basically it’s a combination of:
I do own a laptop I bought in the pandemic which has a 2070 mobile GPU, and between that and my PS5, I am not truly in a rush.
Older hardware is also being price gouged. If I do buy something, I don’t want it to be more than 1 gen old, but at current prices I’d be paying more than the new stuff goes for at MSRP.
I budgeted to be able to buy something good, not just good enough. Since I’m not in a rush, I’m willing to wait and keep trying to buy something closer to top-of-the-line. I can afford scalper prices, but I just refuse to support scalping out of principle.
I budgeted to be able to buy something good, not just good enough.
but those were good, a few years ago. and they are still good. It’s not like performance doubles every 2 or so years, afaik not even near to that. there are a few games from the worst publishers that run garbage on any hardware or only run acceptably on topmost of top tier hardware, but I just ignore the mediocre products of them.
You’re not wrong. I answered in a reply to someone else but I have a gaming laptop with a decent enough GPU to play newer games. Not well, in many cases, but good enough.
It’s just that with prices of everything being so inflated again, I don’t want to pay more for older hardware than it’s worth, especially if it won’t be as significant a step up from what I’m using now.
I expanded elsewhere in this post, but basically it’s a combination of:
I do own a laptop I bought in the pandemic which has a 2070 mobile GPU, and between that and my PS5, I am not truly in a rush.
Older hardware is also being price gouged. If I do buy something, I don’t want it to be more than 1 gen old, but at current prices I’d be paying more than the new stuff goes for at MSRP.
I budgeted to be able to buy something good, not just good enough. Since I’m not in a rush, I’m willing to wait and keep trying to buy something closer to top-of-the-line. I can afford scalper prices, but I just refuse to support scalping out of principle.
but those were good, a few years ago. and they are still good. It’s not like performance doubles every 2 or so years, afaik not even near to that. there are a few games from the worst publishers that run garbage on any hardware or only run acceptably on topmost of top tier hardware, but I just ignore the mediocre products of them.
You’re not wrong. I answered in a reply to someone else but I have a gaming laptop with a decent enough GPU to play newer games. Not well, in many cases, but good enough.
It’s just that with prices of everything being so inflated again, I don’t want to pay more for older hardware than it’s worth, especially if it won’t be as significant a step up from what I’m using now.
Aren’t you letting perfect be the enemy of good here? You are looking for a unicorn and likely will never find it.
I mean, I already have good. I just don’t need to waste money on something I don’t need if it’s not worth it.