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I am really, truly tired of graphics card prices.
Don’t get me wrong, Ilovethe NVIDIARTX 4090as a thing, a feat of engineering.
The performance it delivers is truly breathtaking, even if its size is equal to its power.
But it’s also insanely expensive.
Even more so in the UK where I am.
The same applies to the RTX 4080, and even AMD’s newest range of high-end Radeon cards.
Albeit they’re at least more affordable than NVIDIAs.
And the new $800RTX 4070 Tiisn’t close to being a solution.
Its popularity alone means there’s little need to consider it.
I feel like a similar situation is in play with NVIDIA graphics cards, too.
AMD has plenty of die-hard fans, but NVIDIA is the clear market leader.
So where’s the motivation to try and make these things cheaper?
Except, it’s not.
As of now, there’s no RTX 4050 or 4060 series for desktop users.
The RTX 4070 Ti is the ‘lowest’ end new card available and it’s $800 at least.
So buyers on tighter budgets either have to get something older, or used.
The same with AMD’s latest high-end Radeon cards.
Or, they could buy from Intel.
Sure, it can’t touch the RTX 4090, 4080, or even the 4070 Ti.
Not in gaming performance at least.
Hell, it can even just about handle ray tracing at times.
It’s also every bit as modern as the 40 series.
Besides ray tracing, one of the standout features is the hardware AV1 encoder.
All Intel Arc desktop GPUs have this, right down to the circa $150 A380.
But for modern games, things are generally fine.
I like an underdog anyway, but I have a real appreciation for what Intel is trying to do.
Long may it continue.
No matter how much I love the RTX 4090.
