One could witness perhaps those moments were delightedly laughing about GPU prices; not anymore. It’s a disaster now, all over the meme, full-blown crises soaring the price for graphics cards above the price point of whole rigs for some people. The bigger tragedy is also, nobody’s laughing about it now.
The tweet seemingly giving a call-back was a trigger to reminisce those times of sadistic pleasure about the GPU prices. But the replies, oh my word, the replies tell a different story altogether. Gamers are really pissed. What else can you expect anyway?
Let’s put it straight. For, say $250, you could get yourself a good enough card, reasonably speaking. Maybe $300, if you wanted something quite special in that price range. Now maybe double, maybe triple the cost. Looking at the high-end stuff-sell a kidney right away. It’s a crazy situation right now; not all of it because of scalping, but definitely a reasonable chunk of it.
Pick your villain: supply chain issues, crypto miners, pandemic shortages, as they all choose to play the role and really contribute to rendering the GPU market into the wasteland it is now. And gamers, sadly, are just there in between looking glumly at their old rigs, contemplating if they’d have an upgrade without taking a second mortgage.
While some cheerleaders in those chat reply chains kept it civil while saying that while prices have come down from peak insanity, that would equally mean little since we’re talking about cards that cost more than next-gen consoles, many others flat out said they’d stick with their outdated hardware until the market itself scaled out.
Then there are those who must be the conspiracy theorists, those firmly convinced that manufacturers are purposely keeping stock low to inflate prices. Others believe it is a part of some unprecedented conspiracy to push gamers towards cloud gaming (LOL good luck with that). Honestly, though, nothing would shock me at this point.
And here we are: GPU purgatory. Prices are still too high, stock is still too low, and gamers are still too frustrated. Will it ever go back? Who knows, but one thing is for sure: There are certainly no more jokes about it.
Perhaps it would be good to look back at this whole mess and laugh about it one day, but, for now, all that is left is weeping over busted, overpriced graphics cards and praying for a miracle-or at least a decent Black Friday sale.
