Stagnant PC market?

Jonny7

Anyone else agree?

The hazy days last year.. an AMD 955 for 130 euros even, a 4890 touching 130 euros.. 4 gigs of ddr2 ram less than 40 euros.. the i5 750 for almost 150 euros.. jesus even a club3d 5850 could be snatched up for a touch over 200 euros at the time if you were fast enough

Tis all gone up, and nothing really ground breaking has come forward

Solitaire

Everyone's waiting on a) the big anti-monopoly courts taking Samsung/Hynix/Elpida etc. to the cleaners for their insane price-fixing, and b) for the next-gen hardware to pop up in 2011. Some pretty compelling stuff is waiting in the wings - forget HD6870, think Fusion and Bulldozer.

cherryghost

To top things off, there is a lack of Semi-conductors available at the moment for companies. It's expected to scarecly available for the next 2 months at least, which will keep prices high also, for the time being

deadbloke

I'm saving for a self build, with a view to starting at the end of summer-ish. Given the way the market has gone/is going, would I be better off putting off the built till next year?

TheDoc

I always find that trying to speculate in the pc market to be the most pot luck thing ever.

I've had a built in mind now for some time, just a few components. It originally was set at around €250 but it looks like illl have to pay about €300 - €320.

I'm a bit impatient when it comes to pc parts, id rather pay the extra 50 euro to get it now, then hold off a few months and HOPE prices come down.

It looks like everything has leveled off for the next 12 months, so I'll probbly go ahead with my build as soon as this poxy job pays me

lmimmfn

The problem is the games, theres no games out that require anything more than an i5/i7 and a 5850 or 470 to run at max( ok so Crysis doesnt run at 60FPS on max with that but the game is a few years old now ). Even a nvidia 260 or 4870/4890 are sufficient to run 95% of games at max.

The only notable new game that pushes the system is Metro 2033 and tbh it runs like junk with all DX11 stuff on, but looks no different in DX10 and runs at twice the speed.

All these console ports means its pointless upgrading a PC beyond the above spec. I might get another 5850 when i get Eyefinity running on my 3 screens but other than that i wont be upgrading for another 2 years.

Next years Sandy Bridge doesnt interest me in the least, im getting fed up with intel ******* around with the sockets and trying to force people into 1.5-2 year upgrade cycles and it having an integrated POS gfx core is the biggest waste of heat and money ever and intels lame attempt at taking market share from ATI/Nvidia

Venom

lmimmfn wrote: »

The problem is the games, theres no games out that require anything more than an i5/i7 and a 5850 or 470 to run at max( ok so Crysis doesnt run at 60FPS on max with that but the game is a few years old now ). Even a nvidia 260 or 4870/4890 are sufficient to run 95% of games at max.

The only notable new game that pushes the system is Metro 2033 and tbh it runs like junk with all DX11 stuff on, but looks no different in DX10 and runs at twice the speed.

All these console ports means its pointless upgrading a PC beyond the above spec. I might get another 5850 when i get Eyefinity running on my 3 screens but other than that i wont be upgrading for another 2 years.

Next years Sandy Bridge doesnt interest me in the least, im getting fed up with intel ******* around with the sockets and trying to force people into 1.5-2 year upgrade cycles and it having an integrated POS gfx core is the biggest waste of heat and money ever and intels lame attempt at taking market share from ATI/Nvidia

+1

The games market sadly is driven by outdated tech such as the PS3 and Xbox 360 so until the next generation of both consoles don't expect to see a huge jump in PC requirements. This is good from a hardware point of view in that you don't need to spend crazy money to play the latest games but bad in that game innovation is severely limited.

K.O.Kiki

You guys need to focus more on recognising good game design and forget the old "new technology = better game" mantra

Effluo

TheDoc wrote: »

I always find that trying to speculate in the pc market to be the most pot luck thing ever.

But I think we can all agree that what's on offer today in terms of price isn't very good value, considering what was available a year ago at the same price range certainly some component markets have become less competitive.


ATi have gone from sensible gpu's with great prices to gpu's with rubbish features and terrible prices.

I guess it would have been hard to figure out a year ago, but what nVidia could really do with is some cost effective competition for the 5770 and 5750, this would make some good value gpu's again.

Solitaire

Or even the HD5830, which has positioned itself badly and unlike its cousins can't even use the "cheap" or "energy efficient" excuses to justify performance fail

Rsaeire

Solitaire wrote: »

Or even the HD5830, which has positioned itself badly and unlike its cousins can't even use the "cheap" or "energy efficient" excuses to justify performance fail

I agree. I still find it amazing that the 5830 requires more power at idle and load than its big brother, the 5850.

Talking about high prices, I'm apprehensive about going the SSD route yet, since prices are still sky high and with no end to such prices in sight. In addition, as SSD technology is in constant flux, with Sata 3.0 (6 Gbps) connectivity soon to be commonplace, it would be better to at least wait until things settle somewhat before buying an SSD. While I know the computer industry is changing all the time, when it comes to SSDs, the goal-posts always seem to be changing more than any other segment.

the_syco

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

You guys need to focus more on recognising good game design and forget the old "new technology = better game" mantra

Expensive new shiny toy comes out on market = old shiny toys drop in price.

cherryghost

well my mate picked up a 4890 on pixmania the other day for 140. lucky i'd say!