GPU sales then (1999) and now

[green.pixel]

https://www.pcworld.com/article/359...ng-the-way-and-amd-doing-pretty-good-too.html

JPR reported hearty unit sales of 11.5 million for the quarter. That’s still far shy of the 114 million graphics cards that shipped in 1999. That was before Intel began integrating graphics cores into every CPU, and before laptops began to grow in popularity.

So, what do we have: they sold much more in a time of much smaller gaming market than in a year where ostensibly everyone and their dog is gaming and when the market is vastly larger. In this year they will sell what, at best 50% less compared to 20 years ago, although at higher prices and, much more importantly, to significantly less people.

Is this a sign that PC gaming market was in a way in much better shape back then?

 

[manux]

https://www.pcworld.com/article/359...ng-the-way-and-amd-doing-pretty-good-too.html



So, what do we have: they sold much more in a time of much smaller gaming market than in a year where ostensibly everyone and their dog is gaming and when the market is vastly larger. In this year they will sell what, at best 50% less compared to 20 years ago, although at higher prices and, much more importantly, to significantly less people.

Is this a sign that PC gaming market was in a way in much better shape back then?

I doubt pc gaming market was in better shape back then. In old times people/companies had to buy a deskop with separate gpu to do any productivity work and laptop market was miniscule. Those folks who don't game today get desktop with igpu/laptop with apu/tablet/phone instead of desktop with dedicated gpu.

What was the size of pure pc gaming market 20 years ago? Another thing is gpus used to get old and slow in a year and upgrade cycle was something completely different than today. If someone bought 1080ti 3.5 years back they have little reason to upgrade today other than wanting ray tracing. I had voodoo1, sli voodoo2, tnt2, kyro2 and I know many my of my friends kept updating pretty much yearly their hw much longer than I did. During voodoo times I also had separate matrox cards for 2d. kyro2 was such a great card for unreal tournament and then doom3 game out forcing another upgrade cycle and so on.

 

[eastmen]

We built my wife a ryzen 2300g and she is getting 60fps on fortnite and apex (Which we play with our nieces and nephews) and plays civ just fine.

she is getting my old vega 56 but in all honesty she doesn't need it. what she plays 90% of the time is civ and it runs at 4k for her.

 

[PSman1700]

The days of having to buy a new gpu every 6 months are kinda over yes (90’s/2000’s)

 

[eastmen]

The days of having to buy a new gpu every 6 months are kinda over yes (90’s/2000’s)

yup , i always bought every year or so but now i went vega 56 to 3080 . I don't think its worth buying something new every year.

Esp now that it seems we went from 1080p to 1440p and just went wider

 

[swaaye]

I think the last card I swapped out after only a year was a Radeon 8500 LE. Those cards were pretty awful, with shit drivers and motherboard compatibility issues, but it had been only $90.

There certainly still is a large group of PC dudes out there who absolutely must have the latest thing and likely will pay whatever it takes, considering the shortage of > $700 video cards.