Will GPUs eventually cost less than an arm and a leg?

 GPUs are often one of the most expensive parts of any computer. As I mentioned before, some GPUs can easily cost more than half what your custom pc will cost. This might be due to the fact that often than not we associate them with the ability to run older releases to run extremely well, and that most modern games often have the most recent graphics card to be its recommended requirement to enjoy the game. Thankfully in the near future, GPUs as a whole will become a lot more affordable for the average consumer. This mainly has to do with overcoming the chip shortage sparked by the COVID pandemic, Moore's Law, and the way graphics are implemented into most games today. I will be discussing those three topics in hopes of predicting that they will cost an arm rather than an arm and a leg.

With the chip shortage that occurred from the COVID pandemic as well as trade relations with China and the United States, anything that has the potential to process data has been very expensive. Obviously, graphics cards fell victim to this as the latest graphics cards can easily range from $600 to even almost $2000. This resulted in graphics cards being harder to obtain for average consumers. If there was a sweet deal on one of them, chances are it was already sold out due to people setting up bots to automatically pay for them once they were available to sell. Officials from Intel stated that we are somewhat halfway through this shortage and will eventually be over with it by around 2024-2025. Once the number of chips meets the demand we can see an eventual decrease in price for these graphics cards. Not to mention other forms of electronics and even cars will also see an eventual decrease in price as well since the access to them will be able to meet demands. The latest releases of graphics cards will still cost a lot, but chances are they wouldn't be as expensive as it was during the shortage. Also, you would have a higher chance of obtaining them since they wouldn't be as scarce.

Moore's law plays with this idea too since its principle is that the transistors on the chips will double, but the price will be cut in half for acquiring them. This is due to the access we have to the materials to produce the chips will be more available and that as we continue research on how to develop them, we will find more efficient ways to produce them. There is also the caveat that it will eventually end since we simply cannot produce chips that are small enough to continue multiple transistors for them to be effectively cooled. This may result in graphics cards and other products that use chips to stagnant in development as there really isn't much that we can improve upon them.

The video games of today are almost breathtaking. It's so crazy how we were able to develop from the simple pixels from the early games to the 80s to the realistic visuals that were created today. However, a noticeable trend amongst games that I've noticed recently is that the graphics settings for most modern games don't really deviate. Most games on the lowest of settings still look amazing visually and their ultra settings really just add some eye candy to your experience. As I mentioned in my article regarding the financing of gaming computers, I also mentioned that the most popular games of today are able to run on almost anything. This might have to do with international markets as most countries around the world really don't have the financial access to the latest graphics cards, so they will often use cards that were used a generation or two ago. This makes sense in a business way of thinking since the more people that have access to your game, the more revenue will come in. This may result in most AAA companies releasing new games with aim of connecting to those markets, which will result in a decrease in the required specs for a game.

Now while the three things I mentioned are positives and are most likely going to be trends in the near future, there are still some things we will be uncertain of. Inflation of currency will definitely be a factor to consider as the dollar loses its value as time goes on. Not to mention we have to focus on global politics to ensure that trade disagreements will be less likely if we want to ensure that graphics cards will become cheaper. Since those things are uncertain we can sprinkle in some optimism in hopes things get better. Till then, we just have to hope that the three trends that I mention will ensure pc gaming will become more available to the everyday person.

PC Pete