Op-ed: Slowed manufacturing advancements are upending the way tech progresses.

"These price increases have multiple intertwining causes, some direct and some less so: inflation, pandemic-era supply crunches, the unpredictable trade policies of the Trump administration, and a gradual shift among console makers away from selling hardware at a loss or breaking even in the hopes that game sales will subsidize the hardware. And you never want to rule out good old shareholder-prioritizing corporate greed.

But one major factor, both in the price increases and in the reduction in drastic “slim”-style redesigns, is technical: the death of Moore’s Law and a noticeable slowdown in the rate at which processors and graphics chips can improve."

  • Skyline969@lemmy.caEnglish
    3·
    6 months ago

    I mean, for the price of a mid range graphics card I can still buy a whole console. GPU prices are ridiculous. Never mind everything else on top of that.

    • TurboWafflz@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      6 months ago

      Yeah but remember to factor in that you probably already need a normal computer for non-game purposes so if you also use that for games you only have to buy one device not two

      • Fondots@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        6 months ago

        I just built a PC after not having a computer for about 5+ years.

        Built it for games, did not feel like I was missing out on anything in particular except games by not having a computer. There’s a lot of things I’d rather use a computer for but these days most of what I used to do on a computer can be done just fine from a phone or tablet.

        During those 5 or so years, I maybe needed to use a computer about a dozen times, and if my wife didn’t have a computer I could have just swung by a library for a bit to take care of it.

        • taladar@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          01·
          6 months ago

          To me tablets feel like the most useless devices ever invented. Too large to carry around with you but just as stupidly limited as a phone compared to a real computer where you can actually automate some of your tasks and type on a decent keyboard and have a decent sized screen that doesn’t ruin your wrists with the weight of holding it up.

    • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      1·
      6 months ago

      GPU prices are ridiculous, but those GPUs are also ridiculously more powerful than anything in any console.

      The rough equivalent to a PS5Pro’s GPU component is a … not current gen, not last gen, but the gen before that… find AMD’s weakest GPU model in the 6 series, the RX 6600, and that is roughly the same performance as the GPU performance of a PS5Pro.

      The Switch 2 may have an interesting, custom mobile grade Nvidia APU, but at this point, its not out yet, no benchmarks, etc.

      Oh right also: If GPU prices for PCs remain elevated… well, any future consoles will also have elevated prices. Perhaps not to the same degree, but again, that will be because a console will be basically fairly low tier if you compared it to the range of PC hardware… and console mfgs can subsidize console costs with game sales… and they get discounts on ordering the components that go into their consoles by ordering in huge bulk volumes.

      • Skyline969@lemmy.caEnglish
        1·
        6 months ago

        Along with paying for multiplayer I get access to a large catalog of games as well as additional games every month. Yes they’re inaccessible if I stop paying, but that’s not really a big deal. Even all that aside, I pretty much play single player games anyway.

        Also, when a game comes out I know it’ll work. No driver bugs, no messing with settings, no checking minimum and recommended specs, it just works. And it works the same for everyone on the platform. I don’t have any desire to spend a bunch of time tweaking settings to get things just right, only to have the game crash for some esoteric reason or another.

      • ano_ba_to@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        1·
        6 months ago

        If I’m building a PC for gaming, I wouldn’t limit myself to $600. Would you? I’ve never not had PCs or laptops since I first had one in the 90s. I’m building again now to go Linux. 7800xt and 2 Tb SSD cost as much as a PS5 Pro in my part of the world. I only started getting into consoles because I can afford it now, and for physical games. I don’t really get why today it’s PC vs. consoles. I was into PCs but never judged consoles as inferior, just different.

      • Grangle1@lemm.eeEnglish
        11·
        6 months ago

        “Pretty capable” will get you dunked on in the PC gaming world. For what I’ve seen PC gamers actually recommend I could buy 2-3 modern consoles.