I don't know much about the gaming "compute" power here but I believe, or I think, they are seeing that they will hit a wall with diminished return soon or very soon (such as shaders tech). At some point different innovation will have to come along to replacing aging tech, right? I guess ray tracing is what they come up with.
Every successful company is ruthless.
They cant hit a wall soon ,, do you think panel makers and oems sit still, 8k is a year away at most , so shader tech still needs work , and Raytracing is not fully replacing rasterisation in the next decade ,imho.
Dont get me wrong though ,new tech , Innovation and ideas make me smile so im also tempted myself still ,but I await reviews and probably some settling time yet.
To you both, technology always moves along but at an extreme end. The 8k panels are absolutely the toys of the rich. 4k is not even wildly adopted yet, nowhere close. 8k will not be supported in any meaningful way for years. 4k has been around for years and still, it's poorly implemented (only UHD Blu-Rays actually give full uncompressed detail - in the UK at least)
As for RT, I don't call playing 60fps at 1080p a great thing. It doesn't suit twitch gamers, nor does it suit people who have moved up to 1440p or 4k. There is no doubt, RT is an awesome step forward and I am sure Nvidia will bring it to close to us as the time passes. But paying such hideous amounts to play at (max?) 60 fps at HD res? Nah. Not a positive step. It's a backward trek.
I paid a lot for a 4k TV (OLED) 2-3 years ago, but it was working tech without compromise. RT from Nvidia is too early to call working tech (doesn't work at 1440p or 4k as far as I'm concerned). The hardware to deliver such hampered framerates does not justify the price. For uses outside gaming - by all means, but this is being sold as a gaming card and few gamers can afford a $1000 card.
There's also a deeply philosophical meaning here as well. People who liked to buy the top end used to pay 500 bucks (or pounds/euros). That was HD7970, or GTX680. That slowly crept up until last generation a GTX1080ti was UK £699, at launch, at least. That was pricey, for me. And I'm not in any way poor. Not rich, a bit off comfortable, but not poor. But to jump to £1000 (more like £1100)
is actually hard to take. It's Nvidia saying to people without such a disposable income, "you're not good enough to buy our shit". People who could barely afford the last generation can no longer afford the new top line. That's actually damaging to self-esteem. It makes you feel 'poorer' because you can't afford what you were used to buying. Nvidia have intentionally jacked prices to (A) cover the loss of mining revenue, and (B) increase stock price by having such an item for sale.
I'd love to tell JSH what a fucking arsehole he is being by asking such a stupid price for a card to play games on. Then I'd probably rob him, steal his trendy Star Trek Next Gen style jacket and act all cool.
The saddest part, AMD WILL NOT be saving us anytime soon.