Cut the bullshit, Nvidia operates on a gross margain of around 60%. AMD's been working it's way up to that number as well and Intel is already past it. This ain't got nothing to do with "fair" pricing and it has everything to do with wringing every penny out of customers as possible. All your grandstanding about the costs of developing a GPU are nothing but fluff, anyone with two hands can look at Nvida or AMD's balance sheets and see they are vastly profiting more than spending on development. Anyone following the market can see the increase in pricing over the last few years has far outpaced any increase in costs for either company. PC gaming is more popular then ever and sky high prices. Nvidia added 1.72 billion in 3 quarters during the pandemic alone (they only have 4.73 billion rev total) but yes, boohoo poor Nvidia not fleecing enough money while people are dying.
Competition? That's rich, did that "competition" stop memory manufacturers for fixing prices in the past? Mind you that market has many more players and thus is less susceptible to price fixing than GPUs. Did "competition" stop monitor manufacturers either? The answer is of course no.
If you haven't realized in the last 3 decades, a company's goal is to maximum profit for shareholders. If that involves an voluntary or involuntary agreement with other market players, what difference does it make? Does spectrum or comcast compete? Nope, they have the country nicely divided up so they can maximize profits.
And just stop with "ferrari" comparison. Videos cards do not cost anywhere near what a ferrari does nor are they a luxury item. I use video cards for work, I've donated video cards to hospitals (reference 780 Tis used for imaging machines). Just an excuse with no basis in fact or logic to justify the ever increasing prices of video cards.
None of which really matters if the majority of people can no longer afford it. There will be less people to make mods, less people to buy the games, and less companies willing to invest in good optimization for the platform. It's rather selfish to think people who still can afford a PC after price increases won't be affected by the loss of those that can't. cheaper parts are what make the PC accessible. A lack of those means a lack of growth for the market, plain an simple. A vast majority of the PC's I've built have been $500 or under. Those people would have purchased a console otherwise. They instead went and invested in PC games and upgrades down the line.
We can only hope that things return to normal and that value oriented entry level GPUs are released. Short of that I expect a slow decline in the platform.
Well, you have made it very clear that you don't know jack about business, how it operates, and how some companies are practically forced to operate just to stay in business. You just keep living in your fairytale world. Your post has proven nothing about your comprehension about business. Do you have any idea what Apples profit margins are? Way higher than the average business. How about we talk about Apple's market cap? Apple is worth more than nvidia, AMD and Intel combined. Their market cap is worth more than all of the property in the state of Florida. They didn't get there on 60% profit margins. There is more to a company than balance sheets... How old are you? Wait, are you one of those guys still living at home with his parents?! Grow up and get involved in a business and learn about all the other wonderful expenses business's face that you never thought about. The Ferrari example is making the point to the extreme. How many people can run out and buy high end computer hardware and still pay all of their bills for the month right now?
As you stated, some companies may enter a price fixing agreement to keep their margins higher, but that is a select few companies, not all of them or even a quarter of them. I don't see an inability to buy PC parts right now, supply cannot meet demand, so clearly hardware is not so expensive that people cannot afford it. Obviously there are people who can more than afford to pay scalper prices for new hardware.
If anyone is grandstanding, it is you, go out and learn some things and find out it isn't as cut and dried, black and white as you think it is.
It is like owning a home, nobody thinks about replacing the water heater, the furnace, repairing electrical problems, fixing the cracked driveway, remodeling and all the fun stuff you encounter that needs to be fixed before putting it all back together again, insurance on the house, the house payment itself, electric, water, sewer, internet, and so on and so forth. All of that other stuff adds up and if I want to remodel extensively or add on, I really have to save money, same with business, they have to cover their costs. However, I don't expect that you will be able to grasp this concept a your post indicates you already have difficulty grasping the concepts from my reply previously.
