here's a huge catch here that many people on this forum refuse to admit. Consumers aren't actually getting fucked by nvidia. Sure there is some price gouging going on, and yes inflation has a bit to do with it, but that's not the whole story. The core issue is that gamers kept demanding fancier stuff. That's it right there gamers get the blame. Because fancier stuff with better graphics costs more to design, costs more to make, the entire component BOM goes up massively. In other words if you want faster graphics you are asking for graphics card prices to go up. And each time you want that the price goes up again. So really gamers have been voting for higher prices by demanding better graphics. This is the same reason so many AIBs have crashed and burned the cost of making GPUs has skyrocketed massively as they got more complex.
The solution for cheaper stuff is to stop wanting advances in graphics, physics, and all of that so all the new advances could focus on making what can be done now cheaper. But the moment you want something better prices go back up again and no amount of screaming "negreedia!!!! muh g4m1ng PC!!!! Master Race!!!!" is going to change that.
I disagree. Until maybe 10 years ago, we where getting 50-100% faster models in every generation compared to the previous one, with the prices remaining almost the same, some times even going down because of competition. What changed is that integrated graphics and APUs killed the fat cow that was called "low end", forcing companies like Nvidia and AMD to eliminate low end graphics cards and start creating higher price points. Titan for example, was just that, a vehicle to make the $1000 price point acceptable by consumers. And it was introduced just a little time after Intel integrated an iGPU in it's CPUs and AMD started making APUs. No coincidences here. Marketing around it was fuzzy on purpose, one time advertising it as a gaming card, another time advertising as a semi pro model. That way Nvidia's marketing could justify the price point, while also convincing gamers to buy a $1000 card just for games.
While inflation has played a role, costs of 5nm wafers has played a role, having to put hi quality components to handle 300-600W has played a role, the main reason for prices going up is that now companies like AMD, Nvidia and Intel need to make enough income by selling fewer and at the same time more expensive cards. So they try to increase their profit margin from every card they sell. A $200 card will be sold for $300, a $600 for $1000, a $1000 card for $2000.
Console makers aren't special snowflakes like PC gamers though. They go into this knowing they are going to take a loss on each unit produced and subsidize the cost to make it all back later through games, fees, and licensing. What they care about is a partner that they can deal with reliably, honestly, and consistently. The moment they get screwed on this they will tell another party to go get fucked and find a new supplier.
Custom chips can mean a lot of things as well. Nvidia isn't just GPUs.
The fact that they can start selling at a loss is a positive for Nvidia, if Nvidia can convince them that using Nvidia tech will mean much higher console sales, more income through "games, fees, and licensing".
Nvidia is going "FULL ARM". They waited and remained mostly quiet to get ARM, but others weren't fooled. Now Nvidia is coming out on the open, going full ARM. Just a speculation from my part. They might end up doing nothing. But $30 billions does look serious.
The best "solution" for nvidia from a PC gaming standpoint would just be to ignore them. But that's not going to happen as you can see whenever AMD releases a card the first words out of peoples mouths are hoping this will cause nvidia to lower their prices. It's pathetic to the point of watching the fat ugly kid constantly pining after the hot chick who's off with the good looking guys having fun. Console makers aren't like that though. People buy consoles for the games on it and could give a rats ass who made the hardware or what's in it apart from teenage boys arguing on the internet over it. So all it takes is someone like nvidia driving the wrong people at Sony up the wall and causing them headaches and blamo nvidia is out and AMD is in. For an entire hardware generation, if not multiple generations. As if AMD delivers and the people at Sony are happy with it and still remember nvidia screwing them over the next time it comes to design something AMD is already in the door and everyone is still angry with nvidia. This is something Valve got early on. They went with a reliable and easy to deal with partner. Not only that Steam Deck OS is the killer advantage it has over all the competition not the hardware.
Console makers aren't dumb and neither is nvidia. There's no nvidia sticker on the switch because nobody cares. Mario, Zelda, Metroid, and allow Nintendo to sell hardware and thus stay in business no what's in the box. Slapping nvidia stickers on Xboxs and Playstations and talking about DLSS, RTX, and all that isn't going to move sales at all and will just generate eyerolls and "keep that PC bullshit out of here please" comments at best. So nvidia can scream all they want "we are the desired brand, just look at the PC gamers" and console makers can howl with laughter and say "our customers aren't that stupid and desperate" and that will be that.
It's not just pathetic, it's also boring. I see this mentality everywhere the last 20 years.
Forget SONY. I don't expect them to jump camp. Watch out for MS.
As for Valve and Steam OS, don't forget that Nvidia is also primarily a SOFTWARE company. Always was. MS also. Those two can build a very good UI for a gaming console.
Consoles like XBOX wouldn't get an Nvidia sticker either, but the reviews and comparisons with the PS6 could be extremely favorable if AMD does an RDNA3 mistake again with RDNA4. AMD made RDNA for gaming, somewhere after RDNA2 they decided to increase compute performance with RDNA3, instead of RayTracing performance for example and ended up losing a generation. I hope their RDNA4 will be an architecture focusing again in gaming, or they will definitely lose one of the consoles.
On Switch you would never see an Nvidia logo for two reasons. Nintendo would NEVER EVER agree to it, the Nvidia SOC is too slow, so even Nvidia wouldn't want it's logo on the Switch. If you have a quick look at tech press, they NEVER review pathetic hardware from Nvidia, either that is in the form of the GTX 1630 or the RX 3050 6GB. Nvidia probably doesn't want it and tech press plays along.
