No new Graphics cards this year - A theory

[TheGlenlivet]

So in a nutshell, if I was Nvidia and/or AMD and had people buying up my product at inflated prices as fast as I could produce it, why would I spend the time and money to improve it?

 

I know that both AMD and Nvidia have new architecture it the works, I'm not suggesting that they have stopped R&D, but why would they release it?  

Intel has a history of this, correct?  Until Ryzen was released and there was some legitimate competition, they did their share of resting on their laurels and making very minor updates to their product (6700 to 7700 the worst?) because, hey, what else are they gonna buy?  An FX??  

While the situation isn't exactly the same now with GPUs, the business model is.  Why would they spend the money to produce a newer better version of a product that they can't keep in stock as it is?

I wouldn't be surprised if there are no new GPUs released in 2018, but I hope I am wrong.

[Oshino Shinobu]

You can be certain they're making them, as if they didn't and their competitor releases theirs, they'd be screwed as they wouldn't have anything to compete with. 

 

Nvidia and Intel (and AMD, and pretty much every tech company out there) have held back products after seeing what the competition released as there's no point in pulling out your trump card when you're already ahead. Nvidia and Intel are the prime examples when they had the vast majority of the market to themselves, where they'd wait for AMD to release things, then only release their products up to a certain point and hold back their top tier stuff or just inflate the price. 

 

I wouldn't be surprised to see mining specific cards coming in, but I would be very surprised to not see any cards at all. Nvidia and AMD need to do something about cards being bought up by miners, and having gaming and mining specific cards may end up being the solution they try, with the BIOS or drivers of the gaming cards making them bad for mining. 

[TheGlenlivet]

2 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

Nvidia and AMD need to do something about cards being bought up by miners, and having gaming and mining specific cards may end up being the solution they try, with the BIOS or drivers of the gaming cards making them bad for mining

But why?  They are making huge profits selling the cards, regardless of who they sell it to.  Are they worried about Gamer backlash?  Or maybe mining suddenly no longer being profitable for anyone and a flooded market of used cards?  Are these the reasons why they wouldn't just sit back and wait?

[EnergyEclipse]

All I say is Nvidia thinks Pascal is pretty much unbeatable for the time being, even though the 1080ti doesn't perform anywhere near the £900 price tag that comes with it these days.

[Theguywhobea]

1 minute ago, TheGlenlivet said:

But why?  They are making huge profits selling the cards, regardless of who they sell it to.  Are they worried about Gamer backlash?  Or maybe mining suddenly no longer being profitable for anyone and a flooded market of used cards?  Are these the reasons why they wouldn't just sit back and wait?

It's the retailers who are marking up the cards, not Nvidia and AMD, so they aren't making all the extra profits, the retailers are.

[knightslugger]

12 minutes ago, TheGlenlivet said:

So in a nutshell, if I was Nvidia and/or AMD and had people buying up my product at inflated prices as fast as I could produce it, why would I spend the time and money to improve it?

because eventually, there will be a large market for faster graphics and the need will be real.

 

also, the inflated prices are not from AMD/Nvidia. Memory is getting more and more expensive. If they sell current gen products at a higher price, it's to due to simple supply and demand of the products THEY use to manufacture the product. If you're talking about RESELLERS inflating the price... well that's just capitalism at work.

[Oshino Shinobu]

3 minutes ago, TheGlenlivet said:

But why?  They are making huge profits selling the cards, regardless of who they sell it to.  Are they worried about Gamer backlash?  Or maybe mining suddenly no longer being profitable for anyone and a flooded market of used cards?  Are these the reasons why they wouldn't just sit back and wait?

Because people would be seriously angry. People are already angry as it is. 

 

While Nvidia and AMD are for profit companies, making your primary user base angry by being greedy can take some time to recover from. 

 

Even if Nvidia is planning on sitting back and waiting, I wouldn't expect AMD to do so, as they need to regain their market share after being out of the running for so long. A pretty good way to do that is to be nice to their gaming userbase, which could help them in the future when mining has died down or gaming cards aren't all being bought up. It can be surprising how much someone's opinion on a brand's practices can affect how they spend their money. 

[TheGlenlivet]

1 minute ago, Theguywhobea said:

It's the retailers who are marking up the cards, not Nvidia and AMD, so they aren't making all the extra profits, the retailers are.

 

1 minute ago, knightslugger said:

also, the inflated prices are not from AMD/Nvidia.

No, I get that Newegg and Amazon are inflating prices, not Nvidia, but they still sold like 30% more GPUs last year than in 2016.  The profits are still there.

 

3 minutes ago, knightslugger said:

because eventually, there will be a large market for faster graphics and the need will be real.

Then they will release the cards when there is a need for them.  Right now they are selling as fast as they can make them which would indicate there isn't the need for them, right?  As long as that 'need' is this year then I guess they will release the next generation of cards.

[knightslugger]

Just now, TheGlenlivet said:

 

No, I get that Newegg and Amazon are inflating prices, not Nvidia, but they still sold like 30% more GPUs last year than in 2016.  The profits are still there.

 

Then they will release the cards when there is a need for them.  Right now they are selling as fast as they can make them which would indicate there isn't the need for them, right?  As long as that 'need' is this year then I guess they will release the next generation of cards.

marketplace resellers are the primary inflators. Newegg and Amazon (sold direct) are actually pretty decent.

 

The driving force behind more powerful GPUs in the future will be game development and display technologies. If the advancement doesn't warrant greater GPU requirements, as in the 1080ti will still rule the day, and there isn't any competitor that can touch your products or give your marketing department restless nights, then i wouldn't expect any new products in the near future.

[linustouchtips]

i'm buying up old cards and hoarding them you never know this might be the end man