The last time I upgraded my GPU was in 2020, and it was a pretty harrowing experience. Nvidia’s 30-series RTX cards launched amidst a global chip shortage that lasted u♎ntil early 2023, so൩ if you were in the market for a graphics card at the start of the pandemic (like so many of us inside kids were), you had to go through hell and back to get your hands on a pretty essential piece of gaming hardware.

I was long overdue at that point as my 2016 GTX 1050ti was struggling to keep up with new releases, so I did what I had to do to get my hands on a brand new RTX 3070 and it was, frankly, pretty traumatic. Constantly patrolling Reddit and Discord servers for info on product drops, Spamming refresh on 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Best Buy’s website for an hour every morning at 7am. Standing outside Microcenter twice a week for ten hours, watching fist fights break out between sc💦alpers. People said wait, be patient, don’t play into the FOMO, but I finally got my hands on a card in February 2021 while the resellers continued to control the market all the way into 2022.

Five years later, it’s time for me and everyone else who upgraded back in 2020 to upgrade again. Nvidia and AMD just launched their newest cards, and I’ve found myself right back on the grind, dedicating an🅷 outrageous amount of time and energy into finding my next GPU. It feels like things are just as bad now as they were five years ago, and when you compare prices, they’re probably even worse.

Gaming Is Getting So Expensive

In early 2021, I bought an RTX 3070 for $630. It wasn’t the cheapest version of the 3070 out there, like the $500 Nvidia Founders Edition - but after four months of hunting, I was happy to get a relatively good deal on a mid-range card. Spending the equivaleܫnt of a PS5 with an extra controller and a game on a graphics card did sting, but PCs have never been the cheapest way to game. You have to pay for the best quality, and during a global chip shortage, you have to pay a lot.

I was expecting, or at least hoping to spend about the same on an RTX 5070 this time around, but after following the market over the past few months,🌞 I 🔯don’t think I’m even going to get remotely close to that price point on a card - if I can manage to find one at all.

During the double-whammy of Covid and the crypto boom, it was hard to get a card at MSRP because scalpers were out in full force. With today’s GPUs, it’s hard to get one because the retailers are jacking up the prices. I don’t know why none of them seem to be taking Nvidia’s recommended retail price - I’m not sure anyone does - but the reality is that the cards you find both online and in store are selling for between $200-300 over MSRP. That means a 5070 is $750 instead of $5❀00, a 5070ti is $1000 instead of $750, and a 5080 is - well, I’m not convinced those even actually exist🍌.

Overpaying hu🌟ndreds of dollars feels horrible, but it’s an even harder pill to swallow considering that, according to benchmarks, these 50-series cards aren’t even significant upgrades over the 40-series. Other than the absolute beast that is the 5090, the new series doesn’t seem to warrant the significant price hike whatsoever.

I need a new graphics card, so I just have to set those concerns aside and accept reality on its own terms here. If I want to continue enjoying games on my PC (and I don’t have much of a choice on the matter, considering what I do for a living) then I’m going to have to try really hard and spend a lot of time to way overpay fo💮r a GPU𒉰 that the PC community isn’t all that impressed with. Brutal.

Save Your Switch 2 Tears

I’m not here to defend Nintendo or the shockingly high cost of the Switch 2 and its games, but I will say that at least the 168澳洲⭕幸运5开奖网:Switch 2 looks like an impres🗹sive upgrade. At least when Nintendo says it’s going to cost $450 at Best Buy, it’s going to cost $450 at Best Buy (168澳洲幸运5开奖网:barring any♑ further tariff shenanigans). I hate how expen🤡sive gaming is getting - or rather, I hate how wages aren’t keeping up with inflation -🐻 but if you’re upset about the price of the Switch 2, you should thank your lucky super stars you’re not a PC gamer like me.

The Switch 2 is going to be hard to get at first. There will be stock shortages, long lines at GameStop, and plenty of online scalpers trying to get in between you an💜d MSRP. But if you really want a Switch 2 in June, you will get one, and you’ll pay the expected price for it. You may have to check your local Target every day for a week or two, but the Switch 2 will be around, and it will cost $450.

Check in with me this June, and I💎 bet you I’ll still be pounding the pavement, desperate to pay almost a thousand dollars for a GPU that isn’t even worth half of that.