If your sticker shock from Nvidia’s reveal of astronomical prices for its new 4000-series graphics cards yesterday gave you disadvantage on perception checks, I bring bad news: It’s not likely to get any better, at least as far as Nvidia is concerned. It seems team green is sticking to those sky-high prices for its new cards and, based on comments from CEO Jensen Huang, we should expect such prices to be the new normal.
Responding to questions over the remarkably high cost of the company’s new GPUs, Digital Trends reports that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was very direct in saying that “the idea that the chip is going to go down in price is a story of the past.” With cryptocurrency mining fading away after the Ethereum merge, many PC enthusiasts had hoped that graphics cards, which have until recently been low on availability and high on price, would see a return to more reasonable price points moving forward. It seems, however, that Nvidia doesn’t agree.
“Moore’s Law is dead,” Huang said, referring to the phenomenon of transistor counts doubling every two years, leading to greater performance and decreasing costs. “A 12-inch wafer is a lot more expensive today.”
Read More: Nvidia’s New 4000-Series PC Graphics Cards Are Too Damn Expensive
Though the upcoming 4000-series cards look to be testing the limits enthusiasts will be willing to spend for a sizable upgrade, the company did state that the 3000-series series is likely to present an ongoing alternative to those looking to save some cash. Yesterday, an Nvidia spokesperson told Kotaku that, “RTX 3080 10GB is still an incredible value and we’ll continue to offer it in our lineup.”
Nvidia has been on a roll lately when it comes to angering its customers. Its behavior toward AIB (add-in board) partners who manufacture third-party cards featuring Nvidia chips has apparently been offensive enough to scare off one of the biggest names in town, EVGA, from manufacturing GPUs at all in the future. Now, Nvidia is signaling its intent to keep the price squeeze on consumers as well, and with prices this high, we’re in uncharted waters.