On the contrary, I’d say we’re in a golden age for PC gaming. Just not for AAA gaming. So much amazing indy and single A content recently.
Also, for decades there have been complaints about the AAA industry prioritising high-end graphics over everything else, because that’s what sells. So the RAM shortage might actually level the playing field. If the customer base can no longer afford to play games with ultra-high graphics, then AAA studios will be forced to compete on something other than graphics.
Sure enough, Altman backpeddled, saying he was “taken out of context”, and he was actually complaining about people running local AI models.
And why the eff shouldn’t we be running our own local AI models, Sam? I’m just starting to look into AI assistance and that’s exactly what I’m doing, because I don’t want to be nickel and dimed into bankruptcy while I train your models.
For years, the wealthy have been telling the poor to “get out of the rent trap” and “stop paying your landlord’s mortgage”, but now they think we’ve all suddenly forgotten?
There are more than enough great old games that run on potato hardware and can give you hours/day/weeks/months of fun. The AAA Gaming companies that push out unfinished and unoptimized games for 70$ will suffer. And they can not suffer enough.
I bet the RAM companies are regretting the lifetime warranty. I wounder if they will wind that back soon.
I had 1 of my 16GB corsair low profile ddr4 3600 18cl sticks just die on me. I thought they lasted forever. The low profile couldnt be replaced and I got an equivalent bigger set. I had to pay 360€ (!) as a reserve to get them sent.
Haha! Seems like not only one guy went “what, you sent it? I haven’t received any package!”
Huh. I game on my pc this year like any other and why is anyone giving up?
It would kind of suck to start out here, things are expensive, but there are so many games to play even on middle of the road equipment, is it that big of a deal?
I mean yeah all those things are shit and we should be complaining about them, but its not effecting my gaming one bit.
I’ve bought a couple FTW 3080s used for about $300 give or take. They work great for probably 98% of games even on high settings, I get 150 fps on fast paced shooters with coustomized settings and no OC. I can’t see a reason for a 5090 other than bragging rights or some highly specialized uses, and paying that high five-figure price tag for one is craziness. RAM prices absolutely do suck, though.
It doesn’t suck to be a PC gamer, we have a massive library of 3 decades worth of games and a growing library of near-native emulation.
It just sucks when you’re trying to lick up the floor around AAA developers. But that sucks for consoles, too.
It’s even better than that: there is a little over four decades’ worth of games, in fact. :) There were plenty of bangers in the period 1981-1996.
The years 1990 to 1996 was one if the most innovative and groundbreaking times in gaming history. Lots of great and important games that actually made pc gaming viable.
I was very lucky I decided to build a rig right after the last crypto collapse. My only regret is not going over the top with ram and storage.
I’ll be playing my DEEP catalog of games (decades of personal collection and frankly amazing emulation capabilities) for years on this 3080 EVGA ftw. It’s like we are holding the holy relics of a once great civilization. Mabey the 2nd foundation will do better.
Been playing Arx Fatalis lately, it is great. Next up is Ultima VII. Finished Half-Life and the expansions earlier this year. Lots of great, older games out there. Also many good new indie games that aren’t demanding.
I have 64GB of DDR4, but only a 5600XT. Held off on a graphics card upgrade a little too long and missed the boat, but I still get by just fine. And I can happily say I’ve never paid more than 500 for a graphics card lol
The real kicker for me is that I was considering asking my employer to upgrade my work laptop from 8GB in 2025, but didn’t because I wasn’t doing anything intensive for work. Then after the RAM prices went through the roof they started having me doing CAD work.
Yours GPU is especially a relic given that it’s EVGA.
My 2080ti is still ripping through games no problem. I don’t need 8k raytracing or AI-slop-antialiasing. I usually just flick textures to high or medium if needed and focus on actually playing the game. A few extra sparkles is not going to meaningfully change my experience.
I have a fair bit of ram but its spread out. My poor main rig only has 32 ddr4, and I picked up 32 for my primary proxmox host when it was $80, I wish I would have just upgraded them all. Lol. So many salvaged 8g dimms so few ram slots.
As for my card: At the time I was reluctant to spend the $750 (EVGA was clearance selling them, just before they exited the GPU market), but after seeing them hit $2500 at the peak I couldn’t resist. Apparently it was a good call based on the market since then, it’s been a great card, and will probably be running my home lab when the next upgrade cycle comes. (The home server is currently 3 mini PCs in a trench coat, so a real GPU will help)
My poor main rig only has 32 ddr4
Lol, poor with only 32?
I have 32gb in mine and I can barely use more then 12 even with recent games. Two browsers, hundreds of tabs, and a game going… 8.2 used.
It’s a good thing there are tons of games and game technology that doesn’t require a new system.
Yeah, I already have more games in my Steam library than I could conceivably play in my lifetime. Like if I sat down and properly worked through my +2500 game backlog, it would keep me busy for decades. And all of them can be booted on modern hardware.
And that’s before we even dive into emulation and retro consoles. I love my Steam Deck, because it’s actually a fantastic (albeit, overpowered) handheld emulator. Hell, even my iPad is an emulator these days, and I keep a PS5 controller in my bag just in case I want to connect it and boot up a game during my breaks. Being able to just pick up and play the old classics whenever I want is nice. I would consider one of those dedicated handheld emulators, but I really don’t have a need since I already have two ways to easily emulate in my bag.
The joke is on them thinking I haven’t planned for the apocalypse.
Am a gamer.
Fuck Elon with a spiny cactus.
How the author feels about agreeing with him is pretty entertaining.
It was hillarious when he couldn’t fake playing PoE and revealed without a doubt that he absolutely isn’t a gamer
Poor cactus!
Yeah that’s really a disgusting thing to do to a cactus.
3D gaming was a mistake.
(visit !shmups@lemmus.org today!)
Not a gamer but into FEA and OpenSource computing. I hope AI totally crashes and burns. Then we win because the servers and processors will go up on a fire sale. And if that doesn’t happen, the Chinese will flood the market anyway.
Fuck these assholes, I’ll quit gaming before I pay them for streaming it.
PC gamers spent decades being told they needed more RAM and better GPUs. Now the companies selling both have discovered customers who buy them by the warehouse instead of the unit. Apparently the future of gaming is watching an AI generate a picture of the graphics card you can no longer afford.
There’s also perhaps the beginning of an AI selloff happening this week. It turns out you can’t keep investing money into something that costs more than it makes forever. A simple economic reality means that this too shall pass.
There’s also the looming hammer over RAM and GPU manufacturers for price fixing. They’ve literally strong armed AI companies to buy chips that they don’t have the data centres or power supply to run yet, and by the time they do the chips will likely be obsolete.
I’m investing in seed potatoes.
I’ll trade you some garlic bulbs and sweet potato slips.
We can make garlic fries and play emulated games on 5 year.old hardware for the next 4 years while we wait for the collapse.
Sign me up
It’s definitely bad if you had planned to wait on ordering upgraded memory, GPU or flash storage because prices and availability were insane during the pandemic, only for it to triple in price. Not bad enough that I am eyeing consoles. I can’t stand the terrible framerate and low FOV they tend to have.
Don’t worry, console prices are also going up. (unless the whole chip market collapses, but even with the pull back it’s not collapsing now)
At least I have a good incentive to go through my evergrowing backlog of games, and retro-gaming through emulation is better than ever.
