NVIDIA RTX GPUs: Ahead of Their Time or Insanely Overpriced?

GeForce RTX

NVIDIA’s new line of highly anticipated RTX GPUs has finally been confirmed. Despite NVIDIA’s hype surrounding the newest line of graphics cards, they’ve been met with a significant amount of disagreements and debates within the PC gaming community. The GPUs are incredibly expensive, and from a hardware standpoint, they are underwhelming, to say the least.

Let’s begin by discussing the pricing of the new GPUs – the 2080 Ti is $1199 (₹86,000 approx.), which is around the same price as the Titan. It appears as though the 2080 Ti is just a name change for marketing purposes. This move is questionable, as the name change could be confusing for some.

GeForce RTX 2080
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080

Moving on to the 2080, which comes in at $799 (₹57,000 approx.), and the 2070, priced at $599 (₹43,000 approx.). We can imagine that the 2060 – when released – will be priced around the $399 (₹29,000 approx.) mark. However, it is possible that the 2060 will be priced higher, around $449 (₹32,000 approx.) or even $499 (₹35,000 approx.). Evidently, the RTX GPUs are extremely expensive.

Additionally, the middle range GPU line has been eliminated entirely, at least until we see a 2050 released from NVIDIA. If the 2060 is released at or above the $399 (₹29,000 approx.) price point, it will no longer be a mid-range GPU, but rather a high-end GPU.

Historically speaking, the 1060 and 960 were always seen as great ‘bang for your buck’ graphics cards, as they were powerful cards with affordable price tags. Now, it isn’t unreasonable to predict the 2060’s price point being similar to the 1070’s release price.

GTX 1080
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080

Some say the 2000 series GPUs are bumping up a notch – the 2070 is like the 1080, the 2080 is like the 1080 Ti, and the 2080 Ti is like the Titan. That’s fine, but it doesn’t make the GPUs any less expensive. Moreover, we still don’t have a clue when the GTX 2060 is set for release, not to mention the GTX 2050, which could be our only hope for a good mid-range RTX GPU.

It’s also important to note that GTX 1080s are dropping in price, especially now that cryptocurrency mining has cooled off. It isn’t uncommon to find a GTX 1080 below the $450 (₹32,000 approx.) price point, especially if you can find it on sale. With that being said, it’s hard to justify purchasing a new 2000 series card when you can probably get more for your money by sticking with the older series – and on top of that, the 1000 series will probably be even cheaper after RTX cards are around for a bit longer.

Prices aside, NVIDIA’s main selling point – their new Ray Tracing technology – has devolved into a meme. That is pretty embarrassing, to say the least. They promoted the GPUs revolving entirely around their new ray tracing technology, which doesn’t seem to be ‘all that’ after all.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider ran at 30 FPS in 1080p with Ray Tracing enabled, which is pretty terrible performance. Sure, Ray Tracing is a new technology, so we shouldn’t expect too much from it. However, NVIDIA promoted their entire conference around Ray Tracing, which would lead us to believe that Ray Tracing performance is good. In reality, it’s not good – in fact, Ray Tracing is far from good.

Hardly anyone is going to take advantage of Ray Tracing. Actually, little people really care about it. Rather than spending the entire conference promoting Ray Tracing, they should have highlighted 1440p and 4K performance, both of which are actually important.

They also should have spent more time showcasing operating temperatures both at idle and max load. It would be beneficial to know how hot the cards can get, so you can buy an adequate number of the proper case fans. After all, a GPU that overheats isn’t of much use to anyone.

GeForce RTX 2080 Ti
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti

The Bottom Line

If you’re thinking about buying a new RTX GPU, think again. They’re definitely overpriced at the moment. You’d be much better off buying a GTX 1080 or 1070 for a lower price tag. They’ll become even cheaper in a few months, thanks to the release of the new RTX line.

Additionally, RTX GPUs will probably come down in price with time as well, especially if all of the animosity towards them continues. Lastly, it will be interesting to see how AMD responds. If they release a new line of GPUs, they’ll probably do very well, especially considering NVIDIA’s RTX GPUs seem to be… not so well-received by the PC gaming community.

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