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[PC Gamer] Why 2021 was the worst year for PC gaming

MacReady13

Member
I want to build a gaming PC but I'm waiting for everything to normalize. I sold mine a few years ago to get ahead of a time management problem (games were happening more than work). 2021 was a good year for there to be new consoles because I was able to play everything I wanted at good enough performance on PS5 and XSX, so my desire for a new PC was mitigated by good console experiences. Another thing that tempered my desire for a new PC is that from an experience perspective the practically nonexistent load times on consoles this year was better than anything I experienced, even playing games from SSD, on my 2018 PC.

I hope that GPU manufacturers are able to increase their capacity as more chip fabs come online and meet gaming demand. It's a shame that they prefer doing business with crypto miners over gamers and pushing the high cost cards that allow them to,set their own price and make those margins, but I guess that it is what it is for now. I'd just like to be able to build when I'm ready for a reasonable price as the consoles inevitably fall behind.
Weirdest ting is, as time goes on I see these new consoles as lower powered PC's. So I figure (rightly or wrongly) that I will piss off my consoles as almost everything will come to PC only it will run better and look better on PC. High cost to jump in but eventually save money on the lower cost of games.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
Weirdest ting is, as time goes on I see these new consoles as lower powered PC's. So I figure (rightly or wrongly) that I will piss off my consoles as almost everything will come to PC only it will run better and look better on PC. High cost to jump in but eventually save money on the lower cost of games.
I'd never save enough on the cost of games to offset the cost of the PC build. Theres no way I could use that as justification.
 

MacReady13

Member
I'd never save enough on the cost of games to offset the cost of the PC build. Theres no way I could use that as justification.
Fair enough. I just see the complete use of a PC as fitting my needs whereas a games console is primarily used to play games and not PC related tasks.
 

Kacho

Gold Member
Fair enough. I just see the complete use of a PC as fitting my needs whereas a games console is primarily used to play games and not PC related tasks.
I wonder how many people who think this way buy launch consoles and mid-gen refreshes. For the same price you can build a PC that will outperform both and still be good for a few years after that.

You also get great deals regularly, access to more games and your games are there forever unlike consoles.
 
Because of the insane gpu prices and their rarity, I have learned to appreciate couch gaming again. I'm one of the lucky ones to have snatched a PS5 day one at retail price and I think I'm gonna play on that as my main platform this time around. I think I'm gonna play new games on pc if there isn't a 60fps option.
 

Hinedorf

Banned
IMO it was the worst year in Gaming regardless of PC or Console. 2021 was the year of everybody bailing out of that year into 2022 after preparing us for 2021.

As a society we've learned/adapted to covid workplace lifestyle, it's not new, it's been a year+. It's time to stop hearing this as an excuse for complete mismanagement as we've seen is rampant in so many Triple A studios.
 

raduque

Member
FX 6300 at stock speeds
8GB RAM @1600Mhz
1TB HDD
256 GB SATA SSD

So far, as long as I cap the framerate to 30 FPS in the most demanding games I can play games at high/ultra settings at 1080p and even downsample at 1440p. Its an 8GB 580 mind you, so I can always max out texture quality. I think its going to be the case as long as games are cross gen. Once we have next gen only AAA games the PC just won't keep up mainly due to the CPU and low RAM. It struggles with next gen only games like Flight Simulator and the Medium.
Oh, 30fps. I'm a little more demanding. I need to have at least 60fps, as input lag is awful at less than that.
 
GPU prices are going to be an issue that we'll only know the full extent of in a few years time.

Here we are, with everyone is porting their shit to PCs...and getting an actual GPU to run the newest games is turning into a niche affair. What's going to happen when those ports don't sell well because people can't play them? or they get killed in reviews because they run like shit on anything but the cards people can't get? The ports will stop, that's what.

We already saw this happen with Square-Enix ports like NieR: Automata and now FF7R. I can only see this happening more and more, though the one positive thing is the long tail of people who already have hardware. That said, I’ve barely played on my PC the last few years because the hardware upgrades got expensive and Steam sales have sucked. It’s a worse experience than consoles right now for sure.
 
My 1080ti is feeling more and more, everyday, like the best value gpu in history. Bought 4 years ago. Still runs everything nice, can sell for a profit haha.


And to answer your question no, it will shrivel up and die if this keeps up.
 
I remember not to long ago, the price point of the best bang for your buck PC was 1200 bucks. It's now over 2,000. It's hard to justify given most people have decent PC's already, sure their getting dated but the value of the current consoles has never been so good. Everyone is waiting
 
Again, doesn't seem to be affecting the market in any tangible way. I've seen no word of PC game, peripheral, or supporting part sales tanking so clearly more than enough people have the money to pay whatever GPU vendors ask. Those who have allegedly been priced out of the mid or low range markets apparently don't buy enough PC games, peripherals, or parts to matter. With everyone now making $15 - $20 an hour in the lowest Fast Food/Retail positions, perhaps we need to come to terms with the fact that $600 really is the new "budget" GPU.
Hell no... Do you work for Nvidia or are you a miner? What the hell kinda take is this?

I wouldnt even bother if I had to spend more than $400 on a card. I lucked out getting a 2060 before the shit hit the fan and upgraded to a 3060ti by step up and it took 8 fing months. Crazy town. Not the new normal. You can take the new normal and shove up the nvidia ceos ass.

Sorry to be so crass, but damn, the thought of having to never get budget level cards because of miners, scalpers, bots and the rich asshole gatekeepers on here deem it acceptable is mind numbingly horrible!

Maybe you can afford shit many of us are struggling. I make $21/hour, all those jobs pushed prices for me up and shit got more expensive without raising my wage or fellow co workers rates as we were already above 15.

In your wet dream only rich assholes and miners can game. Fuck that. Future. Some years if I couldn't get a sub $200 card I wouldn't buy, and I've been buying cards since 1992...with my first 2mb svga card for around $100.

I hope people don't accept this and put pressure on Nvidia or the hobby is shot you really think people can afford this then you are in lala land. Only miners, scalpers and affluent teens and rich adults are affording this.


Maybe you would of had a point if we were still getting stimulus checks and unemployment was getting boosted, but those days are long over and is no longer the case. There are millions struggling.
 
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I can't believe there are actually people pushing for environment destroying, electricity guzzling, gaming destroying by value of lack of stock, mining on here. No wonder they are OK with super high prices. If you are doing that, then you are part of the problem! Probably scalping cards or using bots too.
 
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KungFucius

King Snowflake
I have been noticing that even with more competition, PC game prices are not coming down outside of sales. We used to be able to argue that PC game prices helped offset the cost of HW. This is not true anymore.

I was looking for my next game and 6 month old games are still 60 bucks. I can buy a used PS5 version for under 25. I could have instead gotten a grey market key for 35. New games are worse. The grey market prices are more expensive then on Steam. The digital market is so tightly controlled there is no reason to drop prices, other than to compete for people's time and money. I am so weird. I will bend over backwards to save 30 bucks on a game but spend a shit ton on PC hardware and consoles.
 

zaanan

Banned
Read as far as the second paragraph:
“PC gaming means different things to different people, and that alone plays into what is so good about the hobby, and why no other platform can match it.”
Ugh.
 

Reallink

Member
Hell no... Do you work for Nvidia or are you a miner? What the hell kinda take is this?

I wouldnt even bother if I had to spend more than $400 on a card. I lucked out getting a 2060 before the shit hit the fan and upgraded to a 3060ti by step up and it took 8 fing months. Crazy town. Not the new normal. You can take the new normal and shove up the nvidia ceos ass.

Sorry to be so crass, but damn, the thought of having to never get budget level cards because of miners, scalpers, bots and the rich asshole gatekeepers on here deem it acceptable is mind numbingly horrible!

Maybe you can afford shit many of us are struggling. I make $21/hour, all those jobs pushed prices for me up and shit got more expensive without raising my wage or fellow co workers rates as we were already above 15.

In your wet dream only rich assholes and miners can game. Fuck that. Future. Some years if I couldn't get a sub $200 card I wouldn't buy, and I've been buying cards since 1992...with my first 2mb svga card for around $100.

I hope people don't accept this and put pressure on Nvidia or the hobby is shot you really think people can afford this then you are in lala land. Only miners, scalpers and affluent teens and rich adults are affording this.


Maybe you would of had a point if we were still getting stimulus checks and unemployment was getting boosted, but those days are long over and is no longer the case. There are millions struggling.

The realist's take, it has been a year and a half, time to face facts. If only miners and rich people were paying these prices we would have seen significant downstream effects long ago. Mainstreet is demonstrably willing and able to pay double historical MSRP norms for GPUs, and it hasn't even affected their ability to buy games, kb/mice, RGB headphones, 480Hz monitors, gaming chairs, or 8000Gbps SSDs. Even the supporting markets are posting record sales, revenues, and profits, not just GPU manufacturers.
 
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DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
I can't believe there are actually people pushing for environment destroying, electricity guzzling, gaming destroying by value of lack of stock, mining on here. No wonder they are OK with super high prices. If you are doing that, then you are part of the problem! Probably scalping cards or using bots too.

Fuck mining and anyone who's really invested in. I hate that shit!

Destroying the planet and economy, plus worlds manufacturing over some imaginary coin bull crap!....all for what they think is quick monetary gain. They all Suck!

Not a fan at all!
 

64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
2022/2023 will be worse, motherfuckers are all jumping on that NFT bandwagon which is just going to push demand for more crypto farms. They might as well not bother designing GPU's for games anymore, just call them Crypto Crunchers and fuck the rest of us!
this aged like
Spongebob Squarepants Milk GIF
 
I really feel that Sony blew it by not releasing Bloodborne for the PC in 2021. It would have sold like hotcakes during the pandemic. It was a slow year. It would have had no competition. Now, whether or not you prefer BB or ER, Elden Ring has taken some of the sheen off of Bloodborne. It's last year's model. Even if they finally release it, it won't sell as well as it would have pre ER. Colossally stupid business decision IMO.
 
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