Mourning the concept of affordability in the custom PC-building scene isn't a new trend; on the contrary, the eulogy for "Moore's law" was read years ago, around when hardware like NVIDIA's high-end GeForce RTX 40 Series graphics cards came with astronomical prices, and possibly even earlier than that.
Moore's law is dead [...] the ability for Moore's Law to deliver twice the performance at the same cost, or at the same performance and half the cost, every year and a half is over. It's completely over.
Jensen Huang, NVIDIA CEO, 2022
If you've never heard of the term — named after Intel co-founder Gary Moore — it's a prediction (not really a law) of how computing power increases every few years by doubling transistor counts without a severe cost impact. Anyone who follows graphics card, RAM, or storage prices knows that dream is over.
On a more widely known subject, the demands of generative AI quickly became obvious as more models were widely adopted, and building them on local hardware is how that all gets started. Since then, our sister site, Tom's Hardware, has watched GeForce RTX 50-series GPU prices spike by up to 39%. Sure, MSRP always felt like a suggestion rather than a rule with GPUs, but it's getting worse.
Today's GPU for the price of yesterday's PC
As it stands, encouraging novices to build their first custom Windows rig is particularly difficult because it usually means settling for the absolute bare-bones, entry-level GPU to stand a chance of keeping your build under $1,500. No matter how many advancements NVIDIA puts into DLSS — which I maintain is still the best graphics upscaler on the scene — it can't solve everything.
The idea that a chip is going to go down in cost over time, unfortunately, is a story of the past.
Jensen Huang, NVIDIA CEO, 2022
Plus, all these GPU headaches come before you start the painful process of finding a storage drive and suitable RAM modules to pair with it. Once you start approaching $2,000, I generally nudge people toward high-end gaming handhelds like the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ for something more entertaining. Then again, nothing beats the satisfaction of building your own rig from scratch.
Of course, the reality is that Moore's Law has its scientific limits. We can only go so far into microscopic process nodes before manufacturing hits the borders of what's currently possible. That doesn't excuse inflated prices, and a commercial obsession with artificial intelligence still pulls the brunt of that blame, but why isn't there any AI-free hardware for the rest of us?
Would any brand go against the grain?
Realistically, practically any functional computer can run a local AI model on its CPU, GPU, NPU, or a combination of the three on a single SoC processor. Much like the crypto-mining fad that saw graphics cards scalped for their usefulness in Bitcoin earnings, modern components are at the mercy of AI, and it's a bubble that shows no signs of bursting (whether I like it or not).
Since the advent of Intel's Arc graphics hardware, particularly the first-generation "Alchemist" A750, which powered my wife's gaming PC for years with gradually improving performance, I've become an advocate for what the brand is trying to do. It's a similar story on AMD's Radeon graphics side, as both have an opportunity to steal the entry-level market away from NVIDIA.
After all, if NVIDIA isn't under enough threat from its competition, why would there be any incentive to lower prices? Intel has made impressive advancements in its own XeSS upscaling tech, which is part of what makes Intel Arc G3-powered handhelds so appealing. If it could commit to more affordable discrete GPUs with its long-awaited "Celestial" range, it could shake up the game.
Then again, Intel's CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, seems more interested in a return to the memory business (via Tom's Hardware), which would push Intel's desktop graphics even further down the list of priorities. It's much the same story as NVIDIA's minuscule — if utterly dominant — consumer GPU business compared to its monstrous data center and artificial intelligence side.
Could gigantic desktop graphics cards even seem ridiculous a decade from now, when NVIDIA's RTX Spark chips become its main priority? Doubtful, but who knows? Either way, Moore's Law is seemingly dead, and regular consumers are eating the costs passed on from major manufacturers as the march towards AI psychosis continues. I'll keep my eyes peeled for any signs of that changing.
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