at least when it comes to consumer tech

like i can't even remember the last time i was excited for a new tech thing. maybe my second smart phone, i guess? that one was at least a big improvement from my first one. third was marginally better, and then the fourth, which i'm using now, i feel like i only got because of planned obsolescence (slow down/battery problems etc.)

it's such a stark contrast from growing up in the 90s/early 2000s

  • DefinitelyNotAPhone [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    GPUs are hit hard by this. My current graphics card is 5 years old and 2 (soon to be 3) generations behind bleeding edge, and it can do literally anything I throw at it at 1440p which is the superior resolution. Even 4K is easily satisfied for any real use by a 3080, and yet the 3080 Ti, 3090, and 3090 Ti exist and Nvidia is trying to crank out midrange cards that can match those in performance.

    Why? Gamers have no use for any extra performance. Video editors don't need anything more than a 3090. Rendering farms are just going to use many cheaper cards rather than a few expensive ones. AI is about the same as rendering farms for any reasonable use case (no Apple, FaceID is not a valid excuse to shove a whole ass dedicated neural engine in your fucking smartphones). 4K resolution is near what people are reasonably going to max out at for a very long time unless IMAX projectors get very cheap all of a sudden. So why do we need another generation of more powerful cards beyond shareholders getting paid?