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Then, a simple thought struck me: graphics card performance baselines today aremuchbetter than they used to be.
Today, I believe a new GPU should net me atleast100fps at 1440p on max options.
Well, maybe not entitled.
Ive got the data to prove it.
Heres a quick run-down:
And the rest is history… or, well, more recent history.
At first glance, this doesnt look too good for todays GPUs.
But just compare, for a moment, 2006s 8800 GTX and 2023s RTX 4070 Ti.
Moving on to performance, we see a clear improvement over time.
The framerates listed are for games that were good-looking but not Crysis-level demanding when each GPU launched.
Were actually getting a better deal than we have at pretty much any point over the past 25 years.
This way, we get a more accurate picture of how these GPUs performed in their own day.
we see just how cushy we have it today.
And just to hit the point home, we see an even clearer picture for 1440p.
Far from GPUs being more expensive, then, they seem to be pretty damninexpensivecompared to those of yesteryear.
These performance gains cannot be understated, and they shouldnt be ignored when considering todays GPU prices.
Gone are the days when the holy grail was 60fps at 1080p.
Now, the holy grail is something like 100+fps at 1440p.
And that isnt even factoring in DLSS.
We should expect to pay a little more for all that…
But, as it turns out we dont even pay that much for it.
Again, just compare the 8800 GTX to the 4070 Ti.
Why all the fuss?
But thats only because we consider todays high-end GPUs equivalent to yesteryears, and we shouldnt.
It makes far more sense to compare todays mid-range cards to 2000-era and 2010-era high-end cards.
None of this even factors in the graphical improvements were used to today.
CompareFar Cry 6to the originalFar Cry, and we can see how far weve come regarding graphical fidelity.
And all this for a cheaper cost than ever before.
This is why the Moores Law arguments dont work: were not comparing apples to apples here.
Not just performance but graphical fidelity, too, has improved exponentially.
That GPU launched for $179 in 2008, which, in todays money, is $256.41.
And if we want more than that?
Well, the options are there, with thebest 1440p graphics cardslike theRTX 4070 SuperorRX 7900 GRE.
We now see these cards cost less than the verybest graphics cardsof the past.
