AlienALX
Well-known member
I think sometimes you have to look at other factors for pricing issues. Product life-cycle, economic strength and political climate, to name a few. The fact is they've always been horribly expensive, it's not a new thing. With my own personal experience the Nvidia cards are only as expensive now as they were 16 years ago, maybe a fraction more so but after 16 years inflation that's not surprising.
When I bought my first high level graphics card, a GeForce 3 in 2001, they were fairly new out and cost about AU$1000. When I purchased the GTX 680's they were at the end of their product life-cycle just before the 700 series came out and they cost about AU$600 each on clearance. I look at the GTX 1080 price and before the 1080ti announcement they were around the AU$900-1000 mark (air cooled), now they vary between AU$750-$1000 for the various air cooled models.
In the 16 years since I purchased the GeForce 3 for about AU$1000 the price of the top new Nvidia cards still seems to be not far off that figure, around the AU$1000-$1100 when they're new out. So I think you can't always point the finger at Nvidia and totally blame them for pricing.
Yes, Nvidia have some say in determining price points for local markets but they don't have control over all the factors that go into determining that price point.
For reference AU$1000 is equivalent to £619 (approx). Just to give an idea on how markets can change, on 29 June 2001, £619 would've exchanged to about AU$1541. Exchange rates from the Reserve Bank of Australia.
So while you may not like it, I think there's more to it than just Nvidia charging too many £'s for the cards than compared to previous years.
Out of interest, what is your minimum wage out there in Aus? I know that $2 Aus = £1 or so.