It seems like gamers have finally realized that the newest GPUs by NVIDIA and AMD are getting out of reach, as a new survey shows that many of them are skipping upgrades this year.
Gamers Aren't Interested In The New AMD/NVIDIA Gaming GPUs, As Rising Prices Have Made Them Basically Non-Accessible
Well, this year, the new GeForce RTX 50 series from NVIDIA was certainly out of reach when it comes to pricing, since while the MSRPs were deemed as something "normal", the inventory situation forced consumers to buy SKUs at higher prices. According to a survey by Liquid Web, out of 1,000 gamers surveyed, many of them have decided not to go for a GPU upgrade this year, mainly due to how unaffordable they have been, and many of them have decided to stick to paying their rent and electricity bills, which shows that the PCMR hasn't been a much competitive one in recent times, especially when compared against previous years.
Diving a bit into the survey, it is revealed that over 57% of PC gamers have been prevented from buying a new GPU due to the supply chain situation, and with President Trump's tariffs, they have become even more out of reach. Interestingly, many of them were eager to keep the electricity running rather than fulfill their gaming needs, and more than 40% of them would wait for more than two years before proceeding to a new upgrade. This shows that the retailers certainly aren't happy with the on-ground situation, and GPU shortages have heavily influenced the upgrade cycle.
When asked about which GPU they feel offers the best value, gamers voted for the RTX 4070 Ti, a rather unusual choice, and some of them were also satisfied with NVIDIA's Ampere-based RTX 3070. GPUs which we feel are better options, like the Radeon RX 9070 XT, didn't get many ratings at all, suggesting that there's still an unconscious bias towards NVIDIA and its GPUs, even though AMD offers better perf/$ value with their newer RDNA 4 GPUs, if you could find them at MSRP.
The industry needs to come up with options that help the average consumer and are more "value-focused", instead of solely driving up profit margins. AMD did manage to heat up the mid-range segment with their new RDNA 4 GPUs, but there's still a need for better options.
About the author: Muhammad Zuhair is a hardware and technology reporter for Wccftech, specializing in the semiconductor industry and the complex interplay between technology, manufacturing, and geopolitics. His coverage focuses on the corporate strategies and technological roadmaps of industry giants like TSMC, NVIDIA, Samsung, and Intel. Zuhair's expertise lies in deconstructing complex topics such as fabrication nodes (e.g., 2nm process), the economic impact of policies like the CHIPS Act, and the strategic development of AI infrastructure from NVIDIA, AMD and Intel.
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