The era of 1000 PLN / 200€ desktops built from new components is coming to an end (again)
It's hard to believe how quickly time has passed since the cryptocurrency crash of 2022. It feels like just yesterday when Ethereum was hitting record highs, and graphics cards were sold at 4 times their recommended retail price.
But ever since Bitcoin lost over 70% of its value, and many other cryptocurrencies such as Luna dropped to 0€, we were told that the crisis is over and everything will be fine.
And for a few months - in late 2022 and early 2023 it looked like everything is going well.
For Christmas 2022 you could easily get a desktop built from new components for below 1000 PLN / 200€, as described in my article here:
https://steemit.com/hardware/@hwtrendsetter/looking-for-a-pc-built-from-new-components-this-christmas-season
But apparently, many manufacturers didn't get the memo that the chip shortage is over, inflation is under control, and the crisis is over. And considered it appropriate to triple the prices within the last 6 months.
To be fair, some prices have been dropping below the 'recommended retail price'. But only in cases of absurdly expensive 'recommended' prices ('discounted' motherboards - 1200€ instead of 1500€, is anyone interested? xD)
But if we take a look at that 2022 Christmas PC, or any other reasonably priced components in late 2022 - it turns out that pretty much everything is more expensive.
And the news keeps getting worse. 2023 has not only seen unreasonable increases in hardware pricing. It has also seen unreasonable increases in system requirements.
Graphics cards with 8GB VRAM such as RTX 3070 Ti (recommended retail price: 649€ / 3099 PLN) are not enough to play on very high settings in Full HD 1080p (not to mention 1440p or 4K).
Games like Forspoken, The Last of Us Part 1 Remaster, A Plague Tale: Requiem, The Callisto Protocol, or Hogwarts Legacy drop to 10-15 FPS with just 8GB VRAM.
https://www.techspot.com/article/2661-vram-8gb-vs-16gb/
Of course, you can lower the settings and resolution, people who bought expensive computers don't have to throw them out of the window.
But if it takes a 649€ / 3099 PLN card to play a game on medium settings, you know that entry-level cards don't stand a chance.
Is it still possible to get a somewhat decent desktop for around 1000 PLN / 200€? Yes, and you can check it out here:
[link to the second article]
But it looks like this era is coming to an end (and this time for good).