On the software side, the possibility of newer AI-driven features that will boost performance to those older GPUs would also be a boon not only for those with existing gear but also for those who would be forced to grudgingly buy discrete older-gen GPUs as the only affordable option. And while lower VRAM capacities absolutely have an impact on gaming performance, newer AI-driven features like DLSS do help offset that enough to make them at least serviceable.
There remain trade-offs; Nvidia's latest DLSS 4.5 model cuts performance on older GPUs significantly , so as Jensen says, Nvidia would have to do an awful lot of work behind the scenes to make that prospect a reality. Ultimately, that could be helpful, at least until some unknown point in the future where a GPU with plenty of VRAM doesn't cost as much as a used car.
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Stephen Warwick Social Links Navigation News Editor Stephen is Tom's Hardware's News Editor with almost a decade of industry experience covering technology, having worked at TechRadar, iMore, and even Apple over the years. He has covered the world of consumer tech from nearly every angle, including supply chain rumors, patents, and litigation, and more. When he's not at work, he loves reading about history and playing video games.
Gururu If they really wanted to help why don't they 1) make new CPUs that support DDR4, 2) make DDR5 exclusively to sell to end-user, or 3) bundle a free stick of DDR5 16GB with the new CPUs. Oh wait, that's AMD. Reply
dmitche31958 Gururu said: If they really wanted to help why don't they 1) make new CPUs that support DDR4, 2) make DDR5 exclusively to sell to end-user, or 3) bundle a free stick of DDR5 16GB with the new CPUs. Oh wait, that's AMD. I agree. Buying a 3060 you might as well buy a CPU with graphics. It’s not worth it. Reply
ohio_buckeye dmitche31958 said: I agree. Buying a 3060 you might as well buy a CPU with graphics. It’s not worth it. Not so sure. If they brought back the 3060 12gb that’s still a half decent card that with upscaling etc can still do a bit of 1440p. I briefly owned an arc b580 and for the $250 it really wasn’t a bad little card. You could do 1440p with high settings with some frame generation and xess. So while those kind of cards aren’t for everyone, if you’re just getting a pc together, it’s serviceable if you can get it for a good price imo. Reply
hotaru251 issue is can't release low vram gpu's and expect em to run high dlss w/ MFG and thats all vram intensive stuff. Literally be betetr buying a used gpu for less than a new old gpu. Reply
Hooda Thunkett Maybe instead of hoping for more GPU power to throw at new games, it's time to start pressuring game engine makers to optimize their code for 3060 and later generations. Reply
KennyRedSocks Maybe if they keep going back to the 3060, they can eventually reduce it to a single slot with a sub-75 watt TDP. Reply
Energy96 Translation: Sorry gamers, you are SOL until the AI bubble bursts. We have much bigger fish to catch so we aren’t chasing you with anything for a while. Good luck with your old equipment, maybe we will sell you some old 3060’s for 4x their worth. I’m so glad I built a monster system mid last year when the 9950X3D’s came out. The 96GB DDR5 I put in there is almost $2000 now if you can even find a pair, even the 4090 I already had is crazy price now. This system will hold me over for at least 5 years if needed. Reply
Gururu Hooda Thunkett said: Maybe instead of hoping for more GPU power to throw at new games, it's time to start pressuring game engine makers to optimize their code for 3060 and later generations. Exactly! But then they drop something like ray tracing and promote it so much it is included in every benchmark now. Reply
ezst036 Admin said: " Hi Jensen, Paul Alcorn from Tom's Hardware . The prices of gaming GPUs , especially the latest and greatest, are really becoming high, which might be due to some restrictions on supply and production capacity, one would assume. Do you think that maybe spinning up production on some of the older generation GPUs, on older process nodes where there might be more available production capacity, would help that, or maybe also increasing the supply of GPUs with lower amounts of DRAM? Are there steps that could be taken, or any specific color you could give us on that? Huang: "Yeah, possibly, and we could possibly, depending on which generation, we could also bring the latest generation AI technology to the previous generation GPUs , and that will require a fair amount of engineering, but it's also within the realm of possibility. I'll go back and take a look at this. It's a good idea." Nvidia is so disconnected now from gamers its ridiculous. Paul's question was clearly about the consumer space, were very few people care about AI gimmicks. The question is how can you help the little guy. Jensen Huang heard an AI question that was not asked. New AI means more engineering cost means bigger price tag. This ear is very tin. Reply
Jabberwocky79 ezst036 said: Nvidia is so disconnected now from gamers its ridiculous. Paul's question was clearly about the consumer space, were very few people care about AI gimmicks. The question is how can you help the little guy. Jensen Huang heard an AI question that was not asked. New AI means more engineering cost means bigger price tag. This ear is very tin. I am by no means an Nvidia fanboy, but just pointing out that it's possible you misinterpreted his statement. With his "AI technology," I believe he is referring to some of the new multi-frame generation and upscaling features that have been released with the 50 series. If older gen GPU's could run the software, then it would allow gamers to get more performance out of older hardware. Now, do I think that Jensen actually cares enough to fire up some production runs of the 30 and 40 series cards? Nah. Reply
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Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/nvidia-non-committal-on-plans-to-solve-gpu-pricing-squeeze-ceo-jensen-huang-floats-bringing-ai-tech-to-older-models#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
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Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.