273
Chips aren’t improving like they used to, and it’s killing game console price cuts
(arstechnica.com)
this post was submitted on 04 May 2025
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Technology
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Is it Moores law failing or have we finally reached the point where capitalists are not even pretending to advance technology in order to charge higher prices? Like are we actually not able to make things faster and cheaper anymore or is the market controlled by a monopoly that sees no benefit in significantly improving their products? My opinion has been leaning more and more towards the latter since the pandemic.
This has little to do with "capitalists" and everything to do with the fact that we've basically reached the limit of silicon.
While blaming anything and everything on "capitalism" is disingenuous, it really does have to do with a lack of competition in the space. None of the incumbents have any incentive to really put much effort into improving the performance of gaming GPUs. PC CPUs face a similar issue. They're good enough for the vast majority of users. There is no sizable market that would justify spending huge amounts of money on developing new products. High end gaming PCs and media production workstations are niche products. The real money is made in data centre products.
I mean, when the definition of economy can be "how the species produces what it needs" then the answer to a problem is probably capitalism even if that answer explains very little
Capitalism is oligarchy owning means of production
I think what you are aim for specifically here is free market, ie demand driven economy
People conflate the two regularly... But we don't need capitalism, we need a free market.
But what we got is oligarchy without a free market
Fine we reached the limit... But why the price gouging lol
Because people continue to accept that price by agreeing to pay it. The price of a product is dictated by what people are willing to pay for it. If the price is so low that the seller isn't happy with it, they don't sell it and stop making it.
In other words, if you think Nintendo prices are bullshit price gouging, then vote with your wallet. With enough votes, the prices come down or the company goes under. You don't have that luxury of choice when it comes to groceries or shelter, but you absolutely do when it comes to luxury entertainment expenses. Make them earn your money.
I wish people would apply this to many other industries as well. A company will rip people off the first chance that they get.
What do you classify as “ripping people off” when it comes to pricing?
Not OP, but probably price gouging? Especially regarding things where you aren't afforded the reasonable opportunity to make an informed decision (healthcare, baby formula plus necessary clean water). Also maybe regional monopolies (internet service) or pretty much anything involving an event or venue (ticket pricing or cost of a slice of pizza or a can of beer at a festival).
In all of these examples, you likely don't have a heads-up or the chance to choose something else. Admittedly, most of the examples off the top of my head were unnecessary luxury spending, but how in the blue fuck is it okay that any of them are literally a situation of "pay me whatever price I decide or else a person will die"?
Pretty fucked up if you ask me.
I agree with your examples, and my issue is when people call pricing a game console at $450, or a game at $80 “price gouging”.
It’s not, in any way.
Up there I was talking about silicon specifically. But on this topic...
Sure, this is 100% discretionary spend and I am deff not buying but I am also a Linux user and will use emulators for my kids because fuck Nintendo and thei r parasitic business practices
But you have to see how a less sophisticated consumer is being price gouged? We are talking about games for kids at adult man with a job prices.
Or is u "efficient markets" typa a guy?
I agree with your fundamental premise but behaviour is scammy IMHO
No one is being price gouged by Nintendo. It’s a luxury technology device. Gaming is more for adults than kids these days, and had been for a long time. The average age of gamers has been increasing for decades and is around 30 years old.
So we should charge this idiots adult working man prices 🤡
Good job bootlicking, champ
Once more but in English please?
Sure but why is u mad tho
You’re the one that seems mad. I understand that not being able to afford something doesn’t mean that there is “price gouging” going on. I understand that I’m not entitled to everything I want being affordable to me with pocket change.
Well good thing there is piracy to check these bootlicker attitudes at least
Bootlicker, another term so misused by the left that it now means nothing.
I don’t think the switch 2 emulation scene is going to go anywhere after what Nintendo did to the yuzu devs. Not to mention that now any emulation would have to try and emulate the cuda cores, which has never been a thing in consoles before.
Just save your pocket money for a few years, maybe ask your parents what other little jobs you can do to earn a bit extra, and you’ll get a switch 2 eventually.
"The left" 🤡
Generally the people that throw around the term “bootlicker” in situations like this, who feel entitled to others work for free or process they choose, are leftists.
I think you are suffering from a bias issue here tbh
I am not sure how your political opinions tie to this but sure have fun with it ;)
OK you’re not a lefty, you just use all their favourite terms, make all the same arguments for why the things you want to buy should be cheaper, and jump straight to the sane old insults as quickly as leftists do.
If it quacks like a duck and all that…
I don't agree. It is capitalism, but not in a bad way. Simply put it is economy logic. Chip market has shifted from consumer market to the enterprise market.
So because the supply is limited, the demand has gone way up, and enteprise market has a lot, a mean a lot of money to spare buying, because it is an investment for them and not entertainment.
Also some bad capitalist tacticts in other areas, hard drives for example, that the big players reduced production to keep prices from falling. They cotribute to the problem, but they are not the major factor.
Moore's law started failing in 2000, when single core speeds peaked, leading to multi core processors since. Memory and storage still had ways to go. Now, the current 5nm process is very close to the limits imposed by the laws of physics, both in how small a laser beam can be and how small a controlled chemical reaction can be done. Unless someone can figure a way to make the whole chip fabrication process in less steps, or with higher yield, or with cheaper machines or materials, even if at 50nm or larger, don't expect prices to drop.
Granted, if TSMC stopped working in Taiwan, we'd be looking at roughly 70% of all production going poof, so that can be considered a monopoly (it is also their main defense against China, the "Silicon Shield", so there's more than just capitalistic greed at play for them)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=po-nlRUQkbI - How are Microchips Made? 🖥️🛠️ CPU Manufacturing Process Steps | Branch Education
Very interesting! I was aware of the 5nm advancements and the limitations of chip sizes approaching the physical limitations of the material but I had been assuming since we worked around the single core issue a similar innovation would appear for this bottleneck. It seems like the focus instead was turned towards integrating AI into the gpu architecture and cranking up the power consumption for marginal gains in performance instead of working towards a paradigm shift. Thanks for the in depth explanation though, I always appreciate an opportunity to learn more about this type of stuff!
Por que no los dos?