Have PC graphics cards stopped improving?

Hi all, I'm currently contemplating a new graphics card to replace my aging HD6950. When I bought it approximately 2 years ago, I paid slightly over 200$. But now I'm looking at the graphics card offerings on newegg and amazon and the cards in the range of 200$ offer roughly the same performance on benchmarks. 

What gives? 

Seems about right. You bought the 6950 right before the 7000 series came out so you got a good price on the 6950. The 7950boost which is about $200 is 30-35% faster than the 6950 and has 10-15% overclocking headroom before you even have to adjust the volts

The 20nm cards which are rumored for 2nd half of 2014 are going to be new architecture + a die shrink (30-50% boost over the 7000/gtx 700 series).

I'm not really sure what you're on about.  The AMD 7950 can be had for $200-230, and it's quite a bit faster than a 6950.  $200 was also quite a good price for a 6950.  

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7850_HD_7870/26.html

Hi all, I'm currently contemplating a new graphics card to replace my aging HD6950. When I bought it approximately 2 years ago, I paid slightly over 200$. But now I'm looking at the graphics card offerings on newegg and amazon and the cards in the range of 200$ offer roughly the same performance on benchmarks. 

What gives? 

radicalcentrist

I bought my 6950 for about 300 bucks about 3 years ago.  Performance improvements slowed down compared to the old days, but not by a lot.  I am personally waiting for the next die shrink, 6950 performance is still fine today.

Yeah pretty much. I used to go ape sh*t for the latest gpu whether I could afford it or not simply because the gains are night and day.

About 3 years ago I the choice between 6950 $300 I think or 570 $350. I am still rocking the 570 today with decent frames and settings. I already got my dollars worth, and if I sell it to get a 7950 than the jump would be cheap(something that doesn't occur to consolite about pc cost lol). Whats funny is that had I known days before the news broke out about people unlocking 6950 to 6970 than I may had purchase an amd instead.

Well, with many games limited by their console release, the beefier textures and resolution on the PC versions can only push GPUs so far.

My 7970 is still going strong, and probably will do for at least another two years when hopefully the new console generation games work their way through the pipeline.

Even taking that out of the equation, there's still the law of diminishing returns - eventually the gains will be harder to achieve compared to previous iterations.

I don't know if video cards have stopped improving. But, I feel the trend of them getting longer and longer in length is ridiculous.  

I don't know if video cards have stopped improving. But, I feel the trend of them getting longer and longer in length is ridiculous.  

jun_aka_pekto

[QUOTE="jun_aka_pekto"]

I don't know if video cards have stopped improving. But, I feel the trend of them getting longer and longer in length is ridiculous.  

Iantheone

Yeah a few generations back, there were some incredibly long graphics cards.

[QUOTE="jun_aka_pekto"]

I don't know if video cards have stopped improving. But, I feel the trend of them getting longer and longer in length is ridiculous.  

Iantheone

I'm going by mid-range cards.

My Sapphire 5770 reference design is 8.3"

My Gigabyte GTX 560 Ti is 9.0"

My projected upgrade is at least a 7950 (or GTX 760) which average at least 10.0" long. 10" is the limit my case can handle unless I take a Dremel and make some mods.

[QUOTE="Iantheone"][QUOTE="jun_aka_pekto"]

I don't know if video cards have stopped improving. But, I feel the trend of them getting longer and longer in length is ridiculous.  

jun_aka_pekto

I'm going by mid-range cards.

My Sapphire 5770 reference design is 8.3"

My Gigabyte GTX 560 Ti is 9.0"

My projected upgrade is at least a 7950 (or GTX 760) which average at least 10.0" long. 10" is the limit my case can handle unless I take a Dremel and make some mods.

They've stopped growing.

My 275 was high end at launch and was 10.5", my 670 was high end at launch and is about the same length.

They've stopped growing.

My 275 was high end at launch and was 10.5", my 670 was high end at launch and is about the same length.

kraken2109

My Gigabyte GTX 760 is significantly longer than my former GPU, which was a Gigabyte GTX 560 Ti.  

[QUOTE="kraken2109"]

They've stopped growing.

My 275 was high end at launch and was 10.5", my 670 was high end at launch and is about the same length.

horgen123

10.5'' 7970 here.  Saw a 9'' one for sale, too, though

[QUOTE="kraken2109"]

They've stopped growing.

My 275 was high end at launch and was 10.5", my 670 was high end at launch and is about the same length.

horgen123

Meh. I might end up buying one of this smaller GTX 670s for $305 . 6.7" That's more like it. :lol:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121768

Well, with many games limited by their console release, the beefier textures and resolution on the PC versions can only push GPUs so far.

My 7970 is still going strong, and probably will do for at least another two years when hopefully the new console generation games work their way through the pipeline.

Even taking that out of the equation, there's still the law of diminishing returns - eventually the gains will be harder to achieve compared to previous iterations.

LordRork

[QUOTE="horgen123"][QUOTE="kraken2109"]

They've stopped growing.

My 275 was high end at launch and was 10.5", my 670 was high end at launch and is about the same length.

acanofcoke

I was concerned about length as well, the card I have is essentially maxing out my case.  Thankfully I just checked and it seems not much gets longer than a 5870 which is 11.14" - even the Titan is only 10.5"

That's because $200 for a 6950 sounds like a steal,  it was a very good deal you got there.

Just upgraded Evga 570 sc to gigabyte 770 wf3. My performance doubled and the card runs cooler and much quieter. The 570 screamed like a banchee. It was well worth the upgrade imo.