"These price increases have multiple intertwining causes, some direct and some less so: inflation, pandemic-era supply crunches, the unpredictable trade policies of the Trump administration, and a gradual shift among console makers away from selling hardware at a loss or breaking even in the hopes that game sales will subsidize the hardware. And you never want to rule out good old shareholder-prioritizing corporate greed.
But one major factor, both in the price increases and in the reduction in drastic “slim”-style redesigns, is technical: the death of Moore’s Law and a noticeable slowdown in the rate at which processors and graphics chips can improve."
This is why I'm more than happy with my 5800X3D/7900XTX; I know they'll perform like a dream for years to come. The games I play run beautifully on this hardware under Linux (BeamNG.Drive runs faster than on Windows 10), and I have no interest in upgrading the hardware any time soon.
Hell, the 4790k/750Ti system I built back in 2015 was still a beast in 2021, and if my ex hadn't gotten it in the divorce (I built it specifically for her, so I didn't lose any sleep over it), a 1080Ti upgrade would have made it a solid machine for 2025. But here we are - my PC now was a post-divorce gift for myself. Worth every penny. PC and divorce.
There’s no world in which a 750Ti or even 1080Ti is a “solid machine” for gaming in 2025 lol.
Depends on your expectations. If you okay mainly eSports titles at 1080p it would've probably been quite sufficient still.
But I agree it's a stretch as an all-rounder system in 2025. My 3090 is already showing signs of it's age, a card that's two generations older would certainly be struggling today.
For what I do? It would be perfectly fine. Maybe not for AAA games, but for regular shit at ~40fps and 1080p, it would be perfectly fine.
Gotta remember that some of us are reaching 40 years old, with kids, and don't really give a shit about maxing out the 1% lows.