Not OT, right on topic: Ridiculous prices+rich(?) people=inflation in the market

I think graphics card prices have always been very high, at least in
the country I live in. The maximum price I saw for the GeForce 6800
Ultra was ridiculously high, topping at over 800 euros! Most basic
6800s are still around 350 to 400 euros, which to me is way too much
even to think of upgrading from GeForce 5900 XT or Radeon 9800 Pro.
6800 GT is on the same price level now than GeForce 2 GTS was a few
years back in my area. The prices need to come down about 50 euros
before I consider upgrading to a 6800. Make no mistake, those 5900XTs
and 9800 Pros are still handy, but we have reached a new level of
graphics with "Far Cry" and "Doom 3", and we'll beginning to see more
intense and heavy gaming environments in the fall and early spring
2005. 30 to 40 frame-rates at 1024 x 768 is tolerable, but my cards
are only a notch away from the low end experience. Those who are
impatient of waiting and want to upgrade now, don't really lose any
money, if you look at it in the long term, but those 400 buckaroos are
still 400 buckaroos = 2 x Xboxes. In that retrospect, it is a tough
price to break through without cringing.

Paying $200 and upgrading every 12 months costs the same as paying
$300 and upgrading every 18 months. By waiting for a video card to
drop in price your effectively losing the use of a product during the
most productive phase of its life cycle.

Eric