The concept of "dessert graphics card" may have changed erratically in recent years due to various unexpected factors. Although it does not have a very specific standard, in the past it was basically the same as "e-sports" and "entry 3A" ” and other tags are bound. After the official debut of the RTX 30 series Ampere architecture graphics cards in 2020, the title of "dessert-level" continues to be linked to the RTX 3060. It should have continued the same positioning of GTX 1060 and RTX 2060, becoming the most popular graphics card among players. It will bring the "dessert-level" It has reached a price of 3,000-4,000 yuan, and as time goes by, this number will continue to rise.
In a period when the prices of most graphics cards seem a bit irrational, target users of original dessert cards with limited budgets can only look for alternatives. In the past, some entry-level graphics cards and flash cards have begun to become the last resort. This has become a variety of "dessert cards with attributes". Whether it is old products such as GTX 1060, RX 580, and RTX 2060, or new products with an emergency nature such as GTX 1650/1660 and RX 6650, they are all struggling to maintain the pricing range. At the same time, it slightly lowered the performance and positioning of some "dessert cards".
Time has come to the present, and the prices of the new 30 series products have fallen back to a level close to the first launch price range. Considering that it has been two years since their release, and the 40 series will be launched in the second half of the year, is it worth buying a graphics card that maintains or is even higher than the first launch price? For most people, this is still a question that needs to be considered. Entry-level and mid-range graphics cards with slightly lower positioning still use the title of "dessert card". This makes when people mention dessert cards in the future, the first thing they think of is not the higher-performance RTX 3060, but "1080p dessert card", "online game dessert" Card" RTX 1650/1660Ti or similar positioned products.
- Sweet Spot (Sweet Spot), a concept that comes from sports, may no longer be used on the "stronger mid-range graphics card" that was rumored to be defined by NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang a long time ago. We can think that this definition is due to sales strategy considerations, to further widen the gap between the performance level and the mid-to-low-end, and then insert a graphics card product that is closer to the performance level or even the sub-flagship level, in order to influence players' purchasing decisions. , creating the impression that "if you don't at least choose this dessert card, the game performance and experience will drop off a cliff."
However, in the past five years, due to various creative uses of the graphics card and computing power, it has become increasingly difficult for the player group to purchase this kind of better performance at an affordable price. There are even some graphics cards that exceed its description and positioning. Graphics card manufacturers need to launch them due to various considerations. Only products that are more in line with the original positioning and pricing of mid-range cards can potentially win back some of these groups. Therefore, the positioning between "dessert cards" and mid-to-low-end entry-level graphics cards has been filled by real mid-range cards, and consumers will naturally think that they are products that are more in line with the characteristics of "dessert cards". The same trend is also happening in the field of entry-level graphics cards. Products in similar performance ranges are becoming more and more segmented, but the differences between them are getting smaller and smaller. At the same time, new entrants such as Intel Arc graphics cards have appeared in the thousand-yuan price range.
Generally speaking, the decline in dessert card positioning and pricing also represents a decline in consumption levels to a certain extent. It is not only an unavoidable trend in the economic environment, but also a bit like "shooting oneself in the foot." Graphics card manufacturers have lost the dividends brought by their past subtle strategies. Future RTX 4060 and even more products with the same positioning may no longer be able to reproduce. According to the Steam platform hardware survey data, GTX 1060 usage accounted for more than 10% and dominated the list for 5 years. Before the GTX 1060, this position was occupied by the higher-positioned GTX 970, and the latest data shows that the next possible successor will be the "1080p dessert card" GTX 1650.
As for how to restore this status quo, we can only see whether the future RTX 40 series and RX 7000 series can once again reverse the "dessert-level" positioning through positioning and pricing strategies, so that consumers can readily accept dessert cards with more cost-effective products. That's beyond mid-range performance.
