From old games to RTX remakes, melting adapters and RTX mixes
Nvidia has had its fair share problems and controversies over the past year. While there were many positive things that happened in 2022 it is clear that there were also some bad ones and ugly ones. I am thinking of the melting adapters on top-end GPUs as an example. Let’s now summarise Nvidia’s progress during 2022 – or lack thereof in certain cases.
Lovelace GPUs arrived in the midst of a fast flagship and serious issues
Ampere was succeeded by Nvidia’s Lovelace GPUs. The flagship RTX 4090, Nvidia’s next-generation model, came out in October. The RTX 4080 followed a month later. While both desktop graphics cards were undoubtedly fast, especially the flagship, they were equally afflicted with some thorny issues.
Let’s begin with the RTX 4090, and the case for the melting adapters. We knew that the RTX 4090 would be powerful and power-hungry. The flagship model boasted a TGP rating of 450W. Buyers had to ensure that they could supply enough power and that their cases could withstand the heat generated by the RTX 4090 (and that it would fit in the case).
We were alerted to the alarming reports about melting adapter cables shortly after the RTX 4090 was released. Although these were relatively few, Nvidia quickly responded that it was investigating. However, the complaints grew.
The problem was encountered by users who used an adapter that came with the RTX 4090 to connect it to an ATX 2.0 power source. These PSUs are the most common, and not many people have upgraded to the ATX 3.0 models. The 4090 has a 16-pin power connector, which works with ATX 3.0 models, but not ATX 2.0.
The adapter ended up melting in some cases and causing damage to the graphics card in others. This is a very bad situation.
We should also note that there were only 50 cases worldwide as per the Nvidia investigation. This is 50 cards out of 125,000 sold, which, if true, would make it very unlikely that a melting adapter will be found. The chance of melting adapters is only 0.04%, according to a huge Reddit mega-thread (opens in new tab).
Nvidia confirmed that the reason the adapters were melting was because they weren’t properly seated in their sockets in the GPU. There was much speculation. Nvidia stated that they have found that the common problem is that connectors do not fit into the graphics card.
The problem is that you need to bend the power cord around to fit the massive graphics card into your computer.
What will be Nvidia’s final verdict on this matter? Although we don’t yet know the final outcome, this has left some buyers with a bitter taste in their mouths. They paid a lot – in fact, a small fortune – for the Lovelace flagship.
We should also stress that the RTX 4090 is a phenomenally fast high-end GPU. It has an amazing performance high point. A design flaw such as this is not uncommon and is a major omission from Nvidia. The company offers expedited returns on affected graphics cards, but it is a serious mistake. This episode has tarnished Nvidia’s reputation, no matter how good the RTX 4090 may be in terms of raw performance.
Let’s now move to the RTX 4080. Although it may not have been subject to melting controversies but caused more controversy than the RTX 4090 due to its pricing and the fact that there were two versions, one of which was quickly canceled.
Two models were displayed when Nvidia unveiled the RTX 4080. One model had 16GB VRAM and one with 12GB (and a lower spec GPU chip). There was a lot of controversy about the lower-tier model and its price. One of the flavors was reminiscent of an RTX4070 in RTX4080 clothing, which theory was further supported by RTX4070 Ti rumors later that year.
Nvidia famously “unlaunched” the graphics card after all the controversy and consigned it the trashbin. It is rumored that the card will be relaunched as soon as the RTX 4070T Ti, but that story will wait until next year.
The RTX 4080 16GB was priced similarly to the discontinued lower-tier model. It still offered a poor price/performance ratio. The MSRP of $1199 USD was inflated by custom third-party boards, which made them nearly as expensive as the RTX 4090, which is a much faster GPU.
Why would you purchase the RTX 4080 and not the flagship? This was the thought of many people, and we referred to the RTX4080 12GB as the GPU Nvidia should have canceled.
Based on sales estimates that were circulated via the rumor machine – which have some fairly consistent approximations – it appears GPU buyers agreed and RTX4080 sales fell behind the RTX4090 by a significant distance.
Overall, Lovelace’s 2022 graphics card launch was problematic in many ways. Nevertheless, the RTX 4090 provided an amazing level of frame rate shifting power – we’ll discuss that later. Moreover, the RTX 4080 is a powerful GPU.
The RTX 4080’s price is just a lot higher than the Lovelace flagship value-wise – though Nvidia may be close to correcting that pricing, according to rumors. This is especially true when you consider how the value proposition compares to the newly launched AMD RX7900 XTX. Possibly, the RTX 4080 price correction may have already occurred by the time that you are reading this…
Lovelace was also hit by another blow from EVGA, Nvidia’s largest graphics card manufacturing partner. EVGA announced that it would no longer be making or selling these products just before Lovelace launched RTX 4000 GPUs. This announcement came amid controversial rumors – including “disrespectful treatments” – about the reasons. EVGA’s graphics card operations were effectively shut down by that announcement. However, the firm continues to support RTX 3000 boards – which brings us to our next point.
RTX 3000 stock still hanging around
Nvidia also faced another problem in 2022 with the RTX 3000 graphic cards still on shelves and in warehouses despite the RTX 4000 launch. This was a problem as gamers would be looking to purchase (or wait for), the Lovelace GPUs once they were revealed. Nvidia or its partners still had all of their RTX 3000 stock, which could cause problems.
According to Nvidia, this strategy meant that RTX 3000 GPUs were layered on top of next-generation GPUs. This meant that we received the new RTX 4090, 4080, and other heavy-end offerings, while the rest of market remained Ampere (RTX 3070 and 3060, 3050 – and the older budget offerings below).
This meant that we received only super-expensive GPUs from Lovelace, which allowed us to keep the entire range of RTX 3000 stock below for sale. While graphics card prices had been falling throughout 2022 and especially as the year progressed, they were normalizing from high levels and eventually dropping below MSRP – this trend was stopped in November by Nvidia cards. Unfortunately, RTX 3000 pricing rose in November for many GeForce models. This was as Tom’s Hardware, our sister site, noted(opens new tab), along with large price increases (urgh!) on the Nvidia front for RTX 3090 and 3080.
Because people realized that they wouldn’t be getting an RTX 4060 anytime soon – or at least not according to the grapevine – so middle-range options or at least mid-to-lower range are best to consider Ampere for future.
Nvidia clearly wanted this – to clear the stock – but a pair exorbitantly-priced next-gen cards and increasing prices on Ampere GPUs, when previously the RTX 3000 Series had been dropping in price significantly is not what gamers desired. We believe that this is a reason why an RTX4060 is unlikely to be available in the near- or medium-term.
Budget GPU woes (again).
2022 was yet another year when Nvidia failed to address the GPU market’s budget end. This is a continuing theme in the world of graphics cards.
We complained last year about the inability to find an RTX3050 that was more affordable. This year we finally found one. It was a shame that the MSRP for the RTX3050 in the US was $249. This is a significant difference from the xx50 model GPUs. You couldn’t even buy the RTX3050 at that price. The recommended price is still quite high, but it was close to double when the card launched in early 2013. Stocks were also thin.
Nvidia also launched the GTX 1630 model in June. This model was designed to be affordable, but it was so weak (plus, it was overpriced at launch and still expensive today) that it’s worth noting.
These new offerings for 2022 weren’t a solution. To add misery to the situation, Nvidia might be trying to make things worse on the low-cost GPU front. The RTX 2060 will be discontinued, according to rumours. This could also apply to the GTX 1660. We must take the word of the grapevine with great seasoning. If true, this would make Nvidia’s lineup at the lowest end of the market look extremely thin. As it stands, things are already uncertain.
Ok, we don’t mean to say that the budget situation in 2022 was worse than it was last year. Because 2021 was a complete sham, gamers paid ridiculous amounts of money for the GTX 1650 Super at budget end of the spectrum. Despite GPU pricing being normalized (finally) and Nvidia adding the RTX3050 to its roster, Team Green didn’t do enough. Budget buyers remained limited in their choices, to put it mildly.
Don’t forget, as we have already mentioned, the RTX 4060 seems to be a long shot. However, how ‘wallet friendly’ this GPU maybe is still open for debate. The RTX 4050 isn’t even in sight, laptop GPUs aside. Apparently what we’ve got for now in the somewhat more affordable department is a refreshed RTX 3060 Ti (with faster VRAM) which was brought into play late in the year – and that’s not nearly enough. It’s a sign that the RTX4060 is not coming soon, arguably.
Ah, well. Perhaps next year will bring better results for budget desktop GPUs. Here’s hoping.
DLSS 3 provides frame rate boosting
Nvidia DLSS 3 was announced in September. It is the company’s long-standing upscaling technology. DLSS 3 introduced a number of new features (Optical Multi-Frame Generation, Optical Flow Accelerator; learn more here) to increase frame rates and provide a better gaming experience.
Techspot reported that there has been controversy about DLSS 3’s use cases and the potential for increased latency. This could impact some games like twitch shooters, as opposed to Microsoft Flight Simulator. It works great with supported games. Flight Simulator is a highlight of this tech. This new tech allows for a much smoother frame rate and is a fantastic improvement on the DLSS 2.
There are obvious caveats to this, however. Support is very limited and only RTX4000 graphics cards can apply. DLSS 3 feels a little like a tool being used to improve the value proposition for the Lovelace GPUs, as the cynic might suggest. However, Nvidia has stated that the tech is RTX 4000-only. It will require more engineering and research to apply to older Nvidia GPUs so any benefits won’t be as strong.
Mixing old games using ray tracing
You’ve heard the expression, “In with the old, but… Wait a minute! That’s not true.” This was one of Nvidia’s brightest ideas this year on the ray tracing front, with RTX Mix. This tech, built on the Nvidia Omniverse platform, was unveiled at GTC 2022 along with Lovelace graphics cards. It truly is a modders’ dream. Old games can be easily given a new coat of RTX paint using ray tracing or DLSS.
Nvidia displayed Elder Scrolls III, Morrowind in all its remastered glory at GTC. It was quite impressive. The theory is that RTX Remix, which will be released next year, will give the modding community the opportunity to revive a number of older games and give them a new lease on life. An exciting prospect indeed.
GeForce Now Streaming ahead
You could sign up for Nvidia’s 2022 game streaming service if you can’t afford a new GPU. GeForce Now has seen some significant improvements, including the ability to stream in 4K on both Windows and Macs. This was only for gamers with a higher-tier RTX3080 membership. There was also another benefit to that plan – the ability to sign-up for just a month to test it out and see how fast the GeForce Now offering runs.
Nvidia is slowly building a better streaming option. The demise of Google Stadia in January 20223 (well, it closes officially mid-January 2023) has created more space for game streaming, which Team Green has been trying hard to take advantage.
Nvidia bid farewell to ARM
The $40 billion attempt by Nvidia to acquire ARM was a disaster from the beginning. The buyout was initiated in 2020 and ran into problems throughout 2021. In the end, the FTC filed a lawsuit to stop the transaction. Nvidia officially ended its bid for ARM in February this year. This was not surprising considering all the opposition and the vehemence displayed by the naysayers.
Conclusion
You may feel a little depressed as you read this article. We’ve covered a lot of Nvidia’s missteps and woes. Sky-high prices for new GPUs, problems around the RTX 4090 (adapters melting), and RTX 4080, plus more drawn-out budget graphics card misery.
Nvidia must be fair. The Lovelace graphics cards are some impressive pieces of engineering. The RTX 4090 is a remarkable processor, and the RTX 4090 is a lot faster than AMD’s RDNA 3 flagship. However, there are outliers. DLSS 3 looks promising, with the caveats we mentioned. RTX Remix is also a very cool idea.
While there were positives, Nvidia was plagued by too many negatives this year. Guess what? Team Green still has the largest desktop GPU power. According to Jon Peddie Research, Nvidia has an 88% market share in discrete graphics cards. 88%! Or, what we would call a Google level dominance.
Is Nvidia invincible in the desktop GPU market? This level of dominance could explain why Nvidia is confident pricing new GPUs like it did with Lovelace. Nvidia should not be too confident or content with its GPU offerings. AMD has created a compelling offering with the RX7900 XTX flagship – one that is capable of taking on RTX 4080 at a lower price point (as of this writing) – and there are more in the RDNA3 range.
If Nvidia continues to push ever-dizzying premium pricing for its new GPUs it could be a sign that things are changing quickly. Team Green could find itself looking at a shrinking reservoir of goodwill as a result of the cost-of-living crisis and extracting every dollar from gamers. This could result in more people choosing AMD or Intel at the budget end, something Nvidia seems unwilling to address.
Let’s watch 2023, when the RTX 4070T Ti launch is expected to take place at CES. If that happens, then Nvidia should be pleased: we can have a pleasant surprise in the pricing department, for once.
