What is going on with 4000$ GPUs?

For example have a look here:
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

GeForce GTX TITAN Z
Score: 8,049
Price (Max): 4000$

GeForce GTX 770
Score: 6,148
Price: 250$

Other Links:

I know for sure that benchmarks are only for means of measurement, one number can’t describe completely the whole set of features and give extensive view on the complexity of the subject. I agree that the more you pay the better quality you get.

But if you think like a simple user, that wants to get the job done, have a decent gpu that is economic and quite powerful for it’s price. More importantly, have a game run, or see the Blender viewport get updated… Excuse me but this price difference is ridiculous.

Am I missing something?

Status symbol?

I know Quadro graphics units are more for professional users and that studios are more likely to buy them and it’s that which usually drives the cost up. You’re basically paying for the card, ‘professional’ rendering equipment for graphics production, and usually some kind of support. I was looking at a Quadro and they cost £4,000.00 and I was envious of anyone who had that card!

You have to ask though, what do these benchmarks take into consideration? GTX and Quadro cards are similar in design, but they’re meant to perform slightly different tasks. One’s built more for gaming, whereas the other’s built more for production. Their benchmarks will thus vary accordingly. Even GTX cards alone, what kind of games are they expected to run and at what level? Additionally, what other hardware and software has an effect on the benchmark? A brilliant card on a slow-ass machine ain’t gonna score well on some benchmarks. Using a benchmark in this sense is a poor measure of judgement.

And a poor one at that as it will be surpassed in a year by a faster model (so you would need to spend at least 1K a year on your new ‘symbol’). Definitely not like those pricey heirlooms which might last you a lifetime before passing it down to your siblings.

People who have thrown 3K at a GPU may now be regretting it as the Titan X becomes the big thing for wealthy gamers. It may be understandable if you’re building a studio that will do GPU-based path-based rendering because it’s a far more intensive task than making an Unreal 4 scene.

In this video with nVidia Titan you see that the viewport is rendered almost instantly, which is a good thing.

But here is another user that has the nVidia 770 and the results, if not as good as the Titan Z, are more than satisfying.

Some people with more money than sense may buy one as a status symbol, and revel in every bit of increased frame rate when they play. But, honestly, there isn’t a perceptible difference once you get past around 30 fps or so.

But as a production tool, when a studio is paying a CG artist a healthy salary to create animations or arch vis renders, shaving a few minutes off wait time before he can look at some intermediate results will pay back that cost fairly quickly, given the number of times per day the artist is waiting on the machine to finish some slow render task.

Board manufacturers know this, and they also know they have a limited window to charge premium prices for their boards, before the competition gets makes a similar board and starts lowering the price to get market share. If they don’t recoup their development costs while they still have a sort of monopoly on the latest and greatest board, they never will. So you get $4000 price points. In a year or two, when there is a newer ‘latest and greatest’, the price will drop to something much more reasonable.

Good explanation, that makes sense now.