I would also be inclined to believe the Steam hardware survey. 1080P and even lower resolutions are still mainstream and the most common resolutions encountered. 1440P and 1600P won't become mainstream until they can come down even further in price and have hardware provide similar performance as 1080P at 1440P or 1600P resolutions. I've had a chance to try 1600P (albeit in some stores) many years ago and I still haven't seen 1440P/1600P achieve mainstream status. Enthusiasts make up a very small niche market and percentage that even if the percentage was to increase it still wouldn't compare to the prevalence of 1080P. For example prior to me acquiring my 1152P monitors I ran 1080P and prior on a 4:3 1280x1024 LCD monitor.
I think perhaps we got a little off track of the point I was trying to make.
It was in relation to the end of Jokesters Post actually. He stated that most people aren't aiming for 4K gaming. What I was trying to get across was that the technology is catching up to make it affordable to the point where more people join the 4K Crowd.
There are many people in my Circle who don't have steam (So never do those surveys) and run these setups (Last LAN party at work had only me running a 1080p Monitor, and there were 30 of us). So I don't count those surveys nearly as close as other people might. Again, I am not saying 1080p isn't mainstream. It is. But cheaper better technology is catching up to the point where I think there will be a shift. And what I stated initially still holds true. There are more people on 4k today then last year, and there will be more into 4K a year from now than today.
The HALO cards, well I agree that is for a select breed. But being able to drive higher resolutions for less cost than last year is the new reality that will shift it, IMO.
I suspect, to be honest, the average/typical system lies somewhere between Steam surveys and what we see in various forums.... People, especially in the case of monitors, don't upgrade very often; hell, I never even owned a 1080 monitor.
Your last comment- and I honestly don't mean this as a flame- crystallised something I had noticed in researching my CPU upgrade, but never quite could put my finger on. Too often, it seems, those that work professionally with computers, whether it be IT, content creation or what have you, think their work knowledge/requirements/expectations transfer, unquestionably, to the (for lack of a better term) real world. Of course, technology advances, becoming cheaper in the process. However, newer technologies don't always supplant older, established ones. A pure solid state PC is foreseeable, provided you don't need TBs of bulk storage. SSDs are still almost ten times the price per GB of HDDs, if 4k content ever arrives/takes off, HDDs become even more attractive.
In other words, I've started researching my next upgrade, 6/8TB of storage or a 400GB Intel 750. People who don't visit HW/gaming forums, I suspect, don't consider such things. They're far more likely to be rational, maybe even sane. :haha:
I don't take it as a flame at all. I love discussing technology, I'm a technologist true to heart. I don't think that my knowledge always translates over into the Business world...except when it does.
Because I have an understanding of the latest that is out there it has allowed me to use it to the benefit of my company.
I have under my wing 22 Techs, and their related Hardware. Because I switched them all over to Solid State, I have not replaced a HDD in 2 years. Where the previous 3 there was much different. That knowledge I held went to the real world in a good way for me.
My adaptation of a 'Enthusiast Grade' PSU into the Nortel BCM's we support allowed me to reduce the failure rate to less than 1% (They were using cheap, Sparkle PSU's that were factory chosen by Nortel. I now put good Delta Antec Branded inside). Another Spin on adapting what I know into the 'real world'.
Not everything I know will bridge that gap, but more and more I see it applied in my daily life and what I do with my work. I see it applied with my Brother as well whom is a Technical Director at a Teaching Hospital.
Anywho, I do agree with the principal of what you were saying. I just feel there is a place for new technologies to be adapted. And for older ones to remain. But the split (Ratio if you will) is changing.
Faster than we might admit.
Our Solid state Server...is expensive yes. And its storage capacity is reduced. But, our access times are unquestionably faster, and productivity over the course of a year with our employees outweight the costs of that solution by a factor of 10. You just have to be willing to make the attempt.
Anywho, back to the GPU's that this thread is related about since I went off on a bit of a Technology rant there lol.
-ST
