The “Break it Down” Blog

Ouch. This was covered before with some pictures, it’s not a small card by any means and is likely worth the $800… but wow, $800?

So now to build the guts (no accessories) of a cutting edge gaming rig you are looking at:

• Intel Core 2 Duo 6800 Extreme: $900
• ASUS 975-based Board: $300
• nVidia 8800 GTX: $800
• 2-4GB Memory: $500
• Raptor HD: $300
• PSU/Case: $300
• Total: $3100

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, I just hadn’t expected graphics cards to start cresting $1k so soon, especially with console sales blowing up. It seems in their best interests to keep the PC market a viable gaming market with publishers and developers preferring to deliver to the console market for a multitude of reasons (controlled hardware, copy protection, well defined distribution avenues, re-usable experience for 4+ years on a platform).