How much is a graphics card worth to you? Ronnie Lindsay writes: We’ve already seen a number of cost-conscious Geeks complaining about the price of the FX-57, the Extreme Edition Pentium processors, and other super-expensive silicon for high-end gaming computers. It now appears that the CPU is not the only thousand dollar component to be found in next-generation top-of-the-line computers. GPU component prices are heading over the megabuck mark, and high-end next-generation parts are likely to see the US$1,200 price point. And why not? BFG, a major supplier of NVIDIA-based graphics cards, says that it is selling out of its $999 high-end graphics cards; in fact, supply has been so short for such chips, cards costing $600 last year now cost over $1,000 on eBay.

The supply and demand curve dictates that the prices of these babies go higher, and gaming Geeks appear to be willing to shell out the dough. Besides, money isn’t the only thing these cards are eating up. The same thousand dollar GPUs are consuming 230 watts of power while idle. It looks like ATI and NVIDIA need some sort of graphics Centrino. These trends are interesting, and if they continue to grow, it will be interesting to see how the big silicon vendors manage to overcome the temptation of the margins found in the high-end graphics business. Of course, with FX-57 and Extreme Edition price tags out there, they have their own silicon pie. For more information, visit Tom’s Hardware.

Source: geek.com