Originally Posted By: Jedi Master
...Except the market has changed...


Agree, the future is complex.

On one hand, less competition at the high end means higher prices and less choice "at the high end". Higher prices mean less sales overall "at the high end".

Moreover, significant (visible, feel-able) performance improvements are technically harder to achieve with each new hardware generation.

So, the market might just stabilize at a given performance level -- with steadily decreasing prices (after accounting for inflation) -- but "no reason for an enthusiast to be enthusiastic" and no economic reason for Intel and others to "push performance".

Most folks will be happy with the readily available, cheap, fun devices. However, the days (or at least, years) of "do it yourself" hardware hobbyists may be numbered. I'm already to the point that nothing currently on the market intrigues me because I know I won't notice the improvement over what I have. And, I'm not sure that will change in the next couple years. That happened decades ago with automobiles. I used to do all my own work and be interested in the new models. Now I buy a new car every 10 or 12 years and don't do a lick of work on them.


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