3D rendering engine benchmarks suggest what you're saying is nonsense.
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gpu-hierarchy,4388.html
RTX 4070 Ti is a RTX 3090 Ti
RTX 4070 is a RTX 3080
RTX 4060 Ti is a RTX 2080 Ti and RTX 3070
RTX 4060 is a RTX 2080 and RTX 3060 Ti
RTX 4050 is a GTX 1080 Ti , RTX 2070 SUPER, RTX 3060
It is not difficult to see the pattern, just look at the GPU specifications, it is not a coincidence, and it is quite predictable. The manufacturer is just playing with disabling cores.
It is not new, Nvidia has always done this. Initially, longer than a decade ago, limiting the GPU through drivers, but someone found a way to hack it, so the manufacturer started limiting the GPU by hardware at the factory. The same thing happened when people started putting vRAM in themselves and the manufacturer restricted it again on following models.
> they are just reselling the same computing capacity as they have been for the last ten years
I'm not 100% sure what you're trying to say here, but as far as I can tell a 4090 offers quite a bit more "computing capacity" than a Titan RTX, and that's just over five years ago.
> RTX 4060 is a RTX 2080
Probably, but I just put one in a small desktop for $280, not the $700 a 2080 cost new. So, yeah they're selling the same stuff, it just costs less.
What I'm trying to say is that they're deceiving customers year after year about costs and computing capacity.
It was supporting my comment six messages above:
>>> But this generation of video cards provides a couple of other justifications for the purchase - it will allow them to run uncensored ML stacks locally
>> It does not. They will/are reselling exactly the same graphics cards that have been sold for the last ten years; the same computing capacity (and a modest increase for their top model), with very limited RAM, at very high prices.
> a modest increase for their top model ... limited RAM, at very high prices
Yes, I see your point, and agree.
There are far too many products in the range, and the consumer cards seem to be intentionally hampered to protect their professional / studio card business. eg. huge unnecessary 3-slot cooling arrangement on 3090/4090.