!rant

I don't like how the hardware industry is so far ahead than the software industry. Almost all new hardware invented these days are a massive overkill for any software that is out there.

Qualcomm Snapdragon has 8 Gen 2 chips out but there aren't any android games that need more than Snapdragon 888.

NVIDIA has RTX 4090 out but there aren't any games that need more than RTX 2070 to run with good FPS.

PS5 and Xbox Series X have a very little library of games that can't run on a previous gen console.

So a game maker wants to be able to run on 2% of the machines or 80%? Also, modding games can quickly exceed your graphics card. Look at the amazing things people are doing with Skyrim and Fallout modpacks.

Also, when Crysis came out, it was years before a machine existed for a person to run on max settings. Most games have settings to take advantage of the card. I know Cyberpunk 2077 does. I think No Man's Sky does as well.

There is still plenty of room for physics in games. And Raytracing is also unsatiable when it comes to GPU performance.

Also: Games will start using local GPU-based AI for behavior, speech synthesis, and procedural generation of content. Todays GPUs still provide orders of magnitude less computational power than could be useful for the immersive sims of the future.

@Oktokolo "There is still plenty of room for physics in games." lol, this is so true. Skyrim has added boob and butt physics via modding. Not sure my 2011 machine could have run that.

Also, somewhat good for future proofing? Why would you want a phone or computer that can only just handle the current high-tech? Just to need to buy another one in a year? Some headspace is more than welcome.

Although your 4090 example is correct - that is absolute overkill unless you render photorealistic 3D videos on a daily basis.

@PotatoCookie This is why I wait 3 to 5 years to buy new games. Generally the DLCs are all released and bundled in one lower price, and the hardware to run it is cheap at that point.

Although the points of the previous comments are valid, I think there are market forces pushing for this outcome.
Or, rather, "marketing" forces.

For HW, you have the ridiculous notion that "big numbers mean big goodness". That is way camera makers push for "more megapixels" and why tv makers talk about 4K and 8K and soon 12K and 1M and whatnot.
And people will shell out for the new 83002 XGZ+ board even if it's nearly identical to the much cheaper 73002 XG just because the other adds "10000 Z's, man! and plus!".

For software, on the other hand, companies literally paid Microsoft millions to keep windows XP on life support. People hate when apps change their UX. People often get confused when you add features. They like numbers.

In the end, if Canonical was to call their next OS "Ubuntu 7300 XTY" and the one after the "Ubuntu 8400 XTZ", people would prefer it to windows that "has only 11 XT's"

@Demolishun Even if you add up all kinds of mods u still don't need a RTX 4090. You can very well play with a RTX 3070 Ti.

@Demolishun I too like my Skyrim heavily modded. Butt the butt and boobs physics i got with HDT-SMP didn't convince me - and neither do the traps' physics (but at least they have physics).

It's actually not ahead of software. The software bloat consumes all the hardware could give

@PotatoCookie oh no, don't use the f-word