The PC industry hasn't been having the best of times lately. According to analysts, 2023 was arguably the worst year in PC history, where sales declined nearly 15% over 2022. Although things have improved in the first quarter of 2024, it's apparent that the market is going through a rough patch. While these figures reflect the combined desktop and laptop units shipped, I'd like to look into the desktop PC market in particular.

In the past few years, we've seen hardware manufacturers, specifically CPU and GPU makers, horribly lose focus and prioritize the wrong things. Instead of making actually worthy products, they've been fixated on strategies that are insignificant at best and exploitative at worst. And while these might not be totally new trends, things have started to come to a head.

3 Revamped naming schemes

Missing the "core" issue

I'm obviously referencing Intel's new confusing CPU nomenclature which drops the age-old "Core i" and "Gen" branding for its processors in favor of "Core Ultra" and "Core" naming schemes. Intel's Meteor Lake laptop chips are already using this new branding, while the desktop CPUs will receive it starting with the 15th Gen Arrow Lake lineup.

While these new chips will be using a chipset design integrating the CPU, GPU, and an "NPU", and will be based on the new 7nm "Intel 4" manufacturing process, there really wasn't a need for a whole new naming scheme, which seems more misleading than informative. Dropping the "Gen" branding going forward might lead some uninformed consumers to buy an older processor, since they don't have the handy "13" or "14" numbers at the beginning of the CPU name to identify the generation it belongs to.

The AI bandwagon is getting crowded, sure, and we knew Intel would join the party, but it could have simply continued with the previous nomenclature without slapping a new sticker on its AI processors. There are hardly any use cases for AI CPUs worth talking about right now, and even if things change in the next few months or years, almost everyone from AMD to Snapdragon will have the hardware to power them. Intel's new naming scheme will hardly be the USP to stand out from the competition.

2 Lazy product refreshes

Higher prices for slightly better clock speeds

Intel's 13th Gen Raptor Lake processors were a decent improvement over the innovative hybrid architecture introduced in the 12th Gen Alder Lake chips. But the "Raptor Lake Refresh" in the form of the 14th Gen CPUs barely justifies even the refresh moniker. Except for the Core i7-14700K which featured some extra E-cores, this "new generation" of processors was simply inconsequential. All we got were slightly higher clock speeds, higher power draw, and of course, higher prices.

Intel's "tick-tock" strategy isn't anything new, but following up the 13th Gen CPUs with a lineup that it could have been skipped altogether and calling it "14th Gen" can only be termed as lazy. Instead of taking its time to improve the power efficiency of its architecture and actually deliver significant gen-on-gen gains, the company simply launched a stop-gap generation of CPUs until it has the 15th Gen Arrow Lake lineup ready.

1 Launching old products in new packaging

Remember Nvidia had to unlaunch a GPU?

Nvidia has been filling its coffers by selling server GPUs to fuel the AI hype. But, amid the multi-trillion dollar valuation celebration, Nvidia forgot how to make gaming GPUs that are good value, and you know, not reeking of shady tactics. The more recent example is the RTX 4060 Ti that launched with 8GB VRAM and a measly 128-bit bus for $400. Needless to say, it was massacred in reviews as well as sales.

But, the worst part was that for all practical reasons, it was just an RTX 3060 Ti under a new name. It was barely faster than the 3060 Ti and was even slower in some games. The 8GB VRAM and 128-bit bus were clearly crippling its performance. It followed this disaster with another one — the RTX 4060. It couldn't even beat the cheaper Radeon RX 7600.

But, perhaps the most telling fiasco showcasing Nvidia's dubious shenanigans was the RTX 4080 12GB, a GPU that received so much backlash that the company had to "unlaunch" it. What really happened was that Nvidia was trying to hoodwink us by calling what was really an RTX 4070 by the name RTX 4080 12GB and hoping it could get away with it.

The unlaunched GPU was nowhere near in performance to its namesake, the RTX 4080 16GB. And when Nvidia brought it back to the market, it called it the RTX 4070 Ti, which isn't completely okay, but still better than what it was trying to pull before.

The PC industry needs a reset

It seems like the industry as a whole has become too comfortable, hoping consumers will pay anything for sub-par products and be happy with them. But, last year showed that PC users aren't buying as many PCs as before. The price of mainstream products has driven a large section of the population out of the PC building scene. Gen-on-gen improvements have stagnated in the entry-level and mid-range segments, and manufacturers are busy focusing on the wrong things.

With new processors and graphics cards about to arrive later this year, I hope that some lessons have been learned and that we can actually get excited about new PC hardware again. Otherwise, users might go from disappointed to downright bored and indifferent.