I don't know if new cards are priced right.

But development, support and chip manufacturing costs are ever growing while market volume stagnates. Even if all other things were equal, you cannot have such fast progress without higher prices.

Others have suggested factoring in inflation, but please allow me to be blunt:

Adjusting for inflation in any GPU price report is required for the results to have meaning in the current market. It is not optional, and any report without it must be disregarded, regardless of how much effort was put into it.

I remember V2 price - 300 $ at launch. But 300 $ was a lot of money back then, it isn't only inflation, for me it's what I could buy with those mopney (well, not me, I was a teenager back then). Then there's was 5950 Ultra and Radeon 9800XT, they were both expensive: 500-600$. 8800 Ultra was one of the most expensive gaming cards, it was above 800 $.

I think the high end graphics cards will continue to be expensive because they are targeted to a small group of people. In the past almost anyone who wanted to browse the internet and to play games had a computer (or console for games). Then there was the laptop boom. Then there was the tablets. Then smartphones. Now only a small percentage use a desktop, most people use their smartphones, maybe a tablet or laptop for more intensive tasks. And of course there's smart TVs. Almost anything has a mini computer inside.

So I don't think the high prices are really a problem, since there are alternatives. You can always buy a less expensive video card. Or you can buy a console. I found XBOX One S in store for about 150$ (at sale price), but normal price is about 200$. PS4 is a little more expensive, but not by much. PS4 Pro - 400 $. XBOX One X is about 500 $. And they allow 4K gaming, not at the same quality as a high end GPU (right now - 1080Ti), but for the price I'd say it's a very good compromise. You want the *best* quality and high framerat, you pay for that premium, it's the same rule everywhere, from food and clothes to cars or houses. A decent car is 15.000$, a good car might be from 30.000$ to 60.000 $. Premium cars (supercars) might be even more than 500.000 $, they are (like the premium video cards) targeted to rich people.

A lot of us cannot really afford RTX 1080Ti (1000$), others can buy it, but with some sacrifices, but there are also people that have so much money that 1000 $ is really peanuts. For those who think RTX 2080Ti is too expensive - just check if you can buy one, you can't they are already sold out. Demand and supply, right now the demand is greater than the supply, so the price is clearly not *too high*, it's actually low, if Nvidia won't be able to keep with the demand they might even raise the price.

I know, it hurts, we all (or most of us) want the best, but only a few can have it.

Any new chip (die shrink or new design) coming out will have availability issues because of yields from the fabs on launch. Yields are the reason we have the same GPU in different price points (the more problems with speed or operating units the lower bin chip you get). Since Nvidia doesn't own their fabs they have to put in an order for x pieces and hope they sell them all while hoping most are the higher rated parts. Nobody wants to get stuck with chips that drop in value every few months.

Console gaming and computer gaming is different. Most people who game on a PC sit pretty close to the monitor so they can make out differences in resolution on say a 24" screen then an XBOX gamer can on a 50"
screen that is 5+ feet away.

I think the concept of 'high-end' consumer 3D cards has changed over the years.
Yes, VooDoo cards were 'high-end' at the time, but they were still 'budget' cards compared to the professional 3D hardware you could get (eg 3DLabs cards, or SGI systems).
There was just a strong separation between consumer cards and professional cards. This was at least partly because PCs were underpowered compared to dedicated 3D workstations, so the market for professional cards aimed at PCs was relatively small.
These days, PCs have replaced the dedicated workstations for professional 3D. This means that professional cards and consumer cards are very similar now (eg Quadro vs GeForce). As a result, the most high-end 'consumer' cards are now basically professional high-end cards with drivers optimized for games. So they are more expensive than in the past, but they also deliver a higher level of performance, relatively.