Currently trying to refund the new Indiana Jones game because it’s unplayable without raytracing . My card isn’t even old, it’s just 8GB of VRAM is the absolute minimum apparently so my mobile 3060 is now useless. I miss when I used to be able to play new games in 2014 on my shitty AMD card at 20fps, yeah it didn’t look great but developers still included a very low graphics option for people like me. Now you need to be upgrading every 2 years to keep up.
I think that has to do with consoles: when a console generation is outdated mid or low range hardware that forces more general optimization and less added bullshit, especially when that generation drags on way too long and means devs are targeting what is basically a decade old gaming computer towards the end. When they’re loss leaders and there’s a shorter window between generations or upgraded same-generation versions, it means devs are only optimizing enough to run on a modern mid range gaming rig and specifically the console configuration of that.