Frankly, I don't see the cost of silicon being the biggest driving factor in the increased cost of these cards. They are using absolutely REDICULOUS coolers, I wouldn't be surprised if the cost on nVidia's side for the 4080 cooler is well over $100 a unit. The other part to this is since they are making absolutely crazy power limits they need to put the electronics back bone on the chips to provide proper, clean power to these chips. nVidia's solution to performance is just pump more power into the chip, there is very little innovation on their part.
nVidia is catering to the deep learning crowd and putting al this AI stuff on their chips taking up valuable silicon. These cards don't seem like consumer cards, they seem like enterprise cards and that consumers are an after thought. Then they find software solutions to use up the extra silicon they wasted on the chip. Going on power limits alone, these cards look like more like something that belongs in a server rack, not a computer case. And I would cite these MASSIVE coolers and videocard support beams as evidence of that.
And now, if we want to use these cards, not only do we have to go out and buy a new powersupply, we have to buy a VERY EXPENSIVE powersupply. Something in the 1000W+ range. I'd say if you want a 4080 you'd likely need something in the 1200w+ range. That is getting very close to what you find in server racks.
It just seems like laziness and that nVidia doesn't want to develop cards for the consumers. They want to keep development costs low and pass the secondary prices to use their cards onto the consumer(ie: coolers, powersupplies, video card support beams, ect.)
Like what is actually going on with this crap? It was crazy watching things like the GTX 280 and vega 64 power consumption numbers but these cards are DOUBLE those. These numbers are DOUBLE what people already thought was absurd and now they're just saying, "shut up, buy it, moores law is dead."
We all complained about the 280 and vega 64 cards but the industry accepted it. In my 25 years of following the tech industry I have never seen anything this absurd. This is craziness and I don't think the market will accept it like it did in the past. These cards are too expensive and there are too many downsides to owning them. They want me to pay $1200 for a card that's going to make it uncomfortable to sit in my room? I mean I guess I can run some cables and keep it in the garage or something but I like having the aesthetics of buying a computer in my room. It's fun choosing coolers and picking out a case I like. That's a major part of the hobby for me. Building something I think is cool and showing it off in my gaming room.
I guess what I'm getting at is that I don't really see where these products fit into the market. It isn't just a question of price anymore, there are too many things going on surrounding the cards that make them unattractive to consumers. I have never seen such a strong push back from consumers in all my years involved in the hobby.
Sorry for the long post