Today’s launch (and review) of Nvidia’s latest enthusiast cards staggered me. The GeForce GTX 280 is fast, blisteringly so; but it’s also mind-bendingly, incomprehensibly, ball-achingly expensive. It’s certainly not the first – every new launch seems to have such prices attached – and it won’t be the last. But £430 for a graphics card?

Let me set my stall out right from the outset: I once spent in excess of £300 on a Radeon 9800 Pro with a fancy blue cooler just to play Far Cry in all its glory. Being a student, I had no money and even less sense, but it just seemed like something I had to do – how else would I experience something so beautiful?

A launch like the GTX 280 should be like technological Viagra to me, then, shouldn’t it?

In a word, no. Times have changed; I’ve changed; gaming has changed. And it’s all down to the current generation of consoles. (Praise be to Sony. Amen.)

My gaming sessions go a little like this: I buy a game; put the disc in my Blu-ray drive (an added bonus); I press a button; I wait a few seconds; I enjoy high definition gaming of the highest quality on a 40in television from the comfort of my sofa. Cold beer optional.

Contrast this with the Labs: I install the game; load Crysis; can’t run Crysis; install the latest graphics drivers; load Crysis; can’t run Crysis; install the latest Crysis patch; load Crysis; can’t run Crysis; fiddle with graphics settings; daydream about sofa and PS3; check no one can see me, then cry a little; load Crysis; can’t run Crysis.

Have a break; spend it breathing deeply and thinking of dolphins and flowers and swaying forests of calmness (on my big TV).

Get back to work; lower resolution to a level I last used in 1998 on my 15in CRT; lower settings to Medium, thus defeating the whole point of Crysis; daydream about cold beer; finally get Crysis running; realise Crysis at these settings looks like Far Cry; sob into hands; spend £430 or smash up £1,000 review PC.

Is it any wonder the PC games industry is in decline when a single graphics card can hit the market (to much fanfare and positive reviews) with a price higher than that of an entire PlayStation 3? And the fact that it exists at all means games get more and more demanding and your PC is left playing catch-up.

The only PC game I’ve bought in as long as I can remember is Football Manager. And I think it’s safe to say I don’t need to spend £430 on a graphics card to play that.