> The answer to this question almost has to be "because it will be cheaper to buy it tomorrow."
No, it doesn't. It could just as easily be "because I will have more money tomorrow." If faster compute is $300 and more VRAM is $200 and I have $300 today and will have another $200 two years from now, I might very well like to buy the $300 compute unit and enjoy the faster compute for two years before I buy the extra VRAM, instead of waiting until I have $500 to buy both together.
But for something which is already a modular component like a GPU it's mostly irrelevant. If you have $300 now then you buy the $300 GPU, then in two years when you have another $200 you sell the one you have for $200 and buy the one that costs $400, which is the same one that cost $500 two years ago.
This is a much different situation than fully integrated systems because the latter have components that lose value at different rates, or that make sense to upgrade separately. You buy a $1000 tablet and then the battery goes flat and it doesn't have enough RAM, so you want to replace the battery and upgrade the RAM, but you can't. The battery is proprietary and discontinued and the RAM is soldered. So now even though that machine has a satisfactory CPU, storage, chassis, screen and power supply, which is still $700 worth of components, the machine is only worth $150 because nothing is modular and nobody wants it because it doesn't have enough RAM and the battery dies after 10 minutes.
No, it doesn't. It could just as easily be "because I will have more money tomorrow." If faster compute is $300 and more VRAM is $200 and I have $300 today and will have another $200 two years from now, I might very well like to buy the $300 compute unit and enjoy the faster compute for two years before I buy the extra VRAM, instead of waiting until I have $500 to buy both together.
But for something which is already a modular component like a GPU it's mostly irrelevant. If you have $300 now then you buy the $300 GPU, then in two years when you have another $200 you sell the one you have for $200 and buy the one that costs $400, which is the same one that cost $500 two years ago.
This is a much different situation than fully integrated systems because the latter have components that lose value at different rates, or that make sense to upgrade separately. You buy a $1000 tablet and then the battery goes flat and it doesn't have enough RAM, so you want to replace the battery and upgrade the RAM, but you can't. The battery is proprietary and discontinued and the RAM is soldered. So now even though that machine has a satisfactory CPU, storage, chassis, screen and power supply, which is still $700 worth of components, the machine is only worth $150 because nothing is modular and nobody wants it because it doesn't have enough RAM and the battery dies after 10 minutes.