It didn’t really bother me before, but it has been kind of slow to start for a long time. Bad enough for me to notice that’s it’s slow, but not bad enough to feel the need to complain about it.
Now it only takes about 6 seconds for me which is perfectly fine. As someone who only runs Steam when I’m about to play a game through it, it’s a very noticeable improvement!
I completely agree that Nvidia is one of the least consumer-friendly companies, but for a long time they have simply offered the better features like DLSS and RT efficiency. And depending on the tier of card you’re buying, that is also the case in terms of raw performance, even now.
AMD and Intel also has their share of shitty practices, so it’s not like you either buy from “the good guys” or “the bad guys”. They’re all corporations that would, and do, happily screw you over if it means more money.
I agree though. While there are some valid reasons for buying an Nvidia GPU, a lot of people keep buying them simply because they’re used to it or that they’re already popular. If something like the 9070 XT, or any weaker cards, would meet your needs then you should seriously consider looking elsewhere than Nvidia.
It’s so bad… If the thing being sold is legal then the payment processors and banks should have no say in it.
For you it wouldn’t really matter much. It is a big improvement and very much noticeable, but it matters much more for people like me that only runs Steam when I’m about to play a game through it which can happen several times a day.