this post was submitted on 16 May 2026
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[–] thingsiplay@lemmy.ml 34 points 11 hours ago (9 children)

I'm surprised that so many (40%) have plans to build a new PC in next two years. Especially because we are talking about PC Gamers, who are already PC Gamers. I would assume that most either do not, or upgrade instead build a new PC. From those 40% of 1.5k tomshardware readers who participated in the survey, I wonder in what state their PC are and if they HAVE to build a new PC or they just have a lot of money around and can afford it. Do they sell the old system or parts of it? Unfortunately these are unanswered at the moment.

[–] cRazi_man@europe.pub 20 points 10 hours ago

In online communities at least, people seem to be keen to stay on the cutting edge and always have the best and shiniest. Toms Hardware is going to attract this very audience.

I accept that I'm probably too far the other way on the spectrum of patient gamers......but people don't seem to think of the utility of the item and rather stay obsessed with "10% performance gains". For the vast majority of people, phones, laptops and computers can easily last over 5 years (sometimes 10 years depending on use case).

Although these frequent upgraders do give a good stock of items for people like me to pick up and stay in the sweetspot of positioning behind the frontline of cutting edge products on the secondhand market.

[–] KindnessIsPunk@lemmy.ca 6 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah I found that strange too most of my gaming PCs have lasted me somewhere between 7 and 10 years. Would seem completely unnecessary for most people

[–] mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca 2 points 7 hours ago

I just upgrade one or two parts every 2-4 years. seems to have worked fine for over a decade. dreading when I need to do a mobo update which will include ram

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 5 hours ago

I replaced my old PC only because I went from an i5 6600 to a ryzen 7800x3d and thus needed to replace the RAM as well.
Combone that with an old 4GB 960 and an older 2TB HDD and wanting another case the math was quite easy.

It's alao a quesrion how you interpret that? At what point is it a new PC vs upgrading? If you have replaced all parts from the original starting build?
Might explain the higher percentage

[–] mushroommunk@lemmy.today 8 points 11 hours ago (4 children)

Anecdotally but several of my friends build a new PC and then slide their old one to siblings who game but don't need high end

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 5 hours ago

Domated mine to the after school "day care".
They helped me so much, I wanted to repay it in some capacity

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 5 points 9 hours ago

It's way easier to get rid of an entire computer second hand than it is bespoke parts that you've replaced, so this is what I do too. I used to be on a 4-year cadence with new PCs, but then I kept getting more and more mileage out of my machines, since graphics don't leap forward so quickly like they used to. My current machine is 5 years old and still runs the latest games on high settings.

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 5 points 10 hours ago

Heeeey, it's me! Your sibling! You got any of that sweet sweet ddr5 ram??? Don't hold out on me, boy!

[–] virku@lemmy.world 3 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

I got my friends old box the same way. I'm into games that don't require all that much. And will also use it to play minecraft with my kids.

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 0 points 10 hours ago

Minecraft? MINECRAFT??? OH GOD NO!!!!!! YOU WOULD NEED A $4,000 TOP OF THE LINE PC!!!! 512GB RAM, 8 CORE, 16 THREAD AT 20GHZ EACH!!!!

Gaming is too expensive. You should sell a kid.

[–] Mordikan@kbin.earth 3 points 10 hours ago

I would imagine that 40% is saying that hoping for a best case scenario to occur. Prices haven't even plateaued yet, they are still rising, so at some point regardless their enthusiasm they will be priced out of the market.

The thought that hardware prices will drop to normal levels in the next few years is just wishful thinking.

[–] nahostdeutschland@feddit.org 1 points 10 hours ago

The question is kind of weird. I want to build a new gaming computer, but that is nothing I'm doing at current prices and I can totally live without building a new one. If that one breaks, I might reconsider. But I really do not know if there are people around who are planning to build a new computer in May 2028.

[–] IronKrill@lemmy.ca 0 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

I think you may overestimate how many people build their PCs instead of buying a prebuilt.

[–] thingsiplay@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 hours ago

That's not my estimation, that is the direct result of the survey.

[–] Katana314@lemmy.world 0 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

It can be people budding into the genre. They’ve heard about how nice Steam is, and maybe play some games on a cheap laptop, but recognize a genuine desktop is the better experience.

One streamer I follow is in that situation. She streams off her PS5 and Switch, but has a donation incentive to help build her PC.

[–] thingsiplay@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 hours ago

Not really, as the article is about PC Gamers who already have a PC. Otherwise they are not PC Gamers who want to build their next PC. I don't think this survey is meant for newcomers, as far as I understand.

[–] thisbenzingring@lemmy.today -1 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

i built a monster pc in 2024 and maxed out the RAM and CPU the motherboard could handle. New 4k monitor and a 32gb RTX video card. I think I spent about $1.5k

no way could I get that stuff for the same price. I could probably sell the parts for more

it's still a monster and in Linux, I can tweak it just a bit more to get everything it can give.

I'm thinking that the way games have progressed in the last 5 years, there's nothing on the horizon that says prepare for the new technology that will blow my mind

[–] db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

32g vram gpu for less than 2k is unlikely. A 4090 itself would be close to 2k

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

There... is only a single, mainline, broadly available RTX GPU with 32gb VRAM.

It's the 5090 RTX.

Which came out in January of 2025.

At an MSRP of $2,000.

With many partner models considerably exceeding that, up to as high as $5,000.

Not only is the pricing ludicrous, the timing is not possible.

The only thing in 2024 or prior I can find with 32 gb vram is basically an unofficial mod or variant called the RTX 4090 D, that never left China, or, maybe it would be something like about as hard to find as a GRE variant AMD card in the US.

I guess unless this person's uncle works at ~~Nintendo~~ Nvidia, or something.

Outside of that, we're talking workstation/server type GPUs, generally with even more ludicrous pricing.

This person is either very confused or very bad at lying.

Also wtf does 'maxed out the system ram' even mean?

You can get 128gb of sys ram into... most middle to higher tier mobos with 4 dimm slots. Many higher tier pc mobos can do 256gb.

???

[–] Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

“Oh yeah I got the video card for free”

[–] db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

That's honestly the only explanation for that build at just 1.5k. More likely they're just a stinking liar 😅

[–] Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

With the specs they’ve claimed and that price, they either got much of it for free or are.. yeah, straight-up lying. That price will get the case, mobo, CPU, RAM, PSU, and storage, probably. Maybe not even that much, if it’s all high-end stuff, before prices inflated. GPU and high-end monitor? Nah.

[–] thingsiplay@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (1 children)

A high end monitor alone cost fourth the 2k budget. (Edit: edited)

[–] Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 hours ago

For real, especially a few years ago. Now though, the 1440p/OLED/240hz version of my Acer Predator 27” is like 350 or less! Incredible deal.

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 7 hours ago

I can currently just barely figure out how to do a 9070 (non XT), 24gb DDR5, 1TB SSD via an AOOStar Gem 12 (soldered on 8745hs, iirc) total setup for the rig, at just a bit above $1500 before tax.

Without a monitor, of course.

That's like the absolute most bang i can figure how to squeeze out of the least bucks, and its a non tradtional setup that works via a dock/cradle and Oculink (cost of that is included).

Doing the same specs in a traditional PC just ends up being more expensive, though its debatable as to whether the approximately 10% to 15% max performance hit on the GPU that OcuLink incurs in highly demanding scenarios makes that 100% true.

So yeah, this... this person is like, hilariously out of the realm of reality.