Greentext

If you don't upgrade to Windows 11, you can't use Recall, which is a great reason not to upgrade to Windows 11.

People want shiny new things. I've had relatives say stuff like "I bought this computer 2 years ago and it's getting slower, it's awful how you have to buy a new one so quickly." I suggest things to improve it, most of which are free or very cheap and I'd happily do for them. But they just go out and buy a brand new one because that's secretly what they wanted to do in the first place, they just don't want to admit they're that materialistic.

They're invested in PC gaming as social capital where the performance of your rig contributes to your social value. They're mad because you're not invested in the same way. People often get defensive when others don't care about the hobbies they care about because there's a false perception that the not caring implies what they care about is somehow less than, which feels insulting.

Don't yuck others' yum, but also don't expect everyone to yum the same thing.

The computer I built in 2011 lasted until last summer. I smiled widely when I came to tell my wife and my friend, where my friend then asked why I was smiling when my computer no longer worked.

"Because now he can buy a new one" my wife quickly replied 😁

I use a gaming laptop from 2018. Rog Zephyrus.

fan started making grating noise even after thorough cleaning, found a replacement on Ebay and boom back in business playing Hitman and Stardew.

Will I get 120 fps or dominate multiplayer? nah. But yeah works fine. Might even be a hand me down later on.

I'm still pushing a ten year old PC with an FX-8350 and a 1060. Works fine.

If not playing competitive, there's very little reason to go latest and greatest. Just buy something with software support, or use Linux where support is practically guaranteed for at least a decade

They're mad they spent 1k$ on a gpu and still can't do 4k without upscaling on the newest crapware games

One upside of AAA games turning into unimaginative shameless cash-grabs is that the biggest reason to upgrade is now gone. My computer is around 8 years old now. I still play games, including new games - but not the latest fancy massively marketed online rubbish games. (I bet there's a funner backronym, but this is good enough for now.)

put linux on that beast and it'll keep running new games til 2030

Yeah, I'm with you anon. Here's my rough upgrade path (dates are approximate):

• 2009 - built PC w/o GPU for $500, only onboard graphics; worked fine for Minecraft and Factorio
• 2014 - added GPU to play newer games (~$250)
• 2017 - build new PC (~$800; kept old GPU) because I need to compile stuff (WFH gig); old PC becomes NAS
• 2023 - new CPU, mobo, and GPU (~$600) because NAS uses way too much power since I'm now running it 24/7, and it's just as expensive to upgrade the NAS as to upgrade the PC and downcycle

So for ~$2200, I got a PC for ~15 years and a NAS (drive costs excluded) for ~7 years. That's less than most prebuilts, and similar to buying a console each gen. If I didn't have a NAS, the 2023 upgrade wouldn't have had a mobo, so it would've been $400 (just CPU and GPU), and the CPU would've been an extreme luxury (1700 -> 5600 is nice for sim games, but hardly necessary). I'm not planning any upgrades for a few years.

Yeah it's not top of the line, but I can play every game I want to on medium or high. Current specs: Ryzen 5600, RX 6650 XT, 16GB RAM.

People say PC gaming is expensive. I say hobbies are expensive, PC gaming can be inexpensive. This is ~$150/year, that's pretty affordable... And honestly, I could be running that OG PC from 2009 with just a second GPU upgrade for grand total of $800 over 15 years if all I wanted was to play games.

I thought anon was the normie? The average person doesnt upgrade their PC every two years. The average person buys a PC and replaced it when nothing works anymore. Anon is the normie, they are the enthusiasts. Anon is not hanging with a group of people with matching ideologies.

I also have a 2014-ish desktop. Over the years added an SSD and replaced the graphics card around 5 years ago.

I can still run most games on medium settings, even some new ones if they are properly optimized, but nothing crazy, 1080p.

I just started to feel that my rig is getting slower and even AA games become more demanding.

I fully support using hardware as long as possible to minimise e-waste and see no reason to upgrade a PC every 2-3 years.

Edit: typo

I originally built my current PC back in 2016 and only just "upgraded" it last year. I put upgrade in quotes because it was literally a free motherboard and GPU my buddy no longer needed. I went from a Core i5 6600K to a Ryzen 5 5500GT and a GTX960 4GB to a GTX1070. Still plays all the games I want it to, so I have no desire to upgrade it further right now. I think part of it is I'm still using 1080P 60Hz monitors.

if you had a top of the line pc in 2014 you'd be talking about a 290x/970/980 which would probably work really well for most games now. For CPU that'd be like a 4th gen intel or AMD Bulldozer which despite its terrible reputation probably runs better nowadays thanks to better multi-threading.

A lot of the trending tech inflating minimum requirements nowadays are stuff like raytracing (99% of games don't even need it) and higher FPS/resolution monitors that aren't that relevant if you're still pushing 1080p/60. Let's not even begin with Windows playing forced obsolescence every few years.

Hell, most games that push the envelope of minimum specs like Indiana Jones are IMO just unoptimised messes built on UE5 than legitimately out of scope of hardware from the last decade. Stuff like Ninite hasn't delivered in enabling photorealistic asset optimisation but HAS enabled studios to cut back on artist labour in favour of throwing money at marketing.

If people are pushing you to buy stuff, they are not friends. Do not listen to them.

For me the most important reason to upgrade things is security updates. E.g. if you have an old smartphone it might not get security updates anymore.

Some people don't seem to care, but I get paranoid about hackers breaking into my phone in some way.

I upgraded last year from i7-4700k to i7-12700k and from GTX 750Ti to RTX 3060Ti, because 8 threads and 2GB of vram was finally not enough for modern games. And my old machine still runs as a home server.

The jump was huge and I hope I'll have money to upgrade sooner this time, but if needed I can totally see that my current machine will work just fine in 6-8 years.

My current PC used for gaming is a self built one from 2014. I have upgraded a few things during the years, most notably GPU and memory, but it did an excellent job for over a decade. Recently it started to show its age with various weird glitches and also some performance issues in several newer games and so I've just ordered a new one. But I'm pretty proud of my sustainable computing achievement.

I showed this to my penultimate daughter, who coopted my (literal 2014) Dell PC, the only thing I'd ever done to it was add memory, it is a beast still. Said "look, your 4chan twin" and she cracked up. But if she does not steal it when she moves out I will probably be able to get ten more years out of it.

I will drive the 1660 Super until the wheels fall off

I've upgraded pretty much everything in my 2009 PC and only just finally bought a new CPU. I just need a new case.for everything. The last straws were Elden Ring being CPU bottle necked at 20 FPS and Helldivers 2 requiring some instruction that wasn't on my CPU.

I feel this.

I went AM4 in 2017 when the AMD gave a leap forward at a reasonable price and efficiency.

Then I added a 3060 when one became available.

They're both undervolted, and ticking along nicely.

I don't plan to change anything until probably 2027. Heck, I'm still catching up to 2020 in my games backlog.

I tend to flip my RAM out every 3-5 years and notice a significant improvement in performance. Other than that, though...

Whether you upgrade it or not, it's always a safe bet to clean your pc from dust once a year; and change thermal paste like 2-3 years.

I still have my 2014 machine. I've upgraded it with an M.2 drive and more RAM. Everything else is perfectly fine and I wouldn't see the difference with a newer machine. I'll keep it for a long as I can because the longer I wait the better the machine I replace it with will be.

Also I just wouldn't know what to do with it after. I can't bring myself to throwing away a perfectly good machine, but keeping it would be hoarding.