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How long can a gaming pc last?

Z

Zack514

Junior Member
How long does it take for a PC that plays everything on maxed out settings smoothly to turn into something that just barely meets the minimum requirements?

If and when I fully jump on the PC gaming wagon I'd be upgrading parts now and again but I'm curious as to how long a custom build PC could last as is and continue gaming.
 
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Welcome to the forums Zack.

Some assumptions first:

  • I assume we're looking at the the top tier of games in terms of hardware requirements (otherwise it's impossible to compare anything because games with extremely low requirements are released all the time).
  • I assume that by "maxed out" we're talking about how the game looks subjectively, not whether all the knobs and switches are set to maximum because often the difference between Ultra and High for a particular setting is near-indistinguishable, while the effect on framerate can be measured.
  • I assume display resolution will be 1080p, even if a higher resolution like 1440p or 4K became standard in the PC gaming community in the future
  • I assume "smoothly" means 60 fps with Vsync, allowing for occasional dips below 60 fps.

With all that in mind, I'd say a current PC that meets these requirements for current most demanding games will still be able to play the future most demanding games on low settings and acceptable framerates maybe 4-5 years from now. I don't have a crystal ball; there are a lot of factors that can make it anywhere from 3 years to 6 years, including: new low overhead APIs like DirectX 12 and Mantle, trends in evolution of computer components (in particular, CPU performance which limits GPU performance), and trends in console development which (as we've seen with PS3 and X360) can impose limits on how far cross platform developers are willing to take their graphics engines.

So really the only line of argument comes from looking at the past. Currently, you could have a high end PC from 2009 (first generation overclocked i7, NVIDIA GTX 295) and it'd play any high end game smoothly on the lowest settings.

A word of warning though: if you intend to get the best value for your money and ensure decent performance over a longer period of time, don't buy excessively fast and expensive hardware. Buy the best bang for buck, and keep upgrading it incrementally along the years. This may mean that the current PC isn't fast enough for all out Ultra in the most demanding game available, but it'll be decent enough for medium-high until you need a GPU upgrade. Generally speaking, you should be able to maintain sufficient performance to play anything smoothly with the following recipe: (1) start with a $200 CPU and a $250-300 GPU, (2) upgrade GPU every 1.5-2 years, (3) along with the second GPU upgrade, also upgrade CPU, motherboard (and RAM), (4) upgrade other components and peripherals as needed and as they wear out. This way you'll be spending about $1000 on components to begin with, and about $200 per year on average afterwards.
 
My PC is 3 years old, and wasn't even made from top tier components 3 years ago. I'm still playing all the games I enjoy with out a problem. Maxed out settings? No...But I can usually have it on high or medium with 40+ fps even on most games. A few exceptions in there I'm sure that would put me under 30fps on high settings, but.. I dont really play those games.
 
Different parts of a PC need replacing at different paces. Some examples:
- DDR3 has been in the market nearly a decade, if you bought 4GB a while back its still perfectly usable today.
- A 1GB hard drive might be 5+ years old and it will run about the same speed as a brand new 4GB hard drive bought today, and its still plenty big enough.
- A sandy bridge CPU which is several generations old, or even an original i7 920 would still be very good for gaming as performance has only gone up in small increments.
- A GPU from 5 years ago however will be 1/4 - 1/8 the speed of one bought today.

All the components of a PC are gaining speed at different rates. Memory gains very slowly but is about to jump again with DDR4, CPUs are gaining about 10% a year or so, GPUs are gaining about 50-100% every 2 years, hard drives are gaining like 10% in 4 years etc etc. If you just look at the PC as a box then the GPU is going to necessitate a replacement earlier than anything else, so you would replace it in 2-4 years. But you could just replace the GPU in a year or two's time and evaluate what else has changed and upgrade bits as and when that is necessary, saving considerable money overall compared to just buying and replacing the whole box.
 
BrightCandle said:
Different parts of a PC need replacing at different paces. Some examples:
- DDR3 has been in the market nearly a decade, if you bought 4GB a while back its still perfectly usable today.
- A 1GB hard drive might be 5+ years old and it will run about the same speed as a brand new 4GB hard drive bought today, and its still plenty big enough.
- A sandy bridge CPU which is several generations old, or even an original i7 920 would still be very good for gaming as performance has only gone up in small increments.
- A GPU from 5 years ago however will be 1/4 - 1/8 the speed of one bought today.

All the components of a PC are gaining speed at different rates. Memory gains very slowly but is about to jump again with DDR4, CPUs are gaining about 10% a year or so, GPUs are gaining about 50-100% every 2 years, hard drives are gaining like 10% in 4 years etc etc. If you just look at the PC as a box then the GPU is going to necessitate a replacement earlier than anything else, so you would replace it in 2-4 years. But you could just replace the GPU in a year or two's time and evaluate what else has changed and upgrade bits as and when that is necessary, saving considerable money overall compared to just buying and replacing the whole box.
Click to expand...

I think you mean TB hard drive, not GB...
 
Zack514 said:
How long does it take for a PC that plays everything on maxed out settings smoothly to turn into something that just barely meets the minimum requirements?

If and when I fully jump on the PC gaming wagon I'd be upgrading parts now and again but I'm curious as to how long a custom build PC could last as is and continue gaming.
Click to expand...

there are 2 routes...

1. the constant upgrade path, which is suprisingly the most economical as hardware refreshes happen at least every 2-3yrs..

2. the go all out and pray your system doesnt get outdated 5yrs.

If your the lucky ones with more disposable income 2 can be refreshed as often as 1.

But looking at today games, u dont see many things pop up with extreme gpu requirements. Once in a while will u see something which will kill your hardware, and stress it to the max, but those are like less then 5% of the games available. (this also is very dependent on the resolution / monitor you play your games at)
 
5 years. Upgrade graphics card as needed. Actually, given the slowing pace of computer speed advances, a custom PC could last even longer.

The only thing that might break that trend is the jump to 4K or the jump to high framerate VR. That might make a lot of PCs obsolete very quickly.
 
A year, maybe two at best. If I can't max out any game at 1200p (my current monitor res) excluding AA/AF at a smooth 50-60FPS its upgrade time.
 
Zack514 said:
How long does it take for a PC that plays everything on maxed out settings smoothly to turn into something that just barely meets the minimum requirements?

If and when I fully jump on the PC gaming wagon I'd be upgrading parts now and again but I'm curious as to how long a custom build PC could last as is and continue gaming.
Click to expand...

Ehhh maybe 7 or 8 years.... Probably 5 years if you dont upgrade it at all during that time.

Depends what you play as well.
 
My system has been running smooth for almost 2 years now. ONly thing I changed was the SSD and the GPU.

AsRock Extreme 6 z77 board
Corsair Ram 12 GB
GTX 670 -->> (upgraded to GTX 780ti)
i5 3570k
OCD SSD Drive (replaced with samsung SSD 250gb)
WD 1 TB HD.
Monitor - Yamakasi 2560x1440 Q270 monitor (120 refresh rate) (this monitor owns)
corsair 1000 watt psu
Corsair Tower (Fan probs)
roccat kone + gaming mouse
roccat keyboard
Onion Rings ( to keep my mouse greasy)
100 pack wet wipes ( to degrease my mouse)
 
My last one went for 4 years before I had to buy a completely new one. This new one is becoming a bit old so I'll have to replace some parts, but overall a long time.
 
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