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How Long into the Future Will This Last?

F

frankthetank195

Member
I was considering building up my first gaming rig, and I was hoping to get a good amount of longevity. If I put in an i7-3770, a 3GB graphics card, and 16GB of RAM, how long would you guys think this system would last playing mid-range games?
 
How much are you prepared to lower settings to retain the same FPS in future titles as you get now in current titles? And how much FPS are you willing to sacrifice before you go "OK now it runs too slow, I gotta upgrade"?
 
It depends on the game. For RTS like starcraft or even MMOs like SWTOR, I would except low to medium settings. However if I'm playing Skyrim or a shooter, I'd want good looking, seamless play. I'd say 10-15Fps for the rts (Im taking 3-5 right now lol) and 20-25 for vaster, quicker games.
 
Wait... you want good looking and seamless play in first person games, but accept a bigger loss of FPS in first person games than in RTS games?
 
Did you mean a framerate of 10-15 is fine for RTS, and 20-25 for faster games then? That doesn't make any sense either. Any game at under 30fps looks like a slide show :E
 
i think you need to take a look at some reviews of various hardware components before you toss out those kinds of numbers.

10-15 is not fine for an RTS and nor is 20-25 for am FPS.

The 3 components you mentioned will play pretty much any game you mentioned and then some at a much much higher rate than those you listed.

While that sounds like good news to you it sounds like you need to do a bit more research to me before you go building a 2k computer while not understanding the diminishing returns in higher end hardware.
 
Alright then 30 for fast paced. 15-20 for rts. Sorry, Im not great with pc gaming. My computer now is reeally bad, so I only play really low spec stuff.
 
frankthetank195 said:
Alright then 30 for fast paced. 15-20 for rts. Sorry, Im not great with pc gaming. My computer now is reeally bad, so I only play really low spec stuff.
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Like I said do some research about the type of components you're looking for and how much you're willing to spend. That will give you a good baseline of where to start.

No one can tell you how long it will last because it's very subjective.

If you need to play all the latest games at max quality then your stuff will be outdated sooner than later.

Reviews will give you an idea of what kind of hardware will give you what kind of performance for the kind of games you're wanting to play.
 
frankthetank195 said:
Alright then 30 for fast paced. 15-20 for rts. Sorry, Im not great with pc gaming. My computer now is reeally bad, so I only play really low spec stuff.
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Ok that's fine. Honestly, you'll want 30+ in RTS, 45+ in first-person/third-person. When you can't maintain those, it definitely becomes worth it to upgrade. But it's even better if you can maintain 50-60fps in ALL games, makes for a lot smoother experience.

With that in mind, and assuming you want at least medium-high image quality settings, I'd say you'll need a GPU upgrade in 2 years, and CPU+GPU upgrade in another 2. Same tier / price range components as your current ones, and assuming unchanged gaming resolution.
 
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frankthetank195 said:
I was considering building up my first gaming rig, and I was hoping to get a good amount of longevity. If I put in an i7-3770, a 3GB graphics card, and 16GB of RAM, how long would you guys think this system would last playing mid-range games?
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A 3Gb card should be quite a high end card but in general to estimate the performance of a graphics cards, its better to rely more on the gpu model of the graphics card rather than the amount of VRAM on it.
You'll get alot of out your planned spec say 4/5yrs min. if you can get along with low/medium settings.
 
maniacalpha1-1 said:
Just out of curiosity, how are people with i7-920s (released Nov 2008) holding up in today´s games? I mean, I looked at AT Bench and it doesn't look SO bad:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/47?vs=288
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Well, I haven't come across a game that my i7-920 + 560 Ti can't play at respectable frames on medium/high settings on 1080p. 560 Ti is already nearly 1.5 years old as well. Ultra settings aren't really doable in new games but I don't mind that (they weren't doable 1.5 years ago...), and in most cases it's more of a GPU issue. Skyrim, BF3, Witcher 2 all play fine. Some strategy games, e.g. CIV V and Anno 2070 can experience a bigger hit to FPS but for strategy games, framerate isn't as important anyway.
 
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Alright thanks everybody. And I have done research about the products in general, this build is just a little eays off so I'm not into specifics.
 
OP drop the I7, drop the RAM to 8gb and buy a mid-high end GPU, 1-2gb vram. Put the money you save to one side and in a couple of years you will have enough to build another rig.

The reason I suggest this is that you seem to have pretty low standards (not a bad thing) where game settings/FPS are concerned so there is no point building a rig that will handle BF3 on ultra when you have no interest in playing on those settings.

Simply put you can build a rig today and another in 2-3 years (carrying over certain components) to playmid-high settings gaming for exaclty the same money that you can build a high/ultra rig that will last 4-5 years starting at ultra and ending up on low settings with a slideshow.
 
Puppies04 said:
OP drop the I7, drop the RAM to 8gb and buy a mid-high end GPU, 1-2gb vram. Put the money you save to one side and in a couple of years you will have enough to build another rig.

The reason I suggest this is that you seem to have pretty low standards (not a bad thing) where game settings/FPS are concerned so there is no point building a rig that will handle BF3 on ultra when you have no interest in playing on those settings.
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+1 to this. Another reason to drop the i7 and get less RAM is that neither hyperthreading or excessive amounts of RAM actually benefit FPS at all. They're simply not useful for gaming.
 
Mid range games at high-max settings at 1080p with reasonably high performance (means except the most intensive games etc) you will probably do fine for 1.5+- years at stock, perhaps a bit longer. Once you overclock everything you will probably take it to 2 years or so. After 2.5-3 years you will need to buy a new rig. In fact, the moment the next gen consoles are out, your performance will drop by more than half compared to what you get in current gen games.

So sometime in 2014, and if you really push it then sometime in 2015. At most.

If money is an issue, then get Core i5 2500k (MC) or 3570k plus a mid range mobo plus 8gb ddr3 1600 ram plus 2gb 7850 and oc everything. Will last 1-1.5 years comfortably. Half your money or nearly is saved. Sell this and buy a new system in 2014 with the money 🙂
 
aaksheytalwar said:
Mid range games at high-max settings at 1080p with reasonably high performance (means except the most intensive games etc) you will probably do fine for 1.5+- years at stock, perhaps a bit longer. Once you overclock everything you will probably take it to 2 years or so. After 2.5-3 years you will need to buy a new rig. In fact, the moment the next gen consoles are out, your performance will drop by more than half compared to what you get in current gen games.

So sometime in 2014, and if you really push it then sometime in 2015. At most.

If money is an issue, then get Core i5 2500k (MC) or 3570k plus a mid range mobo plus 8gb ddr3 1600 ram plus 2gb 7850 and oc everything. Will last 1-1.5 years comfortably. Half your money or nearly is saved. Sell this and buy a new system in 2014 with the money 🙂
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Yes, this +1
 
There's a 6950 2GB for $191 AR AP, practically as fast as 7850 but less overclockable. Will last for a good while, upgrade when it's slow and keep the rest of your hardware
 
Puppies04 said:
OP drop the I7, drop the RAM to 8gb and buy a mid-high end GPU, 1-2gb vram. Put the money you save to one side and in a couple of years you will have enough to build another rig.

The reason I suggest this is that you seem to have pretty low standards (not a bad thing) where game settings/FPS are concerned so there is no point building a rig that will handle BF3 on ultra when you have no interest in playing on those settings.

Simply put you can build a rig today and another in 2-3 years (carrying over certain components) to playmid-high settings gaming for exaclty the same money that you can build a high/ultra rig that will last 4-5 years starting at ultra and ending up on low settings with a slideshow.
Click to expand...

Agree 100%. It's always better to make the price/performance curve work for you instead of against you.
 
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