What will a standard issue gaming PC look like in 2030?

[ultimatebob]

too late! I'm already thinking about 2040 PCs!

Honestly, by 2040, we should have everything miniaturized to the point where your "Gaming PC" is just a dongle that you plug into your brain interface or interactive holo display.

 

[Ken g6]

too late! I'm already thinking about 2040 PCs!

Well, as long as we're looking that far out...

But I do think the standard gaming PC in 2030 might be a console. Epic Games couldn't stand paying app store fees, so they went to court, they lose, and everything becomes a walled garden.

 

[ultimatebob]

Well, as long as we're looking that far out...

But I do think the standard gaming PC in 2030 might be a console. Epic Games couldn't stand paying app store fees, so they went to court, they lose, and everything becomes a walled garden.

Valve already tried that with the Steam Box, though, and it failed miserably.

I could totally see a "Cloud Game Streaming" box from Microsoft or Sony becoming a thing, but the hardcore gamers will probably still want their own hardware. They don't have to worry about having a shitty gaming experience thanks to their ISP.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I apparently did well last time, so here's my guess for 2030:

And for standard issue I'm going to assume a typical mid end gaming PC you will buy from like HP, Dell etc, or something you would build yourself that is not super high end on like say, a $2,000 budget. Basically something you build as an every day PC for gaming, but not aiming for Linus Tech Tips level of power either.


So here's what I'm thinking could be a fairly standard run of the mill PC:

- 5Ghz 32 core processor with 64 or even more threads, perhaps they will start adding more than 2 threads per core at some point

- 256GB of system ram

- 5TB SSD and 30TB spindle drive being a common config. SSD for OS/programs and the spindle for data.

- 64GB of video ram

12V only motherboards will also be mostly standardized. There will also be a trend towards smaller PCs in general, like SFF being more normalized even for gaming. Though that is going against the trend of GPUs... they seem to be getting bigger and bigger lol. I could see external GPU enclosures being common as really those are what take up the most space in a PC. They are already a thing but rather niche. Maybe some "gaming" monitors will even have ability to put a GPU in the monitor itself, and you just feed it with a new type of connection that will become standard by then. Something like Thunderbolt, but more standardized. Maybe USB 4 or 5.


As for what will be high end, I could see something like this being available:

512 core CPUs running at 4Ghz (lower clock speed for more cores). And perhaps an improvement to HT where there will be more threads per core, maybe 4 or even 8 threads per core, so like a 512 core processor would show up as like 2048 threads. It will have some kind of cheezy marketting name like "Superthreading Technology(TM)"

- 4TB of ram will be something you can actually put on a desktop board, servers being in the 10TB+ range. There will be a big trend towards server clusters that process AI related stuff. Like a cloud AI type thing.

- 12TB SSDs will be something you can buy, and I could see spindle drives reach a plateau but perhaps get other improvements on speed. Things like multiple independent heads or something. Maybe even platters that can spin at variable speed to match head speed to land at a right location faster or something. Basically they will somewhat try to compete with the speed of SSDs. I could also see a whole new tech show up, like non magnetic, and non flash, something totally new. But even by then it will not be very mainstream. It will be faster than flash but not yet available in high capacities due to some kind of scaling issue they still need to work out. Might see USB sticks with the new tech, but they will be very expensive like $200 for a 16GB stick, but it will be almost as fast as ram.

- 512GB of video ram will be something obtainable, but will be very niche, and multi GPU video cards will be a thing too (I think there are some already?), where it will have some advantages in games/CAD programs that can take advantage of it.

Well we'll see how I do in 10 years. I will be 44 then. Yikes. I spent way too much time thinking this through tbh. It's always fun to try to guess this sort of stuff to see how close or far you get.


Oh, and I almost forgot to add one more thing: Intel releases a 10nm chip.

 

[Staples]

2GB of RAM was so much 10 years ago. 8GB is definitely acceptable now. So I do not expect will be at 128GB minimum in 10 years.

In fact, I think my current computer (great for 2020) will be fine in 10 years. I have an old ass C2D machine that I can use today. The Intel graphics suck and have sucked for 5 years but it will run everything just fine.

 

[snoopy7548]

I predict there will be RAM sticks with RGB fans.

 

[killster1]

Isn't that question a bit redundant? Just saying...

of course nonsense reply instead of a opinion.. how about the whole computer is the size of a pack of cards with a projector the size of a cordless phone and a vr headset, 1tb of ram 1petabyte storage, some silly named gfx 9999Ti. Perhaps it will just be implanted in our head or arm to help us view great distances or drive our cars with our thoughts.

 

[ultimatebob]

2GB of RAM was so much 10 years ago. 8GB is definitely acceptable now. So I do not expect will be at 128GB minimum in 10 years.

In fact, I think my current computer (great for 2020) will be fine in 10 years. I have an old ass C2D machine that I can use today. The Intel graphics suck and have sucked for 5 years but it will run everything just fine.

2 or 4 GB of memory seemed to be the standard amount for a $1,000 PC in 2010. 8 or 16 GB seems to be the standard now. So, basically a 4X increase. Therefore, the 2030 standard will be 64 or 128 GB, perhaps?

 

[IronWing]

I think gaming PCs in 2030 will be terminals that will not play games w/o continuous connection to license servers.

 

[ultimatebob]

I predict there will be RAM sticks with RGB fans.

I'd like to hope that the RGB lighting fad is over by 2030, but that might just be wishful thinking on my part. Design whims are the hardest thing to predict. Who knows, we might go back to the era of translucent candy colored plastic like the late 90's iMac G3

 

[BurnItDwn]

I apparently did well last time, so here's my guess for 2030:

And for standard issue I'm going to assume a typical mid end gaming PC you will buy from like HP, Dell etc, or something you would build yourself that is not super high end on like say, a $2,000 budget. Basically something you build as an every day PC for gaming, but not aiming for Linux Tech Tips level of power either.


So here's what I'm thinking could be a fairly standard run of the mill PC:

- 5Ghz 32 core processor with 64 or even more threads, perhaps they will start adding more than 2 threads per core at some point

- 256GB of system ram

- 5TB SSD and 30TB spindle drive being a common config. SSD for OS/programs and the spindle for data.

- 64GB of video ram

12V only motherboards will also be mostly standardized. There will also be a trend towards smaller PCs in general, like SFF being more normalized even for gaming. Though that is going against the trend of GPUs... they seem to be getting bigger and bigger lol. I could see external GPU enclosures being common as really those are what take up the most space in a PC. They are already a thing but rather niche. Maybe some "gaming" monitors will even have ability to put a GPU in the monitor itself, and you just feed it with a new type of connection that will become standard by then. Something like Thunderbolt, but more standardized. Maybe USB 4 or 5.


As for what will be high end, I could see something like this being available:

512 core CPUs running at 4Ghz (lower clock speed for more cores). And perhaps an improvement to HT where there will be more threads per core, maybe 4 or even 8 threads per core, so like a 512 core processor would show up as like 2048 threads. It will have some kind of cheezy marketting name like "Superthreading Technology(TM)"

- 4TB of ram will be something you can actually put on a desktop board, servers being in the 10TB+ range. There will be a big trend towards server clusters that process AI related stuff. Like a cloud AI type thing.

- 12TB SSDs will be something you can buy, and I could see spindle drives reach a plateau but perhaps get other improvements on speed. Things like multiple independent heads or something. Maybe even platters that can spin at variable speed to match head speed to land at a right location faster or something. Basically they will somewhat try to compete with the speed of SSDs. I could also see a whole new tech show up, like non magnetic, and non flash, something totally new. But even by then it will not be very mainstream. It will be faster than flash but not yet available in high capacities due to some kind of scaling issue they still need to work out. Might see USB sticks with the new tech, but they will be very expensive like $200 for a 16GB stick, but it will be almost as fast as ram.

- 512GB of video ram will be something obtainable, but will be very niche, and multi GPU video cards will be a thing too (I think there are some already?), where it will have some advantages in games/CAD programs that can take advantage of it.


Well we'll see how I do in 10 years. I will be 44 then. Yikes. I spent way too much time thinking this through tbh. It's always fun to try to guess this sort of stuff to see how close or far you get.

The Oracle has spoken!!!!

 

[SMOGZINN]

Here is my guesstimate specs:

RAM: 32 GB (but there will be some new gimmick to enhance how they work, maybe a new form factor.)
Storage: 1.5 TB M.2 NVMe storage. (most motherboards will have 2-4 slots, the OS will abstract them into a single pool)
CPU: 8-16 cores. The Ghz rating will be whatever number they think sells well, it is already mostly marketing hype. Overall it will be about 25% faster then the ones today.
GPU: Ray Tracing at 4kx60 ultra settings in most games. 4kx120 will barely be possible with Ray Tracing off. 8k Will be for high end models costing $3k or more just for the GPU.


Other things that I think might happen:

Power usage is going to be the next benchmark that gets hyped. Ultra lower power use, but still powerful PCs are going to be in demand.

The entire PC will be built around the idea that the computer sips energy unless you tell it to do something particularly demanding. There might even be some dedicated hardware on motherboards to decide when to 'sleep' or 'wake' higher powered components.

CPUs will be marketed as '#+x' cores setup so that # cores runs at full speed and does the heavy computational lifting but is powered down most of the time and then you have the x other cores running at much lower max power. CPUs will start to look a lot like GPUs in this manner, with 2-4 primary cores and 128 ultra low power cores. Overall the processor when fully powered up will be about 20% faster then current processors, but primarily designed to run in a ultra low power mode utilizing specialized processing cores that use almost no power to do most average computing. It will use those ultra low power cores to do most of the non-3d graphical calculations as well, leaving the GPU in sleep mode most of the time.

It will be entirely possible have a medium gaming pc without a GPU at all.

 

[ultimatebob]

Here is my guesstimate specs:

RAM: 32 GB (but there will be some new gimmick to enhance how they work, maybe a new form factor.)
Storage: 1.5 TB M.2 NVMe storage. (most motherboards will have 2-4 slots, the OS will abstract them into a single pool)
CPU: 8-16 cores. The Ghz rating will be whatever number they think sells well, it is already mostly marketing hype. Overall it will be about 25% faster then the ones today.
GPU: Ray Tracing at 4kx60 ultra settings in most games. 4kx120 will barely be possible with Ray Tracing off. 8k Will be for high end models costing $3k or more just for the GPU.

It will be entirely possible have a medium gaming pc without a GPU at all.

Honestly, I'd expect that you'll be able to buy a Smartphone with hardware specs like that by 2030.

 

[IronWing]

Honestly, I'd expect that you'll be able to buy a Smartphone with hardware specs like that by 2030.

He think he meant to post that in the 2020 thread or he plans to keep his current machine until 2030.

 

[SKORPI0]

24 core (48 thread) 15th Gen. Intel 1nm CPU
128GB DDR8 PC8-5000, ARGB with mini fans.
NVidia ZTX-10080 Ti (32GB) quad 8K monitor capable.
4TB NVMe PCIe 6.0 boot drive, 24TB SSD data drives -
8K 120Hz 34" MicroLED 3D Monitor, no glasses needed.
HDMI 2.3, Displayport 3., Thunderbolt 6, SATA 4, USB 5, Bluetooth 7.
Standard mouse and keyboard.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I predict there will be RAM sticks with RGB fans.

Oh man I could actually see that, with ram hitting a performance point where they require active cooling, and of course RGB.

 

[TheELF]

Honestly, I'd expect that you'll be able to buy a Smartphone with hardware specs like that by 2030.

We are talking about 10 years not 100.
He might even be too optimistic,some of the stuff he lists I see as top high end gaming system in 10 years and not a standard one.
Ten years ago was the first core gen and there are still some people using them for gaming today and improvements become slower the more time passes not more.In 10 years the systems people build today will still be very capable.

Additional cores do not help with gaming, especially if you push for higher and higher resolutions, at some point a potato can compete with the best gaming rig if you go high enough.

We can hope for new technology making it possible to get higher clocks with less cooling to get higher FPS but I wouldn't hold my breath.

 

[ultimatebob]

24 core (48 thread) 15th Gen. Intel 1nm CPU
128GB DDR8 PC8-5000, ARGB with mini fans.
NVidia ZTX-10080 Ti (32GB) quad 8K monitor capable.
4TB NVMe PCIe 6.0 boot drive, 24TB SSD data drives -
8K 120Hz 34" MicroLED 3D Monitor, no glasses needed.
HDMI 2.3, Displayport 3., Thunderbolt 6, SATA 4, USB 5, Bluetooth 7.
Standard mouse and keyboard.

Interesting... you see Intel somehow breaking out of their existing funk and taking the lead in die process shrinking again?

Well... maybe they'll buy a competitor to make that happen

 

[IronWing]

Here is my guesstimate specs:

RAM: 32 GB (but there will be some new gimmick to enhance how they work, maybe a new form factor.)
Storage: 1.5 TB M.2 NVMe storage. (most motherboards will have 2-4 slots, the OS will abstract them into a single pool)
CPU: 8-16 cores. The Ghz rating will be whatever number they think sells well, it is already mostly marketing hype. Overall it will be about 25% faster then the ones today.
GPU: Ray Tracing at 4kx60 ultra settings in most games. 4kx120 will barely be possible with Ray Tracing off. 8k Will be for high end models costing $3k or more just for the GPU.

We are talking about 10 years not 100.
He might even be too optimistic,some of the stuff he lists I see as top high end gaming system in 10 years and not a standard one.
Ten years ago was the first core gen and there are still some people using them for gaming today and improvements become slower the more time passes not more.In 10 years the systems people build today will still be very capable.

Additional cores do not help with gaming, especially if you push for higher and higher resolutions, at some point a potato can compete with the best gaming rig if you go high enough.

We can hope for new technology making it possible to get higher clocks with less cooling to get higher FPS but I wouldn't hold my breath.

RAM: current systems ship with 64GB - 128GB
Storage: current systems ship with 1.5 TB NVMe storage so 1.
CPU: Current systems ship with 8-16 cores
GPU: Ray tracing - haven't followed but I suspect this is close to possible with current cards.

That's why I suspect he plans to use his current system for gaming in ten years.

 

[repoman0]

Multiply current average gaming machine capabilities by ~2-4.

 

[sdifox]

Socket on side of head.

 

[SMOGZINN]

He think he meant to post that in the 2020 thread or he plans to keep his current machine until 2030.

No, what I think is really going to happen is that computer advancement is going to slow way down, and new advancements are going to be mostly marketing hype.
The specs will mostly stay the same, but we will get architectural advancements that will give us small improvements every 3 or so years. So the specs of a system in 10 years will be very close to the ones today, but will be faster due to those architectural changes that have fancy marketing names but are really just the same thing a done a little better.

 

[zinfamous]

I'd like to hope that the RGB lighting fad is over by 2030, but that might just be wishful thinking on my part. Design whims are the hardest thing to predict. Who knows, we might go back to the era of translucent candy colored plastic like the late 90's iMac G3

As the hardware will now be sub-dermal, the RGB effects will be eye-based. ....and possibly asshole-based.

 

[Fritzo]

Honestly don't think there will be a "PC involved. I think it'll be a controller/keyboards/mouse or something connected to a cloud box, and everything will be streamed to you.

 

[Sonikku]

I'm guessing a raspberry pie type machine that runs windows or cellphones that plug into your home monitor for the majority of users and small form factory cases for gamers. We're pretty close there already.