when will software catch up with Hardware?

[PlatinumGold]

9700 AIW video card etc.

when will this machine become obsolete for her if she never games etc.

basically for her the pc is just a internet access and word processing machine. she also stores her digital pics there.

when will this become obsolete for her?

i can seriously see her using this machine 5 or 6 yrs from now.

 

[mwmorph]

around 4 years is my guess.
I had a mid range machine from 1999 that was obsolete around 2003 or so for just doing stuff.

 

[biostud]

when MS finally decides to buy the internet

But I agree that it will be hard to see what kind of small office software will need more than current PC's. Unless you want more bling bling, which isn't the case for most small users.

 

[Wall7486]

My father still uses our 6 year old SONY VAIO. 550 MHZ 512 SDRAM 20GB HD , Geforce MX 440.

 

[Duvie]

The vid card will fail you before the cpu will and that will only be in newer games at full settings and max res.....I say this can still give you game play for another 2-3 years and useful beyond that for someone for over 4 years. My parents still had a P-Pro 200 up until 2 years ago and it did evrything they wanted...What is useful to each is totally different and really depends on the software you are using...

 

[PlatinumGold]

Originally posted by: Duvie
The vid card will fail you before the cpu will and that will only be in newer games at full settings and max res.....I say this can still give you game play for another 2-3 years and useful beyond that for someone for over 4 years. My parents still had a P-Pro 200 up until 2 years ago and it did evrything they wanted...What is useful to each is totally different and really depends on the software you are using...

of course, that has always been true.

however, i can't remember a time when hardware has been so far ahead of software. you can seriously do more with the middle of the road pc today than you have ever been able to.

 

[StrangerGuy]

Considering 5 year old P3 systems can still run WinXP and daily run-of-the-mill tasks fine, and even older systems can handle that kind of stuff...I'll say at least another 5 years.