Hardware So how long will a high-end gaming PC last before going "out of date"?

[TotalInsanity4]

What type of price tag are you thinking of? You can really scrap together what your looking for on the cheap but for longevity you probably need to spend at least $400~.

That's... a bit on the low end. I'd estimate that if you actually want it to be able to game on acceptable settings for the next five years, you'd have to spend at least $650

 

[gudenau]

On the contrary, dolphin is pretty CPU heavy. My 2.7 GHZ i7 has issues in demanding titles in dolphin.

Wow, I almost had 60fps 1920x1080 but my GPU was the limit. Strange.

 

[kumikochan]

Most high end graphics Card last around 3-5 years and high end cpu's around 5-7 years or even More. I was still gaming on my i7 920 not so long ago before replacing it without it being much of a bottleneck. So in the end buy high end Parts cause they'll last Longer and in the long run saves you money.

 

[Luckkill4u]

That's... a bit on the low end. I'd estimate that if you actually want it to be able to game on acceptable settings for the next five years, you'd have to spend at least $650

You can squeeze a few years out of a $400 PC. You will have to look for deals though. With a cheap motherboard, Intel i3-6100, 1 stick of 8gb DDR3 memory and a 500gb hard drive all inside a case and psu combo. This should be good enough for emulation and skim the surface of low end gaming. You also have the ability to buy a video card, another stick of memory and a SSD in the future. It's possible but not always ideal.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S7

 

[VincentBeasley]

You can squeeze a few years out of a $400 PC. You will have to look for deals though. With a cheap motherboard, Intel i3-6100, 1 stick of 8gb DDR3 memory and a 500gb hard drive all inside a case and psu combo. This should be good enough for emulation and skim the surface of low end gaming. You also have the ability to buy a video card, another stick of memory and a SSD in the future. It's possible but not always ideal.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S7

I'm willing to lay down some change to insure it lasts awhile lol

 

[Luckkill4u]

I'm willing to lay down some change to insure it lasts awhile lol

I was going to build a new gaming PC a month ago and turn my 5 year old PC into a server of some sort. I've decided to wait till AMD's Zen cpu line comes out first and after I move into my new house. I'm running Cat6 all through the walls it's going to be awesome.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S7

 

[RedDragonEmperor]

You can squeeze a few years out of a $400 PC. You will have to look for deals though. With a cheap motherboard, Intel i3-6100, 1 stick of 8gb DDR3 memory and a 500gb hard drive all inside a case and psu combo. This should be good enough for emulation and skim the surface of low end gaming. You also have the ability to buy a video card, another stick of memory and a SSD in the future. It's possible but not always ideal.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S7

That setup looks like it's already outdated from the get go.

What exactly do you mean by "last a while"? because lasting a while means getting the high end parts like a gtx 1080 and an i7-6700k which will definitely reach thousands of dollars

 

[mgrev]

if you watch lowspecgamer, it can last over a decade.

 

[Luckkill4u]

That setup looks like it's already outdated from the get go.

What exactly do you mean by "last a while"? because lasting a while means getting the high end parts like a gtx 1080 and an i7-6700k which will definitely reach thousands of dollars

I have a AMD Phenom II x4 965 from like 2008 in my PC right now and it has no problem with today's games with my Radeon HD7870's from 2012. It can do everything the OP asked for when it first came out and can still play today's games at least 30-60 fps. Pretty much anything a PS4 or XBone can do and more.

If you build your PC right with plans of upgrading in the future (when components get cheaper too) you can get longevity out of a budget computer.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S7

 

[RedDragonEmperor]

I have a AMD Phenom II x4 965 from like 2008 in my PC right now and it has no problem with today's games with my Radeon HD7870's from 2012. It can do everything the OP asked for when it first came out and can still play today's games at least 30-60 fps. Pretty much anything a PS4 or XBone can do and more.

If you build your PC right with plans of upgrading in the future (when components get cheaper too) you can get longevity out of a budget computer.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S7

Yea but he did specify He'd like to get 6-7 years out of the rig which is pretty long. If He's gonna build one then he might as well build from mid range parts from this gen's tech.

 

[VincentBeasley]

I have a AMD Phenom II x4 965 from like 2008 in my PC right now and it has no problem with today's games with my Radeon HD7870's from 2012. It can do everything the OP asked for when it first came out and can still play today's games at least 30-60 fps. Pretty much anything a PS4 or XBone can do and more.

If you build your PC right with plans of upgrading in the future (when components get cheaper too) you can get longevity out of a budget computer.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S7

That's basically what I'm looking for =] Something that can play current gen games without a problem and continue to for a while and then be upgraded as need way down the line. I just want to play PS4 and Xbone level games for as long as those console are still relevant (considering I'm getting this instead of those lol). This whole "Release a new console 4 years into its life cycle" with the Ps4 Neo is just ridiculous when you could just get a gaming PC, upgrade it a few times, and be done.

 

[kumikochan]

That's basically what I'm looking for =] Something that can play current gen games without a problem and continue to for a while and then be upgraded as need way down the line. I just want to play PS4 and Xbone level games for as long as those console are still relevant (considering I'm getting this instead of those lol). This whole "Release a new console 4 year into its life cycle" with the Ps4 Neo is just ridiculous when you could just get a gaming PC, upgrade it a few times, and be done.

Then get an i7 6700K with a gtx 980ti or a 1070. Wouldn't buy an 1080 since in a couple of years when you do need to upgrade your graphics card new cards will be out also get a mid range motherboard, DDR4 is cheap these days and salvage old parts from your previous build like a power supply, ssd's and so on.

 

[Luckkill4u]

Yea but he did specify He'd like to get 6-7 years out of the rig which is pretty long. If He's gonna build one then he might as well build from mid range parts from this gen's tech.

It's possible, not ideal but possible. If you read my original post and OPs original post he didn't state a budget and was mostly talking about emulation.

That's basically what I'm looking for =] Something that can play current gen games without a problem and continue to for a while and then be upgraded as need way down the line. I just want to play PS4 and Xbone level games for as long as those console are still relevant (considering I'm getting this instead of those lol). This whole "Release a new console 4 years into its life cycle" with the Ps4 Neo is just ridiculous when you could just get a gaming PC, upgrade it a few times, and be done.

You could probably play next generation games with your budget. You don't need an i7 get an i5, get a good GPU like a GTX1080, 8gb DDR4 and your set for a good 6-7 years.

I recently bought a Ultrawide Monitor and I'm completely in love with it. 21:9 aspect ratio is so much better than I thought it would be for gaming and movies.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S7

 

[kumikochan]

It's possible, not ideal but possible. If you read my original post and OPs original post he didn't state a budget and was mostly talking about emulation.



You could probably play next generation games with your budget. You don't need an i7 get an i5, get a good GPU like a GTX1080, 8gb DDR4 and your set for a good 6-7 years.

I recently bought a Ultrawide Monitor and I'm completely in love with it. 21:9 aspect ratio is so much better than I thought it would be for gaming and movies.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S7

Yeah he does need an i7. An i5 only has 4 threads when an i7 has 8 !!! An i5 only has 6mb when an i7 has 8. An i5 will be outdated pretty soon hell there even going out of date now with newer games. An i7 also has hyperthreading wich an i5 lacks !!!

 

[RedDragonEmperor]

Honestly it's hard to make a decision if OP needs an i5 or i7. What exactly does he want to do with the PC? and most of all, how much is OP willing to pay?

Just to make an estimation
The one on my sig cost around 1300$ and It runs The last story on dolphin smoothly.
Non emulated games run smoothly on max settings

 

[kumikochan]

Honestly it's hard to make a decision if OP needs an i5 or i7. What exactly does he want to do with the PC? and most of all, how much is OP willing to pay?

He wants to game later on with that system hence why he needs an i7 with obvious reasons i stated above.

 

[RedDragonEmperor]

I wouldn't exactly recommend an i7 immediately unless he uses it for other apps that uses all cores. I chose an i7 coz i had to use my pc not only for games but also for work (programming) related shit.

games doesn't usually use all cores so most people would usually use an i5.

Welp that's way too much post in a single day. Back to lurking for me.

TLDR
Don't make the same mistake i did OP by making a budget rig assuming it will last. Boy was i damn wrong back then.

 

[kumikochan]

I wouldn't exactly recommend an i7 immediately unless he uses it for other apps that uses all cores. I chose an i7 coz i had to use my pc not only for games but also for work (programming) related shit.

games doesn't usually use all cores so most people would usually use an i5.

Yeah they do. Most games are getting cpu intensified and Will be using that More over the years on. An i5 is already starting to go out of date, again for the reasons stated above. Buying an i5 would be fine some years ago but now it isn't anymore if you want your system to be future proof.

 

[vb_encryption_vb]

It will be out of date, roughly 2 hours later....lol

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I've been a console gamer all my life and the BS is finally starting to get to me lol. Graphics aren't a big issue for me so I don't really care about playing everything in 60fps, 4K and VR while having it make me a smoothy. I just wanna continue playing the newest games with decent specs. How long do most gaming PCs last before becoming completely unplayable. I'd like to at least get 6 to 7 years out of it. Otherwise it's not worth the price tag.
Edit: Also looking into emulation. Preferably up to PS2 but above that would be swell

The GPU might need upgrading after a few years, the CPU will probably last you a long time if you get a decent one as they don't improve that much in each generation, and games are generally more GPU dependant than CPU dependant. If you have a decent amount of RAM that shouldn't need upgrading either.
Replacing the GPU is easy, and cheap compared to replacing the CPU, which often means you have to replace the motherboard as well, and possibly even the RAM.

My desktop is still rocking an i7 920 (1st gen i7) and I overclocked it and stuck a GTX 970 in it and it runs pretty much everything I throw at it. It's almost 7 years old now and though I have some issues with BSODs that I can't seem to pinpoint, it runs games well. CPUs have improved a lot since the i7 920, but more recently they haven't been improving as much, advancements slowed down after Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge.