Hardware Computer still worth upgrading ?

[Originality]

Next gen consoles have nothing to do with PC graphics. Also a 650 wouldn't become obsolete, since it will be a while before it struggles to play newer games. A while meaning 2-5 years.

 

[natkoden]

Next gen consoles have nothing to do with PC graphics. Also a 650 wouldn't become obsolete, since it will be a while before it struggles to play newer games. A while meaning 2-5 years.

good luck playing metro last light (even metro 2033) with a 650.

watchdogs? yeah... at 9 fps in 320x240

The launch of new console generations have huge impacts on PC gaming. I remember in 2004 when I bought my 7800 GT (almost top of the line, a 449 dollar GPU) and by 2006, it was struggling. Know why? Take a guess...

My 5850, bought in 2009 (launched the same year), struggles with current games. Look up the specs for the 650 Ti and compare them to those of the 5850. Huge difference. Read reviews and look at benchmarks. That card is a toy, with a 128bit bus, it's a low end card, designed for casual gaming. Sure, you can play at low settings and at 20-30 frames per second (now, by the end of the year, 15 fps would be a luxury), but that's not what PC gaming is about. Leave that to consoles.

 

[FAST6191]

I am ordering right now I just have a last question,

As I noticed EVERY single PC gets slower and slower from time to time even if you Defrag your HDD over and over again and reinstall and whatever so I assume
the HDD is as it is used very much more or less "worn out" ... so am I correct that sometimes getting a complete new main HDD and maybe using the old one as
second or external HDD would help making the PC run faster again ?

Theoretically.... I guess some sectors could go bad and as the remapping software on the drive would not be able to make it contiguous you would effectively be doing a random read (for spinning rust drives this would be the slowest type of read). By the time this truly troubles things you have far bigger problems though (namely the drive is about to fail) so in practice drives and computers never get worn out* and the only actual slower performance you will get is when dust clogs the fans and it the heat drive speed stepping cuts in. There are some actual issues with SSD (see trim commands and issues there) but the OS typically handles this and you do not have to worry about it.

* http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2379241,00.asp being the only real sort of exception I can think of.

What tends to happen more is between OS updates, increasingly bloated antivirus software, increasingly bloated printer drivers/widgets, incompetent programmers (*shakes fist at itunes devs*) and everything else also tending towards the bloated the relative performance of your machine goes down (5 versions back the software might have taken 200 megs of memory, the current version might take 500 or something) so when you reinstall and update everything..... If you install a cut down version of an operating system and never update it (I do it a lot for machines that have to run tools) they will only tend to slow down if the tool software takes massive logs and it has to open them every boot.

Defrag by default tends not to touch the registry (it being open/active when you are running a machine after all).

By all means relegate drives to storage/scratch space and you may even be better off. Similarly as you now have everything else on another drive you open files there, run the OS on another you tend to get a nice enough speed boost anyway (I figure the OS is looking at things on the drive some 50% of the time at least, have 9 programs all accessing the drive/files on top of that and you get random seeks).

 

[trumpet-205]

One way I have done to deal with computer slowdown is to use virtual machine. My host OS is Windows but I use VBox to run Linux as guest OS.

I do most of my work on Linux, and on Windows applications I favor portable software in USB stick. Hence my Windows is pretty fresh.

 

[coolbho3000]

good luck playing metro last light (even metro 2033) with a 650.

watchdogs? yeah... at 9 fps in 320x240

The launch of new console generations have huge impacts on PC gaming. I remember in 2004 when I bought my 7800 GT (almost top of the line, a 449 dollar GPU) and by 2006, it was struggling. Know why? Take a guess...

My 5850, bought in 2009 (launched the same year), struggles with current games. Look up the specs for the 650 Ti and compare them to those of the 5850. Huge difference. Read reviews and look at benchmarks. That card is a toy, with a 128bit bus, it's a low end card, designed for casual gaming. Sure, you can play at low settings and at 20-30 frames per second (now, by the end of the year, 15 fps would be a luxury), but that's not what PC gaming is about. Leave that to consoles.

5850 faster than 650 Ti? LOL.

The 5850 gets destroyed in all but a few benchmarks.

And I guarantee you'll be able to do much better than "low settings at 20-30 frames per second" with a 650 Ti in all modern games. I love the high end as much as anyone else, but unlike what some enthusiasts will tell you, if you're not picky, very decent PC gaming can be achieved with some very affordable hardware.

Intel HD 4000 is *designed* for casual gaming. It'll run ie. Skyrim at 1366x768, any Source engine game, any indie game, and the majority of console ports at low-medium settings and low resolution just fine. There are some demanding games that it can't handle. But most casual gamers really aren't playing Metro Last Light, Crysis 3, or Battlefield 3. The 650 Ti is a capable card that will run all of these games at decent settings.

 

[natkoden]

5850 faster than 650 Ti? LOL.

The 5850 gets destroyed in all but a few benchmarks.

And I guarantee you'll be able to do much better than "low settings at 20-30 frames per second" with a 650 Ti in all modern games. I love the high end as much as anyone else, but unlike what some enthusiasts will tell you, if you're not picky, very decent PC gaming can be achieved with some very affordable hardware.

Intel HD 4000 is *designed* for casual gaming. It'll run ie. Skyrim at 1366x768, any Source engine game, any indie game, and the majority of console ports at low-medium settings and low resolution just fine. There are some demanding games that it can't handle. But most casual gamers really aren't playing Metro Last Light, Crysis 3, or Battlefield 3. The 650 Ti is a capable card that will run all of these games at decent settings.

Destroyed = small difference

mmmkay


Either way, a 650 Ti won't last 5 years. That's insane. No piece of hardware lasts that much.

 

[Originality]

That depends on what exactly you expect out of your hardware. The rule of thumb is budget hardware last 0-2 years before struggling to run newer games, mid-range lasts 2-5 years, and high end lasts 3-10 years. This does not take into account hardware wearing out, but some of my friends still use GeForce 8800s and see no reason to upgrade yet.

That's not to say you can buy a HD 7970 and expect it to run Crysis 2023 (year, not iteration) at max settings. But it will probably be able to play most future games at low-medium settings.

Keep in mind, most games are developed with budget-midranged systems in mind. That's because not everybody can afford a $1000+ gaming rig to play everything at max settings. It's a balancing act between giving good visuals (at development cost) and making it playable by as many people as possible (many of whom have outdated hardware or budget systems).

 

[coolbho3000]

Destroyed = small difference

mmmkay


Either way, a 650 Ti won't last 5 years. That's insane. No piece of hardware lasts that much.

It might not last 5 years, but you basically said it wouldn't play any modern games at all, and implied the 5850 was much better, which is very untrue.

 

[Youkai]

So my pc got "slow" again mainly because after my fresh install I installed and updated everything again ? ... suck bad oO

anyway thanks for all your input guys as I said I ordered yesterday already and after reading a few tests I think that 650 Ti "boost" is actually rather good
(especially compared to my current card which could play Skyrim on highest settings perfectly fine on 1980x1024 before they made a few updates ...)
and @natkoden what is the difference with theses RAMs ? both are Class 9 oO?
I really lack the knowledge as I haven't gotten any new infos since like 10 years XD didn't have much time and interest anymore so I am like a completely noob with this stuff ^^V


I really hope my Computer will be "fast" again and run most of not all games at least on medium settings ....
Maybe after reinstalling I should not do any windows updates anymore XD

 

[Rydian]

http://gbatemp.net/threads/general-windows-maintenance-guide.272667/