How long until a PC is outdated?

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Atreyo Bhattacharjee

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Feb 7, 2017
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How long is it uasally until a PC with mid-high range, and newest components, is outdated (cant run games at low-med settings at the resolution it was intended for)?
 
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KyleADunn


I would say 6-7 years from my experience. 6-7 years ago all my buds and brothers built their first mid-high teir gaming rigs that could run games on ultra back then. They're all barely upgrading them due to low frames on the newest titles on lowest settings. So from Ultra to Lowest, lifespan seems to be 6 years. Though I'm sure those rigs would be fine basic business use PCs now for a good few more years.

For Ultra to Medium lifespan, I'll place my guess at 4-5 years. i5-4690k processors came out in 2014 and are still the most popular, and one of the strongest...
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KyleADunn

KyleADunn

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Jul 8, 2014
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I would say 6-7 years from my experience. 6-7 years ago all my buds and brothers built their first mid-high teir gaming rigs that could run games on ultra back then. They're all barely upgrading them due to low frames on the newest titles on lowest settings. So from Ultra to Lowest, lifespan seems to be 6 years. Though I'm sure those rigs would be fine basic business use PCs now for a good few more years.

For Ultra to Medium lifespan, I'll place my guess at 4-5 years. i5-4690k processors came out in 2014 and are still the most popular, and one of the strongest still, processors. i7s, FX series, and GPUs from back then are still very widely popular and used for high/ultra settings.

I don't have any sources other than experience, so take that with a grain of salt.
 
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boosted1g

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Jun 12, 2013
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Well a third gen i5 with say a 680 in it would be right about at your level of low to medium settings at 1080p.
Now upgrading to a new 1060 card on this build though would get it back up to high on all games, ultra on some.

So I guess to answer your quesiton it would take 2-3 years before a GPU upgrade is necessary, 6 years before the cpu is too weak to support a modern GPU that can do more then low settings.
 
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Kenton82

Kenton82

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Jan 4, 2017
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My build is 9 years old now! 1st gen i7 950, Asus Rampage II Extreme mobo. All i have done is up the RAM to 16GB, bought a second hand GTX 970 GPU, upgraded my monitor, and - installed windows 10 64 pro - after many tears and much spilt blood! lol.

I feel that apart from overclocking, this is my maximum for this old girl, but she done well!

So, you could go on my example of longevity, but it depends what you play and seeing what the new games require.

Have you got a current rig? If so, would you mind sharing the specs?

Edit: This rig of mine still achieves 60FPS + in High settings on titles like BeamNG Drive

Regards,
K
 
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Barty1884

Barty1884

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Apr 16, 2015
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It really depends on the specific components - "mid-high" range is quite vast.

Generally, a mid-high end CPU (i5 or i7 or equivelant) can last you years.... through numerous GPU upgrades (2500K's and 2600K's are still relatively viable 6 years after launch. I wouldn't recommend buying one now, but if you had one, it should still be pretty useful).

If you're strictly asking "if I buy a high end setup now, how long will it last?"..... assuming you're talking a GTX1070/1080/1080TI or RX480/580, it should still be able to play newer titles on low settings as an absolute minimum in ~5 years at 1080p or 1440p.

Looking back 5-6 years, 560TI's to 580 and 6970 to HD6990's were some of the higher end cards. All would still be totally useful in 2017 in the low-medium (and in some games, high) space, but can be lacking in VRAM and use dramatically more power.

Considering the cost of those cards new, the cheaper/better route would've been a mid-range card from the outset, and an upgrade to something like a 970 or 290X (prior gen) when they launched....... or a 1060/1070/RX480 from the latest gen.

The smarter option though, would be to buy an i5 or i7 setup now, with a GPU sufficient for what you want to do today (1080p gaming, for example, a GTX1060 should be sufficient), and upgrade the GPU in a year or two. You'd see more milage out of it.
 
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