Windows, on 8GB, can function with around 1.5GB. If your game only uses 6GB, which most games from a few years ago can do at medium settings, you can actually run that game.
My mom wanted a "laptop that wouldn't freeze or get obsolete fast" and had a 17" screen. Had to direct her to one of Acer's weaker gaming setups. The most demanding stuff she plays are those hidden object games that you also find on phones. Wasted potential, but she's been happy and without a single complaint of it slowing down in 2 years
Nah, better cooling, lots of battery, better 2d acceleration. Not as advantageous as playing real games on it, but the hardware will make 2d experiences nicer.
We got an Alienware R8 then had kids. It's played media center and main computer/storage for our entire house for almost a decade with zero problems and gets used for hours and hours every day. We've even moved it cross country a few times. I don't think anyone has ever played a real game on it.
I mean, you canât really overspend on a pc. If you treat ur parts right, that overspending will simply turn to a very long lasting investment into a machine that wonât be obsolete for over a decade to come.
Edit: people are downvoting probably because they... bought into this idea. Price per performance is a thing. These days the higher the price the more expensive the performace gets, because it prices in the premium associated with the extra budget of morons that fill a void in their life buy owning the latest whatever.
There tends to be a correlation between quality, longevity, and price. It's not a perfect fit but it's definitely a thing that exists.
I built a brand new cutting edge PC for a family member in 2011. They wanted to change careers and get into IT and figured they needed the bestest fastest PC they could afford. Anyway, it worked great until they decided it was time for a new one in 2019. I got to keep the 2011 PC in exchange for some assistance with selecting components for the new build. I put in a shiny new SDD, ebayed 16GB of old RAM that was the fastest thing the motherboard could handle, and I'm still using it as my primary server / workstation / web browser / cloud backup automation controller / etc. It cost more upfront but the amount of time that 2 different people have not spent with fucking around building new PCs has more than offset that in my opinion.
So this PC is on its 3rd round of HDDs and 2nd round of RAM but that was only to boost performance, not because of a hardware failure. I haven't lost a power supply, motherboard cap, fan motor, or USB port on it yet. That's pretty remarkable for a 14 year old machine that's been running 24/7. The 2019 build hasn't had a hiccup in almost 6 years now either.
I worked in pc sales way back, I used the exact same line that you just used to get people to spend more. "You can't really overspend on a pc, it's a long term investment." Honestly it's bullshit, you definitely overspend and you will if you're not careful.
You can overspend by buying the wrong parts. The classic move is getting the wrong motherboard for your use case (most people don't overclock). Another similar move is getting a flagship processor while not actually needing the extra processing power (most people are better off putting that money in their gpu).
Then there's RGB, designer cases, fancy keyboards and all sorts of other stuff.
Agreed; when you have a modern machine with a fast CPU and a PCIe 5.0 NVME, loading screens no longer exist in any most games that are at least a couple of years old.
It's been at the point for a while where I appreciate loading screens that want a button pressed afterwards because otherwise it's just a frustrating hint of a hint that I don't have time to read.
My little brother is autistic and plays old school Runeescape on a the craziest rig. Massive 4k ultra wide monitor. The best GPU on the market waiting for the next new GPU to come out. Has the best possible internet package.
Some of my favorites from back in the day are just so dated by this point that the nostalgia isnt cutting it. Modern games dont hit the same, old games dont play right...
I put away $10 a week and do this every 8 years. I don't even notice $10 a week missing. I don't care if it's over kill or wasteful at that point. Probably would have just wasted it anyway.
I also spend the whole 8 years making up random builds that I know will be obsolete by the time I actually buy it.
Yeah this is the easy way to do it. My bank even makes it super-easy to spin up separate savings accounts with just a few clicks and then create auto-transfers.
Right now I instead of a set dollar value have it set to transfer 1% of my checking balance into such an account. Usually that's about $10-20 at a time 1-4 times a week depending on what I'm saving up for. The nice thing about doing percentages is if I've spent less than usual in the last couple of weeks it will transfer more, and if we made more/larger purchases it will transfer less
Alternative perspective: build a solid mid-range PC and keep it updated. Over those same 8 years, you'll spend like half and have a PC that keeps up w/ the latest games, just upgrade when it's getting poor performance.
I've been slowly upgrading my PC since 2010 and have spent about $3k, though I didn't do any gaming the first 5 years. I just upgrade one or two components as they become bottlenecks, and today I'm running a 6650XT w/ Ryzen 5600 CPU, and performance is pretty good for everything I care about (roughly PS5/XBox Series X perf I think).
It has become a sort of tradition for me to play some sort of game that really doesn't need the performance as the first game on any new computer I get.
It's so satisfying to see mangohud jumping into the hundreds of FPS while knowing the game is cranking the highest quality image fidelity it is capable of. It's like taking an apartment dog to a park and releasing the leash. Run baby, run as fast as you can.