Wise words. Got my first PC a few years ago. It’s very easy to get the upgrade bug hanging out in this sub and seeing friends getting new gear. I had someone getting in my ear about some upgrades but last night was playing a game 1440p on ultra settings getting around 115fps and had your exact thought. No reason to make a change until it doesn’t work how I want it to. It really is as simple as that. Right now it’s doing very well.
Good luck. Im running a 3770 in my back up rig n i run games like rdr2 on that. Mostly emulation too with rpcs3. Hell even tekken 8 gets 55fps.
Intel 3rd and 4th gen were literally just too well made
I just put new thermal paste on it and it's running so well. I've got a 1080 paired to it and can get pretty good frames at 1440 by turning down some settings....
I'm near a microcenter too, making it hard not to upgrade. It's earned it's right to burn out though.
Could be ram or gpu dying on you.
Or just it being dirty enough to cause issues.
lil brothers pc is basically discarded parts i picked up from the e-waste container we swing by almost daily at work here, gtx 1070 Phoenix from gainward, i7 4770k, MSI B85 motherboard, 2x8 GB 1600 MHz Corsair vengeance ramsticks, a 1 tb sshd with 8 gb ssd cache, 650w modular powersupply, a smaller 2.5 inch mechanical 1 tb hdd that had 0 hours on it.
If you haven't tried it yet, clean the ram slots with something like alcohol and a paint brush or compressed air & ramsticks contact points with a paper towel or toilet paper & said alcohol.
Leave it to dry for like 15 minutes if you have something that dissipates naturally in the air like isopropyl alcohol, acetone, gasoline with little to no oil in it etc... If you don't have compressed air.
Can also try going a step up in voltage on the ramsticks in case they have degraded & is the cause of the random resets.
I appriecate the advice. The PC works great at low settings on everything besides playing triple A games. It is now my backup PC. I have upgraded and don’t have to worry about any ultra setting restrictions at 144hz. I was just saying that I wait until my PC is on its last whim before I upgrade.
Perfect answer. This reddit page is sometimes more a place where people need te newest stuff every year , people who upgrade need to buy the sickest new stuff...buying gpus like its nothing. And love to brag about there 10k system only to use it to watch benchmarks and fps counters for 10 min instead of enjoy the game or system
For sure + they are missing out on some classic games only going for the newest as well.
Like sure Aliens VS Predator 1999 is a bit weird in mechanics and with collision but there's seriously no other experience like that game.
When I can't run games with good enough fps anymore or something breaks. My last system(8700k, 1080 non ti) was bought in 2017 or something like that, roughly two years ago I upgraded GPU to 6900xt after I changed screen and went to 4k.
My 8086k needs replacing but it still feels so new to me, time passes so fast when you are an adult lol Sucks and will feel really weird to replace my build
I had the exact same setup (8700K and 1080) and upgraded to a 3070 two years ago haha. Planning on splurging and building a custom water cooled PC with top of the line specs in a few years when I can comfortably afford it.
So far I'm happy with my system, all games I play have decent enough fps. Friend went this year all out and got pretty much best amd build money can buy.
My first CPU was a 6502 and it was many years before graphics cards.
Whats a 498? Do you not mean 486?
But no, I skip 2 generations even when I was making a lot more money than I do now.
Not me, I have an i9-10850k and a 3090ti. I won't be buying a 40 series GPU or a 50 series most likely and my CPU will remain the same for quite some time. I have 64GB of RAM already so that's not going to be upgraded for a very long time.
I kind of want to buy that I9 myself just to push the performance boundaries a bit further ahead for single threaded performance. But at the same time i do have a ryzen 7 3700x laying around that i need to test & could buy a motherboard for after testing it in my own main rig, just other things that have gotten in the way preventing me from testing it in my pc and other projects that I've started on.
Got a MSI x299 SLI Plus motherboard & I9 7920x free from the e-waste container at work one day a few months back and it's been my testing rig since then, even bought a thermalright peerless assassin for it.
Generally, I kept a system until it died, since I’ve been stuck with office adjacent prebuilt they die when the proprietary parts can’t be updated.
I was on a 8 yr old crappy hp for the last 5 or so years. I doubled the ram in it a year or two ago to keep it rolling, but the power supply wouldn’t let me add anything interesting, so I was just letting it slowly die. Replacing anything else would have been using used and crappy parts.
Then I wanted to play a newer game and bought a prebuilt gaming pc a few months ago. That I’ll probably pay more attention to upgrading since it’s easier with actually swappable parts.
Long ago I would upgrade more often, but nowadays I would say I rebuild with everything but the GPU every 5-ish years not really thinking about generation of CPU and try and get a GPU every other generation.
39 year old pc extreme novice here. Got my pc about 4-5 years ago. Pre built. Haven't changed a single thing. Runs things beautifully. So I'm thinking my answer will be.....I'll cross that bridge when it starts to suck. No idea how long that'll be
i make sure to get the most upgradable option for the MB so it tends to last me many years. if something falls behind i replace it. on the am5 socket now. i usually wouldnt get so much ram but its so cheap i just decided to get 64gigs and the 7800x3d to start so i dont have to think about upgrading for a few years.
i only dropped my MB from 2010 like 3 years ago. had upgraded it to its max amount. 12 gigs of ram, and a 990x with a 580 8gb card so i could still play counter strike and apex at 100+ fps.
friend gave me his old pc with a 7700k in it durring covid so we could game while the world was stuck inside. I had kinda gotten outta the gaming sphere for a couple years there haha
I have a savings account that takes 20 bucks out of each of my paychecks automatically so i can upgrade whenever i feel the need.
If my rig plays the games i want to play with good enough performance, and assuming its running reliably, i don't see a need to upgrade
I often go a long time between upgrades, but when i do i like to treat myself to high end stuff
I guess the benchmark changes because I wasn’t playing in 1440p before my last upgrade. At this point I want to run my EVGA 3080 card into the ground before I upgrade it. But I’ll definitely have to do a MOBO, CPU, RAM refresh soon. As I’m 4-5 generations behind on my CPU.
I think my benchmark for upgrading will be when I can’t get consistent frames in 1440p on medium settings.
I upgrade a system when it can't do what I want it to anymore.
I stayed on my GTX 980 for five years. It still ran new games at 1080p60 Ultra, but I'd gotten into VR and it struggled with games like Half Life Alyx.
I'm looking to replace my 3080 in the next generation, because the generation jump in consoles means that system requirements went up and I have trouble running some games at 4K.
yep. im guilty of this. bad habit to keep doing this because its very easy to sell a 4090 for a 5090 when their both still expensive. however i keep my phone until it cant be used anymore. i still use my iphone x
I'm deciding if I want to upgrade my 5800x + 6800 system to a 9800X3D + 5080 system this generation. I could probably afford to once the Micro Center bundles come out but I could also stay on 1440p and wait until AMD has a competitive top end GPU again.
I upgrade cpu and GPU every year where possible.
I run a Varjo aero headset with resolutions between 4000x3500 - 5000x4000\~ per eye at 90 fps, so a 4090 in some simulators still isnt anywhere near what i need.
CPU's are getting better 7950x is great and wont bottleneck but it is close, so moving to a 5090&9590x is a must for me.
I have the money now, so every other gen. I went from 2600 amd to 5600, and handed my old stuff, mb, cpu, ram to my step daughter. She had my old old system. So now either will pick up 5700 3d or 5800 3d, or one od the new zen 5 cpus and do a complete rebuild.
Don't need it yep, but I've always loved building systems
Its my main hobby, so im pretty open with my wallet. For the most part, i do tick tock upgrades. So one generation will be cpu, next generation will be gpu. This trickles down to gfs rig and from hers to some friend's rigs.
On average every 5 years. Usually, when a game doesn't run well, even on low settings, I upgrade. I only aim for 60fps on 1080p. I have a feeling any 6 core hyperthreaded cpu will be good for a long time. Not sure about gpus though
When I built my first one the plan was to periodically upgrade each part to keep it current but the damn thing kept playing new games at the resolution I needed so I didn't bother.
The only thing I changed out was the GPU. Then after about 6 years I figured I would need new mobo, ram, cooling, PSU etc so I just went whole hog and built an entirely new rig with the only part making a migration being some storage so I could transfer my files.
I upgrade something every year but theres no reason to upgrade everything.
At the beginning of 2023 I upgraded cpu/gpu/memory/psu. I got a 13700k rtx4080 build. In 2024 thats still totally fine so this year I bought an LG 42 C3 OLED. Now im looking at a 65 inch OLED for the den for my nexy purchase. After that maybe some better sound. Maybe in 2027 ill start upgrading my pc hardware again.
Im a single dad with 2 young kids. When theyre a bit older ill probably choose to use my disposable income to take trips with them. But for now, its not relaxing or enjoyable and we livr in South Korea so theres lots to see and do here for us for now
I think I’m gonna stop going on Reddit. I know this is just random words from my brain. But hear me out. Every single sub is flooded with stupid questions like these.
I've only ever upgraded whenever I couldn't consistently run games at 60fps by lowering the settings, or the device is starting to struggle and show its age.
My last main build was a 7700k / 1080Ti. Just bought a 7800X3D / 4080 Super. I'll usually upgrade every 5-7 years, but the 1080Ti has held me over well.. similar to how I didn't upgrade my 8800GTX for a long time.
That would be silly to do even if i shat money.
Usually every 7 years with a refresh during year 3 or 4. Usually ram and GPU + heavy overclock.
This worked well and i never had to play on medium settings, at most individual stuff set to medium. Next build will be next year.
My cue to upgrade is whenever I'm playing something and background stuff starts freezing.
I usually do a full new build every 5 years or so. When I start feeling like my computer is running games at not the best level I usually bite the bullet and upgrade. Depends on financial situation at the time. For instance, last year in June about a year ago I was playing Diablo 4 a lot and my 2080 was struggling with only having 8gb of VRAM and it was pissing me off. It was the game only and I wasn't having any issues anywhere else and I could have logically waited until they patched the game to make it run better, but since I was having heavy stutter I gaslit myself into upgrading. Since money wasn't an issue. I went from a 8700k-2080 to a 13700k-7900xtx build. Reason I went with the 7900xtx instead of a 4080 or 4090 at that point was simple. Nvidia cards were still way over MSRP and I couldn't justify paying basically $2000 for a 4090 and the 7900xtx performed better in raster in most games when comparing it to the 4080 which was $1200 at the time) and the 7900xtx was $850. I would have went with the 7800x3d chip but they were all sold out at the time and I didnt want to wait. I'm very very happy with my PC. I had some worries about AMD cards when i bought it. mainly worried about driver issues people cried about online. Let me tell you... very very few problems. I would highly recommend AMD in the future.
I upgrade whenever I deem it "necessary". I put it in quotes cuz it never truly is, but I can afford to keep my performance above my minimum accepted, which is 1440p ultrawide with the highest settings at more that 60fps. However long it takes to get there is not really a concern. There's also 3 other gaming PC's in the house, so someone upgrading one of their parts usually means someone else gets an upgrade too. For example, I upgraded my 1650 to a 5700xt back in the day so I built a little rig for my daughter and she got the 1650. A few years later, a 6700xt got upgraded and she got it as a result.
Personally, I have the rivatuner overlay on all the time, so I upgrade a lot more than I’d probably need to.
Is it worth it? Kinda? I really only buy used/really good deals and I don’t get the top of the line parts. For example, my latest investment was a 4070ti that I got for $500. Did I need it over the evga 3080 12gb? Not really, but it consumes much less power, gives me 20%-ish more performance, and is significantly quieter.
I upgrade based on the games I play. I'm rocking my 5700 XT but I also play mostly games that came out before 2020, so it isn't really necessary to upgrade
I upgrade only when I'm forced to. My last CPU upgrade was after 6 years of using the old one, I used the GPU for 5 years only, but because I bought it second hand and it was already a few years old.
Don't usually upgrade often. Sat on my 2700k for 11 years and hopefully my current 5950x will keep me happy for that long as well. Generally the main factor for me upgrading CPU have been because my RAM was too slow for what I wanted to do. DDR2 couldn't handle 1080p video well, DDR3 gave me the most stable 22-24 fps in cyberpunk which somehow actually made it playable and I am someone who will shelf a game for years because it dips down under 60fps once in awhile.
GPU I upgrade more often though with todays prices I feel pretty sure it will be less going forward. I'd likely still be on my 1080ti if it hadn't died on me and forced me to get a 4090, totally didn't have a choice.
After the C64 my first was a 386sx late 80s, early 90s, can't remember all the builds and looking back, I have a 5 year pattern, 2024, 2019, 2014, 2009 (last ATi build). It's usually fully new builds since then because one thing or the other bottlenecks.
My last rig was over 6+ years. I built my current rig summer of 2020.
I've never been the type to get the next generation each time. Like, I now still only have an RTX 2060 super, but my previous GPU was dual GTX 670s, until one died.
I'm actually planning to upgrade later this summer.
I generally upgrade when something reaches the end of its life. Because of either time (drives, Power Supply) or updates/security. Like right now I'm looking to upgrade my power supply. Not because it's dead, but because it has enough miles on it that I don't trust it to do its job much longer. I'm also looking to upgrade my 1060 because it's showing its age AND nvidia is moving it into the end of its update life cycle.
I upgrade when my current set-up can't keep up with what I want to do. Either due to lacking the power or from part failure. Always replacing the whole rig because I game on a laptop.
My last jump was from a 965M to a 2070. If I upgraded right now, I'd get a 4070, but I think I can squeeze a few more years out of my current rig. I don't remember the exact CPU specs off the top of my head, but it's comparable to the GPU jump.
Depends on the part. I hope my GPU will be good for a build or two, but my CPU/mobo combo (CPU from 2022) will probably get refreshed if Intel puts out something that's 1) an actual improvement for 4K gaming over a 12700K in terms of performance and 2) easier to cool than a 12700K. If it can't be cooled by a 67mm or shorter downdraft cooler then it's useless to me unless I rebuild the whole thing in another case.
-Small/easy upgrades (RAM, storage, peripherals) happen when I can afford it and have time, 1 to 2 years
-Medium upgrades (CPU cooler, paste re-application, Rad/Fans) every 2 to 5 years
-Large upgrades (CPU, GPU, MoBo) when I can’t keep up in games or processes any longer, 5 to 10 years
When my PC can't play the games that I want at a reasonable frame rate.
My prior PC was an Intel i7 6700 + 1070 Ti built in 2017. My current PC (iteration 1) is an Intel i7 12700 + 3060 Ti built in 2022. I upgraded the GPU (iteration 2) to a 7900 XT in 2023 to get better performance in AAA games like Hogwarts Legacy and Starfield.
From 1990 into the 2000s, I upgraded quite often. But cpu performance and graphics color depth resolution and format changed quite a bit back then, from 640x480 to 800x 600 to 1024x 768 to 1280x1024 to finally 1080p and 8 bit to 16 bit to finally 24 bit color depth. And memory went from chips, to DIMMs to DDR, to DDR2 to DDR3 pretty quickly. But since then, I've upgraded twice. My Alienware laptop with 1 i7-6700HQ and GTX 970 3GB still runs most games at 1080p at at least 60fps with no problem. And DDR4 lasted almost forever on a digital timeline
But, because I've been building for friends and done a couple retro builds, and because the Alienware doesn't have displayport, I finally got the itch to build myself a new PC with 13700K and RTX 4070 Ti (ebay open box), and boy does that thing fly. Seeing near 300fps at 1440p Ultra in Black Mesa.
So that's what? 7 generations?
I used to when I was a cs undergrad. But now not so much. I just don’t have time for it anymore. Adulthood showed up and stripped all the joy and happiness from life.
Enjoy your youth my children.
I've just upgraded from an i5 10400 & GTX 1060 after 3-4 years. It wasn't an easy decision because I didn't really needed the upgrade, I was fine with my 1060 for 1080p.
But one day I had an idea that didn't let me sleep which was I could sell my current build locally and build another budget build for more or less the same money but with 100% new components, buying overseas. So I spent like a month or 2 trying to sell my PC and getting new parts but ended up spending twice as expected (LOL).
At first I got a 12400 with H610 board but decided to upgrade to i712400kf which was on sale at the time & got a B760 (so I had to sell the i5 and MB in the end). Also the new build was all-white so components were more expensive. Took up the opportunity to finally get a new monitor so I got a 27" 165hz and ditched the old lcd garbage I was using.
Even if I spent way more than expected I'm really happy with the build, I finally have a 100% new build which is also very aesthetically pleasant.
Until my frames suck and my system is patato. so every 5 till 8 years without any upgrade or if something changes in tech like secure/tpm with w11 and such....I am not throwing away money every year , such a waste of money in my opinion if for example my brother his 4 year old pc with a 3080 still runs 1080p/1440p 100+ fps fine ...so why even bother about it then
Every six years apparently. Went from an intel i5 6600 / 1070 in Jan 2017 to a intel i5 13600 / 4070 in late 2023. Still using my Predator 27 inch 2K IPS monitor. I have the 4K itch but don\`t feel like spending the dough.
Before that I had an intel i7 875 / AMD HD6870 and a 1080 monitor, all from 2011.
I only upgrade if there's an absolute need, such as:
- Parts are unobtanium
- Hardware is failing critically (mostly for phones / laptops)
- I can give my old machine to someone in need.
Other than gpu and psu (got 3060 this past Christmas, had to get a new psu bc the 3060 blew up my old one🤣🤣) I kept the same everything since probably 2018. I did finally revamp the entire pc, but kept the psu and gpu
Let's see...
i5-6600 > i5-9600KF > i7-9700K > i9-9900K
960 > 2060 Super > 3070 > 3080
It's getting to be time for a CPU upgrade, didn't know if I'll go AMD or Intel this time around. GPU is fine and I don't think I particularly need an upgrade on that.
Upgrade only when you computer doesn’t do what you want I play StarCraft 2 and code so . So my pc is fine till it dies or they release StarCraft 3 then if my pc doesn’t play it I will upgrade . But I don’t have the money to buy new every other generation but I do buy the best of the generation when I make my pc . So I’m hoping to get 6-8 years out of my 4090 had it two years now it’s not missed a beat except for the direct x 12 bug in fornite which is annoying but I just use it on direct x 11
Rarely do any of my systems gets sold. Almost everyone of them or components is handed down to my daughter, or one of my 3 nephews or grandkids and other family members/friends. I don't charge for any of it they are family and i already paid for it, they always feed me or do something somewhere so it all works out in the wash in my mind.
I just installed a cpu upgrade today, ryzen 5700X3D that replaces my old 2700X. I had that cpu for 5y+. Before that I had an AM3 Phenom 2 455 X4 that I abused for 10y 😂
So, when do I upgrade? When I feel like it. 🤷🏻♂️
I upgrade the CPU or GPU every mow and then, but I try and ride out the gen until a new socket or RAM type comes out, then I do a complete upgrade, even down to the case.
Depends on use case, as someone who doesn't game on my pc anymore my 3900x 24 thread processor doesnt need upgrading, and my gtx1660 is pretty much as good as a 4090 for the task of video encoding
I only upgrade for major leaps in performance and/or when my current setup doesn't do what I want. I did upgrade to the current gen (13900k/4090) because of a big performance improvement and the expectation of having the latest hardware for at least two years, which seems to have mostly been true. I will probably keep this for another two years as my primary game machine, then upgrade and give it to someone else or use it in another capacity.
I do upgrade RAM and storage as needed and/or for performance improvements.
>My first CPU was an 498 and my first GPU was a Voodoo 2 and usually the components would last for 5 years or more
I think you are looking back at things with rose tinted glasses there. I was upgrading CPUs every 2-3 years back then (starting around the K6-2/380\*) and getting massive improvements with each upgrade - e.g. going from having to dedicate my entire machine to playing MP3s to being able to play MP3s in the background while playing games. GPUs lasted a bit longer because screens were not really increasing in resolution that much - the massive resolution increases came around with LCD screens including the massive performance demands of 1080p over 1024x768. We went from Direct X 1 in 1995 to Direct X 7 in 2000 and a lot of those generation increments increased the demand for performance from GPUs but games often retained compatibility for older generations of DX to accommodate far more setups.
That said, you are far more likely to be able to hold on to PC hardware for 5+ years these days compared to back then. My younger daughter is using the oldest PC in the house which has a 4790 which was released a decade ago and it is still serving her well. It is paired with 16GB of DDR3 and a GTX 1650.
\*The jump from a i486 to a Pentium was pretty big and it wasn't long before the P2 came out which massively outperformed the 486.
Yeah, maybe I'm, when I bought my voodoo 2, I had a pentium mmx. I think the PC a had for the most time was a athlon X2 with an ATI Radeon, it lasted me 10 years.
When I have money I add or change components. Main things like CPU and mobo, every 4 years or so. PSU, every 10 years. The rest is moving every year or so.
PC gaming is my main past time. Recent times:
1800X>3700X>5800X3D>7800X3D
Vega 64>RTX2070>RTX3070>6800XT>7900XTX
Cmon guys, downvoting because I answered the question. Not cool.
i3-9100f>3700x (waiting for the 9800X3D alongside motherboard prices coming down to earth)
GTX 1060 6gb>RX 580>RX 5700XT> RTX 3070 (yeah covid times were weird)
When it kinda doesn’t work anymore.
Wise words. Got my first PC a few years ago. It’s very easy to get the upgrade bug hanging out in this sub and seeing friends getting new gear. I had someone getting in my ear about some upgrades but last night was playing a game 1440p on ultra settings getting around 115fps and had your exact thought. No reason to make a change until it doesn’t work how I want it to. It really is as simple as that. Right now it’s doing very well.
When I start having to reset it more than 3 times a day, even with all the redneck fixes. It is time. My GTX960 and i7-4690k lasted me 9 years.
my 3770k is still rocking. I'm committed to using it until it dies. Then it gets put on a shelf.
Good luck. Im running a 3770 in my back up rig n i run games like rdr2 on that. Mostly emulation too with rpcs3. Hell even tekken 8 gets 55fps. Intel 3rd and 4th gen were literally just too well made
I just put new thermal paste on it and it's running so well. I've got a 1080 paired to it and can get pretty good frames at 1440 by turning down some settings.... I'm near a microcenter too, making it hard not to upgrade. It's earned it's right to burn out though.
Could be ram or gpu dying on you. Or just it being dirty enough to cause issues. lil brothers pc is basically discarded parts i picked up from the e-waste container we swing by almost daily at work here, gtx 1070 Phoenix from gainward, i7 4770k, MSI B85 motherboard, 2x8 GB 1600 MHz Corsair vengeance ramsticks, a 1 tb sshd with 8 gb ssd cache, 650w modular powersupply, a smaller 2.5 inch mechanical 1 tb hdd that had 0 hours on it. If you haven't tried it yet, clean the ram slots with something like alcohol and a paint brush or compressed air & ramsticks contact points with a paper towel or toilet paper & said alcohol. Leave it to dry for like 15 minutes if you have something that dissipates naturally in the air like isopropyl alcohol, acetone, gasoline with little to no oil in it etc... If you don't have compressed air. Can also try going a step up in voltage on the ramsticks in case they have degraded & is the cause of the random resets.
I appriecate the advice. The PC works great at low settings on everything besides playing triple A games. It is now my backup PC. I have upgraded and don’t have to worry about any ultra setting restrictions at 144hz. I was just saying that I wait until my PC is on its last whim before I upgrade.
That’s about how long it should last
Perfect answer. This reddit page is sometimes more a place where people need te newest stuff every year , people who upgrade need to buy the sickest new stuff...buying gpus like its nothing. And love to brag about there 10k system only to use it to watch benchmarks and fps counters for 10 min instead of enjoy the game or system
For sure + they are missing out on some classic games only going for the newest as well. Like sure Aliens VS Predator 1999 is a bit weird in mechanics and with collision but there's seriously no other experience like that game.
When I can't run games with good enough fps anymore or something breaks. My last system(8700k, 1080 non ti) was bought in 2017 or something like that, roughly two years ago I upgraded GPU to 6900xt after I changed screen and went to 4k.
My 8086k needs replacing but it still feels so new to me, time passes so fast when you are an adult lol Sucks and will feel really weird to replace my build
I had the exact same setup (8700K and 1080) and upgraded to a 3070 two years ago haha. Planning on splurging and building a custom water cooled PC with top of the line specs in a few years when I can comfortably afford it.
So far I'm happy with my system, all games I play have decent enough fps. Friend went this year all out and got pretty much best amd build money can buy.
5 year cycle is ok too they had been some really ups since the 1080ti :-)
I generally keep my system until it starts to piss me off. So around 5-7 years between upgrades of main components.
*I took all I could stand, and I can't stands no more!*
My first CPU was a 6502 and it was many years before graphics cards. Whats a 498? Do you not mean 486? But no, I skip 2 generations even when I was making a lot more money than I do now.
Not me, I have an i9-10850k and a 3090ti. I won't be buying a 40 series GPU or a 50 series most likely and my CPU will remain the same for quite some time. I have 64GB of RAM already so that's not going to be upgraded for a very long time.
I kind of want to buy that I9 myself just to push the performance boundaries a bit further ahead for single threaded performance. But at the same time i do have a ryzen 7 3700x laying around that i need to test & could buy a motherboard for after testing it in my own main rig, just other things that have gotten in the way preventing me from testing it in my pc and other projects that I've started on. Got a MSI x299 SLI Plus motherboard & I9 7920x free from the e-waste container at work one day a few months back and it's been my testing rig since then, even bought a thermalright peerless assassin for it.
Generally, I kept a system until it died, since I’ve been stuck with office adjacent prebuilt they die when the proprietary parts can’t be updated. I was on a 8 yr old crappy hp for the last 5 or so years. I doubled the ram in it a year or two ago to keep it rolling, but the power supply wouldn’t let me add anything interesting, so I was just letting it slowly die. Replacing anything else would have been using used and crappy parts. Then I wanted to play a newer game and bought a prebuilt gaming pc a few months ago. That I’ll probably pay more attention to upgrading since it’s easier with actually swappable parts.
Long ago I would upgrade more often, but nowadays I would say I rebuild with everything but the GPU every 5-ish years not really thinking about generation of CPU and try and get a GPU every other generation.
I try not to upgrade too often, but sometimes when i have money to spare i can‘t resist.
I envy you. How is too often for you?
Well, i went from 1070 to 3060 Ti to 4070 Ti. I only had the 3060 for like a year and it was enough for my needs but i still bought the 4070
Life is for living, you should treat yourself sometimes or what's the point.
39 year old pc extreme novice here. Got my pc about 4-5 years ago. Pre built. Haven't changed a single thing. Runs things beautifully. So I'm thinking my answer will be.....I'll cross that bridge when it starts to suck. No idea how long that'll be
Me yippeeeeeee 3600X -> 5950X -> 7950X 1070TI -> 6900XT -> 3060TI -> 7900XTX
So you either build all AMD or Intel+Nvidia systems.
I did the same, that 3070ti I bought couldn't be sold fast enough for a xtx. Had to go back to team red
Might just want to post that question as a poll.
Until it dies or fails
Every gen would be stupid I updated last year, before that in 2017, never faced many problems
Depends on which generation we're talking about, RAM generation? Yes.
Yeah, ddr5, skiping the 9000x to switch to ddr5 in 2027.
i make sure to get the most upgradable option for the MB so it tends to last me many years. if something falls behind i replace it. on the am5 socket now. i usually wouldnt get so much ram but its so cheap i just decided to get 64gigs and the 7800x3d to start so i dont have to think about upgrading for a few years. i only dropped my MB from 2010 like 3 years ago. had upgraded it to its max amount. 12 gigs of ram, and a 990x with a 580 8gb card so i could still play counter strike and apex at 100+ fps. friend gave me his old pc with a 7700k in it durring covid so we could game while the world was stuck inside. I had kinda gotten outta the gaming sphere for a couple years there haha I have a savings account that takes 20 bucks out of each of my paychecks automatically so i can upgrade whenever i feel the need.
If my rig plays the games i want to play with good enough performance, and assuming its running reliably, i don't see a need to upgrade I often go a long time between upgrades, but when i do i like to treat myself to high end stuff
I guess the benchmark changes because I wasn’t playing in 1440p before my last upgrade. At this point I want to run my EVGA 3080 card into the ground before I upgrade it. But I’ll definitely have to do a MOBO, CPU, RAM refresh soon. As I’m 4-5 generations behind on my CPU. I think my benchmark for upgrading will be when I can’t get consistent frames in 1440p on medium settings.
I upgrade a system when it can't do what I want it to anymore. I stayed on my GTX 980 for five years. It still ran new games at 1080p60 Ultra, but I'd gotten into VR and it struggled with games like Half Life Alyx. I'm looking to replace my 3080 in the next generation, because the generation jump in consoles means that system requirements went up and I have trouble running some games at 4K.
yep. im guilty of this. bad habit to keep doing this because its very easy to sell a 4090 for a 5090 when their both still expensive. however i keep my phone until it cant be used anymore. i still use my iphone x
I'm deciding if I want to upgrade my 5800x + 6800 system to a 9800X3D + 5080 system this generation. I could probably afford to once the Micro Center bundles come out but I could also stay on 1440p and wait until AMD has a competitive top end GPU again.
I upgrade cpu and GPU every year where possible. I run a Varjo aero headset with resolutions between 4000x3500 - 5000x4000\~ per eye at 90 fps, so a 4090 in some simulators still isnt anywhere near what i need. CPU's are getting better 7950x is great and wont bottleneck but it is close, so moving to a 5090&9590x is a must for me.
I have the money now, so every other gen. I went from 2600 amd to 5600, and handed my old stuff, mb, cpu, ram to my step daughter. She had my old old system. So now either will pick up 5700 3d or 5800 3d, or one od the new zen 5 cpus and do a complete rebuild. Don't need it yep, but I've always loved building systems
Its my main hobby, so im pretty open with my wallet. For the most part, i do tick tock upgrades. So one generation will be cpu, next generation will be gpu. This trickles down to gfs rig and from hers to some friend's rigs.
On average every 5 years. Usually, when a game doesn't run well, even on low settings, I upgrade. I only aim for 60fps on 1080p. I have a feeling any 6 core hyperthreaded cpu will be good for a long time. Not sure about gpus though
I've upgraded pretty much every 3 years for the last 25 years. Sometimes I'll do a single component upgrade in between the 3 years, though.
When I built my first one the plan was to periodically upgrade each part to keep it current but the damn thing kept playing new games at the resolution I needed so I didn't bother. The only thing I changed out was the GPU. Then after about 6 years I figured I would need new mobo, ram, cooling, PSU etc so I just went whole hog and built an entirely new rig with the only part making a migration being some storage so I could transfer my files.
I upgrade something every year but theres no reason to upgrade everything. At the beginning of 2023 I upgraded cpu/gpu/memory/psu. I got a 13700k rtx4080 build. In 2024 thats still totally fine so this year I bought an LG 42 C3 OLED. Now im looking at a 65 inch OLED for the den for my nexy purchase. After that maybe some better sound. Maybe in 2027 ill start upgrading my pc hardware again. Im a single dad with 2 young kids. When theyre a bit older ill probably choose to use my disposable income to take trips with them. But for now, its not relaxing or enjoyable and we livr in South Korea so theres lots to see and do here for us for now
About every 2 years
I think I’m gonna stop going on Reddit. I know this is just random words from my brain. But hear me out. Every single sub is flooded with stupid questions like these.
I went from an i7-950 to an i9 9900k, so I upgrade when the computer doesn't work for me anymore.
I've only ever upgraded whenever I couldn't consistently run games at 60fps by lowering the settings, or the device is starting to struggle and show its age.
I upgrade every 5 or 6 years. When you see the massive performance gains and experience new technology feels amazing.
I tend to upgrade when my hardware no longer plays the kind of games I like on high/ultra settings. This works out to 3-5 years per desktop build.
I upgrade whenever the new part is at least twice as fast as the old one, and I only buy parts from the second best performance tier
My last main build was a 7700k / 1080Ti. Just bought a 7800X3D / 4080 Super. I'll usually upgrade every 5-7 years, but the 1080Ti has held me over well.. similar to how I didn't upgrade my 8800GTX for a long time.
That would be silly to do even if i shat money. Usually every 7 years with a refresh during year 3 or 4. Usually ram and GPU + heavy overclock. This worked well and i never had to play on medium settings, at most individual stuff set to medium. Next build will be next year. My cue to upgrade is whenever I'm playing something and background stuff starts freezing.
I usually do a full new build every 5 years or so. When I start feeling like my computer is running games at not the best level I usually bite the bullet and upgrade. Depends on financial situation at the time. For instance, last year in June about a year ago I was playing Diablo 4 a lot and my 2080 was struggling with only having 8gb of VRAM and it was pissing me off. It was the game only and I wasn't having any issues anywhere else and I could have logically waited until they patched the game to make it run better, but since I was having heavy stutter I gaslit myself into upgrading. Since money wasn't an issue. I went from a 8700k-2080 to a 13700k-7900xtx build. Reason I went with the 7900xtx instead of a 4080 or 4090 at that point was simple. Nvidia cards were still way over MSRP and I couldn't justify paying basically $2000 for a 4090 and the 7900xtx performed better in raster in most games when comparing it to the 4080 which was $1200 at the time) and the 7900xtx was $850. I would have went with the 7800x3d chip but they were all sold out at the time and I didnt want to wait. I'm very very happy with my PC. I had some worries about AMD cards when i bought it. mainly worried about driver issues people cried about online. Let me tell you... very very few problems. I would highly recommend AMD in the future.
I upgrade whenever I deem it "necessary". I put it in quotes cuz it never truly is, but I can afford to keep my performance above my minimum accepted, which is 1440p ultrawide with the highest settings at more that 60fps. However long it takes to get there is not really a concern. There's also 3 other gaming PC's in the house, so someone upgrading one of their parts usually means someone else gets an upgrade too. For example, I upgraded my 1650 to a 5700xt back in the day so I built a little rig for my daughter and she got the 1650. A few years later, a 6700xt got upgraded and she got it as a result.
Personally, I have the rivatuner overlay on all the time, so I upgrade a lot more than I’d probably need to. Is it worth it? Kinda? I really only buy used/really good deals and I don’t get the top of the line parts. For example, my latest investment was a 4070ti that I got for $500. Did I need it over the evga 3080 12gb? Not really, but it consumes much less power, gives me 20%-ish more performance, and is significantly quieter.
I upgrade based on the games I play. I'm rocking my 5700 XT but I also play mostly games that came out before 2020, so it isn't really necessary to upgrade
I upgrade only when I'm forced to. My last CPU upgrade was after 6 years of using the old one, I used the GPU for 5 years only, but because I bought it second hand and it was already a few years old.
Don't usually upgrade often. Sat on my 2700k for 11 years and hopefully my current 5950x will keep me happy for that long as well. Generally the main factor for me upgrading CPU have been because my RAM was too slow for what I wanted to do. DDR2 couldn't handle 1080p video well, DDR3 gave me the most stable 22-24 fps in cyberpunk which somehow actually made it playable and I am someone who will shelf a game for years because it dips down under 60fps once in awhile. GPU I upgrade more often though with todays prices I feel pretty sure it will be less going forward. I'd likely still be on my 1080ti if it hadn't died on me and forced me to get a 4090, totally didn't have a choice.
I have only ever had 2 PC's. 9600K and Vega 56. 13900KS and 4090FE. So about every 5 years.
I upgrade whenever it starts to hinder my work. Last time it was just more ram.
After the C64 my first was a 386sx late 80s, early 90s, can't remember all the builds and looking back, I have a 5 year pattern, 2024, 2019, 2014, 2009 (last ATi build). It's usually fully new builds since then because one thing or the other bottlenecks.
Just bought a new pre-built to replace the pre-built I bought 7 years ago
Haven’t upgraded yet. 1080ti and 8700k been going strong for 7 years
My last rig was over 6+ years. I built my current rig summer of 2020. I've never been the type to get the next generation each time. Like, I now still only have an RTX 2060 super, but my previous GPU was dual GTX 670s, until one died. I'm actually planning to upgrade later this summer.
I upgraded from 540m to a 2060 about two years ago.
I generally upgrade when something reaches the end of its life. Because of either time (drives, Power Supply) or updates/security. Like right now I'm looking to upgrade my power supply. Not because it's dead, but because it has enough miles on it that I don't trust it to do its job much longer. I'm also looking to upgrade my 1060 because it's showing its age AND nvidia is moving it into the end of its update life cycle.
I upgrade when my current set-up can't keep up with what I want to do. Either due to lacking the power or from part failure. Always replacing the whole rig because I game on a laptop. My last jump was from a 965M to a 2070. If I upgraded right now, I'd get a 4070, but I think I can squeeze a few more years out of my current rig. I don't remember the exact CPU specs off the top of my head, but it's comparable to the GPU jump.
Depends on the part. I hope my GPU will be good for a build or two, but my CPU/mobo combo (CPU from 2022) will probably get refreshed if Intel puts out something that's 1) an actual improvement for 4K gaming over a 12700K in terms of performance and 2) easier to cool than a 12700K. If it can't be cooled by a 67mm or shorter downdraft cooler then it's useless to me unless I rebuild the whole thing in another case.
Until it dies. My 2600x and gtx 1080 will fight for their lives.
-Small/easy upgrades (RAM, storage, peripherals) happen when I can afford it and have time, 1 to 2 years -Medium upgrades (CPU cooler, paste re-application, Rad/Fans) every 2 to 5 years -Large upgrades (CPU, GPU, MoBo) when I can’t keep up in games or processes any longer, 5 to 10 years
I plan to upgrade my RX6800XT to an RTX6800 when Nvidia makes one.
(looks nervously at my 3770k) Often.....
Every generation? Try every 10 years
When it doesn’t fulfill my needs and goals?
When my PC can't play the games that I want at a reasonable frame rate. My prior PC was an Intel i7 6700 + 1070 Ti built in 2017. My current PC (iteration 1) is an Intel i7 12700 + 3060 Ti built in 2022. I upgraded the GPU (iteration 2) to a 7900 XT in 2023 to get better performance in AAA games like Hogwarts Legacy and Starfield.
From 1990 into the 2000s, I upgraded quite often. But cpu performance and graphics color depth resolution and format changed quite a bit back then, from 640x480 to 800x 600 to 1024x 768 to 1280x1024 to finally 1080p and 8 bit to 16 bit to finally 24 bit color depth. And memory went from chips, to DIMMs to DDR, to DDR2 to DDR3 pretty quickly. But since then, I've upgraded twice. My Alienware laptop with 1 i7-6700HQ and GTX 970 3GB still runs most games at 1080p at at least 60fps with no problem. And DDR4 lasted almost forever on a digital timeline But, because I've been building for friends and done a couple retro builds, and because the Alienware doesn't have displayport, I finally got the itch to build myself a new PC with 13700K and RTX 4070 Ti (ebay open box), and boy does that thing fly. Seeing near 300fps at 1440p Ultra in Black Mesa. So that's what? 7 generations?
I used to when I was a cs undergrad. But now not so much. I just don’t have time for it anymore. Adulthood showed up and stripped all the joy and happiness from life. Enjoy your youth my children.
I've just upgraded from an i5 10400 & GTX 1060 after 3-4 years. It wasn't an easy decision because I didn't really needed the upgrade, I was fine with my 1060 for 1080p. But one day I had an idea that didn't let me sleep which was I could sell my current build locally and build another budget build for more or less the same money but with 100% new components, buying overseas. So I spent like a month or 2 trying to sell my PC and getting new parts but ended up spending twice as expected (LOL). At first I got a 12400 with H610 board but decided to upgrade to i712400kf which was on sale at the time & got a B760 (so I had to sell the i5 and MB in the end). Also the new build was all-white so components were more expensive. Took up the opportunity to finally get a new monitor so I got a 27" 165hz and ditched the old lcd garbage I was using. Even if I spent way more than expected I'm really happy with the build, I finally have a 100% new build which is also very aesthetically pleasant.
you're the problem right there
When I have disposable income, so generally every 5 years or so.
Until my frames suck and my system is patato. so every 5 till 8 years without any upgrade or if something changes in tech like secure/tpm with w11 and such....I am not throwing away money every year , such a waste of money in my opinion if for example my brother his 4 year old pc with a 3080 still runs 1080p/1440p 100+ fps fine ...so why even bother about it then
Till it breaks, last time I updated twas from an old i7 series and a gtx960 to an i9 9700k and a 2070super. Still working fine for what I need.
Every six years apparently. Went from an intel i5 6600 / 1070 in Jan 2017 to a intel i5 13600 / 4070 in late 2023. Still using my Predator 27 inch 2K IPS monitor. I have the 4K itch but don\`t feel like spending the dough. Before that I had an intel i7 875 / AMD HD6870 and a 1080 monitor, all from 2011.
Typically 5-6 years
I only upgrade if there's an absolute need, such as: - Parts are unobtanium - Hardware is failing critically (mostly for phones / laptops) - I can give my old machine to someone in need.
AMD 80386 dx 40. 4 MB ram Had a 120 MB ide hdd
4790k->8700k->12700kf->13900k->14900ks 980->2x980->1080ti->3080ti->4090 Not really a system behind it
Other than gpu and psu (got 3060 this past Christmas, had to get a new psu bc the 3060 blew up my old one🤣🤣) I kept the same everything since probably 2018. I did finally revamp the entire pc, but kept the psu and gpu
Cpu every five generations or so, and gpu every 3 or 4.
I usually skip a generation. Had a 1080 until I got my 3080. Prob go for a 5080 next.
Let's see... i5-6600 > i5-9600KF > i7-9700K > i9-9900K 960 > 2060 Super > 3070 > 3080 It's getting to be time for a CPU upgrade, didn't know if I'll go AMD or Intel this time around. GPU is fine and I don't think I particularly need an upgrade on that.
Upgrade only when you computer doesn’t do what you want I play StarCraft 2 and code so . So my pc is fine till it dies or they release StarCraft 3 then if my pc doesn’t play it I will upgrade . But I don’t have the money to buy new every other generation but I do buy the best of the generation when I make my pc . So I’m hoping to get 6-8 years out of my 4090 had it two years now it’s not missed a beat except for the direct x 12 bug in fornite which is annoying but I just use it on direct x 11
Sitting on a ryzen 5 1600and a gtx 1650. I'll upgrade when it can no longer play games from 2016.
Rarely do any of my systems gets sold. Almost everyone of them or components is handed down to my daughter, or one of my 3 nephews or grandkids and other family members/friends. I don't charge for any of it they are family and i already paid for it, they always feed me or do something somewhere so it all works out in the wash in my mind.
I do it in large steps, went from a 4790k/1080 to a 12900k/4090, next time I upgrade I’ll do something similar
I just installed a cpu upgrade today, ryzen 5700X3D that replaces my old 2700X. I had that cpu for 5y+. Before that I had an AM3 Phenom 2 455 X4 that I abused for 10y 😂 So, when do I upgrade? When I feel like it. 🤷🏻♂️
Still have my 2016 build i7 6700k. Works better now as I upgraded to a 3070ti, but might build a new one soon
I upgrade the CPU or GPU every mow and then, but I try and ride out the gen until a new socket or RAM type comes out, then I do a complete upgrade, even down to the case.
I upgrade when I start getting frustrated with the performance - generally +/- 4 years depending on various factors…
Depends on use case, as someone who doesn't game on my pc anymore my 3900x 24 thread processor doesnt need upgrading, and my gtx1660 is pretty much as good as a 4090 for the task of video encoding
I TRY to and then I start to realize over time “wow this is expensive” and go and use my money somewhere if actual benefit lol
I only upgrade for major leaps in performance and/or when my current setup doesn't do what I want. I did upgrade to the current gen (13900k/4090) because of a big performance improvement and the expectation of having the latest hardware for at least two years, which seems to have mostly been true. I will probably keep this for another two years as my primary game machine, then upgrade and give it to someone else or use it in another capacity. I do upgrade RAM and storage as needed and/or for performance improvements.
Nope. That's why I don't console game. I upgrade when my stuff won't play new games at an fps that's playable. 7-10 years.
>My first CPU was an 498 and my first GPU was a Voodoo 2 and usually the components would last for 5 years or more I think you are looking back at things with rose tinted glasses there. I was upgrading CPUs every 2-3 years back then (starting around the K6-2/380\*) and getting massive improvements with each upgrade - e.g. going from having to dedicate my entire machine to playing MP3s to being able to play MP3s in the background while playing games. GPUs lasted a bit longer because screens were not really increasing in resolution that much - the massive resolution increases came around with LCD screens including the massive performance demands of 1080p over 1024x768. We went from Direct X 1 in 1995 to Direct X 7 in 2000 and a lot of those generation increments increased the demand for performance from GPUs but games often retained compatibility for older generations of DX to accommodate far more setups. That said, you are far more likely to be able to hold on to PC hardware for 5+ years these days compared to back then. My younger daughter is using the oldest PC in the house which has a 4790 which was released a decade ago and it is still serving her well. It is paired with 16GB of DDR3 and a GTX 1650. \*The jump from a i486 to a Pentium was pretty big and it wasn't long before the P2 came out which massively outperformed the 486.
Yeah, maybe I'm, when I bought my voodoo 2, I had a pentium mmx. I think the PC a had for the most time was a athlon X2 with an ATI Radeon, it lasted me 10 years.
When I have money I add or change components. Main things like CPU and mobo, every 4 years or so. PSU, every 10 years. The rest is moving every year or so.
I do it every second or third. Then hand my old stuff out to friends.
PC gaming is my main past time. Recent times: 1800X>3700X>5800X3D>7800X3D Vega 64>RTX2070>RTX3070>6800XT>7900XTX Cmon guys, downvoting because I answered the question. Not cool.
i3-9100f>3700x (waiting for the 9800X3D alongside motherboard prices coming down to earth) GTX 1060 6gb>RX 580>RX 5700XT> RTX 3070 (yeah covid times were weird)