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60% of PC gamers have no plans to build a new PC in the next two years — AI pricing crunch on RAM and other components paralyze enthusiast market

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Submitted ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨mintiefresh@piefed.ca⁩ to ⁨games@lemmy.world⁩

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/60-percent-of-pc-gamers-have-no-plans-to-build-a-new-pc-in-the-next-two-years-ai-pricing-crunch-on-ram-and-other-components-paralyze-enthusiast-market

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  • Omegamanthethird@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    40% of PC gamers plan on building an entirely new PC in the next 2 years? That seems like a lot. I thought gamers just upgraded for like 10-15 years.

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    • kahjtheundedicated@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      3-5 was pretty normal for a long time, in general and for myself. But I’m sitting at 7 years now, and idk if I’ll build a new one until there’s some kind of crash in prices. Might upgrade the cpu to a 5700x3d though if AMD does actually make more of those

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      • SupraMario@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Just grab a 5800x3d from Facebook marketplace, no need to buy new anymore.

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    • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I used to upgrade every two years. In the last decade though, it’s been 3-4 years, because hardware can keep up with new games and tech as they come.

      I am glad I bought two PC’s in late 2024, though, before billionaires decided they were going to force people to rent PC’s for life. I should be set for a while, maybe even as long as we end up waiting for a crash.

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  • a_wild_mimic_appears@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I upgraded my PC just in time last year before pricing went bonkers. Stayed on my AM4 board, upgraded to 64GB DDR4, swapped my ageing 2600x to an 5950x with 32 cores, snatched a 5070 to expand my smallish VRam, upgraded storage to a total of 43TB.

    I’m still in the market for 4 8-16TB HDDs, since I have a very nice NAS standing in a corner. But I will probably opt for used drives with the current prices.

    Next PC upgrade is the first time in a long while I have to actually replace the whole PC, but I’ll ride out this Madness first.

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  • laserjet@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    A hobby where 40% of people need a new fancy computer every 2 years is bad for the planet.

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    • boonhet@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Who said every 2 years tho?

      I’m planning to build within the next 2 years because my GPU came out in 2020 and my CPU in 2019. So I’m part of that 40%.

      I was going to build a new rig last year since I use it for work more than gaming and could use a faster CPU and more RAM, but I think we all know why I’m postponing.

      I think most of the 40% will be people whose setup was already getting old and then the goddamn LLM-induced RAM crisis hit.

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      • ragas@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        I upgraded my RAM to 96GB in 2022, any new PC will have to be significantly better to be worth upgrading to. Currently I would have to pay 750€ just to have the same RAM as I already do, which is more than half of what my whole system originally cost.

        There is just nothing to reasonably upgrade to right now. Games will not require faster hardware because of this, causing even less incentive to upgrade to a new system.

        My current system will probably last another 10 years if the current slop continues like this.

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      • laserjet@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Who said every 2 years tho?

        you forgot what thread you are in lol:

        60% of PC gamers have no plans to build a new PC in **the next two years **— AI pricing crunch on RAM and other components paralyze enthusiast market

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    • Nalivai@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      For those people consumerism is the hobby. They don’t get anything by buying new computer every 2 years, other than the act of buying itself. For wast majority of gamers the cycle is closer to 8-10 years. Personally, I’m playing on a laptop that I bought in 2020 and it runs everything I want it to run no problem, and I’m planning to change it only when it breaks irreparably.

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      • GenChadT@infosec.pub ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Personally, I’m playing on a laptop that I bought in 2020 and it runs everything I want it to run no problem, and I’m planning to change it only when it breaks irreparably.

        Look up a YouTube video on how to disassemble it and clean out your fans and radiators. Then replace your CPU/GPU die thermal paste along with thermal putty and you can greatly extend your laptop’s lifespan. I also have a gaming laptop from 2020 and doing this dropped average temps significantly (somewhere around 10-20 degrees), and on my device the teardown was pretty simple. I used Honeywell PTM 7950 on the CPU/GPU dies and and upsiren utp-x ultra putty for my VRAM and VRMs. You will need 91% iso alcohol and some paper towels for cleaning existing paste and ideally compressed air for blasting out stubborn areas of dust, for this I use a rechargeable air duster but canned air and air compressors work great too.

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    • ScriptSage@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I honestly can’t remember the last time I played a game that couldn’t be played on a potato. No AAA games have interested me in years

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    • blargh513@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Don’t count out us cheap bastards. I love buying used gear. I don’t play games on them, I just run my own stuff. Local llms home servers for media and such.

      Of course with proxmox, my need for multiple devices has shrunk considerably. I’d be happy if I could get an old mining rig with a few midrange gpus in them. I’d rather run my own llm than pay a premium for a subscription. I can have it run my home automation and use it for filthy sexy chat bots. Could also use them for coding agents.

      If you’re dumping 2-3 year old nvidia hardware, I’m buying.

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  • iuseasahibtw@ani.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I game on emulators and old DOS games. The most hardware intensive game I play is Oblivion with mods and OpenMW with mods. Plays just fine on a T14 Gen 3.

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    • NannerBanner@literature.cafe ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      There’s a part of me that’s with you on that, but there’s a slightly larger part that knows computer bits can lose the magic smoke at any time and need to be replaced. I’m still amazed that my original HDD and SSD from 14 years ago are up and running without any apparent issues.

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  • AnimalsDream@slrpnk.net ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I got disenchanted with PC building after my first and last build. It had benefits, like being able to buy one component at a time instead of spending a bunch at once (except now it’s spending a bunch many times to build). Reparability is nice too.

    But my issue is that despite getting what were some of the best components at the time, I’m at a place where virtually every part needs an upgrade, so I may as well build a whole new PC, and why bother if that’s the case?

    If the upcoming Steam Machine is less than $1000, I am probably getting one.

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    • hraegsvelmir@ani.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      why bother if that’s the case?

      I always understood part of the appeal of building your own being that you could go PC of Theseus on it and upgrade parts gradually over time, rather than having to drop $1,500-$2,000 all in one go.

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      • CaptPretentious@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        For me, it’s the way better warranty. Granted, most of these companies aren’t what they used to be.

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      • VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        This is what I do. The only parts left from the original build are a pair of 2TB HDDs installed back when it was a Win7 system.

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      • laserjet@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        But aren’t there a lot of compatibility issues when trying to upgrade?

        I wonder of the motivations were different, that could be mitigated with diffent engineering priorities.

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      • NannerBanner@literature.cafe ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        The appeal of it to me was that I could optimize for price and performance, and not pay a stupid extra fee that basically amounted to them putting it together for me. I don’t know if the places you order parts from now have slowly sneaked a few dollars here, a few dollars there until the prices are equivalent to the old fees, but at the time it was incredibly cheaper.

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    • lechekaflan@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Makes me think why between 1990 and 2005 felt like a great time for PC gaming, as the hardware then wasn’t demanding, and the games were great during their time despite being sprite-based.

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  • excral@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    My desktop PC is already significantly more powerful than my Steam Deck, yet I game on my Steam Deck significantly more. I don’t see any point in upgrading my PC when indy games that run on a potato are more fun than poorly optimized AAA slop that somehow manages the lag the fuck out of the best hardware money can buy.

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    • bmeffer@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Same. Steam deck completely changed the way I game. I have no interest in a gaming desktop anymore. Haven’t turned my desktop on in over a year.

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  • flandish@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    i’m a sw eng, doing most of my work on a macbook. unless i need to use vendor sw for servos, vfds, cameras.

    i used to build pcs. stepped away. now all i have to game with is a legion go. i would love a gaming pc for even just 1080p. but shit’s so expensive. :(

    back to factorio i go.

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  • Omega_Jimes@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    This was supposed to be my upgrade cycle. I built our PC’s in 2021, and i tend to upgrade every 5 years. Between the pricing and industry collapse, and just plain having more fun with low spec games, i don’t know how long it’s going until i upstate again.

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    • Exec@pawb.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I built mine in 2015 and planned to upgrade 10 years later but I was waiting for a better CPU than Zen 5’s X3D lineup (read: either more cores or dual die cache), then the RAM situation happened. This is how I’m playing games on an Intel 4770k in 2026.

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      • Omega_Jimes@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        I mean, that was a solid cpu, but damn.

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  • FreeBooteR69@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I’m looking at my AM4 system with Ryzen 7 5800X3D, and RX7900 XT and thinking it’ll be 4 years. Actually, to be honest it might be the last PC i build, my great hope is Steamdeck and Steamframes have a baby and i won’t need a big box under my desk anymore.

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  • uid0gid0@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    My pc was 8 years old and I had already planned on upgrading so when the prices started going up I got a microcenter CPU/mobo/ram bundle that was still reasonably priced. I paid extra for the video card though. I managed to keep it under 2k buying all new parts but the same build is almost 1k more expensive just two months later.

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  • adarza@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    my 1st gen is still going. it’s i7 and 32gb ram so still plenty good for what i need it to do (hell, so is the older athlon next to it, ftm), even with the unsupported ‘upgrade’ and ancient hdd for boot and storage. i have a spare identical mb and cpu, just in case. i have better systems, i just like that one. we have a long history together and everything is right where i want, and expect, it to be.

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    • Zexks@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      That i7 sounds like my system. Fyi if you get tired of the hdd boot they make an m2 pcie card that works pretty good

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  • JcbAzPx@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I had plans. Those plans have been taken out back and shot.

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  • HexesofVexes@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I mean, I had plans (wanted to invest in a 4tb SSD to run Linux on, push up to a later i7 supported by my board, and upgrade from ddr4 to ddr5), but I no longer have plans due to the madness unleashed by the rampocalypse.

    So instead I purchased a pico-calc and am looking at a luckfox-lyra upgrade so I can just enjoy old school games.

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  • Tigeroovy@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Glad I was able to build a new one a couple years ago. Sure wish I could afford a fucking hard drive though.

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  • SabinStargem@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    If there are economic bubbles, I am figuring on picking up some gear on the cheap after the big companies start falling apart. For now, I am just buying stuff that aren’t fairly generic and not prone to aging. In this case, a THOR NAS desktop tower. My older THOR V2 chassis isn’t quite right for modern GPU lengths, so hopefully the THOR NAS would be able to accommodate my older hardware while permitting the new stuff.

    I got about 20tb of SATA SSD and a optical drive, so I needed a tower with front bays to accommodate those. Plus, I will be trying out this newfangled “M.2” stuff with my next build for the OS & Gaming drives, which takes up further case space.

    Image

    Image

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  • TexNox@feddit.uk ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    My big computer is knackered. It’s about 10 years old now and properly starting to chug on even the newer indy games I like. But with a 16 month old toddler in the house and a crunch on cost of living upgrading I have nothing to spare on a new computer especially how much components are costing these days.

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  • otp@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I wanted to build a PC last year, but there were no sales. I considered delaying a year as RAM prices went up, but it’s looking like prices won’t even go down after 2 years. I might do it in 2027, but only if my finances are doing good.

    It’d be more financially prudent to just upgrade my current (DDR4) machine.

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  • 64bithero@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I last built a pc In 2018 I have no plans for at least 2 more years. My I7 9700 and 2080 TI keep trucking …

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    • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Yep, I built my PC in 2018 as well.

      Thanks to the incredible life of the AM4 socket, I managed to upgrade CPUs 3 years ago, and upgraded my GPU 2 years ago.

      Between AAA gaming becoming garbage, and the AInflation of components and artificial scarcity, I probably wont upgrade/build new again for at least 5-7 years short of catastrophic failure.

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  • Rentlar@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Perhaps some of them are betting on the AI bubble crashing in the next two years, bringing prices down, maybe, hopefully?

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  • thezeesystem@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    How does one game of one can’t get gaming PC. This is currently my problem. Unless I go with pre built ones. But I built my computers my whole life. Now I’m forced to buy pre built or no gaming at all.

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    • Mac@mander.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Steam Deck

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      • thezeesystem@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        I have one. It does nice for Mobile gaming but horrible for big screen gaming. And I’m not talking lowest setting graphics I’m talking about high or more. You know pretty on a big screen tv.

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      • NekoKoneko@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Been out of stock for months. Basically for the same reason we’re here: the RAM and chip costs have gone up.

        Honestly, Valve made the better choice in leaving it out of stock compared to everyone else raising prices (and thereby likely permanently increasing what we will pay even after this all ends).

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    • rDrDr@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I just bought a PS5 Pro. Easy. I’m so over the pc gaming world. I also have a Mac for the games that work there, like city builders and strategy games.

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      • thezeesystem@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Downgrade? I can’t even mod basic games on those. It’s fine for some people but I prefer games I can control and not have a giga corp hovering over me. Plus my PlayStation account I can’t get back because there customer service is non existent and I can’t reset my password without them.

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  • OhStopYellingAtMe@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    My kid is getting old enough to enjoy PC gaming and I want build a gaming machine for him. But alas. He will have to just enjoy my aging PS4 instead.

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  • matlag@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Just like the Epstein billionaires class saw 1984 and thought it was a model for governance, they saw Matrix and thought it was an awesome way to run people’s lives. Of course, they take the role of the central computer while chips in our brains make us happy to obediently serve them.

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  • hornedfiend@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    My 6700xt will be getting new wind next year with fsr 4.1. Why would I through my money away on overpriced hardware?

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  • xSikes@feddit.online ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I was thinking about an Intel ultra 9 series 3 mini pc for “good enough” steam play.

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    • comrade19@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Ive been looking into this stuff. They all have weird names and benchmarks / gaming reviews take forever research

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  • Ougie@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    How much is too much for a gaming PC?

    Like, at what point do you think that PC gaming as we know it will die?

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    • Flamekebab@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      For me “too much” was a long time ago. The price of graphics cards went insane at some point and it stopped being worth it. The last time I bought a graphics card new was in 2009 and that cost me, adjusted for inflation, £220 (Why do I still have the receipt..?). It was an nVidia GTX 260 and at the time was a fairly decent midrange card. Looking at graphics card pricing now, uh, nope, that wouldn’t buy me anything comparable - it looks like we’re talking ~£380 for midrange stuff, so a ~70% increase in price.

      Whilst obviously the hardware is a lot more capable now than it was then, the amount of enjoyment I get out of gaming hasn’t gone up. If anything I enjoy gaming less now than I did then, although that’s more due to me getting older.

      I’m constantly baffled as to how anyone can justify the cost of a decent gaming PC these days.

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  • kamen@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I regret not buying a new CPU+MB+RAM half a year ago. I told myself that what I have is good enough for another year or two. I wanted to sell just so that it doesn’t become so devalued that it’s not worth it to sell, or so that it doesn’t just fail on me like 3-4 year old hardware sometimes does.

    I can afford new things, but I don’t want to support the market in its current state. Just some months ago a 64 gig DDR5 kit used to cost maybe 200 EUR, and for less than 500 I could even get 96; now both are about triple these numbers respectively, so hard pass on this for now. I’m going to spend on things that are still reasonably priced (e.g. I’m in for a new PSU and case).

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  • dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Sure, but I built my previous rig in 2012 and kept it in service up until I put together my latest one just at the end of last year. Even with the best will in the world I had absolutely no intention of building yet another new gaming computer any time in the next two years regardless of geopolitical fuckery.

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  • daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I didn’t update my last pc in 15 years. And I just bought a new rig in 2025.

    So I’m good until 2040 when, idk, the cryptospider inteligence will drive sound card prizes to the roof or whatever.

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  • MagnificentSteiner@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    If we assume that PC gamers on average build a new PC every 5 years then each year 20% will build a new PC meaning over 2 years 40% will build a new PC therefor 60% not building one in 2 years is exactly as expected.

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  • kbal@fedia.io ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Yeah I guess this RX 6600 I bought for $300 is going to need to last until [checks prices] forever.

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