It doesn’t suck to be a PC gamer, we have a massive library of 3 decades worth of games and a growing library of near-native emulation.
It just sucks when you’re trying to lick up the floor around AAA developers. But that sucks for consoles, too.
Abandoned by Nvidia and AMD, blamed by Sam Altman, and agreeing with Elon Musk: it sucks to be a PC gamer in 2026 — but here's why I’m not giving up hope just yet.
Submitted 1 day ago by eicker@lemmy.world to games@lemmy.world
Comments
TWeaK@lemmy.today 21 hours ago
zarathustrad@lemmy.world 20 hours ago
I was very lucky I decided to build a rig right after the last crypto collapse. My only regret is not going over the top with ram and storage.
I’ll be playing my DEEP catalog of games (decades of personal collection and frankly amazing emulation capabilities) for years on this 3080 EVGA ftw. It’s like we are holding the holy relics of a once great civilization. Mabey the 2nd foundation will do better.
innkalling@lemmy.zip 5 hours ago
Been playing Arx Fatalis lately, it is great. Next up is Ultima VII. Finished Half-Life and the expansions earlier this year. Lots of great, older games out there. Also many good new indie games that aren’t demanding.
TWeaK@lemmy.today 14 hours ago
I have 64GB of DDR4, but only a 5600XT. Held off on a graphics card upgrade a little too long and missed the boat, but I still get by just fine. And I can happily say I’ve never paid more than 500 for a graphics card lol
YourBestFriend@quokk.au 23 hours ago
It’s a good thing there are tons of games and game technology that doesn’t require a new system.
Carl@anarchist.nexus 22 hours ago
Yeah, I already have more games in my Steam library than I could conceivably play in my lifetime. Like if I sat down and properly worked through my +2000 game backlog, it would keep me busy for decades. And all of them can be booted on modern hardware.
And that’s before we even dive into emulation and retro consoles. I love my Steam Deck, because it’s actually a fantastic (albeit, overpowered) handheld emulator. Hell, even my iPad is an emulator these days, and I keep a PS5 controller in my bag just in case I want to connect it and boot up a game during my breaks. Being able to just pick up and play the old classics whenever I want is nice. I would consider one of those dedicated handheld emulators, but I really don’t have a need since I already have two ways to easily emulate in my bag.
YourBestFriend@quokk.au 21 hours ago
The joke is on them thinking I haven’t planned for the apocalypse.
swooper@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
I bet the RAM companies are regretting the lifetime warranty. I wounder if they will wind that back soon.
I had 1 of my 16GB corsair low profile ddr4 3600 18cl sticks just die on me. I thought they lasted forever. The low profile couldnt be replaced and I got an equivalent bigger set. I had to pay 360€ (!) as a reserve to get them sent.
KeenFlame@feddit.nu 3 hours ago
Haha! Seems like not only one guy went “what, you sent it? I haven’t received any package!”
Tattorack@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
Am a gamer.
Fuck Elon with a spiny cactus.
Fmstrat@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
How the author feels about agreeing with him is pretty entertaining.
KeenFlame@feddit.nu 3 hours ago
It was hillarious when he couldn’t fake playing PoE and revealed without a doubt that he absolutely isn’t a gamer
luthis@lemmy.nz 19 hours ago
Poor cactus!
cecilkorik@piefed.ca 12 hours ago
Yeah that’s really a disgusting thing to do to a cactus.
NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zip 10 hours ago
Huh. I game on my pc this year like any other and why is anyone giving up?
It would kind of suck to start out here, things are expensive, but there are so many games to play even on middle of the road equipment, is it that big of a deal?
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
I’ve bought a couple FTW 3080s used for about $300 give or take. They work great for probably 98% of games even on high settings, I get 150 fps on fast paced shooters with coustomized settings and no OC. I can’t see a reason for a 5090 other than bragging rights or some highly specialized uses, and paying that high five-figure price tag for one is craziness. RAM prices absolutely do suck, though.
eicker@lemmy.world 1 day ago
PC gamers spent decades being told they needed more RAM and better GPUs. Now the companies selling both have discovered customers who buy them by the warehouse instead of the unit. Apparently the future of gaming is watching an AI generate a picture of the graphics card you can no longer afford.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 23 hours ago
There’s also perhaps the beginning of an AI selloff happening this week. It turns out you can’t keep investing money into something that costs more than it makes forever. A simple economic reality means that this too shall pass.
Hossenfeffer@feddit.uk 22 hours ago
I’m investing in seed potatoes.
zarathustrad@lemmy.world 20 hours ago
I’ll trade you some garlic bulbs and sweet potato slips.
We can make garlic fries and play emulated games on 5 year.old hardware for the next 4 years while we wait for the collapse.
TWeaK@lemmy.today 21 hours ago
There’s also the looming hammer over RAM and GPU manufacturers for price fixing. They’ve literally strong armed AI companies to buy chips that they don’t have the data centres or power supply to run yet, and by the time they do the chips will likely be obsolete.
DudeImMacGyver@kbin.earth 19 hours ago
Fuck these assholes, I'll quit gaming before I pay them for streaming it.
altphoto@lemmy.today 11 hours ago
Not a gamer but into FEA and OpenSource computing. I hope AI totally crashes and burns. Then we win because the servers and processors will go up on a fire sale. And if that doesn’t happen, the Chinese will flood the market anyway.
sundray@lemmus.org 11 hours ago
3D gaming was a mistake.
(visit !shmups@lemmus.org today!)
sleepmode@lemmy.world 20 hours ago
It’s definitely bad if you had planned to wait on ordering upgraded memory, GPU or flash storage because prices and availability were insane during the pandemic, only for it to triple in price. Not bad enough that I am eyeing consoles. I can’t stand the terrible framerate and low FOV they tend to have.
zarathustrad@lemmy.world 20 hours ago
Don’t worry, console prices are also going up. (unless the whole chip market collapses, but even with the pull back it’s not collapsing now)
mp3@lemmy.ca 20 hours ago
At least I have a good incentive to go through my evergrowing backlog of games, and retro-gaming through emulation is better than ever.
Necrifyre@piefed.blahaj.zone 21 hours ago
My built PC is 4 years old, still running a 2060 RTX and I’m thankful I have 32GB of DDR4. I’ve contemplated upgrading a few parts, but the problem always came down to memory. GPU prices have finally normalized themselves after the dumb bitcoin mining junk, that took a few years. CPU prices are arguably manageable. Everything else looks okay.
It’s just that memory is the choke point for every builder. My hope is the same hope it’s been on the GPU thing, prices will come down. It’s just taking time and it’s a matter of when. I’m just thankful I have a machine that’s fairly young. There are games I’d still like to get and upgrade for, but I’m glad they’re out all the way in 2029 (Diablo V). I need to play what I have already that I can still run.
Geth@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 hours ago
Necrifyre@piefed.blahaj.zone 3 hours ago
I’m not in europe.
Kaligalis@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
As usual, China scaling up will somehow take everyone by surprise.
ms_lane@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
I’m not so sure with GPUs.
GPUs need a LOT of driver support and Chinese SoCs typically zero software support after the first few months (if that) with the ‘solution’ being to buy whatever is now the newest version.
I don’t really want to buying a new GPU every year since there is no driver support.
magnue@lemmy.world 23 hours ago
At some point supply will meet demand but I don’t think anytime soon unfortunately. This is a runaway train at the moment.
CalcProgrammer1@lemmy.today 22 hours ago
If this week’s stock prices mean anything that train ran out of rails. The two big AI companies are out of time and the money isn’t flowing in. NVIDIA and AMD will be fine but the buyers of warehouses of hardware can’t keep doing that much longer.
SomeRandomNoob@discuss.tchncs.de 3 hours ago
There are more than enough great old games that run on potato hardware and can give you hours/day/weeks/months of fun. The AAA Gaming companies that push out unfinished and unoptimized games for 70$ will suffer. And they can not suffer enough.