I am getting old, or boring, or both

[martin363]

After 30 years of PC building I decided today I no longer need GFX card..... a sad day, but I removed the 2080 that I have had no need to upgrade for 5 years (and couldn't afford to or justify upgrading)... switched to the iGPU in my 9700k, and hey presto, it has made no difference to me what so ever... unfortunately. Even the 9700k is probably overkill for me...

Don't get me wrong, I game but I switched to the Xbox about 3 years ago and haven't looked back, sacrilege I know, but it saves a ton of cash, and stress, it just works, as does my now much quieter and cooler PC.

Only really posting because after 30 years of owning and upgrading from probably a Voodoo 3DFX 3000, I have to admit I am no longer (or can afford to be) the keen PC hardware nut I once was. I still like the PC, but I don't like (and can no longer afford) the prices to keep up with things. I remember spending 170 quid on an Nvidia 270 in 2007 and thinking that was a wedge...

Just remember, we don't all need the latest and greatest, even if we want it!!

 

[Adrianr]

That's an admirable run. I have a side-benefit of being able to justify most of my hardware purchases for work, that just so happen to be suitable for gaming. Can't say I'd have kept up if that wasn't the case.

 

[Terminal_Boy]

Still running the setup in my signature and getting entirely playable framerates at 1080p.

Waiting for next year when I should have the money to build a new AMD based Windows 11 machine.

 

[Mcnumpty2323]

Also getting old,boring or both
Saw my first pc around 1996
Emachine with probably a cpu at couple hundred mhz lol
Never bought a prebuilt pc in all those years since
But you get old,keeping up with all the latest
Hardware gets difficult for your old
Brain and memory
Ocuk members market helps keep costs down a bit
But yeah big difference between what you want
And what you actually need for what you do

Sadly the alternative to getting old
It's not a very good one

 

[dave28]

People change and the world has changed now, you cant say its boring or age.

Boring is taking up Golf or spending all day in a field with a metal detector only to find nails and bits of old scrap.

 

[Robzere31]

I'm still running my launch day 1080ti, albeit, watercooled. Does everything I need it to.

 

[ooStevo]

After 30 years of PC building I decided today I no longer need GFX card..... a sad day, but I removed the 2080 that I have had no need to upgrade for 5 years (and couldn't afford to or justify upgrading)... switched to the iGPU in my 9700k, and hey presto, it has made no difference to me what so ever... unfortunately. Even the 9700k is probably overkill for me...

Don't get me wrong, I game but I switched to the Xbox about 3 years ago and haven't looked back, sacrilege I know, but it saves a ton of cash, and stress, it just works, as does my now much quieter and cooler PC.

Only really posting because after 30 years of owning and upgrading from probably a Voodoo 3DFX 3000, I have to admit I am no longer (or can afford to be) the keen PC hardware nut I once was. I still like the PC, but I don't like (and can no longer afford) the prices to keep up with things. I remember spending 170 quid on an Nvidia 270 in 2007 and thinking that was a wedge...

Just remember, we don't all need the latest and greatest, even if we want it!!

There's a thread on the forums called 'lost my love for gaming' or something like that. But I understand your pain. To put it bluntly, you just can't be arsed anymore. Am I right? It's called depression my friend. Either sort it yourself by natural means,like getting a hobby blah blah,or go see the doctor. (Did I overdo that reply?)

 

[ooStevo]

Also you have an RTX2080 which is really powerful. Why not use it for emulation? You'd be amazed at how good GameCube games look with 4xmsaa and native resolution set to 1080p and beyond.

 

[Rroff]

There are very few game launches any more which get me excited, but largely I just can't enjoy games without a keyboard and mouse and a proper setup at that - so console is no substitute for me personally.

A lot of modern CPUs and GPUs will employee zero fan mode under idle to low usage and can be tuned down for very low power use at idle - I've even been able to tune my 14700K to just 1.36 watt at idle:

Though not the most practical way to run it for normal use.

 

[Quartz]

switched to the iGPU in my 9700k, and hey presto, it has made no difference to me what so ever... unfortunately. Even the 9700k is probably overkill for me...

Actually, you might want to replace that CPU with a more modern CPU to cope with modern video decoding like AV1. That's 11th gen Intel and AMD Ryzen 6000 onwards.

 

[ooStevo]

Deleted.

 

[Emlyn_Dewar]

I do most of my gaming these days on a Legion Go, or a 5700U based mini-PC. If anything, I'm finding renewed excitement in the mini-PC / APU areas.
"How low can you go" is also quite an enjoyable challenge. Recently used a 1000rmb (about 110 quid) 2014 Alienware 17 with a 980M for some LAN gaming and it performed far better than I expected.

Am I getting old and boring? Absolutely. I'd still rather be gaming on the PC though, just not with most of the new games being curled out on to market.

Sell off your current system, get a mini-PC on deal. Intel 12th gen, or even AMD 5000 series (my 5000 is technically a 4000 in wig and still good). Chasing the power savings, and saving space can be the new excitement...

 

[ooStevo]

I hate to ask your exact age,so what decade are you in? I'm 42 this year.

 

[ooStevo]

I do most of my gaming these days on a Legion Go, or a 5700U based mini-PC. If anything, I'm finding renewed excitement in the mini-PC / APU areas.
"How low can you go" is also quite an enjoyable challenge. Recently used a 1000rmb (about 110 quid) 2014 Alienware 17 with a 980M for some LAN gaming and it performed far better than I expected.

Am I getting old and boring? Absolutely. I'd still rather be gaming on the PC though, just not with most of the new games being curled out on to market.

Sell off your current system, get a mini-PC on deal. Intel 12th gen, or even AMD 5000 series (my 5000 is technically a 4000 in wig and still good). Chasing the power savings, and saving space can be the new excitement...

Why would he want to sell off his current system, only to replace it with a mini system? His current pc is more than fine, he's just bored. Get Dolphin and play Burnout 2 Metroid Prime etc. Or go grab a Wii U and mod it to the max

 

[Emlyn_Dewar]

Save some space, and a bit of power? The fun of messign about with some new kit? Other? There are many reasons.
You realise that this is a hardware enthusiast forum?

Grabbing a Wii U would also be buying other hardware, and as someone who used to own one, and hacked it. It really would not be worth it, over what could be emulated currently (or on mini-PC).

 

[Plexman]

You sound exactly like myself. I think you just go though stages in life and after doing something for so long you naturally move on.

I started with a Voodoo Banshee and the last card I actually gamed on was a GTX 970. I recently upgrade from a 6th gen i7 6700 to a 12th 12600k along with a RX6600. The RX6600 came out after a day or so due to the fan noise and not actually doing any gaming . It was really a pointless upgrade for myself as I don't really notice any difference for my use case.

 

[jigger]

After 30 years of PC building I decided today I no longer need GFX card..... a sad day, but I removed the 2080 that I have had no need to upgrade for 5 years (and couldn't afford to or justify upgrading)... switched to the iGPU in my 9700k, and hey presto, it has made no difference to me what so ever... unfortunately. Even the 9700k is probably overkill for me...

Don't get me wrong, I game but I switched to the Xbox about 3 years ago and haven't looked back, sacrilege I know, but it saves a ton of cash, and stress, it just works, as does my now much quieter and cooler PC.

Only really posting because after 30 years of owning and upgrading from probably a Voodoo 3DFX 3000, I have to admit I am no longer (or can afford to be) the keen PC hardware nut I once was. I still like the PC, but I don't like (and can no longer afford) the prices to keep up with things. I remember spending 170 quid on an Nvidia 270 in 2007 and thinking that was a wedge...

Just remember, we don't all need the latest and greatest, even if we want it!!

I feel the same. I’ve been wanting to upgrade for a while, but the graphics card market price to performance ratio just makes me bork. I’m not paying these prices for a home gaming system.

I hear AMD are looking to focus more on price to performance, but we will have to see.

 

[Cryfreeman]

I know the feeling, have a 7800x3d / RTX 4900 pc sat here not used in months, thinking do I really need it

 

[Mysterae_]

There's a thread on the forums called 'lost my love for gaming' or something like that. But I understand your pain. To put it bluntly, you just can't be arsed anymore. Am I right? It's called depression my friend. Either sort it yourself by natural means,like getting a hobby blah blah,or go see the doctor. (Did I overdo that reply?)

This could certainly be one cause.

I always remember this meme:

I really enjoy the specifying, shortlisting, buying and building of PCs (see sig) but when it's finished one can feel a bit empty, the "what do I do with it now!" comes to mind. Thankfully it's not long before a particular game comes along that hooks me and justifies the time and cost.

To the OP, I think you've done the right thing by realising that you no longer enjoy it, just don't beat yourself up about it. Move on to something else. Your desire for computer games may come back or it may not.

 

[martin363]

I am certainly not bored, I have lots of other things to do. I just realised that for my current interests and use case, a 9700k, running on it's iGPU is more than adequate to meet my needs. I don't believe at this time any upgrade would be sensible, or yield any benefits.

It was an interesting realisation because I was so used to excitedly awaiting the next tick or tock or GPU generation. There will obviously come a time when an upgrade is needed, but I also am now content to make my hardware last significantly longer and unless my needs change, or prices become substantially cheaper (which is unlikely unfortunately) then I join the ranks of many who realise that an old system can still be a great system - stable, tested, reliable and great value.