PC sales suffer record fall

My old 2500k / 290 / 8gb combo still plays everything I want at settings I find acceptable. Stagnation in the hardware industry is the cause of this, remember when the 8800gt was launched? That's the kind of stuff we need again.
 
Here's a question, is it possible that more and more people are building there own PC from scratch as PC gaming becomes more popular? Does this count towards PC sales?
 
I haven't bought a new PC (or many new components) for years now. I did buy my daughter a PC last year (used from the MM) and will do that for my son this year. But I only need my PC for work now. I don't have time to play games and my tablet does everything else.
 
Yeah, basically what Diddums said. I have a i7 920 and although I've upped the RAM to 24GB for audio/photo editing stuff... games don't take advantage of it... my video card is a few years old now, but that's only really starting to struggle - if I don't enable all the visual prettiness... but things like the horrid effects in BF3 of smearing "dirt" all over my view doesn't add anything. Quite the opposite.

I used to upgrade on a 1-2 yearly basis and get the best I could afford at the time which was either the very best/newest or almost that.

Maybe I'm just getting old and don't care. I'll replace it if/when it breaks.
 
Games aren't even bothering to push the envelope anymore (certainly in terms of buggy, unfinished and un-optimized pieces of trash), so no surprise.
 
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robgmun said:
Here's a question, is it possible that more and more people are building there own PC from scratch as PC gaming becomes more popular? Does this count towards PC sales?
Click to expand...

That's an interesting look and something I've noticed a lot more these days.

My social circle of friends and work colleagues mostly owns Tablet (iOS / Android / W10) but those who game exclusively on PC only builds PC due to value for money and how easy it is to customise what they need / want.

Perhaps something OcUK staff have noticed?
 
No innovation in games
Shoddy ports look at Fallout 4 and you all rave about it
EA killing modding
Poor releases
Increasing costs in components
Price gouging during initial release
Monitor prices hugely extortionate for relic display technology
Windows is a huge spy bloatware

I could go on why PC sales are getting low. No doubt someone will chime in that they sold a million gpus and monitors so PC gaming is healthy or VR will change everything.
 
When most 5 year old plus PC's can play current games then there is no need to upgrade or buy new PC's. It's the devs fault to be honest giving us buggy crappy console ports.
 
I'm sure PC sales as falling as they do each year due to the rise of tablets and other mobile devices. As for PC gaming I think there hasn't been many reasons/need to upgrade as much in recent years as the hardware has been pretty far ahead of the software and most "gamers" money is spent on PC accessories like monitors, keyboard/mice.

I'm guessing Component sales were still pretty good this year but pre built machines less so.
 
A lot of pcs just don't need to be upgraded as they can cope with what is available game wise at present. People are using tablets and smartphones so sales are bound to stutter but VR is only just ready to take off so don't be surprised if things pick up again.
 
Twirlywoos said:
Monitor prices hugely extortionate for relic display technology.
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This is the one that ****es me off the most, i've been after a PG278Q ROG Swift for a long time now but the prices have remained stubbornly high, monitors don't seem to depreciate in the same way as other components
 
I don't get why some of you are blaming games not pushing boundaries, older hardware still being good enough to game etc... Gaming PC's probably only account for a tiny percentage of overall sales. Most people just use PC's for office software, web browsing, email etc, all of which can now be done on phones and tablets.
 
Its multiple factors that has led to decline. Software requirements have not necessitated the same level of resource increase requirements that we have seen in the past. For most non power users a 5 year old desktop still works ok. I think though with VR headsets we may see a resurgence in the top end desktop market.

Most of the desktop market was always pre builts from dell and hp and this market has been reduced the most as those people are more likely to move to tablets and smart tv technologies will suffice for facebook and other uses.
 
Games have not progressed much over the last 5 years, other than the occasional poorly optimized game it's rare to have performance issues these days.

I can run GTA V just fine on my HTPC with most of the hardware being around 8 years old. :D
 
Twirlywoos said:
No innovation in games
Shoddy ports look at Fallout 4 and you all rave about it
EA killing modding
Poor releases
Increasing costs in components
Price gouging during initial release
Monitor prices hugely extortionate for relic display technology
Windows is a huge spy bloatware

I could go on why PC sales are getting low. No doubt someone will chime in that they sold a million gpus and monitors so PC gaming is healthy or VR will change everything.
Click to expand...

Games aren't ported, and Fallout 4 isn't a shoddy port (outside of games not being ported).
 
I wonder if laptops are included in the figures for PC sales. I think many more people plump for a laptop over a desktop in recent years.
 
Would these figures take into account corporate purchases? Could be the move to new ways of working, our place has certainly seen a shift towards hot desking which means we effectively need 50% of the workstations we previously used, at a management level we also seem to be adopting tablets as effective alternatives to laptops and desktops.
 
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