PC sales suffer record fall

I sold my iPad last year after switching to a plus sized iPhone as I never used the tablet anymore. But what I didn't expect is that I've stopped using my MacBook for lots of things as well. The 6S+ is my go-to device now.
 
Doesn't surprise me, I'm running some hardware that's old in tech terms now and anything I use still doesn't make full use of it.

Games aren't pushing the latest hardware anymore, apart from TW3 last year and maybe GTA5 any other game released didn't exactly need super high end to run reasonably.

Plus with many games launching these days that are still unfinished or buggy messes a lot of people are holding off on upgrades / buying games.
 
My i5 setup is 5 years old this month, with the exception of the graphics card that was new this year.

Runs GTA V perfectly at maximum detail and gives me zero inclination to upgrade.

What a bizarre situation. I used to upgrade annually..
 
Sliver said:
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.
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Yes they are, however it's all meaningless when it comes to PC gaming. These statistics only cover sales from the big big companies, whose PCs specifically made for gaming covers an extremely small portion of their sales figures.

The vast majority of gaming PCs will be sold by companies whose sales aren't tracked in such surveys, or the people who build their own.
 
No big surprise really, enterprises are likely waiting for Win10 to really take off before they start refreshing desktops, MS giving 10 away for free and keeping its hardware requirements the same as 7/8 also means they don't need to replace hardware as quickly.

Gamers/enthusiast are little relevance in the sales of PC's. ;)
 
Diddums said:
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.
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this. i still remember when i upgraded to my 8800 ultra, it was a huge jump performance wise and the card lasted me long enough until it burnt out :eek:
 
[TW]Fox;29050705 said:
My i5 setup is 5 years old this month, with the exception of the graphics card that was new this year.

Runs GTA V perfectly at maximum detail and gives me zero inclination to upgrade.

What a bizarre situation. I used to upgrade annually..
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Same here. 2500K and 290 runs a steady 60+ fps on Fallout 4 outside of the larger settlements on max settings at 1080P.
 
I only recently upgraded my PC due to hardware failures, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered. There doesn't seem to be any real advancement anymore. 10% gains per generation is becoming normal.
 
I'm using an I7 860 (1156) that was overclocked to 4.0ghz when I bought it just just under 6 years ago. I upgraded the ram to 16GB & bought a GTX 970 but other than that it's been fine, all the games I've got seem to run at nearly full detail on a 27 inch 1080p screen.

I was planning on getting a completely new PC this month but I'm having 2nd thoughts at the mo.
 
Its just the cost of new components.. I really don't feel they need to charge the amount they do.

And as said.. The cost of some of the "new" gaming monitors.. Jesus.
 
Gaming isn't a big factor in overall PC sales. Economic downturn and the rise of smartphones/tablets are causing this.
 
LizardKing said:
No big surprise really, enterprises are likely waiting for Win10 to really take off before they start refreshing desktops, MS giving 10 away for free and keeping its hardware requirements the same as 7/8 also means they don't need to replace hardware as quickly.
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This. Usually all a 5 year old office PC needs is extra RAM, a fresh CMOS battery, and a SSD when the HDD fails.

Gamers/enthusiast are little relevance in the sales of PC's. ;)
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That's both true and false. While the percentages of both are low - the bulk of sales are in the business sectors - it is the gamers and enthusiasts who are driving technology, demanding ever-faster equipment, and are sufficiently profitable for AMD and Nvidia to target. Lots of medium-end graphics cards get sold off the back of the high-end ones.
 
The under-powered new consoles have contributed to this as well. Considering the Xbox One has a GPU equivalent to the HD 7770 and running weak AMD CPU's, it does not take much to run these new games at decent settings.

My 2012 PC has yet to fully stretch its legs. Directx12 will give our hardware even further longevity.
 
Are those figures just for people buying complete desktop PC's? Not factoring in people who build their own? I was under the impression PC component sales were still healthy?
 
RageQuit© said:
The under-powered new consoles have contributed to this as well. Considering the Xbox One has a GPU equivalent to the HD 7770 and running weak AMD CPU's, it does not take much to run these new games at decent settings.

My 2012 PC has yet to fully stretch its legs. Directx12 will give our hardware even further longevity.
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The consoles aren't underpowered, they're just not as powerful as some people want them to be.
 
Quartz said:
it is the gamers and enthusiasts who are driving technology, demanding ever-faster equipment, and are sufficiently profitable for AMD and Nvidia to target. Lots of medium-end graphics cards get sold off the back of the high-end ones.
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This is true. On the CPU side of things I am in the same situation as many - still using an i5 750 that I picked up 5 years ago. Still works well, don't even need to overclock it that much (3.4 Ghz on stock volts). It seems the games need to push the tech further so we want to upgrade.
 
Ambiguous article is ambiguous.

Personal Computer? WTF.... explain what the hell you mean FFS. My mobile is a personal computer. What about that chromebook? If they are including macbooks, then surely they should be including chromebooks as well? So how is that chromebook any different to a pixel C which is running Android? What what about that old laptop that is now running android x86?

Stupid @@@@@@s
 
From my own perspective:

- Console focus/stagnation in PC game technology as a prime reason for PC upgrade. The leap from Quake 2 (not Arena guys, Quake II) to Crysis took 10 years. We are year nine from the release of Crysis. Few improvements here and there but almost nothing worth discussing has changed.

- Dumbing down of OS. It's a chore to stay in Windows world. Support for Windows 7 was discontinued too quickly, Windows 8 was unbearable, Windows 10 is just a compromise but with very unclear horizon.

- Graphics costing 2,3 times more than the entire PC hardware. Cards are no longer discounted when next generation comes out. My PC version of 750Ti I use in Mac costs about £10-15 less than the day it was launched. Two years ago. Considering fluctuation of US to EUR to GBP, it was discounted by.. well.. nothing at all, it's actually slightly more expensive?
 
Rather than looking at the decrease in terms of games / graphical performance I believe the decrease is more likely explained by PC being replaced by smartphones and tablets for browsing, emails etc.
 
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