What for you defines obsolescence?

PlatinumFX · 14 Mar 2006 at 11:41

For myself; my computer hardware /software is obsolete when it doesnt do what I want it to. Or fast enough. Its been a major topic on my mind these past few weeks as I plan an upgrade. For example, I plan to get a 7900GT graphics card; which I think we can all agree represents great "bang for buck" (please no ATi vs nVidia, just an example

). Like all the new hardware, what bugs me is the depreciation it will suffer. I wonder perhaps should I go for a card from the previous generation and save a packet? Anouther example, is that I wont be going to Windows Vista for a long time. I probably wont consider it untill 2008 or something. Windows XP, for all its faults; still does everything I want it to. I personally wont accept having a new OS pushed on me (requiring likely better hardware than Im aiming for now) when its features (as far as I know) do not offer any real benefits to me. 3D gui, whoopy do!

So I ask, what for you defines obsolescence? When there's new kit out; you have some money burning in your pocket or your PC cant run x game as well as you want?

div0 · 14 Mar 2006 at 11:49

For me, it is "obsolete" when even on the internet it is practically impossible to find the latest drivers, should you go and do something stupid like remove your old ones :rolleyes:

I'm starting to think that my Creative Riva TNT2 Ultra is probably classed as obsolete now

GAMEfreak · 14 Mar 2006 at 11:54

omg lol i had one of those in a 750mhz duron system. back when i was like 10 yrs old. i kept it for ages and it managed to play max payne 1 on full details. ( those were the days!) why cant devs code games like they used to? ( max payne is one of the most efficient games ive ever seen!)

i agree with you on your point, its obsolete when it doesnt do whats intended. although graphics obsoletion will slow down within the next 4 years i believe, as the phot realistic graphics barrier gets ever closer, and we all know the graphics companies will do anything but make themselves redundant / obsolete ( pun intended hehe)!.

helpimcrap · 14 Mar 2006 at 11:55

when i cant play at the res i want with all the detail on its time to upgrade.

i only play at 1024x768 due to monitor really.

semi-pro waster · 14 Mar 2006 at 11:57

Obsolecence for me is technically when I can't run what I want on my PC, basically being a gamer is the most likely cause of my PC not running whatever I want how I want. My other uses of my PC (Word, internet etc) barely require more than a PIII with 512mb Ram so for them I was still fairly happy with my old Athlon 1.4ghz, 512mb Ram and a 9200se but since I had a bit of money last year and wanted to play new games I upgraded although I won't be doing it again until I have a fair bit of money or I can no longer run games decently on my PC.

Depreciation doesn't bug me that much because I rarely sell off PC components without having got a lot of use out of them(3-4 years on my last PC) and likely to be at least 2 for this one.

helpimcrap · 14 Mar 2006 at 11:58

GAMEfreak said:
omg lol i had one of those in a 750mhz duron system. back when i was like 10 yrs old. i kept it for ages and it managed to play max payne 1 on full details. ( those were the days!) why cant devs code games like they used to? ( max payne is one of the most efficient games ive ever seen!)

i totally agree with that. i remember playing syndicate on my amiga 500 and a flight sim as well which was awesome. one by bullfrog the other by DID. 2 of the best developers ever imo. shame that they went the way of releasing games unfinished or inefficiently coded like the rest.

its all money now so its a case of put up with it.

helpimcrap · 14 Mar 2006 at 12:00

semi-pro waster said:
Depreciation doesn't bug me that much because I rarely sell off PC components without having got a lot of use out of them(3-4 years on my last PC) and likely to be at least 2 for this one.

i vary on that... i like to replace CPUs often if i can but motherboards tend to last and only socket changes mean i upgrade them. just bought 2gb of RAM and thats going to last me now for the next 2yrs.

valerian · 14 Mar 2006 at 15:18

when something wont perform as designed anymore, cos everything else has moved on

JoyPadJedi · 14 Mar 2006 at 15:53

It's a good point though, I know many people who define their PC as 'obsolete' if a component just 0.00001% better than their current spec comes out, and then proceed to buy the new hardware. As for me - if it won't play the game I need, it's usually fixable with a relatively cheap upgrade, so even then I wouldn't call it obsolete. I reckon 5 years is the average life span of a system, until you;ve upgraded it so much, it's no longer the same system. So you could say, PCs never become obsolete, as long as you keep upgrading when needed.

I've just gone round in a circle there haven't I...

leezer3 · 14 Mar 2006 at 17:25

Nothing is ever obsolete

I have a Thinkpad 560 (133mhz, 16mb RAM, 2gb HDD) running perfectly as a networked word processor. Similarly, there is an old P400 running very nicely as a fileserver. My ancient (15yrs!) IBM ProPrinter II dotmatrix printer still runs perfectly fine for printing text.

The only time something can be considered obsolete is when it dies. (Ala the K6 which I ocd to hell & blew!)

-Leezer-