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I’m rocking a 14 year old CPU (3570k), 16gb of DDR3 and a gtx1070 (non-ti).
I was so god damn stoked to build a new machine this year, only to watch first ddr5 then ddr4 soar our of my price range…
Now even the used stuff around me is jumping in price, with mobo cpu ram deals getting scooped up only for the ram to pop back up at twice the price the next day.
Fuck AI.
I started putting together a RAID, got the housing and the first drive, the plan was to buy a drive with each paycheck until I had the 4 drives I need. The first drive was like $250, arrived last week. Then I checked the price this week and the same drive is now $650.
I upgraded my 8 year rig right when Trump was elected thinking tariffs would screw me. Did not forsee AI being the bigger factor
Gratz, good decision.
I live on the other side of the pond and did not build a new rig in 2024, because the tariffs were never going to affect me much… Did not foresee the bubble inflating this big though. I originally wanted to build in autumn 2025, now I have no idea when it’ll actually happen.
builds a new PC.
continues to play Half Life 2.
I run my boxes for so long I end up having to basically build a whole new rig by the time it is obsolete thanks to socket, RAM and GPU changes. Feels like it almost defeats the purpose of rolling your own. I mostly just use my Steam Deck at this point. Tired of keeping up with all that combined with shortages.
I think it’s always been like that, unless you upgrade a CPU for a 10% improvement.
I tended to do GPU as one upgrade, then the rest a few years later, treating the RAM, CPU and mobo as one unit.
But since prices of everything have been out of whack for ages now, I’m sticking with this 1060/i5-8400 box until something gives. If I want the latest whizzo graphics, I’ll play my PS5.
There used to be a sweet spot of early adopter where you could resell early enough and still make back 75% or more of the price. It’s just so prohibitive and unnecessary now to upgrade like that
From my own experience I would say that you’re probably not finding a chance to do intermediary upgrades because upfront you bought the top-range everything and maxed out things like memory and storage, and/or did not get a really good hobbyist motherboard (which is the part where you should really splurge).
I don’t get into the muggers’ game of top-range were you pay 2x-3x for just an extra 10% performance but instead get the stuff at the sweet-spot of price-performance, and then some years latter I can get stuff with what was before top-range performance at normal prices without a premium.
Similarly I don’t max out on things like memory and storage from the very start - I get what I need then and when I see that I need more I get more, by which point normally (not this shit going on right now) Moore’s Law means it’s way cheaper.
For example, the PC I’m using now for gaming recently got an improved CPU which wasn’t even out when I first bought this PC and which was near top range back then (as server CPU, even), which would’ve been $200 back then but was only $17 second hand some years later.
Of course, this way of doing things got totally fucked up with this PC parts bubble. Frankly the last PC upgrade I did was replacing Windows with Linux which in terms of how it feels was equivalent to a CPU and memory upgrade.
For one build I made that mistake. I went with SFF partly due to motherboard and RAM shortages and i could barely upgrade it… I won’t do that again. But before that i would start at low to mid spec for components, a mobo and PSU with room to grow, and slowly max them out over time.
However, like i said in another reply it seems like i can repurpose less and less in later builds as tech evolves more rapidly these days and or I run into a wall with bottlenecking something or another even if i can upgrade a component. As a result I’m definitely taking a longer pause this time.
This box better not break anytime soon lmaooo
One of my motherboard’s memory slots went bad, no idea why. Figuring out if it was RAM or, if the motherboard, exactly what was wrong, was a tense few hours because neither is getting replaced.
Dodged the crypto gold rush twice by managing to buy my GPUs before they happened. The last hard drive purchase was more than a year ago, a 2TB Seagate to replace a damaged one. The PC I’m on now was built four years ago, and the most pricey upgrade was getting a 5700X3D.
Now I think I’ll have to be more careful while I use my PC, because we’re back to 1995 pricing.
25% plan to buy this year. 40% in the next two years.
RAM prices have quadrupled since this time last year. So if only 25% as many people buy this year than last year, then the line still went up for the RAM companies.
This is a huge windfall for them, and there is absolutely zero reason for them to go back to $75/32GB DDR5 kits.
Shame that nobody is capable of restraint…
there is absolutely zero reason for them to go back to $75/32GB DDR5 kits.
There’s enough memory manufacturers that as long as the cartel was successfully busted when I forget which government took action against them last year, that they should start competing on price again as soon as demand re-normalizes
The vast majority of the market is made by only three companies who all have dramatically raised prices. Sk Hynix, Samsung and Micron.
Micron sailed off into the sunset, flipping the bird at consumers with both hands. Hynix & Samsung are equally quadruple-pricing versus a year ago. All of them are seeing insane, record profits.
Unless a government steps in and does something crazy like declaring RAM a subsidy & setting price controls… this is just the new normal.
Micron only killed their consumer memory division, they’re still making memory for b2b customers, so they can still affect and be affected by market forces when it comes to memory pricing
I know is probably not possible, but I wish a competitor manufacturer would rise during this times and when the bubble pops we would let these worms starve.
competitor manufacturer
There’s Chinese ram that’s becoming good. But that doesn’t mean Americans will be allowed to buy it.
But really gamers are the worst about consumerism. Nvidia is the worst and gamers keep going back. Steve from Gamer’s Nexus had a funny chart in one of his videos a year or so ago. It was a flow chart about gamer spending on hardware showing all the advantages of AMD and Intel in gaming with a big arrow at the bottom that was labeled something like “And then you ignore everything and give all your money to Nvidia.”
honestly nvidia doesn’t give a hoot if we stop.
"Consumer (gaming) GPUs make up roughly 7% to 11% of Nvidia’s total revenue, and an even smaller percentage of their net profits. "
the only reason they sell to us still is the extent they can repackage commercial gpus for us.
Nvidia is the worst and gamers keep going back.
It’s still the default, unfortunately, as those gamers are usually swayed by popular opinion (see r/buildapc, fucking awful FOMO city), and AMD drivers have been hit-or-miss and they’ll usually threaten for a refund and buy another green box.
“60% of gamers have no plans to build a computer for the foreseeable future.” The unspoken part is, “and the hardware manufacturers don’t care”. Maybe they will after the bubble pops, or maybe not.
I just bought a mini desktop-- Ryzen 5 with 16Gb memory and 1Tb SSD. It cost me almost $500US. It probably was $100 less last year. I’m not a gamer, but I do make heavy use of 3D CAD and sometimes with large assemblies. And my old Nitro 5 and 1650 nVidia had been starting to struggle.
I do like my new little computer, with Aurora 44 installed, win11 was aborted on first boot, it’s a snappy little box despite the modest specs. The downside is, there isn’t enough time to make a cuppa tea while waiting on a model regen.
And who knows, I may live long enough to afford another stick of ram, or I may win the lottery someday-- assuming I buy a lottery ticket first.
“60% of gamers have no plans to build a computer for the foreseeable future.” The unspoken part is, “and the hardware manufacturers don’t care”. Maybe they will after the bubble pops, or maybe not.
The ones building consumer hardware probably care. There’s only 3 major DRAM manufacturers, but several companies that sell RAM sticks. Those guys aren’t gonna be having fun. AMD, nVidia and Intel are making out like bandits from the GPU sales, but the AIBs are most definitely not, since you don’t really buy a Sapphire or Gigabyte card for your data center, it’ll be direct from nVidia/AMD/Intel for hyperscalers and everyone else buys a complete server from someone like HP or Dell generally.
There are like 10 companies making out big on hardware for AI, but dozens of companies that will be hit hard.
And don’t forget all the suppliers of the other parts that don’t have any business with datacenters: motherboards makers (not sure they got anything), case makers, power supply makers, peripherals makers, etc.
All of the ecosystem could go down if the bubble lasts long enough.
Oh, the consumer companies care. But they currently don’t matter anymore that we do. And let’s be honest, the if and when this AI bubble does pop and all the data centers have closed. The prices will drop enough for consumers to eat up the sudden surplus as if a dam broke because it will “feel cheap and a bargain”. There is no lose-lose here for DRAM manufacturers because consumers ain’t that bright.
My rig is 10y old but it doesn’t actually feel all that old thanks to Linux; I also play mostly 2d games so that probably helps. Needless to say I’m overdue for an upgrade but that prob won’t happen anytime soon now :(
Mine is about 7 and I keep forgetting it’s not “current gen” because it still runs new games at mid-high settings at the framerate and resolutions I care about.
Honestly, what game is coming out that’s a killer app that isn’t live service trash that they’ll cancel in a few months? I wish I still had my old consoles to play games on, some of them were real bangers even if I had beaten them. Space Marine 2 was my last top tier purchase and I only played it for a few weeks. Wasn’t a fan of their revision of the combat system.
Outside of that, none of the big studios are making ANYTHING worth the barriers to entry now. I don’t play at 4K, and I rather play New Vegas again for things I missed and different options.
It’s wild, like people get into things when there is novelty and affordability and then leave when one of those goes away.
My biggest question now is, what will supplant PC building/other super high end stuff? I grew up on Halo and early CoDs, but now that I’m old and suck at video games (particularly online multiplayer), and seeing a huge shift toward battle royale and dark souls style gameplay, I felt like I was long overdue to start reading more/working out more/hiking/etc.
Join an improv group, take dance classes or join a theatre club. If that’s not your vibe then join a board game club or learn to play an instrument. I’ve seen lots of people take up new hobbies since this nonsense started. At first this whole AI thing really bummed me out but it’s made me get in touch with the things I really care about. I think we’re headed for interesting times
Lol, I love my instrument, but it was about 4x the cost of my computer. Right now prices, with the same rough performance of a computer, it would still be about 2-3x.
For a kid, a cheap instrument isn’t going to be a big deal as you learn, but if you really want a decent sound from one as an adult that cares about it (because you actually know you’ll want to stick with it), you’re going to be spending a decent bit of money.
If you live in a major city your public library might have musical instruments to loan.
Might I suggest model railroading? Plenty of expenses to sink money into plus you can make almost everything yourself or buy used stuff from the 80s to save money if you wish too. It can be very time consuming if you want it to be too!
Also you mentioned reading and hiking, both are brilliant hobbies. I fell in love with biking by accident and just rode 7 miles today! Only problem is if you go hard enough into biking you’ll sleep too hard to read before bed!
Username checks out, lol.
I’ve actually always thought model trains were super cool when other people were into them. I’m a little too much of a neanderthal to be into them, but I love hearing about the worlds people build and how people pick their favorite engines (?). In fact, I’d love to hear about yours- your favorites, your grails, your setups.
I feel like that’d be the stats even if we didn’t have a component disruption. Do all gamers build a new machine every year? They’d be broke (said the guy who buys / builds a lot of toys).
It’s cool to phrase non-news as clickbait. 50% people think $MYTEAM will win the big game. Holy crap, that’s news!
It is still a metric of whether we’re aspiring to build a pc or not. I have been meaning to build a new PC for years. Now I have entirely shelved those plans. I wish I hadn’t procrastinated :(
A hobby where 40% of people need a new fancy computer every 2 years is bad for the planet.
Who said every 2 years tho?
I’m planning to build within the next 2 years because my GPU came out in 2020 and my CPU in 2019. So I’m part of that 40%.
I was going to build a new rig last year since I use it for work more than gaming and could use a faster CPU and more RAM, but I think we all know why I’m postponing.
I think most of the 40% will be people whose setup was already getting old and then the goddamn LLM-induced RAM crisis hit.
I upgraded my RAM to 96GB in 2022, any new PC will have to be significantly better to be worth upgrading to. Currently I would have to pay 750€ just to have the same RAM as I already do, which is more than half of what my whole system originally cost.
There is just nothing to reasonably upgrade to right now. Games will not require faster hardware because of this, causing even less incentive to upgrade to a new system.
My current system will probably last another 10 years if the current slop continues like this.
I wanted to upgrade to at least 64 or ideally 128 last year. Ideally a new build with AM5 and DDR5, though an upgrade in-place would’ve been useful too. Then RAM prices started shooting up and now I don’t know if I’m upgrading anytime soon at all.
Though now I’m considering just biting the bullet and getting 2 extra sticks of DDR4 and a zen 3 CPU to keep my rig going for another 4 or 5 years. 32 -> 64 GB and 6 -> 12 or 16 cores. Trouble is, if I upgrade my current computer, I’d have to do it out of my own money, whereas if I build a new one, I can make it a business PC since I do in fact use it for work more than gaming. Between income tax, VAT and everything, a business PC is like 50% cheaper than a personal PC for me. So now I’m riding out decision paralysis hoping that RAM will get cheaper again and I can build a brand new PC in a year or 2 lol
What are you doing to be struggling with 32GB of RAM? Like my home server is definitely RAM limited right now with 32GB but that’s a server not a PC
I used to want more RAM so I can mount Portage’s tmpdir in tmpfs. Now I want more RAM to run fancier LLMs locally for coding agents.
I’m currently at 32 GB.
Who said every 2 years tho?
you forgot what thread you are in lol:
60% of PC gamers have no plans to build a new PC in **the next two years **— AI pricing crunch on RAM and other components paralyze enthusiast market
Building one in the next two years doesn’t imply the last one was just built yesterday though.
Steam hardware survey shows RTX 3060 as the most common single GPU model at 4%. Other 20, 30, 40 series GPUs are still common too. As are 50 series, but they’re far from dominant. 10 series and older are uncommon but still in use.
On the AMD side, a significant amount of people are still rocking old GPUs like the RX 580 and a few even still run lower end old GPUs like the 550. All in all, most GPUs in use are not the newest generation at all. For CPUs we unfortunately don’t get data beyond core count, but I imagine the average CPU is even older than the average GPU because a ton of people are still on AM4. I’m one and I’ve got friends who are as well.
For those people consumerism is the hobby. They don’t get anything by buying new computer every 2 years, other than the act of buying itself. For wast majority of gamers the cycle is closer to 8-10 years. Personally, I’m playing on a laptop that I bought in 2020 and it runs everything I want it to run no problem, and I’m planning to change it only when it breaks irreparably.
Personally, I’m playing on a laptop that I bought in 2020 and it runs everything I want it to run no problem, and I’m planning to change it only when it breaks irreparably.
Look up a YouTube video on how to disassemble it and clean out your fans and radiators. Then replace your CPU/GPU die thermal paste along with thermal putty and you can greatly extend your laptop’s lifespan. I also have a gaming laptop from 2020 and doing this dropped average temps significantly (somewhere around 10c), and on my device the teardown was pretty simple. I used Honeywell PTM 7950 on the CPU/GPU dies and and upsiren utp-x ultra putty for my VRAM and VRMs. You will need 91% iso alcohol and some paper towels for cleaning existing paste and ideally compressed air for blasting out stubborn areas of dust, for this I use a rechargeable air duster but canned air and air compressors work great too. The laptop went from sounding like a jet turbine to being silent 90% of the time when running a normal load. During games they come on but nowhere near the max.
One thing to keep an eye on with old laptops is the battery… if it starts to deform and swell it needs to come out. Mine is still maybe 70% as good as it was new so I’m planning on replacing it soon but it’s not too pressing.
I honestly can’t remember the last time I played a game that couldn’t be played on a potato. No AAA games have interested me in years
Don’t count out us cheap bastards. I love buying used gear. I don’t play games on them, I just run my own stuff. Local llms home servers for media and such.
Of course with proxmox, my need for multiple devices has shrunk considerably. I’d be happy if I could get an old mining rig with a few midrange gpus in them. I’d rather run my own llm than pay a premium for a subscription. I can have it run my home automation and use it for filthy sexy chat bots. Could also use them for coding agents.
If you’re dumping 2-3 year old nvidia hardware, I’m buying.
