rikitikitavi

Prioritize portability and quality over performance - this is the only way to make it through school without pain. Forget about eGPU - in the end it will be cheaper to get yourself a used desktop just for gaming. Modern top tier iGPU should be sufficient for most school loads and light (or older AAA) gaming - remember smth like SteamDeck can run Cyberpunk (yes, at low settings, but still).

Unless you need the bleeding edge, you start to stretch the definitions of old and 'ancient history'. For a regular Joe who uses the basics - a 10yo pc will doubtfully hinder his life. Afaik, a 10yo MacBook Air can still handle bare minimum, with macOS still getting the crucial security updates once in a while. A 10yo iPhone 6S also gets the security updates afaik and is usable. But OMG, these devices can't play AV1 without chugging the battery like crazy and can not handle 4k encoding/decoding... ... of tech is mainly the reason why 10, 5 or even less years can become the performance cutoff.

Verified means (1) it can run, (2) UI can scale properly at 720p and (3) controls are working, everything else is up to the user to discover or ggl... so no guarantees it will be an enjoyable experience. https://www.protondb.com Here you can check the reviews of how each game runs and if tinkering is required Emulation -> BOTW can run at stable 720p@40 with tweaking afaik. Way better experience than on Switch, but it is a low bar from the start. ... My experience: a great device for all the indies you wanted to play and the old AAA that you missed. However, if you want to play any high demanding game of the past 10y and want more than 30fps low-medium -> ggl the games before committing. Also, some games might run and scale well enough, but the resolution/the screen size might be just too low/small for the enjoyment imho.

Sekiro. Neither DS1, nor remaster, nor any other games in the series kept me glued to the screen and motivated me to finish till the end. Can't comment on Bloodborne

Easy and free -> use the pc that you already have, or repurpose an old one. Unless you are doing 3D era consoles - you can run it on anything. Nice interface (frontend) would be Emulation Station. Dedicated -> Raspberry Pi + RetroPie Need more juice -> used desktop/laptop or the cheapest Steam Deck

Can relate. Was a hardcore gamer and wanted all my pcs to be 'ready', so the first laptop was also the last windows pc for me for a decade - a crap quality gaming Dell XPS + Win7 + 3 RMAs. The experience made so sour, I jumped the ship minutes after my first experience with the unibody era macs. Didn't even care that I lost the access to most games.

Custom v prebuilt : proper allocation of the budget with the quality components, cause I want that specific Noctua heatsink and that specific sexy Fractal case without the RGB crazy fest or a random PSU. PC v console : a variety of games and the game collection that spans decades all available on a single platform. I want to replay my fav Fallout 2 (1998) for the n-th time and also play God of War Ragnorok (whenever it comes out), without dusting off the specific generation of the console that clutters a shelf. imho Steam Deck is probably the closest to the 'no-nonsense prebuilt'-console hybrid

In my experience it is solved after a couple of restarts. Had screen not turning on a couple of times in the past year+ - every time was solved by a hard restart or two.

'Decent fps', which I assume is 60, will be at 1080p low or 720p, since it is going to be AMD APU. I don't believe you can find any with a discrete GPU, unless you go used or increase your budget. It is SteamDeck price range btw, don't expect the performance to match though

Do you mean buying any computer or building a computer? Because he should not be afraid to buy a preassembled (aka ready-to-go) one, especially a new one, since if anything is wrong he should be able to mail it back for a return or exchange. For example: https://www.scan.co.uk/products/scan-gamer-amd-ryzen-5-5600-16gb-ddr4-4gb-nvidia-gtx-1650-1tb-m2-ssd-win-11 or https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/product/FMFJ3B/A/refurbished-mac-mini-apple-m2-chip-with-8‑core-cpu-and-10‑core-gpu?fnode=210d282e1e14a3981f3828296dc227ca4ae8fc65c89fa837c69734e869680e42096745a0af1eb8a62aebd6cd90b0a2f0765ff5d1277286d380b359b5fc6897e5c59dd692cf6f22609a8d80d553a43768 Depending on the games - you can go even cheaper. ... Also: - a laptop might be a better solution or all-in-one - so your dad won't have to connect the cords. - a tablet (an iPad for example) might be a better choice in some cases, if browsing the web, watching movies and playing random game is all that is needed.

Assuming the hardware is ok, dId you try reseting PRAM? Bad thermal paste will not affect the boot time. I suggest sticking to the latest supported macOS, unless windows is needed.

Yes and no: macos can get away with less RAM due to handling it differently, and in certain tasks macos 8GB v windows 16GB example will perform similar. Apple SoC vs AMD/Intel also contributes to this notion. But still, 8GB =/= 16 GB. No idea, one of them might be superior, or they might be exchanging punches. Anyway it is not always about raw performance, but usage... so I assume it is task specific in this case and depends if you compare it with a base M# or the latest and the beefiest one. You have given no specifics, so... I'll assume a load similar to a CS student. You can get away with a used 2020 Air M1 8GB 256GB. Web surfing - same. Low key video edition - same. Can/do professional programmers use such machine - yes, depending on their work. Would this machine be suggested in general - No. You'll need more RAM - because you'll might need to run nn multitude of apps/services/vms at the same time. You'll need more storage - plugins, vms, libraries will fill up your 256GB fast, but unlike RAM, you can add cheap external storage. 16GB and 512GB will be a safe bet. Pro will not necessarily outlast Air. If we start with the base Pro (same M# as in Air) - the only difference in performance are the fans that help prevent thermal throttling. However, this might not matter because a lot of coding is just a lot of reading, thinking and typing, and then some short bursts of compilation (especially in the beginning). The price jump here is very significant - you are basically paying for the screen/sound/ports, and they might not matter to you at all. Next step Pro has M# Pro which has more cores and 16GB/512GB starting point. Depending on the deal you'll find it might cost the same as the Air with the upgrades, the deal being an older gen M1 Pro, most probably. However, performance-wise you might not perceive any benefits of M# Pro if your usage is still very light. Given that long term usually means that usage changes... still, this does not mean that Pro M# Pro is a better purchase than an upgraded Air in every single case. ... - get a certified refurbished previous gen - save a buck and enjoy practically a new machine. - to get the best of macos - don't apply windows logic to it, learn how it works, learn terminal, learn shortcuts and gestures, get used to the touchpad and you won't want to use a mouse for anything but gaming (do not game on a mac). - if you are planning to use it instead of a desktop - get a mac mini. - if you are getting a mac as a dedicated general purpose dev machine - install a linux distro on your current desktop it will be way cheaper. - if you are a student - get the Air 16/512 due to its superb portability. Going from class to class, finishing h/w in a cafeteria, trying to prep while sitting on a loan - nothing beats it... well iPad does, but definitely not for CS (you can technically be constantly remoting into your dev machine, but this is a huge pain in the b***).

Mass Effect 1-3, Fallout 1-NewVegas (3rd being the least interesting) and Portal 1-2, maybe Diablo 1-2. All should run on GT 730. Didn't try other games from your list or don't believe they should be on the list, given the variety of other games available I also suggest looking into CRPGs, strategies, adventures and other 2D (or light 3D) games that are not graphically demanding, even the latest - most of them can run on almost anything. From the top of my head, some of my favs (or highly ranked ones) that can run on most potatoes, in no specific order: Hades, Dead Cells, Pentiment, Disco Elysium, Shovel Knight, Planescape Torment, Elder Scrolls Morrowind and Oblivion, Tyranny, KOTOR 1-2, Bioshock 1-2, System Shock 2, Half Life series, Dragon Age Origins, Deus Ex Human Revolution, GTA Vice City, San Andreas and maybe 4+DLCs (don't know if it will run at least at 30fps), Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay and Assault on Dark Athena, Hitman 1-Absolution, Super Meat Boy, FTL, Into the Breach, Commandos 1-2, Desperados series, Stellaris, Civilization V, Witcher 2... Also some multiplayers: TF2, L4D2 and CS Source (afaik there are still servers with players for all of them), autochess like Dota Underlords, card games like Hearthstone, LoL, Valorant... For higher and stable FPS be ready to drop resolution to 720p and tweak other settings, possibly even to min (in case of GTA 4+DLCs and Witcher 2).

I did not watch these episodes and can not comment on them, however, hopefully they are the right ones for you: Also https://www.hubermanlab.com (if reading is more for you).

- light programming can be done on any potato, M2 Air is more than capable. - general computing is covered too. - live audio stuff and related - no idea. I believe LTT had a video with a musician testing out base M1 model. - will run, but will run hot. Even M1 can run LoL. - M3 Air is rumoured to come out /announced sometime this spring. Therefore M2 might go on sale pretty soon. What is significant performance decrease? 10%? 50%? I have heard, that M# Air does not really throttle much under continuous loads.