What is the average lifetime of a PC?

[wjqin9]

Title explains it all! But in more specific questions, how long until it cannot play new games anymore? How long does it take until the parts are usually upgraded? Finally, how long does it take for a PC to die?

This is also my first post!

[Letgomyleghoe]

Welcome to forums!

 

It all depends, pc's used to last only a few years, say in 1990-20010, but pc's are staying relevant much longer now, we can't tell the future, so we don't know how long a pc will still be able to "play new games."   TLDR: we dont know how long youll be able to play new games

 

And as for how long it takes it all depends, i've had pc parts die within a few months, and i have a system still running from 2005 lol, again it completely depends, and theres no definitive way to tell

 

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

There is no real set date for a lot of this. 

 

really depends on the games you want to play. Amoung us will probably run a pentium 4, and thats a newish game.

 

PC die pretty randomly, there are many 40+ year old pcs working fine, but there are pcs that dies in a few days.

[AlwaysWong]

Last longer than cigarette smokers.

[Semper]

The average "enthusiast" level upgrade path is generally considered about once every six years. Those that like the bleeding edge do more often, those that care less do less.

In most situations, at least any time recently (15+ years), you're still plenty capable of playing modern games on a system that's older, but you'll be sacrificing some performance given age. My 4790k, for example, is still plenty competent, even though there's performance gains to be had by moving to a modern Intel or Ryzen system.

Parts can be upgraded in stages as well. You don't have to do an all-out upgrade every time you want better performance.

[aDoomGuy]

Hello and welcome to the forums!

 

Well.... I assume you are talking about AAA titles with the best graphics etc. It depends on the parts you buy. If you buy a top tier GPU it will play games longer than a lower tier. I will use Nvidia for this example and they release their cards in tiers with model numbers from xx50 to xx90 (3090 for example). As a rule of thumb in later years a card loses a tier after each generation (a 980 may equal roughly a 1070 as a loose example). I will use Red Dead Redemption 2 as the next example. Minimum requirement is graphics cards from 2013. Minimum however is less than desirable so there is also that, how well you require the game to run but a 7 year old GPU will run the game.

 

How long a PC will last before it dies. This depends on how well it is maintained. My old Phenom x4 is still operational after around 10-11 years and that wasn't very well maintained after a while. I don't own it anymore but I know it still works. The GPU I had in it (Radeon 7850) died after around 3 years and I used the HDD in another PC but other than that the PC still works and runs to this day. Generally if a PC dies it is because something happened to it, they can last a long time even with neglect but of course if there is half a shopping bag worth of dust in it *cough*mom*cough* it may die eventually if nobody cleans it out.

[Senzelian]

The actual lifetime of a PC depends on the quality of the components and of course, the weakest link. I have a graphics card from I think 2005, that still works just fine, but many of the other components have long been dead.

 

When it comes to it becoming obsolete, well, that depends on your preferences.

If you want to play the newest games at max settings at all times, then you'll probably need to upgrade at least every 4 years. If you're happy to turn down the settings for modern titles, which is effectively what consoles do, then you'll be able to play games for much longer. Maybe for 6, 8 or even 10 years. There are people that still play with CPUs that are now 10 years old and they're doing fine for what they want to do.

 

But to name a number:

I would say that most people upgrade their PCs every 5 years, because most people have a mid-range PC and don't want to play the newest titles at low settings.

[ProjectBox153]

It really just depends on how quickly software changes. I have machines from the 80s that work perfectly, and I do still have legitimate uses for some of my older systems. There is no set time limit until a computer part will die. I have computers that have been meticulously maintained that have had issues, and I have some computers that have been completely neglected to the point of concern that just keep working fine. 

[eeeee1]

as long as nothing blows up, your PC will last as long as you want it to.

[kelvinhall05]

There is no set lifetime.

 

 

Assuming you don't care about upgrades, keep it cooled well and do regular cleaning and any other necessary maintenance, you could be getting decades of runtime (with some hardware).

[Orange1]

1 hour ago, wjqin9 said:

Finally, how long does it take for a PC to die?

Depends, but I'd say 30 years

[charlie_root]

If the components are high quality, they will last a very long time.

 

Whether it is useful or not depends on what you want to do with it. Computers don't slow down; we just often demand more of them as time goes on.

[TetraSky]

From my experience ..... About 8 to 10 years.

It will likely start to feel very much dated after 5 years and from there you will have to lower the graphical quality of the games.

That said, it really all depends on the type of games you play and what you consider "playable". Personally, 30 fps is fine.

 

As far how long before an upgrade.... It depends on your needs and whether you want things to go "faster". Typically, 4 to 5 years is a good time frame for a typical GPU upgrade (at least 2 or 3 generations), longer if you don't play graphically demanding games and don't mind lowering the quality.

 

And finally.... A PC can die from the moment you assemble it to XY years later.

[unsorted]

5 hours ago, wjqin9 said:

Title explains it all! But in more specific questions, how long until it cannot play new games anymore? How long does it take until the parts are usually upgraded? Finally, how long does it take for a PC to die?

This is also my first post!

Best answered with the phrase "how long is a piece of string?"

 

General guidance

* If you want to reduce the incidence of early death, avoid 'performance' laptops or any hardware packing heat in a small size. That includes All-In-One desktops with limited upgradeability and poor airflow.

* Avoid any 'regular' desktop without enough airflow, especially when exposed to warm ambient temperatures. 

* Mechanical hard drives last longer when not killed by heat (and shock)

 

batteries

Lithium-ion batteries rapidly degrade with heat exposure and high charges (say, charges  above 80% and extremely low discharges (say, below 15% or so). Keeping them charged (and discharged) within a 'middle range' and keeping them pretty cool is good guidance. There are even apps for phones and tablets and laptops that control charges within a user-specified range.

 

Software

All-you-can-eat software updates are evil, in my opinion. As hardware moves on, software bloats to epic proportions. Everything from the OS itself (A1 malware, for most of us) to web browsers to...everything! Everything has  grown in size rapidly as the years pass, as (new) hardware becomes more and more capable. THIS is what's really making older machines slower and encouraging well over 90% of upgrades, by my estimate.

 

More general guidance

Buy a (desktop) PC with 4 memory slots as opposed to 2. If buying a laptop, keep a keen eye on whether it can be upgraded or have its guts easily replaced (battery, memory, drive...etc)

 

There's no reason why you can't have a PC for a long time if you can avoid all-you-can-eat updates, ostensibly for your security but in reality just more scope for State Intelligence to snoop, profile and monitor...(in my opinion).

 

Only get the software bits you need. I stopped caring for all-you-can-eat updates long, long ago. It never ends. And it never ends well.

 

Games

Heaps of games (from a long history of PC games) can be played with relatively modest hardware. The real 'trick' on the PC is getting them to run without error, in my opinion. There are simply way too many variables and things that can go wrong compared to a 'fixed' console. If you demand the bleeding edge games at Ultra settings and at high resolutions and refresh rates, then you'll need to spend more. Simple as that. The demands here are as unique as the person behind the keyboard. Some are satisfied with very little. Some crave more.

 

pcgamingwiki.com is a good site to get many games running properly on Windows. There are probably others I have forgotten.

 

 

 

 

[Mark Kaine]

1 day to 100 years, roughly... 

 

I have a Pentium 1 PC that runs as good as on day one (windows 98) including the floppy discs I have for it, weirdly! 

 

I only use it to play "stunt car racer" (or something like that) it doesn't even have a GPU as far I can tell *magic*! 

[NineEyeRon]

Depending on the population it will vary.

 

If you take a 1st world country it’s still going to be 8+ years as most are used for office work and light internet browsing. My parents main computer is a 2009 MacBook with an SSD I added to it. It’s still really good!

 

A family PC probably lasts 8-10 years, my father in laws PC is 6 years old now. Out of most people I know my 2 year old PC is the newest. I think another relative has a 5 year old PC and there is no need to change it for its use.

 

Generally they last well

[minibois]

4-8 years, possibly with an upgrade to one or more components in the mean-time.

It all depends on the person, but that is the general time when I see people buying a full new PC (or mostly fully new components, maybe transferring one or two components).

 

Some people will buy a new PC a lot sooner, it just depends on what people buy at first and how they see their PC.

Of course most people on this forum will see a computer like a set of components, most other people will see their PC as one full unit, so they won't consider upgrading/tweaking parts of it.

[Donut417]

13 hours ago, wjqin9 said:

how long until it cannot play new games anymore? How long does it take until the parts are usually upgraded?

Honestly even if it cannot play games, you can generally repurpose them for other tasks. Like a Plex server, game server, web server, NAS, etc. Upgrading is a person by person thing. As in, everyone has their own schedule. I try to get 5-6 years out of a machine before major upgrades. 

 

13 hours ago, wjqin9 said:

how long does it take for a PC to die?

Cant be answered. Because there are still 8 bit computers that still work. Check out the 8-Bit Guy or LGR on Youtube as they showcase older 8-bit computers or old MS DOS based systems, that still perfectly work. 

[RaddedMC]

If you want a specific example,, my system which I bought in 2014 is still going today. It's current specs are more than enough (I believe) for running the latest games at 1080p 60, although maybe not max settings for everything anymore. I've added some upgrades like a faster, larger SSD and more ram, but really that was for video editing.

[PiberiusWilde]

14 hours ago, wjqin9 said:

how long until it cannot play new games anymore?

Considering how still good maxwell and pascal cards these days I'd say around 6 years or so.

14 hours ago, wjqin9 said:

How long does it take until the parts are usually upgraded?

This one is kinda hard. Considering most CPUs only get two generational compatibility I'd say you pretty much gonna stick with your cpu 'till the end.

14 hours ago, wjqin9 said:

Finally, how long does it take for a PC to die?

Most PC die 'cause of human factor. If we buy cheap component especially the PSU where even unstable voltage could caused it to crisp up.

[LloydLynx]

You can usually get a long life out of CPUs compared to other components, about 8-10 years until they have no more modern gaming life left in them. For GPUs, maybe 6-7 years if it was somewhat high end. 4gb of RAM,1gb of VRAM, and a 1tb HDD was considered pretty good in the early 2010s if that tells you anything about how fast memory ages.

 

For how long can a computer live, usually a couple decades. Though water cooling would probably mean maintenance well before then, roughly every 5 years for a well built system.

[thrasher_565]

most people upgrade because of the hype. if your game that you want to play wont play or is lagy upgrade. sad to say the aaa games just sux now so i dont look forward to much...even diablo 4 im question. there is a mod for d2 thow so i should try that out. plues games just get cheaper over time like %75 off. unless you have friends to play with i can see buying a new game but if you play by your self there no rush. my dad refuse to spend no more then %75 off or under $20 for a game.

 

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[Justaphysicsnerd]

Nobody can tell what would even happen in 2021. You can still find people who are rocking sandy bridge and Ivy bridge i5s from like years ago. It was possible only because Intel was like meh, people don't need more than that. But then AMD forced their hand. So now they are competitive, and it could happen that they bring their 10nm process node to desktop and it performs like AMD's 7nm+ or something. Even your wildest dreams that Apple's transition to ARM will be good one may come true. This is what the PC building community is all about. Ya never know what is gonna happen next ! When people say something is around the corner they mean its months away, and all of the talk you were hearing about the 3050Ti might just be a rumor, no one knows ! You take a sorta risk when building a new rig ! Just Imagine what if Intel drops their Xe HP Gaming GPU and your youtube feed is full of reviews that say it performs better than Nvidia or AMD, but you had just built a PC the other day.

[Giganthrax]

It depends how good the PC was when you bought it and how old the current console generation is. 

 

If you buy a high end gaming PC when the current console generation is 2-3 years old, you can easily expect to run AAA titles at medium/high/ultra settings for as long as that console generation stays current + a couple years on top of that until the true next gen games come out.

 

This is because all the AAA games have to run decently well on the crappiest current gen console hardware, so developers can't really push the graphics as much as they otherwise would. Therefore, your high end PC stays relevant and better than what the peasants get for much longer. 

 

Obviously, this is if you buy extreme high end hardware that's considerably better than what's inside the current crappiest console. If you buy a midrange or budget PC, it's not going to be anywhere near as "future proof" as this.