Subj : Re: PC gaming hardware
To   : Nightfox
From : boraxman
Date : Tue Mar 22 2022 22:40:35

 Ni> Generally, I feel like PC upgrades aren't quite as exciting as they used
 Ni> to be. In the 80s and 90s, upgrading a computer processor, storage, RAM,
 Ni> etc. was significant because upgrades were usually a fairly big leap in
 Ni> what you gained with the upgrade.  When running software, it was very
 Ni> easy to tell that you had upgraded something because things would run
 Ni> noticeably faster in general, or there was some other significant
 Ni> benefit (such as goign from a monochrome display to a color display). 
 Ni> These days though, it's more difficult to notice the difference with an
 Ni> upgrade unless you're doing something that's fairly intensive (such as
 Ni> video processing, high-resolution gaming, etc.).
 Ni> 
 Ni> I had wanted to buy a Nvidia RTX 30 series graphics card since they were
 Ni> announced in late 2020.  However, that has been fairly difficult with the
 Ni> supply chain problems and scalpers buying what they can and selling them
 Ni> at higher prices.
 Ni> 
 Ni> Nightfox

That is something I've thought about too.  In the 90s I went through a few computers in quick succession, and each time the upgrade was very noticeable.  The difference between having 8 colours and 256 colours of a pallet of 256,000 is very noticeable.  Going from having no digital sound to digital sound when I got my Sound Blaster Pro was a game changer, as was the first Hard Drive, the first Modem, Floppy Disk.  Speed increases were significant because they made a big difference with what you could do, as did memory.  Going from the C64 Vic chip to SVGA, huge difference.

My main desktop computer is over 12 years old, and while some games today look a lot more detailed, most monitors have the same resolution that mine currently has, and I wouldn't see any real difference in almost all my daily activities.  I upgraded from a GTX 285 to a GTX 1030 graphics card and barely noticed any difference.

That is part of why I haven't upgraded, I won't see much benefit at all, except for a few games I wouldn't mind running, but even then, some I'm interested in (Dusk, Ion Fury) still run on that rig.

I think the bigger difference I've noticed is not from hardware, but software, using Linux to its full extent, using extensible software, doing things the "unix" way.  Moving to FVWM, configuring it, setting up my system the way I like it, learning Emacs, these made more of a "productivity" improvement than uprading the hardware could ever do.

I do kind of miss those days when we went from CGA to EGA to VGA, when the next soundcard made the difference between mono or stereo, or FM synthesis only or FM synthesis with digital sound, or increases in memory and hard drives spaces which were much appreciated because things were so much tighter back then.

.... Redundant book title: DOS For Dummies

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