Subj : Re: PC gaming hardware
To   : boraxman
From : Nightfox
Date : Tue Mar 22 2022 08:56:11

  Re: Re: PC gaming hardware
  By: boraxman to Nightfox on Tue Mar 22 2022 10:40 pm

 bo> noticeable. The difference between having 8 colours and 256 colours of a
 bo> pallet of 256,000 is very noticeable. Going from having no digital sound
 bo> to digital sound when I got my Sound Blaster Pro was a game changer, as
 bo> was the first Hard Drive, the first Modem, Floppy Disk. Speed increases
 bo> were significant because they made a big difference with what you could
 bo> do, as did memory. Going from the C64 Vic chip to SVGA, huge difference. 

Yes, those kinds of upgrades were very significant.  I was particularly happy with upgrading from monochrome to VGA graphics and adding a sound card to my PC.  At the time, my PC was a hand-me-down PC when I was 12; when I saved up some money, I was excited about buying a Sound Blaster 16 to upgrade from the Sound Blaster Pro I had.  Each new upgrade through the 90s was a very noticeable increase in speed and capability.  It was an exciting time.

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

Similar with me - Before I built my current desktop in 2019, I'd had my previous PC for about 8 years, and I probably could have kept using it for longer.  These days, I think PCs can last longer because newer upgrades just aren't quite as significant as they used to be.

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

I've used Linux quite a bit over the last 20 years, mainly in work situations, but some at home as well.  I've considered switching to Linux on my main desktop PC at home, but the thing that keeps me using Windows is the software I use.  I think the main thing is I like playing PC games sometimes, and most PC games are developed for Windows first.

Nightfox
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