When did the PC hardware scene get so crazy and stressful?

[Richdog]

Forward note: when I say "stressful" it is all in the context of a hobby. This isn't life or death or something that I spend my time worrying about and this is more of an amusing reaction to what I've seen over the last few months.

I am generally a patient man and have sat back throughout all of this FOMO hype crap of the last months leading up to the new generation of GPU and CPU reveals without pulling the trigger on anything. However, now that everything is finally revealed from both the Nvidia and AMD camps, does anyone else just want to get this all over with and start enjoying their games again? I mean seriously, when did generational hardware reveals become this draining?

The manufacturers are so desperate to sell, and users are so desperate to buy, that in their haste to be first at all costs, some manufacturers are almost purposefully screwing up their precious launches and many users are purposefully whipping themselves up into a frenzy by checking rumour sites 5x per day and attention-seeking techtubers 5x per day. Then on top of that people are torturing themselves by pre-ordering at crazy gouging prices and then literally waiting for weeks, or even months, to get their products. Amongst all this we then of course have the forum ****-posting that we all somehow seem to get drawn into to some degree, some more 'passionately' than others. I mean yeah, we always had fanboys to some degree, but now it's like a nerdy version of football hooligans.

I have spent the last or so years out of the desktop PC hardware race as I have been gaming mostly on laptops, so I reduced my demands accordingly. I remember that even when I was at the bleeding edge of PC upgrading, that it used to be a comparatively relaxing and harmonious as far as hobbies went, you just waited for a release and then bought it. Now, it seems to have turned into a stress-inducing ****-show for many people and the level of impatience, compulsion and FOMO I have seen are often veering towards the irrational.

Am I looking back at previous generational hardware launches with rose-tinted glasses, or have things really got so bat-**** crazy over the last 5-10 years?

 

[niko]

na gpu section on here has always been handbags at dawn

 

[Derek W]

My go to answer to situations where people are involved......because people are idiots.

 

[Scrutinize]

@Richdog this is currently the worst I remember it.

Suspect it's become an easy focus for everyone's attention given the current crescendo for politics & pandemic driven socio environmental economic pressures.

That's a lot of voices and personalities to accommodate.

My approach is a gaming laptop for the PC RTS/Sim/Strategy genres + back catalogue and a 2060/2070s copes perfectly. Benefits of portability too.

Then Xbox Series X or PS5 for the 4k gaming experience.

Whilst on paper the latest gen of GPU & CPU out perform consoles by a few percentage points in benchmarks, the real world image quality and gaming experience of the consoles looks like they will hold their own for a long time this gen.

The above sidesteps the current stresses nicely and it's an interesting perspective looking in on it all from a different foundation.

 

[iamdjdz]

I'm still running a R9 390 on a standard full HD screen and have no problems with any of the newer games I have like Warzone or MK11 etc. The hype is built so you think you need better and better. Admittedly if I was running 4 or 8k graphics I'd need something better but for mainly casual gaming no issues here. It's a fools game buying the latest £900 card every release for most people.

 

[Deleted member 77746]

I tell you why. This ones easy.

Too much demand, too little stock. It’s as simple as that.

People want the status of “I’ve got the best hardware than anyone on this planet”. So they rush to be the first to get it.

Supply and demand causes chaos.

 

[Nasher]

I dont know why people are in such a rush to hand over their money. Its not like game requirements have changed for years.

Im not going to upgrade my vega64 until I actually need to.

 

[peterwalkley]

Rushing to have the shiniest e-peen is just a never ending losing game. You'll get far better value for your money once the early adopter frenzy has died down.

 

[Cooper]

Its why I'm getting out of PC gaming, TBH. I'll be getting rid of my current rig in the new year.

This hobby has become populated with morons who seemingly have more money than brains & common sense, who are willing to throw absurd amounts of money at it, just to be able to say they have a new shiny toy on day one.

Normally I wouldn't care what idiots like that do, in any walk of life, but their stupidity affects everyone else's purchasing options, by creating the current situation we find ourselves in.

I mean, there are posters in the 3070 thread who have paid nearly £700 for one...£700!!! for a 70 class card and the worst part is they are actually grateful that they got one at that price. Complete morons.

 

[[FnG]magnolia]

THe GPU section has always had more than its fair share of assclowns but the last 3 or 4 months has been particularly bad even for those lunatics. It's like watching drunk toddlers raging at other drunk toddlers and everyone, even the better posters, are the type you'd avoid in a public place in case they picked up dog excrement from the pavement and weaponised it.

It's probably my favourite sub forum now

 

[Richdog]

@Richdog this is currently the worst I remember it.

Suspect it's become an easy focus for everyone's attention given the current crescendo for politics & pandemic driven socio environmental economic pressures.

That's a lot of voices and personalities to accommodate.

My approach is a gaming laptop for the PC RTS/Sim/Strategy genres + back catalogue and a 2060/2070s copes perfectly. Benefits of portability too.

Then Xbox Series X or PS5 for the 4k gaming experience.

Whilst on paper the latest gen of GPU & CPU out perform consoles by a few percentage points in benchmarks, the real world image quality and gaming experience of the consoles looks like they will hold their own for a long time this gen.

The above sidesteps the current stresses nicely and it's an interesting perspective looking in on it all from a different foundation.

You make some good points that I didn't consider when I posted... the world at the time of this hardware release is a lot more stressful than it was in most previous ones, what with COVID lockdowns, deaths and job losses, Brexit uncertainty, US elections and extreme environmental concerns all adding (whether consciously or subconsciously) to peoples general levels of tension and delivered to us in daily levels of alarmist doses by the various media outlets.

I think the rest is mainly due how we are (de)evolving as consumers and how the tech media has developed a parasitic symbiosis with manufacturers, working in concert to create all of this crazy hype and FOMO months in advance of a release. Add to that general declining levels of business ethics in the PC and gaming industry, and all of the impressionable PC enthusiasts are certainly ripe targets for having their minds influenced and wallets plundered.

And then I guess you just have the people for whom their PC is their primary means of entertainment and means of socializing, even before the lockdown, who have become even more dependent on it in the last months of confinement, further inflaming their passions.

God knows what madness the next hardware generational release is going to be like in 2 years.

Its why I'm getting out of PC gaming, TBH. I'll be getting rid of my current rig in the new year.

This hobby has become populated with morons who seemingly have more money than brains & common sense, who are willing to throw absurd amounts of money at it, just to be able to say they have a new shiny toy on day one.

Normally I wouldn't care what idiots like that do, in any walk of life, but their stupidity affects everyone else's purchasing options, by creating the current situation we find ourselves in.

I mean, there are posters in the 3070 thread who have paid nearly £700 for one...£700!!! for a 70 class card and the worst part is they are actually grateful that they got one at that price. Complete morons.

Yeah, people paying that level of price gouging is really sad, but as long as you stay sensible then it's still a worthwhile platform to game on, especially if you are into modded games. To be honest, mods are half of what keeps me gaming on PC despite all of the industry drama.

I tell you why. This ones easy.

Too much demand, too little stock. It’s as simple as that.

People want the status of “I’ve got the best hardware than anyone on this planet”. So they rush to be the first to get it.

Supply and demand causes chaos.

I dont know why people are in such a rush to hand over their money. Its not like game requirements have changed for years.

Im not going to upgrade my vega64 until I actually need to.

FOMO, yo!

 

[Yaayuh!]

It's been bad for a while but this year the kids and asshats have gone full-retard for sure. The Graphics Card section really has some class-A impatient loons at the moment.

I too want the latest GPU, but I can wait until next year when they can be had without refreshing pages every day and joining a queue.

 

[fobose]

I've never worried about having the next best thing. It's too much of a draw on resources for me! The last time I upgraded my PC was 2015, didn't like the price of the GTX 960 back then (£185), eyes watered when I looked at buying a 1070 a few years later, and again at the RTX 2070 when they came out. Settled for a £385 RTX 2060 super last November begrudgingly.

 

[Kenai]

My aging PC is now struggling to be useful for gaming, despite a mid-term cheap graphics card update.

I did start looking a few months ago at potentially building a new machine but everything is just on another level to where it was a few years ago - firstly prices feel like they've gone mental, my last PC felt high end and like it had a good few years of life in it for a smidge over a grand - now it feels like if you only spend a grand you'll be lucky to get a year or two out of it. Prices though aren't ultimately what exhausted me to the point of not bothering - I can afford more now than I could then anyway - but trying to find decent independent simple advice was nigh on impossible - everything is a fight/argument or some blatantly paid promotion. If you're not about to spaff £600 on a graphics card alone then no one is interested, reviews are scarce and what few you can find spend half the review talking about how much better life would be if you spent more. It's almost like the entire scene has been concentrated to the point where if you're not trying to buy the absolute best of absolutely everything, it's just too much like hard work to find your way to what you want/need.

I'll probably just end up buying a XSX or PS5 because at least that's just one argument that's easy to ignore.

 

[Lysander]

I'm still using an HD 4870.

 

[Hades]

I had a quite ageing system for years until the motherboard died. Then I got a 3900X and Radeon VII. But the 3900X was a used one from the MM and the R7 was from the clearance section of OcUK. I don't intend to upgrade for a looooooong time now. Prices are so ridiculous and I think it will run everything just fine for years. I'm now out of the PC gaming market for probably a decade. I'll just sit it out from now on.

If components were not as silly priced then I'd happily upgrade frequently and probably spend more money overall. But I'm out of this now. My next purchase will be a laptop.

 

[Puzzled]

People need to get a grip, if you break it down this is essentially shiny new toy syndrome. It's not worth getting stressed over.

I do think pc hardware prices have gone mental though. I dont really get why people are paying so much for the latest hardware either as I haven't seen much on pc that looks significantly better than what the PS4 Pro or One X can do.

 

[R.P.L]

Damn, sounds like I've been missing out on some quality entertainment - heading over to the GPU forum...

 

[BowdonUK]

The PC scene started becoming stressful when people wanted lights on everything.

 

[builder22]

I’ve been looking at building a new PC for first time in ~10 years...Not seen any of this stress/craziness!
Just the usual ‘might be better waiting x months until x comes out’....that seems to be the case any time I’ve looked in to new hardware