Supernal (@supernalmystic)

As an OG PC Geek, let me educate yall for a moment. Personal Computers have come a long way since the 90's. Hell, back then, gaming consoles were much better at playing games. PC's were vastly more expensive and hard to use. The custom PC revolution in the 2000's changed all of this; my friends and I regularly saved for new parts and were able to play new games that didn't exist on console at really good quality. It was an unbelievable time to be alive. However, since 2021, gaming has not increased its fidelity all that much, specifically with the games most people actually play. If you do some research, you'll see that before the Ai boom took off, using 2021 as the foundation, the hardware from that time is still widely used, so much so that developers ensure their games can run on it. Have graphics and performance changed much since 2021? No, not at all. Did it even change much from 2016 to 2021? Ditto, same situation. What has changed is this: Memory use in applications and standards in app performance expectations Operating Systems and Apps use much more memory than ever before, and so do games. 16GB is fairly standard now and 10GB of that always being in use is common enough when running everything at once. 4K gaming is very viable but is much more costly on the high end, adding roughly $500+ more cost to your GPU requirements. 1440p is the sweet spot right now Consider the following PC Hardware Config: • GPU: RTX 3060 12GB – $250 • CPU: Ryzen 5 5600X – $147 • Mobo: MSI B550-A Pro – $110 • RAM: 16GB DDR4 3200MHz – $130 • SSD: 1TB NVMe PCIe 4.0 – $164 • PSU: MSI MAG A850GL – $95 • Case: NZXT H6 Flow – $86 Total: ~$982 (All brand-new parts) Compared to the $1,050 for the Steam Machine... Well! Not bad But here's the catch: This $982 PC I put together beats the Steam Machine in several key areas: The storage is double, 512GB versus 1TB M.2 The CPU uses more power, runs faster. The GPU has 4GB more VRAM The RAM is 2 sticks, 8GB each, reducing potential bottleneck issues. However, the Steam Machine will still play all the most popular games, just not at ideal settings in some cases, and doesn't require you to build it yourself, or deal with higher temperatures, loud fans, and larger form factor. Plus it has a great OS pre-installed for you! IT'S TIME TO REMOVE WINDOWS FOREVER!!!!! *ahem* Steam Machine offers a lot for what it is and i think people will buy it for the convenience it offers. *BUT* My primary point with all of THIS, is to say: Gaming has peaked. The War Is Over. Hardware past 2021 doesn't give better performance in any meaningful way. Check the required specs for the game you want to play, and get those parts. Simple as. However, I would highly suggest everyone to consider the new value add of Personal Computers going forward: You can create your own mini data center at home with self hosting tools, using much of the same hardware in your gaming PC, but with a lot more RAM, GPU power and storage requirements, doubling the cost. You can ditch all the subscription services and start building your Exocore today with self hosted AI. This is what PC's are moving towards and eventually everyone will build it themselves or have someone do it for them. I'm doing it myself right now and suggest you do too, or get your PC Geek friend to do it for you. Welcome to the new world