are PCs on the way to becoming obsolete?

kegkilla

kegkilla

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sure seems that way. new desktop and laptop sales are down 10% year over year, and they had taken a dive last year too.

seems to me that if the market continues in this direction it will be less and less likely developers will continue to make games for PC, turning to consoles and tablets instead.

the end is near.
 
Tarrant

Tarrant

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How are sales for upgrade hardware? Also I think many people have computers they are content with longer in terms of specs as opposed to 5/10 years ago.
 
Zodiac

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Tarrant_sl said:
How are sales for upgrade hardware? Also I think many people have computers they are content with longer in terms of specs as opposed to 5/10 years ago.
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This is because consoles are so fucking far behind that when games get ported you don't really need a beefy machine to get decent graphics.
 
S

Silence_sl

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The end will be near when Intel stops stamping out CPU's by the 100's of millions.

There's still a long way to go for that to happen.
 
wamphyr

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Make a parralel, PC-s are the Trains of the Cyberspace, Tablets are the cars. Now, the god of the railroad doesn't reign supreme anymore, but trains are still in use, thus so will be the PC-s.
 
BrutulTM

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Tarrant_sl said:
How are sales for upgrade hardware? Also I think many people have computers they are content with longer in terms of specs as opposed to 5/10 years ago.
Click to expand...
I think this has a lot to do with it. 10 years ago I built a new gaming PC every year. Now even gamers don't need to do that and regular people get 5-8 years out of a computer.
 
kegkilla

kegkilla

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BrutulTM_sl said:
I think this has a lot to do with it. 10 years ago I built a new gaming PC every year. Now even gamers don't need to do that and regular people get 5-8 years out of a computer.
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that's a good point, but the result is still less revenue in the pockets of PC manufacturers, whereas with tablets people are probably upgrading ever 2-3 years.
 
kegkilla

kegkilla

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Tarrant_sl said:
How are sales for upgrade hardware? Also I think many people have computers they are content with longer in terms of specs as opposed to 5/10 years ago.
Click to expand...
that's a good question, i have no idea. i skimmed Nvidia's annual report but they don't go into detail about that line of business.
 
Alkorin

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It's only natural that the advent of the tablet/phone/combo market is going to push the PC market down a bit. People aren't using PCs for the same things that they always have been, either because they aren't necessary, or because they have both a PC and a <something else> that shares their focus. When it comes to gaming, though, I think you'd be hard pressed to find someone that's always been a PC gamer that has suddenly switched to consoles or tablets/phones because they're "better". I'm still not entirely sure what "better" means in that context, even though I see the word used all over the place.

Personally, I can't stand console gaming. It feels like I'm taking over another niche that gaming is secondary to, and a lot of the games I've played on consoles just don't feel natural there. Plus, I'd rather sit here in front of my laptop and play (for example) Borderlands 2 than sit in front of my TV and play, even though I could play it in either location. It leaves the TV free for my wife to use , at which point I can play games without annoying her when she just wants to watch TV.
 
spronk

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We will continue to see a downtrend in complex gaming for the forseeable future, as devs see much more money in next-gen casual TV-centric and mobile gaming. Sometime in the not too distant future though we will see augmented reality devices enter the marketplace en-masse (google glass is a start, but need much more powerful CPUs) and they will create a resurgance in gaming, especially once the brain-computer link is finally established.

We'll all be old motherfuckers by then though, but thats ok because in the virtual world we'll all be 22 year old guys with afros and huge dicks
 
nevergone

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We're on the verge of seeing network PCs that provide the same level of computing power as a standard desktop.

The model for most consumers will end up looking like:

1. Buy network PC "box" at Best Buy for drastically lower price than full model PCs
2. Plug it into your internet at home
3. Pay subscription for updates, tech support, and bandwidth
4. Hook your teets up to the milking machine
 
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