Whenever my old one can’t run a game I really want to play. Last time it was stalker 2. It had been about 6 years since I’d built a pretty much top of the line PC. The 1080ti was one of the best purchases I’ve ever made.

I generally like to aim for 5-7 years and then build for an “upper/mid” range trying to keep it below $1500 with a GPU update in the middle of the timeframe.

I got insanely lucky and decided to rebuild just before the ram crisis, so I’m set with a Ryzen 7 9800X3D, 64GB ddr5 ram, and a 4070ti. I really really really wish graphics cards weren’t so damn expensive… I hate being vram starved so often but with the way things are now I’m probably skipping my mid timeframe GPU upgrade :/

I’m usually on roughly a 5-6 year cycle. I typically aim for one or two notches below the best available and that tends to get me about 3 years on high-ultra, and another 3 on medium-high.

When I can’t play a new game I want to play, I’ll upgrade. This varies. My last computer i7 920 with a GTX 470 lasted me for a long time – around 9 years. I have a Ryzen 2700x with a 3060TI that I built in 2018 and added the newer GPU in 2021. I’ll probably upgrade next year so around 7-8 years. Before that I had a Pentium 4, Pentium 2, Pentium 1 so those are roughly 4 years between but progress was more impactful back then.
Averaging things out – I’d say 6-7 years between major builds.

I usually go around 7 to 10 years before building a new machine with usually one GPU upgrade in-between.

I’ll keep the computer going until the frame rate on a modern game hits less than 40 on a game I actually want to play which may be longer now since I’m not exactly clamoring to play the next AAA game.

Is blowing on the fan so it starts spinning again counts?

Every 2 years or so i buy something new or replace something that was reaching its end… But my current PC still has parts from an old 2007 PC… not many though.

It may be theseus ship by now, but… (dates and compatibility could be off, this is just memory)

CPU

2007 Phenom II 1100T,

2022 R5 3600XT

GPU (oh boy)

2007 nv iGPU 6000 or 5000

2008 nv 9800gt (died reaching 1 year + 1 week)

2009 nv 250 (until it died)

2010 nv 560ti (until it died)

2012 nv 9800gt (same old 2008 gpu, took it to a furnance and after that worked for + 1.5 years or so)

2014 nv igpu

2019 rd 560ti (still working, not installed)

2023 rd 6700xt

The rest is just details… some disc replacement, a new ssd, fan upgrades… well, of course, changing a PS that died…

It was nearly 0.5 to 1 upgrade per year when i was buying intel, now its around 0.25… maybe less

Fun thing, two of my gpus died while running the same game: stalker clear sky… i still blame nvidia

10 years

I just upgraded my build. The original build was done 6 months before the Nvidia 10xx series came out (do the math yourself.).

The original disk storage setup was a disaster so that got changed a few years in. Three years ago, I inherited a GTX 970 from a friend (up from my 960).

And now I finally actually upgraded Mobo, CPU, GPU and Ram.

Still a AM4 socket from Asrock, basic DDR4 16GB. Intel B570. Less than 500 euro upgrade.

Can’t upgrade; too poor.

I usually go 10 or 15 years on a motherboard. I’ll upgrade the CPU, GPU, and RAM in that time.

I just replaced my desktop with a gaming laptop. A 2026 g16.

My desktop was an i5 from 2018 that had a 980 in it until last year when I put a 6650 xt in it.

I didnt “need” to upgrade. It was a gift to myself and a way to consolidate laptop and desktop into one more powerful unit.

My memory is getting fuzzy but my list from as far back as I can remember;

• A 386 system somewhere in the late 80s early 90s
• Then had a pentium I, II and III system all in the 90s
• We had a PC with an Athlon XP 2400+ in the early 00’s
• Then I bought an Athlon X2 4800+ with an Nvidia 7600gs somewhere around 2007

I also bought a laptop with an AMD e-350 chip in this period

• Next PC was in 2014 and had an Intel i3 4360 and a 970 GTX

Then I bought 2 PC’s in 2024:

• AMD 5800x with an AMD RX 6800
• AMD 5600x with an Nvidia RTX 3060

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I normally change my computer when it breaks, “every 4 years, tops.”