4 ms·

I sincerely believe that the market for desktop PCs is completely coopted by the gaming machines. They do not care one whit about machine size or energy efficie

I sincerely believe that the market for desktop PCs is completely coopted by the gaming machines. They do not care one whit about machine size or energy efficiency, with only one concern in mind: bare performance. This means they buy ginormous machines, incredibly inefficient CPUs and GPUs, with cavernous internals to chuck heat out with no care for decibels. But they spend voriously. And so the desktop PC market is theirs and theirs alone.

ryandrake 2y ago
Desktop PCs have become the Big Block V8 Muscle Cars of the computing world. Inefficient dinosaur technology that you pour gasoline through and the output is heat and massive raw power.
- rpmisms 2y ago
  Desktops are actually pickup trucks. Very powerful and capable, capable of everyday tasks, but less efficient at them. Unbeatable at their specialty, though.
wing-_-nuts 2y ago
Yeah. It's been the case for a while now that if someone just wants a general computer, they buy a laptop (even commonly a mac). That's why the default advice if you're looking for 'value' is to buy a gaming console to complement your laptop. Both will excel at their separate roles for a decade without requiring much in the way of upgrades. The desktop pc market these days is a luxury 'prosumer' market that doesn't really care about value as much. It feels like we're going back to the late 90's, early 2000's.
- 0x457 2y ago
  Unless you play games where you stare at the map while balancing exel spreadsheets.
  - philistine 2y ago
    That's okay, Factorio has awesome Apple Silicon support.
    - 0x457 2y ago
      What about Paradox games? genuinely curious about that.
      - rpmisms 2y ago
        Stellaris is great on my M2
      - philistine 2y ago
        I played a bunch of EU4 and HOI4 without any issues. But I think those use emulation under the hood. That's the thing with macs, all the strategy games tend to release there because the market for mac users and strategy gamers is a circle.
0x457 2y ago
Well because that's the audience that upgrades before something breaks and also lets you capture high-end market of professionals.
corimaith 2y ago
The price of a high end gaming pc (7800x3d and 4080) is around 2k USD. That's comparable to the MacBook Pro. Yeah sure, if you start buying unnecessary luxury cases, fans and custom water loops it can jump up high, but that's more for clueless rich kids or enthusiasts. So I wouldn't place pc gaming as an expensive hobby today, especially considering Nvidia money grubbing practices that won't stay forever.

ryandrake 2y ago

Desktop PCs have become the Big Block V8 Muscle Cars of the computing world. Inefficient dinosaur technology that you pour gasoline through and the output is heat and massive raw power.

rpmisms 2y ago
Desktops are actually pickup trucks. Very powerful and capable, capable of everyday tasks, but less efficient at them. Unbeatable at their specialty, though.

wing-_-nuts 2y ago

Yeah. It's been the case for a while now that if someone just wants a general computer, they buy a laptop (even commonly a mac). That's why the default advice if you're looking for 'value' is to buy a gaming console to complement your laptop. Both will excel at their separate roles for a decade without requiring much in the way of upgrades. The desktop pc market these days is a luxury 'prosumer' market that doesn't really care about value as much. It feels like we're going back to the late 90's, early 2000's.

0x457 2y ago
Unless you play games where you stare at the map while balancing exel spreadsheets.
- philistine 2y ago
  That's okay, Factorio has awesome Apple Silicon support.
  - 0x457 2y ago
    What about Paradox games? genuinely curious about that.
    - rpmisms 2y ago
      Stellaris is great on my M2
    - philistine 2y ago
      I played a bunch of EU4 and HOI4 without any issues. But I think those use emulation under the hood. That's the thing with macs, all the strategy games tend to release there because the market for mac users and strategy gamers is a circle.

0x457 2y ago

Well because that's the audience that upgrades before something breaks and also lets you capture high-end market of professionals.

corimaith 2y ago

The price of a high end gaming pc (7800x3d and 4080) is around 2k USD. That's comparable to the MacBook Pro. Yeah sure, if you start buying unnecessary luxury cases, fans and custom water loops it can jump up high, but that's more for clueless rich kids or enthusiasts. So I wouldn't place pc gaming as an expensive hobby today, especially considering Nvidia money grubbing practices that won't stay forever.