[capableweb]

I have a desktop PC that I sometimes use for gaming, everything from demanding simulators (like Flight Simulator and X-Plane) to grand strategy games and other more mainstream games. Last GPU I bought was a 2080ti that still is my GPU, and I bought that something like 3 years ago. I can still game mainstream games on very high settings without issues. So not sure why your setup aged like milk but mine didn't...

[Loughla]

On my home machine, I'm running SLI'd GTX480's. They still do 99.9% of the gaming I want to do. I have only found ray tracing (which I don't like anyway) and for some reason water reflections to cause problems. But I can still run most games on high or better settings.

I don't know why OP's setup would age like milk. As long as you keep them clean, games haven't really advanced that much in the last few years, in terms of graphics requirements.

Also, if anyone has advice on building a new machine, I'm listening. I've been out of the game so long that I don't even know where to start, and have children that want towers built.

[fomine3]

I assume you use a FHD monitor. It's completely fine but some people upgraded to higher resolution.

[izacus]

Yeah, it's kinda bizarre - I've been running GTX970 for 5 years and it still runs things acceptably today (although I've replaced it with 3080 at launch).

It really didn't last any less time than PS4 or any other console.