We’re coming up on what could quite possibly be one of the biggest generational leaps in PC hardware thanks to next-gen consoles coming out later this year, so with all the latest news about possible hardware upgrades needed to play new games at their best we wanted to pose the question to you guys: do you think that next-gen hardware will require a completely brand new PC setup?
This all started at first when we heard about the power of SSDs and their focus on next-gen consoles. Whilst this new focus was mainly on eliminating loading times, the main benefit was being able to stream data and textures at a much faster rate, allowing for higher graphical fidelity without sacrificing too much performance.
Obviously we don’t necessarily need an SSD to run games, as PC players (and console players too) have had to deal with loading screens for a very long time already. But the idea of needing an SSD for the proper streaming of data would mean we could see some games specifying an SSD even as a minimum requirement.
Then of course we have ray tracing, which will require a brand new next-gen GPU from AMD or Nvidia (or a current-gen RTX 20 series card) in order to get the full ray traced effects in games like Cyberpunk 2077 or Watch Dogs Legion. This in turn may require a new 12-pin power connector as well as a larger PSU overall, so that’s 2-in-1 right there.
And finally, the use of Unreal Engine 5 could mean that video game file sizes will skyrocket quite significantly. Luckily HDDs are going up in size and down in price at the moment, meaning getting a couple terabytes of storage space won’t exactly cost you a hefty amount. However, solid state drives are much more expensive in comparison to hard disk drives in terms of price-per-gigabyte, so having to get a larger size SSD can prove much more costly in the end.
So then, in order to supposedly get the very best out of these next-gen games, like Maximum graphics settings at 60fps, means you’ll need a brand new GPU (if you haven’t already got an RTX 20 series card), a brand new PSU, an SSD and on top of that making sure that the SSD has a high enough storage size. That's a lot of expensive hardware to consider.
What do you think? Will next-gen hardware require a completely brand new PC setup? Or do you think we’ll be fine for upgrading separate components at a time? Which one would you prioritize? Let’s debate!
(vote in the polls below! The last 2 questions have 4 votes per user, but you don't have to use them all if you don't want to! Just pick 1 or more)
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I would say GTX 1070 would be the bare minimum in a next year or two.
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depends on resolution, I'd say GTX 1060 will do fine hopefully
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The only thing I'm worried about is the SSD...I don't have any M2 NVMe, just 2 SATA III (250 Go OS + 1 To games). I hope they don't become obsolete too quickly.
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imo dont sweat about it, if you are talking nvme ssd exclusive games on pc then dont expect them until ps6 launch. Imo ps5 will only have few exclusives which will utilize this feature because ps5 is not that ready for it.
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This new gpu connector is so blown out of proportion its only OEM only and its literally 12V +ground so even if there will be big need you will be able to buy adapter for it, besides possibly having meaty psu. As for ssd streaming tech its still too early days even for ps5. My prediction that we will start to see it in pc long time after that maybe even when ps6 launches after couple showcase ps5 exclusives.
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I think Almost all our CPUs will be redundant with time as the Consoles have ryzen 8core 16 thread and that too at 7nm i know with time as optimization rolls in itll leave my First gen R7 1700 way Behind so yeah CPUs wll be a very important
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factor 2-3 years after Next Gen consoles release. GPU's are a 3-4 year life cycle anyway and I cant comment on the SSD side that being said yeah its faster than my M.2 Nvme SSD
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Well I did just this very thing few weeks ago actually, so I think with exception of my VGA card I am good to go for a few more years now. I don't usually install more then a few games art a time anyways so my 1TB NVME SSD will be fine. Got my 6-core 9600K running at almost 5Ghz so I am good there. Got 16GB ram so no probs. And I just got a 650W PSU cause my last one blew on me. So my weakest link is my little 1660...
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I feel you. When I bought my system, I left out the gpu for an oldie GTX560TI and would later replace it with a stronger one. Eventually I settled with the 960 but even the old games start to struggle more and more with newer updates (example is heroes and generals). I was thinking about getting a used 1070 and then use this system for another 4-5 years before upgrading. I have no need to play the latest games.
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And here I thought I'd just yank out my graphics card and solder a new one on.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQeezCdF4mk
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What about an eGPU setup with the EXP GDC? It's super cheap really, but it would require you to have your laptop in a more stationary place + an external monitor if you don't want more performance loss.
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I did replace my 780M cards for 980M back in the day. Sold that laptop to a fried, she still uses it. 980M runs Death Stranding pretty well!
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The only thing I think I would need to make my system completely "next-gen ready" would be the addition of a solid-state drive.
I want to move away from HDD soon except for the sole purpose of high capacity storage and put any game I am actively playing on the SSD while the rest go on the hard drive.
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I don't think upgrading will be that much necessary for a couple of years. The one reason is devs are still figuring out the power of the new consoles and how much they want to push them. The second reason is publishers will still want to sell games to as many people as possible, so until lower mid-range becomes as powerful (or more) as the consoles, they won't risk losing revenue.
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For me, definitely. I held off upgrading last year to see how good AMD's Ryzen cpu's would do and now it seems like the time to do a whole system upgrade.
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it depends on what you have if you have a low end then probably but more than that i dont think so as we can always lower the settings and resolution
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without forgetting that ps5/xbox will target 4k so most of users should be fine on 1080p/900p
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I think main thing that will be required is graphic card, since they will bring bar up and games will start going higher with requirements, as less and less games have to run on current gen. Also raytracing will get more important and next gen cards will be miles better at it. While Turing will technically do it, it will be like Kepler with DX12, it will run terribly. So that definitely is first.
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After that, SSDs as gaming drive will slowly start to matter, since developers will start using more of that extra SSD performance as they drop support and tweaks for HDD. SSD is one of things developers are really looking forward to have as baseline. SATA SSDs will stick around for longer than HDDs, but I do think SSD speed will eventually become part of requirements. That or 32GB+ of RAM.
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As for CPU, I do think having more than 4 cores will also start to matter, but outside that, I don't think CPUs will be that much of an issue. And considering consoles come with 1TB SSD or maybe even less, I doubt storage size will be big issue.I feel developers will target sizes that will be manageable with consoles. Unless you like to hoard installed games... then SSD requirement might be issue.
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The problem with new hardware is that games tend to increase their requirments when new GPU release.Like if minimum was 1050 ti the next will be GTX1160 or so and console's requirments stays the same.Devs can increase the game reqs for PC as many times as they want,but they keep it the same for consoles and thats why people are unhappy about console games since consoles use less resources than PC
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For absolute best, sure, but imo absolute best is biggest waste of money. Will wait for good cheap mid-range upgrade.
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Well if any developer wants to keep selling their games for the pc´s i would think they would develop for a large variety of hardware.
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For now only the gpu im upgrading, my 6tb hdd does the job for me, i dont mind waiting for a loading screen, i will prob buy a new 1080p pc monitor sometime near end of the year
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get yourself SSD for your OS and keep the rest in your HDD. I've changed from HDD to SSD my windows 10 and the start takes less than 10s and before was like 1-3m+-
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I already have a 1tb samsung 970 evo m2 drive for my os, so am good
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I think next-gen games will be designed for SSDs,
graphics settings may be lowered on weaker gpus,
but if games will struggle to load properly, then it'll be a no-go on regular HDD
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HDD gaming needed to die for a long time, to be honest. I'm glad to see it out the door. Perhaps we won't have to sit around in online lobbies anymore waiting for the HDD guys to load in, somewhere in the near future :D
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prices and capacity of SSDs need to evolve then though, because for ex. 4TB 860 EVO costs more than powerful graphics card
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Yeah, but that 4TB SSD isn't exactly a good value per GB either. There are better price ratios to be found in smaller drives. Besides, SSDs are NOT a direct replacement for HDDs. I see this weird thinking in people all the time. "Where am I going to put my movies and photos when SSDs are so expensive???" - on a damn HDD!!! You can always have a small SSD for a few games and a large HDD for everything else, you know...
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true true, I just got another NAS (4x12TB) so I can get rid of all the remaining HDDs in my computers leftover mess xD
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For those of us still playing at 1080p I'm guessing we'll still be fine for awhile.
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yeah , im sticking with 1080p raytracing
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My PC heard the PS5 crying back in 2018 when it wasn't even announced...
That aside, it depends on what kind of an experience you like. With consoles you're usually stuck with what the devs will give you, whereas with PC you have no such constraints - you can tweak things for better fps, more or less resolution, enable and disable various effects, try different peripherals, etc. If you want console parity, especially for potential exclusives coming out for PC later - yeah, you're probably going to need a good PC. Otherwise - keep what you have.
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Yesn't
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Mood