Intel CEO: Most People Only Replace A PC After 5-6 Years

Megalith

Megalith

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Obviously, your average user doesn’t replace their system all that often, but what’s the typical cycle? This guy says it’s five to six years, which would be a one- to two-year increase from older estimates.

…Intel needs to ramp up its efforts and release the right innovations so people are motivated to upgrade PCs quickly and easily, Krzanich said at the Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference in New York. "Right now, it's easier to move your phone to a new phone than your PC to a new PC," he said. "We've got to go fix some of those things." PC upgrades have slowed because current operating systems can run well on older Intel-based PCs. Five years ago, Intel shipped Core processors code-named Sandy Bridge, and they can capably run Microsoft's Windows 10.
 
Probably because most modern PCs have a lifespan that's twice that period of time. Just because companies like Microsoft feel it's necessary to force new versions of their software and operating systems onto consumers doesn't mean the hardware that code runs on has become obsolete. Sure, it won't perform as well as a brand new top of the line Xth generation whatever processor/chipset/RAM/storage/etc system might but it - meaning older hardware - can get the same jobs done albeit slower.

Forced obsolescence, not a good thing, but it's a side effect of today's society where companies can't survive unless they just keep cranking out more stuff. Kinda sucks but that's how the world works and it's not going to change nor will it get better.
 
Maybe they are hoping that VR/AR will be the next thing to push PCs along? For what most people do with a PC, perceived overall speed and monitor size/resolution might be all that really matters? There has been a lot more 'revolutionary' things happening in storage and graphic cards than CPUs over the last few years; the big push generally is into lower power consumption which is great, but that kind of thing isn't immediately noticeable to users on a day-to-day scale.
 
I wish we replaced that often at work. But we have a 10 year turn around on our desktops at best.

As for my personal desktop at home...... I'm still rocking a socket 1366. So maybe I'm not much better.
 
You don't need to upgrade if the PC spends more time waiting on you that you waiting on it. I'm still on an i7-920 @ 3.8 Ghz and I can't see spending 3K to upgrade to x99. Once I put in an SSD a few years back, I realized that slow computers are really from slow hard drives. Can't count how many old machines I've upgraded to SSD's and all of a sudden, it is a fast PC. I read all these forums where peeps are upgrading their 2-4 year old machines and I just laugh. What a waste. E-peen 4 life.
 
I think he is right about moving phone to phone, most users still cannot figure out how to move files between an old pc and new.
 
DrLobotomy said:
You don't need to upgrade if the PC spends more time waiting on you that you waiting on it. I'm still on an i7-920 @ 3.8 Ghz and I can't see spending 3K to upgrade to x99. Once I put in an SSD a few years back, I realized that slow computers are really from slow hard drives. Can't count how many old machines I've upgraded to SSD's and all of a sudden, it is a fast PC. I read all these forums where peeps are upgrading their 2-4 year old machines and I just laugh. What a waste. E-peen 4 life.
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$3,000.00? o_O Are you buying a $2,000.00 monitor with that X99 upgrade?
 
DrLobotomy said:
You don't need to upgrade if the PC spends more time waiting on you that you waiting on it. I'm still on an i7-920 @ 3.8 Ghz and I can't see spending 3K to upgrade to x99. Once I put in an SSD a few years back, I realized that slow computers are really from slow hard drives. Can't count how many old machines I've upgraded to SSD's and all of a sudden, it is a fast PC. I read all these forums where peeps are upgrading their 2-4 year old machines and I just laugh. What a waste. E-peen 4 life.
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You could probably even kick that I7- 920 up still pretty cheap, if your Mobo handles it. My old I7-920 is still lying on the desk here.

Have a X5650 in my HTPC and a X5680 @ 4.5 in my main rig that has been around over 6 years I think now.

You could probably pop a X5650 in there for $60 or cheaper these days, and go from a Quad to a Hex core, haven't looked at prices in awhile.

But yeah, 3 grand is overkill if your upgrading these days. You could build a halfway decent new one for half that you could upgrade over time.
 
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actually my last gaming rig lasted me nearly 8 years. only thing was i had a few inexpensive upgrades along the way - video card, doubled the ram, SSD, and swapped out the CPU for one slightly faster (got it really cheap from a friend ;). that being said, yes it was heavily overclocked with water cooling which helped further.

also i'm not so picky about framerate. for some reason i can handle a pretty low framerate and still enjoy the game - turn down a few detail settings if necessary. call me cheap, but it's hard to knock 8 years from one system.
 
Sadly, their R&D department just hasn't done anything impressive in that long.

Unless you're crunching huge numbers, doing photorealistic 3D rendering, editing/encoding 4K video, or something else that scales well across lots of cores... any modern quad from the 920 up is going to feel about the same. That's assuming you have a decent OC on it if it's older, but still.

In my case, when moving to a 6700K will net me /maybe/ a 7 FPS minimum frame rate increase in some titles and I'm already locked above 60FPS 90% of the time, but will cost me $600+... not much incentive there. When they put something out that will actually make a difference given how I use my (and many here use their) PC, I'll think about it. Until then, a 2500K released January 2011 is doing just fine.
 
Darkswordz said:
$3,000.00? o_O Are you buying a $2,000.00 monitor with that X99 upgrade?
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$1600 for chip. $500 for Motherboard. $400+ for ram. $125 for CPU Cooler. $150+ for power supply. $99 OS. $50 for a truck to bring it to me.
 
Constant upgrades are just an excuse to increase the size of the basement DC fleet. This is going to be a great two years for me: Kaby Lake HTPC, Skylake-E desktop upgrade, GTX1070, (hopefully) GTX1080ti. Let the primes flow!
 
silent-circuit said:
You're doing it wrong.
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I said I wanted an upgrade, not buy the same shit over. Unless you are implying I steal it. I am too lazy to post links to those prices but that is what they are. I don't buy crap parts. I want a workstation class motherboard. I want a top end Noctua cooler. I want 128 gigs of RAM. I want a 10-core processor. And I want a top end Corsair Power supply to keep it purring. What am I missing? Please enlighten me o wise ones!!!
 
I'm still rocking a Q9550 at stock clocks. Eventually the HSF got so clogged up with dust that it was overheating so I started underclocking before bothering to clean it out. I got down to 1.8 GHz and never even noticed the difference. Granted, I wasn't trying to run intensive games but if I were inclined I could probably throw a better cooler on for a 3.5-3.8 GHz overclock, bump the RAM to 8 GB, and drop in a newer GPU without noticeable bottlenecks. I'll probably upgrade everything next year instead (no sense spending perfectly good money on DDR2), but it's nice to know it has more legs if I need it.
 
DrLobotomy said:
Once I put in an SSD a few years back, I realized that slow computers are really from slow hard drives. Can't count how many old machines I've upgraded to SSD's and all of a sudden, it is a fast PC.
Installing an SSD is the best thing you can do for an older PC. Even an inexpensive, older generation SSD will cause a huge improvement.
I have a 7 old Acer Laptop I use when on vacation. It's a nice size (11" screen), and rather than replace it, I'm just installing an SSD before we head out this summer. It's a bit slow on the CPU side, but otherwise works fine for my needs.
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silent-circuit said:
You're doing it wrong.
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Assuming brand new HEDT platform...

6800k $450~ish or 6850k $560~ish
Board for $220-350
Memory is dirt cheap and scaling doesn't do as much on x99, $260 for 64GB
$125 for the cooler is close to spot on
$150 for a decent PSU is close to spot on.
$99 OS...close enough
 
I'm still running a four year old Ivy Bridge Core i5 3570k CPU with 16 GBs of RAM and an SSD. The last major upgrade involved putting a new video card in it, with that last upgrade I imagine that this machine will last another four years.

Honestly, even if you have an older system, you can drastically improve the performance of said machine by putting an SSD into it. Putting an SSD into a computer is like strapping a rocket to it.
 
DrLobotomy said:
I said I wanted an upgrade, not buy the same shit over. Unless you are implying I steal it. I am too lazy to post links to those prices but that is what they are. I don't buy crap parts. I want a workstation class motherboard. I want a top end Noctua cooler. I want 128 gigs of RAM. I want a 10-core processor. And I want a top end Corsair Power supply to keep it purring. What am I missing? Please enlighten me o wise ones!!!
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Save up the money and buy that then, I guess.

You'll be paying that early adopter fee going that route.

The one I have with the X5680 in it is a workstation, that took it from Quad to Hex, I just put a $1600 retail chip in at 1/10 the price later I suppose.

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Unless your doing serious video editing I do not know why you would want 128 of ram, still just use 12 in mine.

Have an old Antec CP-850 Delta build in here for a PSU, thing is built like a tank, but won't fit in many cases right.

Biggest upgrade for me would be maybe getting an Asus GTX1070 STRIX when they come out, but haven't even been gaming that much lately myself.
 
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I successfully installed Win10 Pro x64 on an old HP SFF with an Athlon64 X2 4000+ system with 3GB RAM and an 80GB HDD...it felt faster/more responsive than WinXP, WinVI, and Win7 ever did. For those of you out there with much older systems being used by yourselves, family, or friends: Win10 can be a reality! :p That being said, it would still be way too slow for most newer business applications/programs, added security protocols/apps, and web plugins (modern web-based Flash and Java programs really gave away the 'ole X2's age).

IMO: The raw power capability of any dual+ core Sandy Bridge or Bulldozer (and newer) is typically plentiful for most general to modest home and office users. He's spot on - we used to replace our work systems on a 3 year cycle when the warranty ran out, but now we've been letting them ride for an additional 2-3 years (sometimes more), only to replace them with a new system when they suffer catastrophic failure (such as the MoBo taking a shit).
 
I quit playing the "Oh look at my PC's specs" and waiting for the ohs and ahs game many years ago. My current rig is an i7-3770 that is a couple years old. I expect to keep it a few more years as nothing I run on it is getting anywhere near pressing the CPU. I did upgrade the video card last year during the Xmas sales season when a GTX 570 based card was a decent price. I expect I will likely upgrade the video card again before the MB/CPU is deemed EOL. The 'old' video card starts a ripple upgrade of other PCs in the house.

This is why I roll my eyes when talking heads on CNBC start talking about the 'death of the PC' Probably as many folks own PCs today as in the past. They just aren't buying news ones as fast as they used to.
 
gxp500 said:
Me too, lets all thank intel for not being innovative for the last 5 years.
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Same here. It is not even a case of Intel being new, creative, or even innovative. The new stuff just has to be appreciably faster than the old stuff in what I do. Yeah, I have noticed some of my Core 2 Duo computers are having trouble surfing the web rapidly (and stably), but they still play older games well (especially with a recent downgrade back to WinXP - which resolved many older game compatibility problems I've had with Win10).

In the end, all I want out of an ~$1000 (total) upgrade investment is a computer that feels like it is actually worth $1000 more than then one I have now. Nothing I have seen can even remotely justify this from Intel. So, I have been scaling back my upgrade spending to ~$600, and just spending it all on GPUs and scaling back the cycle to about 2-3 years, rather than every ~1.5 years. I am coming up on a GPU upgrade, but the games I play, are not really pushing all that hard against 1080p settings (nor even 1440p on my old monitor). I can only really blame consoles or large multiplayer games speccing for older computers.
 
I've had my current main desktop rig, an x58, i7-980x @ 4Ghz for six years and I'm currently in the process of building a new high-end rig. Picked up an i7-6950x which I know isn't popular because of the price but it's going to last me probably a good 5 years. Got my pair of Gigabyte 1080 FEs Thursday and popped it in that old i7-980x rig, replacing 3 GTX 680s. Wow, what a difference. Still on my old 3x 1080P 3D monitors as well from 6 years ago and still really like Surround gaming, though I don't do much with 3D these days except Blu Ray. While I know this old system is holding back that 1080, I was able to crank up to maximum in game settings in Doom and Tomb Raider running at 5760x1080 in Surround and they both run like butter using a six year old system. I've never plugged in brand new top line GPU in rig before but the results kind of are astonishing to me.
 
MrValentine said:
I wish we replaced that often at work. But we have a 10 year turn around on our desktops at best.

As for my personal desktop at home...... I'm still rocking a socket 1366. So maybe I'm not much better.
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I am still running an AMD Turion 64 x2 that I got the day Windows 7 came out. You don't need the insane speed of these new processors if all you do is web browsing and Microsoft Office.
 
Still running an i5-2400 @ 3.1ghz.
32 Gb of ram probably half of which is pure overkill.
And a Radeon 7800 series, don't remember the exact one off the top of my head but one of the better ones in the line.

Out of date? Absolutely..Way out of date actually. However the reality is I haven't found a single game I play yet that I can't run on high settings at the resolution I game at. So what is my incentive to upgrade? I don't have one. I used to be constantly upgrading when we had the speed wars and game developers were trying to push really hard. For now we just don't have that. I have 3 24 inch monitors and I game in 1080p which is just perfect on that size. I don't use eyefinity because I basically hated that setup from the start. I use multiple monitors for work tasks and 1 monitor for gaming. This is why I don't have to upgrade. Before anyone asks why I hate eyefinity, it comes down to the bezel. I don't like having inch gaps in my screen.
 
Tiberian said:
Probably because most modern PCs have a lifespan that's twice that period of time.
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Just wait. Most appliances today are designed with planned obsolescence. They are literally DESIGNED to fail after a certain amount of hours usage, usually just after the warranty period, so that consumers have to upgrade.

The old days where you could buy a dishwasher, washing machine, blender, or air conditioner that would last over a decade are over. Weak links are built in so that at some point plastic gears grind off, belts loosen, or particular proprietary components fail that will have a very high retail replacement cost (and difficult to find if not on backorder). This keeps consumers consuming, and is a profitable business model adopted almost across the board.

Now, its harder to do that with electronics (not impossible though as evidenced by red-ringing Xboxs vs my NES that still works like a champ three decades later), but don't be surprised when we start seeing cooperation between Microsoft and Intel and hardware manufacturers to setup planned obsolescence to standards. Backwards compatibility will become a liability, and new standards will be implemented to keep users jumping to the latest standard every 2-3 years.

They can start pulling an Apple for example, where they will intentionally design a mandatory iOS update that makes old model iPads operate really slow.

That way Microsoft sells new licenses (or even better online subscriptions) and hardware manufacturers sell more hardware, while our e-waste landfills pile up higher and higher.
 
Since windows 10 turns your pc into a windows phone, it's easy to upgrade now. Was easy enough before too, but anyways, Blame consoles. They're holding games back. I used to upgrade every year back before the xbox / playstation era, not anymore. Last upgrades were heavy during the 32 to 64bit era. My most recent upgrade was last year to a xeon 1231. Before that was an amd 955 BE in 2009.

The problems that need upgrading these days are gpu. Last upgrade also saw a 280 3gb card put in, plays fallout 4 just fine. I'm also still using my 24" dell 1080 monitor from 2008. If I upgraded to a 4k monitor, it would be video card only to accompany it.

Yea, there just is no innovation or inspiration to upgrade with the "need" to make everything like a phone or tablet. What happened to ray tracing which should be standard by now intel?
 
Dekoth-E- said:
Out of date? Absolutely..Way out of date actually. However the reality is I haven't found a single game I play yet that I can't run on high settings at the resolution I game at. So what is my incentive to upgrade? I don't have one. I used to be constantly upgrading when we had the speed wars and game developers were trying to push really hard. For now we just don't have that. I have 3 24 inch monitors and I game in 1080p which is just perfect on that size. I don't use eyefinity because I basically hated that setup from the start. I use multiple monitors for work tasks and 1 monitor for gaming. This is why I don't have to upgrade. Before anyone asks why I hate eyefinity, it comes down to the bezel. I don't like having inch gaps in my screen.
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You might be surprised at how much difference a new GPU would make for the latest games even at 1080.
 
At work, we have a 4-5 year upgrade refresh on desktops. 2-3 on laptops.

At home, it's when I need it. I really WANT an upgrade, but I don't need it yet. I can do anything I want on it. 2600K.

It is starting to get laggy. At least that's what I tell myself. I am definitely picking up a 1070 GPU. The CPU/MB/RAM I would love to upgrade, but I'll do that in the fall...
 
I ran a Q6600 system for five years before I felt the need to upgrade. Three years ago, I moved on up to the 4770k. Intel hasn't given me any real reason to upgrade since then. What would a 6700k get me that an OC wouldn't? My money would be far better spent on upgrading from my GTX970 to something new.

My buddy has a 2600k system he built 5 years ago. What person could argue that he should go get a new CPU/mobo/RAM instead of a 1080 or 1070 to keep things fresh?

If Intel thinks pushing CPU pricing to new astronomical heights is going to get people to upgrade any faster... Yeah, I'll just ride out my current build as long as possible.
 
zeroARMY said:
Can confirm, still rocking a 2600K
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Same here. I have 16 gb ram, ssd boot drive (think it's 480gb), and recently replaced my video card with a 970. My system still does everything I need to well. I don't think I'd get the bang for the buck by upgrading yet. (Of course, getting NVMe, PCI Express, etc would be faster, but not sure its worth the money to me).
 
How old is my x58 again? 6 core at 4.4Ghz....Yeah, its gotten its life extended. Skylake-E probably as a replacement for it. Waiting for Zen to come and hopefully get prices down a little for HEDT lines. Hopefully....but not expecting.
 
Since I have heard 2017 will be worse than 2008. I may have to sell it to stay afloat some. I did have a Asus P8Z68-V. The board went to hell within the first 6 months. I checked the CPU socket for bent pins and did not see any. The board started acting weird after a firmware update. Well I thought it was that. The problems continued. So I just said screw it and bought another board. The current one I have now. After taking the CPU off the P8, some of the CPU pins were bent. I am still wondering how the hell that happened. I make sure I don't do something like that, I take extra care with installing. The case I have is at least 5 years old and the motherboard is newer.
I have no reason to upgrade the board at all. The new memory is really good. The SSD is having issues though. Getting really bad read/write 4k speeds and regular read write speeds have dropped to 320 MB/s out of 550. The Samsung pro's are suppose to be top of the line for it's day. They don't seem to be lasting very long. The 3/4TB hdd prices are still super high. Time will tell though. Just get ready to sell the computers you have now to for extra cash if the economy starts to takes a nose dive.
 
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