A gamer finds an old gaming PC in front of his doorstep. At home, he connects it and finds out that it is actually really good. Inside, it has the GTX 980 Ti, an old high-end graphics card.
A user shared on reddit that he left his apartment and found a strange box. In this box, he found an old gaming PC with usable components. For this reason, he took the box home to test the items.
At home, he was surprised to discover that he had found a really good gaming PC.
Old high-end graphics card still offers more than enough performance in 2023
What hardware is in the system?
- Processor: Intel Core i5 4690K
- Graphics card: GTX 980 Ti
- RAM: 16 GB of memory
- Storage: Samsung 850 EVO SSD
The GTX 980 Ti is from 2015 and was considered a high-end graphics card at that time. In benchmarks, it could sometimes easily keep up with Nvidia’s then-Titan graphics card. You can find a detailed test of the GTX 980 Ti on our colleagues’ site at GameStar.
Are there also problems? Yes, and that is why the computer ended up in the trash. The processor in the computer burned out and no longer works. The user himself explained that he needs to buy a new CPU and clean the graphics card thoroughly.
Unfortunately, the CPU is dead, but I will clean the GPU and apply new thermal paste and try to find a decent i5 CPU for the mini tower since I do not currently own a gaming PC.
And there is another downside: The old GTX models do not offer ray tracing and do not have the option to use DLSS. Thus, the player misses the opportunity to further enhance performance with DLSS.
Nevertheless, the GTX 980 Ti still runs Cyberpunk 2077 in Full HD at around 40 FPS, albeit without ray tracing.
Old hardware doesn’t always belong in the trash
It is really surprising what hardware and devices end up in the trash: For example, a gamer built a gaming PC just from hardware found in a dumpster because some really good items ended up as waste.
In many cases, it makes sense to continue using old hardware or repurposing it. Some use their old gaming PC to run a home server or store their movies.
Is it worth upgrading old hardware? If you want to upgrade outdated hardware, the components can quickly impose very hard limits. Many parts are tied to interfaces or features:
- If you want to replace an outdated Intel processor with a new one, you will definitely need a new motherboard.
- You cannot install DDR4 RAM into a motherboard with DDR3 memory.
- Modern graphics cards often require more than one power connector, but older power supplies often offer fewer or different connectors that are no longer supported. A YouTuber has shown how dangerous an adapter for graphics cards can be.
- Old graphics cards may no longer receive software updates or lack important features like DLSS, or certain games no longer start.
Which hardware should you no longer buy? A whole range of components that you should no longer buy today can be found in our list on MeinMMO. Because there’s often more effort involved than it’s worth in the end:
7 upgrades for your gaming PC that you definitely should not buy
