The well-known tech YouTuber Linus Tech Tips built a PC from old components to see how much gaming performance is in a machine from the years 2010 – 2015.
What does the creator present? In the YouTube video from March 16, 2024, on the Linus Tech Tips channel, he tests an 11-year-old PC that, according to his statement, would currently cost about $10,000 or about €8,600 (as of January 13, 2026).
The interesting thing about this computer, according to Linus, is its enormous size and the possibility to use four graphics cards simultaneously via SLI. This is a technology no longer in use, where older NVIDIA graphics cards that support the function could be used together in one PC to gain more performance. The connection also confused another user, to whom the community explained, why the SLI technology is now obsolete.
In the video, Linus presents the hardware of the PC and checks how well games like Crysis 2, Cyberpunk 2077, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider run. In the case of Cyberpunk 2077, the game doesn’t even start and crashes even with a legacy patch for older hardware.
If you’re not done with old technology, check out the video about a cult classic in gaming history:
A huge motherboard, a 1600-watt power supply, and four graphics cards are inside the computer
What hardware does the YouTuber use? In the video, Linus uses the following parts for his project:
- Motherboard: EVGA Classified Super Record 2 (SR-2)
- Processor: Two Intel Xeon x5690
- Graphics cards: Four EVGA GTX 980 TI and later an RTX 3090 Ti
- RAM: Six 4 GB DDR3 RAM with 1600 MHz from Corsair
- Power supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 1600 T2
- Storage: Two terabyte Samsung Evo 850 SATA SSD
- Case: EVGA DG-85
This results in a PC that was still powerful a decade ago, albeit very expensive.
More than one graphics card was already inefficient according to Linus 11 years ago
Is the system still worth it from today’s perspective? In the video, the tech YouTuber shows that the system can output games from the past at least 60 FPS, but he also notes that the SLI technology had already been very costly in the past.
With an active GTX 980 Ti, for example, Crysis 2 from 2011 ran in WQHD in the video at about 60 – 70 frames per second. After three additional GTX 980 TIs were installed and SLI was activated, the FPS rose to about 120 – 145. Linus explained that the performance had already been very similar with two graphics cards.
In the following test of the Shadow of the Tomb Raider released in 2018, the PC averaged about 45 FPS, while, according to the YouTuber, little power of the additional GPUs was used. Cyberpunk 2077 did not start at all and could not be tested.
To boost performance, Linus later replaced the GTX 980 Ti with an RTX 3090 Ti. The initially chosen RTX 4090 couldn’t be used because there was no software for this graphics card for Windows 7. With the change of the graphics card, the FPS improved significantly. For example, in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, performance improved on average from about 45 to around 90 FPS.
Linus shows above all that technologies like SLI were only partially worthwhile for gamers many years ago. Additionally, the computer itself was very expensive at its time. Linus was also surprised when he spoke with Valve about the price of the Steam Machine: Well-known tech YouTuber hopes the Steam Machine will only cost $500, but Valve’s reaction is quite clear
