Buy nothing.

Summary

In a world where new tech is often overpriced and underwhelming, this video explores why sometimes the best answer is to buy nothing at all. With escalating costs and diminishing quality, especially in the realm of gaming PCs, it's more practical to make the most of what you already have. By highlighting existing average gaming PCs and the gaming experiences they can still deliver, "Iceberg Tech" delivers a refreshing reminder that cutting-edge isn't always necessary for an enjoyable gaming experience.

Highlights

• High prices and low quality define the current tech landscape, making new purchases less appealing 🤑.
• Even with an average gaming PC, you can enjoy classics like Elder Ring and Cyberpunk 🎮.
• RTX 4060, despite criticism, performs well for many popular games at 1080p 🌟.
• Indie games and remasters offer excellent enjoyment at a fraction of the price of new releases 🎨.
• Recommending to utilize existing hardware to explore timeless titles and new indies instead of chasing new hardware ✨.

Key Takeaways

• In a market plagued with overpriced and underwhelming tech, buying nothing can be a smart decision 💡.
• Average gaming PCs can still deliver great experiences without the latest tech 🌟.
• Exploring classic, indie, and free-to-play games is a great way to enjoy gaming without spending extra 💸.
• Current average PCs, like those with RTX 4060, are still capable of running fantastic games at high settings 🎮.
• The focus on maximizing existing resources can lead to discovering hidden gaming gems 🌈.

Overview

The tech world has reached a point where buying the latest gear is not always the best choice, especially with rampant issues of high costs and questionable quality. Graphics cards and CPUs come with their quirks, making older hardware often the more sensible option. Today's gamers are finding value beyond tech specs by revisiting their trusted setups.

By comparing current tech capabilities to the games that can still be enjoyed, this review champions what an average gaming PC can accomplish. Iceberg Tech's zero-budget video budget underlines a belief in making the most of what's available rather than buying into hype.

Exploring gaming with existing hardware introduces players to a diverse world of games, from modern classics and indies to free-to-play gems. With accessible specs like RTX 4060, players find joy in unexpected places, reminding us that superb gaming isn't all about having the latest, but enjoying what we have.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction: Everything Sucks Again The introduction chapter discusses the current dissatisfaction and challenges in the tech industry, particularly with graphics cards being described as unreliable and overpriced, yet still highly sought after. It highlights problems with CPUs overheating, power supplies melting, and operating systems deteriorating, painting a bleak picture of the technology landscape.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Gaming PCs Today and Review Challenges The chapter discusses the state of gaming PCs in the current market. It highlights that while gaming PCs are generally expensive, there is a positive note that we are not in the midst of a pandemic, which could make accessing or upgrading to a gaming PC somewhat easier than before. The narrative reflects on the capabilities of the average gaming PC and what users can expect from them, even if upgrading might not be financially feasible at the moment.
• 01:00 - 01:30: Mixed Reviews for New Releases In a year filled with challenging product availability and consumer frustration, reviewing new releases has become a complex task. The narrator reflects on the tumultuous reception of the RTX 50 series, where consumer interest is dampened by the scarcity of the products. Opinions on models like the RTX 5060Ti, 5070, and 5080 are generally negative, driven by a mixture of unavailability and price concerns. Similarly, while AMD's RX970s are promising in specifications, their market presence, particularly in the UK, is hampered by limited and costly availability. This mixed reception underscores the difficulties in evaluating and recommending new tech releases under these conditions.
• 01:30 - 02:00: Current CPU and GPU Market Analysis This chapter discusses the state of the CPU and GPU market, highlighting that while it is a favorable time to purchase CPUs, especially previous generation models, the lack of matching GPUs diminishes the value of buying the most recent CPUs. The recommendation is for most consumers to refrain from buying new hardware and instead to optimize existing systems.
• 02:00 - 02:30: Building a PC With Average Specs The chapter titled 'Building a PC With Average Specs' discusses assembling a gaming PC that mirrors the average specifications based on Valve's hardware survey. The video is created with a strict budget of $0, reusing previously featured parts to make a point about common PC specs. According to the Steam hardware survey, the most popular PC configuration typically involves an Intel CPU with six cores.
• 02:30 - 03:00: Gaming Performance on Common Specs This chapter discusses the gaming performance of a computer setup comprising an i5 12400F processor, 32GB TForce Dark DDR4 3600 RAM, and a Gigabyte RTX 4060 Windforce GPU. The choice of this GPU was based on its popularity at the time the decision was made, although it has since been surpassed by the 3060. The setup features a high-quality Z690 motherboard.
• 03:00 - 03:30: Game Reviews and Recommendations The chapter discusses the current state of gaming hardware, highlighting the diminishing returns on investment with newer models. It notes that many consumers likely already own similar hardware given the market trends. The conversation then pivots to game releases, specifically citing 2025's lineup where games like Kingdom Come 2 stand out, but overall, the release trend suffers from decreasing quality despite increasing costs.
• 05:00 - 05:30: Cyberpunk Performance Analysis The chapter discusses a shift from the usual focus on demanding modern video game titles to a more diverse lineup including modern classics, remasters, indie games, and free-to-play titles. It highlights a selection of games from the previous console generation, aiming to cater to those who prefer not to invest in new costly games.
• 06:30 - 07:00: Racing Games and Performance The chapter discusses the financial success of FromSoft's game, Elder Ring, highlighting its record-breaking status. The game's extensive content and replayability justify its value, despite its high VRAM demand of 12 GB. However, most users, as indicated by Valve, possess at least 16 GB of VRAM, minimizing potential issues. The chapter hints at an exciting new FromSoft game involving dinosaurs that could outperform Elder Ring's success.
• 08:00 - 08:30: Remasters and Older Games Analysis This chapter focuses on the performance of older games, specifically discussing how prevalent 1080p resolution remains among gamers, making up over half of the surveyed population. The discussion highlights the capabilities of the 12th gen i5 and RTX 4060 in handling maximum settings at 1080p, maintaining a smooth 60fps. However, for 1440p or 4K resolutions, players may need to reduce graphics settings to medium or high for optimal performance. Notably, the game in question lacks native support for DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) or FSR (FidelityFX Super Resolution), techniques that could potentially enhance performance without compromising visual quality.
• 13:00 - 13:30: Indie Games Review The chapter titled 'Indie Games Review' begins with a discussion on the lack of a quick and easy method for upscaling game visuals, suggesting alternatives like Nvidia image scaling or lossless scaling programs for better results on higher resolution screens. It then briefly touches upon the troubled launch of Cyber Punk, noting that despite the significant price drop since its release in 2020, the game has struggled to shake off its negative reputation.
• 18:00 - 18:30: Conclusion: Optimism Amidst Negativity The chapter discusses the current state of gaming technology, particularly focusing on the average performance benchmark of a popular game, possibly Cyberpunk 2077, in Night City. It explores how modern PCs, even those with average specifications, are able to deliver an impressive gaming experience at 1080p high settings, with frame rates approaching 80 fps. The chapter also mentions the application's efficient use of GPU resources, operating at only 75% capacity when VSSync is enabled. Additionally, it touches upon the potential of ray tracing technology as a significant advancement for future gaming visuals, highlighting its importance for next-gen lighting solutions and optimizing gamers' experience. Overall, the chapter conveys a sense of optimism about the accessibility of high-quality gaming experiences even with mid-range hardware setups.

Buy nothing. Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 Okay, so everything sucks again. Today's graphics cards are apparently unreliable, poor value trash, only fit for powering glorified chat bots, while at the same time also incredibly rare and desirable. CPUs are self-imulating, power supplies are melting, operating systems are devolving, and everything's just so [ __ ]
• 00:30 - 01:00 expensive. On the positive side, at least this time there isn't a pandemic on, and you probably do at least have a gaming PC, even if it's one you probably can't afford to upgrade right now. So, new tech aside, what can the average gaming PC actually do?
• 01:00 - 01:30 Clearly, I picked the wrong year to start reviewing new releases. My RTX 50 series reviews have been a mixed bag. And to be fair, I can understand why. It's hard to care about stuff you can't reasonably expect to buy. And if you do have an opinion about the RTX 5060Ti or 5070 or 5080, it's probably going to be one of outrage. AMD's RX970s look great on paper, but at least here in the UK, the versions you can actually buy are also ridiculously
• 01:30 - 02:00 overpriced. Despite my intro, now is actually a pretty good time for CPUs. though most of the best buys are previous gen models and there's not really any point getting the latest and greatest if there's no GPUs to match. Ultimately, all of this combined means that the answer to the question, what should I buy is for most people nothing. So, what do you do when you can't or shouldn't buy anything? You make do with what you've got. That's what. To that
• 02:00 - 02:30 end, I put together a gaming PC to represent the average specs according to Valve's hardware survey, and I'm using it to play games. Good ones. In the spirit of the title, my budget for this video was 0 and0. So, apologies if you've seen these parts featured on the channel before, but I wanted to make a point. According to the Steam hardware survey, the most popular PC spec right now is based around an Intel CPU with six cores. With that in
• 02:30 - 03:00 mind, I chose the i5 12400F. It's paired with 32 gigs of TForce Dark DDR4 3600 RAM, and the GPU of choice is a Gigabyte RTX 4060 Windforce, which was the most popular card when I had the idea for this video, but which is actually now second behind the 3060. I've talked about the 3060 enough lately, so I've stuck to the original plan. It's all plugged into a fairly premium Z690 motherboard. However, being a locked
• 03:00 - 03:30 CPU, there's no advantage to this over a cheaper H or B series board. Overall, this build is worth somewhere in the region of $800 or $1,000. But that's not really the point. The point is that statistically speaking, you already have something like this. Of course, the problem of escalating prices in exchange for less and less quality isn't limited to the hardware. Despite some standouts like Kingdom Come 2, 2025's releases so far have had the same issues PC gamers have
• 03:30 - 04:00 been complaining about for the last couple of years. So, for a change, I've passed on my usual roster of super demanding recent titles and picked a lineup of modern classics, remasters, indies, and a few free-to-play titles for those of you who take buying nothing seriously. Let's start off with some favorites from the last console crossgen period, back before everything started
• 04:00 - 04:30 falling to [ __ ] Elder Ring is FromSoft's biggest financial success to date, although their newlyannounced game apparently has dinosaurs, so that record might not hold for much longer. Part of that success comes from the fact that FromSoft games rarely go on sale, but Elder Ring has enough content and replayability that it should be worth your money. The game requires 12 GB of VRAM, which was something of a sore point when it was released, but according to Valve, you have at least 16 GB, so that shouldn't be an issue
• 04:30 - 05:00 anymore. 1080p is still the most common resolution on the survey, accounting for over half of all gamers, and the combination of 12th gen i5 and RTX 4060 can handle max settings at that resolution. The game has a 60fps limit, and we're meeting that with no issues. Higher resolutions like 1440p or 4K won't be quite so smooth at maximum settings and will need dropping to medium or high to compensate. This game doesn't natively support DLSS or FSR, so
• 05:00 - 05:30 there's no quick and easy upscaling method, but you could use Nvidia image scaling or a program like lossless scaling to get better results on higher resolution screens. Okay, so Cyber Punk had a pretty rough launch, and even in the 4 and 1/2 years since then, it hasn't shaken the reputation of being the modern-day crisis. So, even though the price has come down a lot since 2020, maybe you haven't got round to buying it yet. Or
• 05:30 - 06:00 perhaps it's been sat in your backlog out of fear that your PC couldn't do it justice. Well, it seems like these days you can have a pretty pre experience in Night City on the average spec PC. At 1080p high, the built-in benchmark approaches 80 fps. And with VSSync enabled in order to get some clean, tearfree capture footage, the game's only using about 75% of the graphics card's capabilities. You might be tempted to try ray tracing as this is one of the killer apps for that nextgen lighting
• 06:00 - 06:30 deck. I wouldn't say it's impossible, but you should temper your expectations. RT low and medium are quite subtle effects and in my opinion it's not worth trading in that much performance for a half measure. But on the other hand, RT Ultra falls a long way short of 60 fps even with quality DLSS and the 8 GB buffer means for quite a few frame time spikes. Incidentally, the RTX 3060 actually did a bit better at these settings with about the same
• 06:30 - 07:00 performance, but without the stutter. Fortza Horizon 5 is perhaps the greatest example of wish fulfillment in the racing genre. In this title, you get to own a car and a house at the same time. Wild stuff. It's also available to rent as part of the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription because if you can't own property, why would you want to own your games? Kill me. The RT effects are far more minimal than in Cyberpunk, and you
• 07:00 - 07:30 probably wouldn't notice them if they were turned off. That being said, the benchmark completed with over 80 fps at 1080p ultra with ultra RT, so it's not really a problem for the average PC to handle. I did have a VRAMm warning when I tried the extreme setting, and it wouldn't surprise me if that occurred at ultra after maybe a few hours of gameplay, so it might just be worth forgetting about RT altogether. I'm not going to lie, RDR2 is hardly ever a cheap pickup. It's not
• 07:30 - 08:00 part of any subscription services, and it's never been given away for free, to my knowledge. But when I asked for suggestions for some older games people still wanted to see, this one came up a lot. I'll admit, playing through the opening couple of hours with the slider set to prefer quality, it's kind of hard to imagine games looking better than this. I know there could be more detail in the hair and faces. We aren't quite up there with Senua's saga just yet. But in the context of a huge openw world
• 08:00 - 08:30 game that's dozens of hours long with a ton of characters. This is still incredibly impressive. What's more, most of these sections are running at around 100 FPS at these settings. I did a benchmark run in the city of Sanden because that's the kind of place you're likely to experience performance drops and the average still held close to 80 fps and the minimums didn't drop too far below 60. So, I'm going to say this one should stay playable
• 08:30 - 09:00 throughout. The next few games are modern remasters and updated editions of games which were originally released at least 10 years ago. And while Skyrim Special Edition is technically a remaster of the 2011 original, it's not like the new Oblivion remaster. That game's using the old engine, but with a new visual layer built in Unreal Engine 5, whereas Skyrim Remastered is all original code. You could probably do a better job of remastering it yourself
• 09:00 - 09:30 with a few hours downloading stuff from Nexus Mods. Modding games is a huge topic and far too big to cover in this video, however, so I'm settling for the 2016 special edition. Being based on a game that's almost a decade and a half old, even the remastered Skyrim runs on a potato, and I was able to crank up to ultra settings and still hit the 60 fps cap while only running at around 50% utilization. The average modern PC is going to be radical overkill in Skyrim,
• 09:30 - 10:00 at least for 1080 and 1440p. And while only a small minority of gamers play at 4K, that's also pretty trivial for a modern GPU. Still, if you were interested in modding, at least there's plenty of performance overhead here. Aha. But can it run Crisis? Stop. Enough is enough. Leave that brain rot in the past where it belongs. Anyway, Crisis is one of my favorite shooters of the 2000s, and you can still see a lot
• 10:00 - 10:30 of its DNA in modern games. The 2022 remaster is a bit more accessible and friendly to modern PCs and can be rented as part of EA Play, which is also included in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. So again, you might have access to this one and not even know it. Like the original release, Crisis Remastered has a tendency to be overly demanding on the CPU. So despite average performance being very acceptable by firsterson shooter standards, the 1% lows are appalling. This is at the maximum
• 10:30 - 11:00 quality preset, however, with experimental RT enabled to boot. So, there's plenty of room to drop down if you have a slightly weaker system or you want to try to get a more consistent experience. The forthcoming Witcher 4 is to be based on UEIE 5, so I can be quite confident that PC gamers won't love it as much as its predecessor, and it'll probably run like trash on this PC. Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, meanwhile, is a
• 11:00 - 11:30 muchbeloved game that features heavily in Steam sales and even occasionally gets given away for free when CDPR are in a good mood or need to distract you from a disastrous launch. This definitive edition remaster from 2022 can be pretty heavy, adding optional rate tracing for global illumination, shadows, and reflections. This average modern PC does support these features. However, it's not quite up to scratch for a 60fps experience. At 1080p RT
• 11:30 - 12:00 Ultra with quality DLSS, the frame rate is only around 40 fps riding through Novagrad. And only you can decide if that's a playable experience or not. However, without RT, and even without DLSS, this game can still perform the same test at 75 FPS. So, you don't really need to sacrifice performance here. Somehow Rockstar have managed to give away GTA 5 on the Epic Game Store in recent years, as well as give the enhanced edition update away for free
• 12:00 - 12:30 and still have it be about the most profitable media product in history. The new version is apparently a bit more tolerant of high frame rates, too, which is just as well. At 1080p very high, it's averaging 130 FPS with dips down to 70. And while the old version didn't get too problematic until over 180 FPS, it's still nice to have some leeway. I actually played a few missions on the maximum RT preset, and the 4060 handled it like a champ, averaging 75 FPS
• 12:30 - 13:00 without upscaling. I'm not convinced how much rate tracing is actually going on here, though, cuz some of these scenes still look a bit wrong to me. The light on Jimmy doesn't seem right in this scene, and the reflection of this boat seems unrealistic, too. But hey, the game looks great and runs great, too. So, I'm not going to complain too
• 13:00 - 13:30 much. Technically, you do still have to pay to acquire indie games. They don't just fall off trees. But unlike modern AAA titles, you're usually paying a more reasonable price, and your money goes to people who are passionate about what they do and are willing to push the envelope a little. Unfortunately, Dredge is another entry in the Lovecraftian horror fishing genre. Still, if you're not bored of those yet, this one's a lot of fun. Granted, I'm mostly just pottering around in a boat, and so far, the only encounters I've had with
• 13:30 - 14:00 Eldrich Horrors of the Deep have been the stuff I've hopped to the Fishmonger. There's not a whole lot here graphically. So, the average PC turns out a couple hundred FPS at 1080p if you turn off VSYNC, and it could happily run at 1440 or 4K, but I'm not sure you'd be gaining much. Roller Drrome might look like a cell-shaded Tony Hawk game, but it's equally inspired by Doom 2016 and Max Payne, and it's exactly as awesome as
• 14:00 - 14:30 that sounds. Unfortunately, Roller Drromes developers were laid off because of how good and successful it was and the game is no longer available to buy on Steam. So, if you don't already own it, then you'll have to find um other ways of acquiring it. Graphics are not a priority here. Pulling off sick tricks, dodging attacks, and shooting enemies in slow motion are. And Roller Drone manages all this while barely even featuring shading, let alone ray traced ambient occlusion. It's pretty
• 14:30 - 15:00 pixelated, sure, but it's also running at like 500 FPS. If you need a more eloquent recommendation, I'd suggest watching Raceric's video essay. Apparently, roglike car maintenance is a genre now with at least two games in it. The most well-known and more graphically advanced of the two is Pacific Drive. The other is called Keep Driving, but it's 2D pixel art that will run on decade old Intel HD graphics. And
• 15:00 - 15:30 I do want there to be some level of challenge, which Pacific Drive certainly provides. This is an Unreal Engine game, so even though 1080p high is capable of 50 to 80 FPS most of the time, there are a fair number of the expected loading stutters as you progress through the zone. If you want an idea of what to expect from this one, picture something like Subnautica, but set on dry land, and swap the underwater base for a beat up old station wagon. If I had the time,
• 15:30 - 16:00 I could probably see myself giving this one a few days of my life. Though, it is more of a dark and moody piece compared to the colorful serenity of Subnautica. Well, well, well. It's been a long time since I last played Breath of the Waifu on the channel. Genshin Impact used to be a staple of my mini PC and IGPU
• 16:00 - 16:30 reviews back in 2021 and 2022, and it seems like it's just as popular now as it was then. When I reinstalled the game for this video, I couldn't quite recall what my reason was for not paying it more attention over the years, but it soon came back to me. [ __ ] Pon. Anyway, I still haven't really played far beyond the first hour or so, but I do know that it's a cross-platform title with previous gen consoles and mobile, so it's not particularly demanding. I was able to
• 16:30 - 17:00 maximize what quality settings I had access to and hit the 60 FPS limit with about 60% of my GPU's horsepower to spare. Another blast from the past. Actually, I'm a sucker who paid for Rocket League back in the day, but new players get to enjoy it for free. I used to run this as a benchmark for cards like the Radeon HD 7870, so naturally modern GPUs have no issues whatsoever. At 1080p with settings maxed out and
• 17:00 - 17:30 high FXA, we're brushing up against the 300FPS mark with 1% lows still higher than some people's refresh rates. Of course, there's no need to introduce CS2. I was never a CS GO fan. Trying to have a good time in that nest of sweaty hardcore players felt like an exercise in massochism. But whether the matchmaking is more favorable here or there are just more average people playing these days, I don't feel like
• 17:30 - 18:00 CS2 is quite as painful for casual players like myself. Of course, CS2 is harder to get high frame rates in than its predecessor. At 1080p low with FSR turned off, it still only managed a little over 200 FPS on average with 1% lows just over 100. I had an okay time. I've certainly played on worse PCs than this before, but I know some people just aren't going to be happy with less than 400 FPS. Finally, Marvel Rivals kind of
• 18:00 - 18:30 earned itself a bit of a reputation from the beginning by looking like Overwatch, but with the frame rate of a Battlefield or Call of Duty. And while you can get a bit of a boost by dropping reflections and global illumination, it's still not going to be a particularly high refresh experience on an average PC. For this video, I decided to stick with the low preset, which keeps the reflections. And I also use DAA because I haven't really done that in this video, and it's still running in the low 110 FPS range on
• 18:30 - 19:00 average. With everything going on these days, it's easy to feel blackpilled. So, I wanted to make this video as an antidote to all the negativity in the industry lately. This PC might be the average spec according to Valve, but it's also kind of a pariah. Intel lost a lot of goodwill last year, and people with
• 19:00 - 19:30 existing i5s like this one might be left wondering if they're stuck with a dud. The RTX 4060 is one of the most popular GPUs around, but it's also one that Tech Tube has never had anything good to say about. Despite all this, it can actually run some really awesome games at high settings and resolutions without any fuss. And when the news cycle is this bad, it's easy to lose sight of that. This video was a lot of fun to make. I got to play a lot of games I haven't
• 19:30 - 20:00 tried in a while, or even games I've never played before. I lost far too many hours playing Dredge and Outer Wilds, which didn't even make it to the final edit of the video. If this does well, I might have a look at what can be done with a far cheaper PC. Though, I did already make a video like that back in 2023 when it felt like every new game release was too much for the average PC to handle. Check out that video on screen now. Thanks for watching. Kindly do the usual YouTube things if you feel so inclined, and I'll see you next time.