8 years is no longer forever in PC terms. It used to be you could only go a couple years before your computer could no longer run anything but that's no longer the case.
For an example, I usually build a PC once the older one is horribly outdated. So that was 1999, 2002, 2006, 2011, and ... Well that one has turned into the PC of Theseus. I upgraded to an SSD and $300 video card in 2018, and in 2022 I bought a new cpu/mobo/ram. Still plays games at 1440p at acceptable frame rates.
If I wanted to game at 4k 240Hz, yeah I'd probably have to spend $3500 (and it still wouldn't run that great) which just tells me that 4k gaming isn't ready for prime time
Generally I agree. However, I saw negligible performance improvement from getting a ten year newer mobo/cpu/ram, so the previous trend didn't apply. I only upgraded because there were some system stability issues (probably ram caused, but buying new ddr3 ram in an attempt to fix it seemed a waste). From a performance point of view, the new GPU and SSD in 2018 were the new computer experience.
For an example, I usually build a PC once the older one is horribly outdated. So that was 1999, 2002, 2006, 2011, and ... Well that one has turned into the PC of Theseus. I upgraded to an SSD and $300 video card in 2018, and in 2022 I bought a new cpu/mobo/ram. Still plays games at 1440p at acceptable frame rates.
If I wanted to game at 4k 240Hz, yeah I'd probably have to spend $3500 (and it still wouldn't run that great) which just tells me that 4k gaming isn't ready for prime time