I have wasted my high-end PC's potential

Do you sometimes feel you bought something just for the sake of it, and never really used it to the fullest? Well, that's how I feel about my current gaming PC — the only difference being that I never paid for it. It might be a prize for a PC building competition, but I still feel I've wasted its potential, letting three years go to waste without ever tapping into all the power it had. With an RTX 3080 and Ryzen 7 5700X, I should have played more games than I ever did, experimented with non-gaming workloads, and learned new skills.

I never dabbled in non-gaming workloads

AI, Blender, and more

The RTX 3080 and Ryzen 7 5700X might not be anywhere near top-of-the-line right now, but back in 2022, they were pretty powerful components. By any definition, I had a high-end PC on my hands, and the world was my oyster. However, I never used all that power for any intensive workloads like serious video editing, 3D rendering, or running local LLMs or image generation models. I edited a few videos for my business and tried my hand at basic animations in Blender, but that was it.

Learning new skills is something each one of us should take seriously, but I never made use of this machine that I got for free. I could have added visual design or 3D modeling to my repertoire, creating additional income streams by selling my services. Alternatively, I could have at least mastered video editing to do a better job on my personal videos. I haven't even done a lot of game streaming outside of occasional streams for friends on Discord.

I've only played a handful of demanding games

All that power, and for what?

Even the one thing that I should have used my PC for ended up becoming a rare pastime. In these three years, I would have played less than 10 truly demanding games on this PC, titles that truly made use of its capabilities. I can only recall Cyberpunk 2077, Microsoft Flight Simulator, Alan Wake 2, Dying Light 2 Stay Human, A Plague Tale: Requiem, and Dead Space (2023). I've probably spent the most hours in a browser game called Smash Karts.

Of course, I played many other games during this time, but none of those stressed my PC at all. My backlog still has must-play titles like Senua's Saga: Hellblade II, Ghost of Tsushima, Silent Hill 2 (2024), God of War Ragnarok, Hogwarts Legacy, and Black Myth: Wukong. I wonder what I've been doing with my time all these years. Work consumes around 6 to 8 hours a day, but I still have free time left at the end of the day. It seems like I have let my PC down by not respecting what I had.

I mostly use it for work and browsing the web

The life of a 30-something gamer

I never thought I'd become one of those guys who struggle to find time for gaming, but here we are. For the last three years, I've been spending fewer hours on gaming than ever, focusing more on writing, watching YouTube, and managing my finances on my PC. I still manage to join my friends for a multiplayer session of GTFO or The Outlast Trials once a month, but that's about it.

I've been taking on more work than usual, and this leaves me with little mental space even in my free time to think about launching a game. I have tried to carve out a dedicated slot on the weekend to play older titles like GTA V, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, or Black Mesa, but so far, I haven't been able to make it consistent. There's also the fact that I have to juggle other interests, like playing Squash, reading, clearing my movies and TV series backlog, and spending time with my partner.

The saddest part about it all, perhaps, is the realization that my younger self would have dreamed of having a PC like this. And now, when I finally have it, I don't have the time or the inclination to spend hours playing the games I really want to.

Is there still time to make things right?

I might have wasted a lot of time that I had with my current PC, but it might be possible to make amends. The biggest complaint I have with myself is that I haven't spent more time gaming or learning new skills on my PC. If I manage to optimize my workflow to free up an extra hour or two every day, I can easily finish at least two campaigns every month. As for mastering video editing or 3D modeling, I need to create a strong motivation to learn these skills. Maybe creating a new service offering that combines writing and visual design is the way to go.