John Ndlovu
The development of windows has been the pillar of evolution of computers whose availability have played an important role over the years in easing service provision from households through to institutions such as schools, shops and organizations.
Windows is a graphical operating system developed by Microsoft. It allows users to view and store files, run the software, play games, watch videos, and provides a way to connect to the internet. It was released for both home computing and professional works.
Computers were developed for commercial purposes. Windows therefore came in to make sure that all households have access to computers as this is evidenced by development of different types of computing devices found at reasonable costs such as tablets, laptops and Macbooks which are also portable in addition to desktops.
Gaming seems to be the most priceless aspect bringing in more revenue for the computer developers.
Computer software or operating system development is mostly influenced by application compatibility thus ability to operate and work on that machine without any problems.
An operating system is software that enables applications to interact with a computer’s hardware.
Zim GBC News obtained comments from computer and I.T technicians on the subject who confirmed that indeed gaming is contributing immensely towards sales of computers as the latter would need to be constantly upgraded due to advancement of those games and they would need more utilities such as graphic cards, Non Volatile Memory Excess(Nvme), Solid State Drive, Compatible RAM, power supply and installation of more lighting on the computers which would amass huge costs for buyers, therefore leading to high costs.
A RAM(Random Access Memory)is a hardware device that is located on the motherboard of a computer whose purpose is to ensure Central Processing Unit(CPU) store data, program and program results. Information can be written and read from it, it is also volatile in nature.
A graphic card is an expansion card for a Personal Computer that is responsible for rendering images to the display.
“Gaming brings more money to computer manufacturers and developers as gamers would need to have more utilities and certain conditions to meet up with game standards and requirements. The most critical one is the graphic card whose main purpose is to focus on system graphics as the inboard graphic may not have adequate power to run well for example I can purchase a laptop for US$300, graphic card for US$250 whilst a power supply for the graphics to boost power supply on the computer would go for US$200 thus amounting to a total of US$750 whereas a simple computer for domestic purposes without any additional utilities will be much cheaper.” Stated Muziwethu Dube(not his real name) a computer technician in Bulawayo
“Gamers also contribute much towards computer sales as they are obliged to constantly upgrade their computers for example FIFA players, FIFA constantly advances from one addition to another as it would also require more Random Access Memory and much advanced graphic cards for example FIFA 17 requires 8 Gig Ram, 64-bit Operating system and 50 Gig Hard drive space whilst fifa 23 requires OS: 64-bit Windows 10.
Processor (AMD): Ryzen 7 2700X or Equivalent.
Processor (Intel): Core i7 6700 or Equivalent.
Memory: 12 GB.
Graphics card (AMD): Radeon RX 5600 XT or Equivalent.
Graphics card (NVIDIA): GeForce GTX 1660 or Equivalent.
DirectX: 12 Compatible video card or equivalent (feature level 12_0, so you can see there is a huge gap between the two henceforth gaming immensely contributes to high sales of computers.”Dube added
Gamers over the years have made strides in upgrading computer games in such a way that they are animated into real humans and its accessories have excellent graphics which are super exceptional henceforth an advanced and compatible RAM and graphic card would be 9f paramount significance to ensure that games function well on the computer without any glitches or freezing of the device, for example FIFA over the years have been upgraded with real commentary, realistic playing turfs, realistic player celebrations, lineups and even tournaments for example in fifa 2023 women’s national teams and clubs were added something which was utopian in previous editions such as FIFA 2006 which shows that FIFA is going toe to toe with current developments. So this therefore attracts more enthusiasts to purchase gaming computers with compatible utilities.
Lucky Ncube another computer repair personnel from Nkulumane suburbs also agreed that gamers indeed contribute more on computer sales as he said that upgrading of computer RAM, operating systems, windows, graphic cards and even lighting by gamers is the main aspect that increases computer costs or revenue as the latter would pocket huge sums of money to constantly upgrade and also purchase a computer with utilities compatible to those games.
“Indeed evolution of gaming has played an important role towards generating high revenue for computer developers as more utilities are required to meet games requirements especially in present day characterised by spontaneously online gaming and evolution of the internet as purchase of Non Volatile Memory Excess(Nvme), graphic cards, lighting accessories for computers for stylish and the Solid State Drive(SSD) would lead to high prices of the laptop as laptops containing those accessories will be very expensive.”Lucky stated.
Lancelot Sibanda, gaming enthusiast however argued that Zimbabweans have the capability to purchase gaming machines (computers) due to lack of adequate knowledge on the specifics such as graphic cards.
“In Zimbabwe I can’t confirm that people can purchase gaming machines as they don’t have adequate knowledge on them and as you can see our economy is very critical so most gamers would prefer to patch games such as FIFA and play rather than constantly upgrading and buying graphic cards and other utilities for games as long as I would be playing, others resort to playing games at game shops such as here, as you can see it is in full capacity people are queuing waiting for their turn.”
The FIFA 23 enthusiast further elucidated that gaming is really an advantage to computer developers especially coders.
“Gaming brings more money and employment to those who code games as coders use their skills to develop new games. However gaming is very addictive therefore it needs self control.”Lancelot told Zim GBC News.
Ralph Ncube another gamer stated that each computer generation and version brings its own set of utilities ranging from space, software or application compatibility and battery life.
“Every advanced version of a computer comes with its own carrying capacity and compatibility to applications. The more advanced it is, the more it is able to carry updates or softwares for example some games like FIFA 20 require a Random Access Memory (RAM) of 16 Gigabyte and hard drive carrying capacity of more than 30 Gigabyte. Some applications like FIFA 23 won’t play on a iCo3 laptop but perform well on a iCo7. Sometimes installing big applications or those which are incompatible in a computer may slower it in terms of operation and even decrease its performance.” Ralph said.
Non-volatile Memory Excess is a host controller interface and storage protocol created to accelerate the data speeds between enterprise and client systems.
The economic crisis in Zimbabwe makes it very expensive for most of people to own adequate gaming components for their personal computers. They mostly use them(personal computers) for watching movies, academic and office purposes