I feel like high-end PC gaming, trying to maximize graphics of brand new titles has always been a silly dick-measuring competition.

For me the sweet spot of games is 2-8 years old. Reviews are out, so you can skip the crap. Patches have been released to fix bugs. And everything that has stood the test of time runs pretty well on low- to mid-tier hardware by now.

Dust off those games in your steam library that you never touched before.