Old Software on Current Hardware

Current computers will typically be updated to the newest OS, which is where incompatibility may occur as the software developer would’ve designed the program on an older version of the OS. Additionally, the old software would most likely not be able to take advantage of the newer hardware (e.g. more RAM, higher processing power).

New Software on Old Hardware

Since most new software is likely to have been developed and tested on new computers with more RAM, better graphics, and more powerful CPUs, older devices may not meet the minimum system requirements to run the software. Therefore, it could result in slow performance, crashes, or it may not even boot up at all.