For all you naysayers - PC gaming soon to dominate consoles

[The Chaver]

No you can't.

You constantly have to upgrade. Why do you think people instantly ask the question "can my pc run this" when a new game is announced?

I'm very well aware of that and I think you're missing my point.. If they put a generation old graphics card in there, won't console fans be even more worse off than if they put in present gen card?

My point is - they're not future proofing their system by putting a 6000 series graphics card in it. Yes I understand that it's going to be 6 times more powerful than their last console (360) But believe me, that aint saying or doing much for it. Making it only 6 times faster than the current system is not going to do much, especially when a years time passes and games have made that next leap forward. We will be stuck with same dumbed down graphics once again, if not right off the bat.

But now I know why they call it the next generation of "gaming consoles" and not the next generation in gaming. Lol.

 

[The Chaver]

dont play as often these days, but every once and a while i get the urge to smash sum Nazi Zombies, the XBox quenches that thirst perfectly

I play it on the PC. I got all the DLC's on sale via Steam for a under $2 a pop. Dam, I was paying over $10 on the 360.

 

[willocrew]

I'm very well aware of that and I think you're missing my point.. If they put a generation old graphics card in there, won't console fans be even more worse off than if they put in present gen card?

My point is - they're not future proofing their system by putting a 6000 series graphics card in it. Yes I understand that it's going to be 6 times more powerful than their last console (360) But believe me, that aint saying or doing much for it. Making it only 6 times faster than the current system is not going to do much, especially when a years time passes and games have made that next leap forward. We will be stuck with same dumbed down graphics once again, if not right off the bat.

But now I know why they call it the next generation of "gaming consoles" and not the next generation in gaming. Lol.

Not sure if you realize this but console gaming is really about convenience. PC gaming is closely intertwined with the computer tech hobby. If you like PC gaming you had better be a PC techno-phile who enjoys spending hours and hours reading up on hardware info and troubleshooting guides. Otherwise you had better have some deep pockets cuz alienware etc don't come cheap.

With console gaming it is simple...you plug and play. There is little tech trouble. All the tech trouble is done on the developers end: they are the ones who need to do all the number crunching and programming magic to try to squeeze performance out of the existing console hardware. The consumer just plugs and play or go online and complain and wait for patches.

PC Gaming and the associated tech aspect to it is VERY time consuming. You need to read up and keep up to date. Some people enjoy it but most don't or don't have the time cuz they are so busy with work they just wanna chill and play a game rather than work on how they can get their game to work.

And because of this, PC gaming will ALWAYS remain a niche hobby.

 

[THX-182]

Not sure if you realize this but console gaming is really about convenience. PC gaming is closely intertwined with the computer tech hobby. If you like PC gaming you had better be a PC techno-phile who enjoys spending hours and hours reading up on hardware info and troubleshooting guides. Otherwise you had better have some deep pockets cuz alienware etc don't come cheap.

With console gaming it is simple...you plug and play. There is little tech trouble. All the tech trouble is done on the developers end: they are the ones who need to do all the number crunching and programming magic to try to squeeze performance out of the existing console hardware. The consumer just plugs and play or go online and complain and wait for patches.

PC Gaming and the associated tech aspect to it is VERY time consuming. You need to read up and keep up to date. Some people enjoy it but most don't or don't have the time cuz they are so busy with work they just wanna chill and play a game rather than work on how they can get their game to work.

And because of this, PC gaming will ALWAYS remain a niche hobby.

I agree with all of this. PC Gaming will never be ahead of console gaming because it becomes too complicated. Far too many people prefer the convenience of plug in and play consoles over a PC where they have to buy new upgrades, deal with virus problems, and have general operating system updates and slowdowns to deal with.

Not everyone is a PC tech wiz.

 

[gagaliya]

i cant stand playing fps on a console, still havent figured out how the **** you aim with a thumb controller. It's unplayable to me... and the big tv screen doesnt have that closeness you get for staring at a blur free monitor 6 inches away when playing deep games like rpg/strategy.

The only games i play on the console are racing games, street fighter types and a few japanese rpg, i think for those the console is perfectly suited for it. Everything else it's always the PC...

My next pc will probably be an iMac instead of a traditional heavy duty gamer pc, you may be surprised to learn iMac has a very decent graphic card(6970M 2GB) and can handle all the modern games thrown at it, and the new version will be even better, minus turning your desk into a matrix-like lab. Hopefully the new version comes out before diablo3 hits.

 

[willocrew]

Also just to add, if you're a hard core gamer, a PC might actually be cheaper in the long run even if you buy original all the way. Naturally, if you were to just download it illegally it would be even cheaper, but needless to say, all of us on these boards are IP respecting netizens so im sure that point is irrelevant.

With consoles on the other hand, it might actually get quite expensive if you buy lots of game. But I think this isn't such a big problem given how developers these days try to make games that have a running length of around 7hours. I can simply wait a few months for Arkham City to go on the rack and rent it for $4 and play it for 7 days and then return it and rent another.

So despite the possibility of console gaming being more expensive in the long run, the availability of game rentals allows you to alleviate that problem a bit.

IMO, console gamng is really the way to go for the busy adult gamer who is no longer in college and has bills to pay. But of course, every now and then you get thos monumental games like BF3 and Skyrim that really justifies plonking down some cash for an Alienware or the time and effort involved in building your own game PC.

 

[darthviper107]

I'm very well aware of that and I think you're missing my point.. If they put a generation old graphics card in there, won't console fans be even more worse off than if they put in present gen card?

My point is - they're not future proofing their system by putting a 6000 series graphics card in it. Yes I understand that it's going to be 6 times more powerful than their last console (360) But believe me, that aint saying or doing much for it. Making it only 6 times faster than the current system is not going to do much, especially when a years time passes and games have made that next leap forward. We will be stuck with same dumbed down graphics once again, if not right off the bat.

But now I know why they call it the next generation of "gaming consoles" and not the next generation in gaming. Lol.

The thing is that even with lower-powered hardware, they can optimize games way way better than PC. Like compare games that are on consoles now, they do so much with that hardware, and the PC games don't improve all that much on it. With 6x the power they can do way more and the results will be ahead of PC's for a while. The main thing is that they can greatly improve over last generation hardware and keep the price reasonable (since they waited so long to make new consoles, they can get high power for low price).

 

[gagaliya]

The thing is that even with lower-powered hardware, they can optimize games way way better than PC. Like compare games that are on consoles now, they do so much with that hardware, and the PC games don't improve all that much on it. With 6x the power they can do way more and the results will be ahead of PC's for a while. The main thing is that they can greatly improve over last generation hardware and keep the price reasonable (since they waited so long to make new consoles, they can get high power for low price).

obviously because console is only 1 hardware the developers need to deal with, but for pc it's everything and the kitchen sink. But the current generation of graphic cards on PC is 6-10 times more powerful than the ps3/xbox360 and as such it can run the game at beyond 1080p, ultra high texture, anti-alias, much further draw distance etc.. end result is a much better looking game. Try skyrim on max setting on a pc then look at the console version,

Also i dont get why everyone keep saying it's "more difficult" with the pc, to me it's MUCH EASIER - you double click the game icon and the game runs... vs putting in the cd and wait forever for the damn thing to load on a console. And if you have a good pair of ssd in raid0 setup, the game loads almost instantly ready to play.

Yes there is a one-time install/download on the pc, but most console games nowdays also require you to download a large chunk of its cache. /shrug

 

[hairlesswookiee]

Not sure if you realize this but console gaming is really about convenience. PC gaming is closely intertwined with the computer tech hobby. If you like PC gaming you had better be a PC techno-phile who enjoys spending hours and hours reading up on hardware info and troubleshooting guides. Otherwise you had better have some deep pockets cuz alienware etc don't come cheap.

With console gaming it is simple...you plug and play. There is little tech trouble. All the tech trouble is done on the developers end: they are the ones who need to do all the number crunching and programming magic to try to squeeze performance out of the existing console hardware. The consumer just plugs and play or go online and complain and wait for patches.

PC Gaming and the associated tech aspect to it is VERY time consuming. You need to read up and keep up to date. Some people enjoy it but most don't or don't have the time cuz they are so busy with work they just wanna chill and play a game rather than work on how they can get their game to work.

And because of this, PC gaming will ALWAYS remain a niche hobby.

Ding Ding!! I agree. PC gamers seem to always have justification for their computers, and most will always present themselves as elitists.

 

[darthviper107]

obviously because console is only 1 hardware the developers need to deal with, but for pc it's everything and the kitchen sink. But the current generation of graphic cards on PC is 6-10 times more powerful than the ps3/xbox360 and as such it can run the game at beyond 1080p, ultra high texture, anti-alias, much further draw distance etc.. end result is a much better looking game. Try skyrim on max setting on a pc then look at the console version,

Also i dont get why everyone keep saying it's "more difficult" with the pc, to me it's MUCH EASIER - you double click the game icon and the game runs... vs putting in the cd and wait forever for the damn thing to load on a console. And if you have a good pair of ssd in raid0 setup, the game loads almost instantly ready to play.

Yes there is a one-time install/download on the pc, but most console games nowdays also require you to download a large chunk of its cache. /shrug

The thing is, since consoles aren't as powerful as the PC, whenever they release a game on both they tend to not do much to optimize for PC, and since there's not many studios really working on high-end PC games, it's much slower for the creation of games that are all that much graphically superior to games designed for console.

With a small hardware upgrade, consoles can have just as good of graphics and as you said since the hardware is set they can better optimize the games for it.

As to the ease of PC vs. console--on Xbox there's no installation, and in my experience there's not a ton of speed improvement for loading games. To me it's not really easier. But the experience playing games is better though.

 

[The Chaver]

The thing is, since consoles aren't as powerful as the PC, whenever they release a game on both they tend to not do much to optimize for PC, and since there's not many studios really working on high-end PC games, it's much slower for the creation of games that are all that much graphically superior to games designed for console.

With a small hardware upgrade, consoles can have just as good of graphics and as you said since the hardware is set they can better optimize the games for it.

As to the ease of PC vs. console--on Xbox there's no installation, and in my experience there's not a ton of speed improvement for loading games. To me it's not really easier. But the experience playing games is better though.

Console games, which are ports, have more than 80% of there features turned down. If you play that same game which when it is made specifically for the PC hardware, you have the option of turning up or lowering those features to your hardwares specs. But, if you have a high spec system, you can really have and enjoy a more vibrant and textured experience.

So yes, a game like Skyrim is playable with the hardware specs of the say a 360. But let's say the game isn't a port, and you did try to play Skyim on even just high settings with you Xbox, your gaming experience would be, in a word, retarded.

 

[darthviper107]

Of course, right now consoles aren't nearly as powerful as PC.

But--take the same hardware from an Xbox and put it in a PC and you wouldn't be able to run games like Skyrim at all

 

[kazukijun]

As to the ease of PC vs. console--on Xbox there's no installation, and in my experience there's not a ton of speed improvement for loading games. To me it's not really easier. But the experience playing games is better though.

Take Skyrim for example. It takes about 50secs to load it up on the xbox, while on my PC, its about 18 secs. And loading times between towns/house/inns or fast travel is 5 secs on my PC, while on the xbox its about 20+ secs.

And thats only cos my PC is a middle range one, on a really fast PC, load times are as short as less than 10 secs.

Check out the following videos posted online.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdvMUoTFdZM[/ame]
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQwkoc6Ivlg&feature=related[/ame]

 

[The Chaver]

Take Skyrim for example. It takes about 50secs to load it up on the xbox, while on my PC, its about 18 secs. And loading times between towns/house/inns or fast travel is 5 secs on my PC, while on the xbox its about 20+ secs.

And thats only cos my PC is a middle range one, on a really fast PC, load times are as short as less than 10 secs.

Check out the following videos posted online.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdvMUoTFdZM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQwkoc6Ivlg&feature=related

Yeah, my PC loads the game in like 4 secs and the fast travel would be instantaneous.

 

[The Chaver]

I really need to get an SSD.

 

[kazukijun]

I really need to get an SSD.

Me too!
But SSDs are still way too expensive, gonna wait a little longer till their prices become like current HDDs where a dollar is equivalent to 1 GB or less.

 

[gagaliya]

Me too!
But SSDs are still way too expensive, gonna wait a little longer till their prices become like current HDDs where a dollar is equivalent to 1 GB or less.

people still dont realize hard drive is the single biggest bottleneck in a pc. Everyone is so focused on cpu and memory due to marketing gimmicks by the big pc makers, when in reality once you hit a certain threshold they mean very little in term of actual performance. I rather have an i3 with a ssd than an i7 using a 7200rpm.

Nowdays you can buy 2x 120gb good performing ssd for ~$400, set them up in raid 0 and it will be the best money you can ever spend on a computer besides graphic card (if you have a really old one). You can then hook up a 1tb regular hdd for all your porns and stuff

 

[The Chaver]

people still dont realize hard drive is the single biggest bottleneck in a pc. Everyone is so focused on cpu and memory due to marketing gimmicks by the big pc makers, when in reality once you hit a certain threshold they mean very little in term of actual performance. I rather have an i3 with a ssd than an i7 using a 7200rpm.

Nowdays you can buy 2x 120gb good performing ssd for ~$400, set them up in raid 0 and it will be the best money you can ever spend on a computer besides graphic card (if you have a really old one). You can then hook up a 1tb regular hdd for all your porns and stuff

Yeah, this was something I was ingnorant to right when I built my rig. Should have been a priority from the get go. Now as you said I plan to get an SSD before I get my second GPU.

 

[DeadLeaves]

I put a 120Gb SSD in my new comp for the OS and just a select few games I'm gonna play more often than others.

Let me tell you, that sucker is fast. Gagaliya is right, if you want to get the most out of you new machine get a SSD.

 

[Drakul]

I'm a PC gamer as much as I'm a console gamer.
FPS-RTS-Point n Clicks on PC
Action, Platform, Fighting... on console

Though I play much less on PC lately mostly because we only have one desktop and need to share with the wife.