PC Gaming is Dead to me. Let me tell you why.

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KeypoX

Diamond Member
Aug 31, 2003
3,655
0
71
Originally posted by: Liet
Huh? I've got a single 8800 GT, a Q6600, and 4GB of 5-4-4-12 800, and everything runs flawlessly. Your alarmist "OH GOD, 3 MONTH UPGRADE CYCLE!" numbers are off.

huh? 8800gt ($100), Q6600(200), 4gb (15) = 315 cost more than a console that will last much longer than 1 year. Not to mention the other parts you need.

PC gaming is way overpriced. And will die, anyone in there right mind will switch. But a lot of PC gamers are not in there right mind. Also the problems with PC gaming lately... GTA, FAllout all the crappy ports of great great games.

Upgrading your PC every couple years is very excessive. Just replaced my grandmas computer IBM running windows 95. Because no printer drivers for 95. She did not need a new computer but o well hopefully this one will last mroe than a couple years till they stop making drivers for vista. (no way could i install linux, she would not want to try or learn anything new)

I see many people saying buy this or that its so cheap blah blah blah blah. It will last for 2 years. But you forget the other upgrades you will need. So every 2 years you will need to spend more than a new console. Just to run your games at med settings.

Also did anyoen see the PC vs XBox vs PS3 graphics comparison on gamespot? Yeah PC looks the worst... http://www.gamespot.com/featur...ml?tag=topslot;thumb;4

I just bought a 4870 :(. I just like pc better lol. But it is not the smart buy
 

TehMac

Diamond Member
Aug 18, 2006
9,979
3
71
Originally posted by: ShawnD1
Originally posted by: coldmeat
Originally posted by: ShawnD1
Originally posted by: AbAbber2k
OP is dumb if he thinks he has to upgrade every 3mo just to "keep up" :roll: Only an idiot with too much money would constantly upgrade to all the high end enthusiast shit.

Oh the irony. This forum's video card section is loaded with the people you are talking about.

That's not irony.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/irony
"an outcome of events contrary to what was, or might have been, expected."

Anandtech is a hardware forum filled with people who hate hardware enthusiasts.

I wouldn't say that, I'd say we're simply adverse to spending money needlessly for little gain or future potential.

Originally posted by: EnzoLT
for me, its not the hardware, its the software. where are the games?~?!?!?

2009, baby.


Also, PC Gaming is awesome because all the classics are on there. Caesar 3 came out almost 10 years ago, yet I can run it on a PC. To run an xbox game on an xbox 360, you need a converter...yeah...

I am also playing Caesar 4 atm, a game released in 2006, and it's pretty kewl. It's engrossing, but I'm afraid not very well optimized. I have to wait for it to get started before it starts to run seamlessly.
 

PieIsAwesome

Diamond Member
Feb 11, 2007
4,054
1
0
Much of the reasons for the "PC gaming is dying" argument are debatable, but indisputable (ok, well almost) is the ease of use consoles have over PCs. The variety of hardware and software on PCs can cause all sorts of unexpected problems.

Some of my experiences, for example...

Yesterday, after installing the video drivers for a new card that I got, Catalyst control center would not work due to some .NET Framework 2.0 bug. After googling and researching the problem no solution was found and I instead went with ATITT.

Probably my fault for not doing enough research (though, having to spend times extensively researching things is another area where consoles have the upper hand), my new card was loud as hell. More research, no solution found, had to modify the fan to run at 5v.

Sometimes a LAN with other people just wont work. I can see X but Y cannot see X. This game works but not this one. Troubleshooting eats up time. I should mention that my own LAN seems to work quite flawlessly, so this may be a problem with other people's LAN/network setups.

Games can have sever bugs which need a patch that can involve a long time downloading or installing in order to be solved, or are not solved at all. Mass Effect has a weird pixelated light glitch, for example, which I found no solution for last time I checked. Battlefield 2142 gave me some weird graphical anomolies with a 7600gt I was using on my htpc, even though I had no problems outside of the game. UT3 would not work under XP x64 without some patching and/or modification.

Games need to be installed.

Everytime I start a new PC game, the first thing I instinctively do is head to the options menu and adjust the graphics settings, and depending on the game, fiddle with the settings to get the best performance/image quality balance. This can take quite a while depending on the game, some games allow you to change settings in game and immediately see the effects, others require you to restart the whole game. On a console, I simply start playing.

I suppose the good thing is that if a problem does occur on the PC, it can be solved by the user rather than sending off the entire system to some place for 3 weeks. On the other hand, simply sending the system away for repair lets someone else do all the troubleshooting and repair.

With all this said I still prefer PC. Controller/analog sticks for FPS and shallow mainstream games FTL. I don't know if this is my 360 or if this is normal, but 360 framerates are terrible. I was playing splitscreen Horde in GoW 2 a couple days ago with a friend and it became quite the chopfest.
 

zerocool84

Lifer
Nov 11, 2004
36,041
472
126
How about I end this discussion???

PC gaming is a hobby. An more expensive hobby than console gaming but it's a hobby. You need a computer in this day and age. Maybe your grandma might be able to use a 4yr old system but I will not. It is a hobby and enjoyable to me to upgrade stuff. Console is more for the masses as it's ease of use. I enjoy having better graphics and a mouse for my fps's. Also the mod community is 10000000x better on PC. You can get a whole new game just out of some simple mods. Consoles are just starting out in this aspect.
 

Bonesdad

Platinum Member
Nov 18, 2002
2,213
0
76
Originally posted by: Liet
Huh? I've got a single 8800 GT, a Q6600, and 4GB of 5-4-4-12 800, and everything runs flawlessly. Your alarmist "OH GOD, 3 MONTH UPGRADE CYCLE!" numbers are off.

ditto for me...while I agree the pace of upgrades is a bit ridiculous, I feel no pressure to bow to the latest and greatest. Besides, for me, the best gaming experience is in the gamePLAY, not the visuals. Great visuals can surely enhance a good experience, but they CANNOT make a good experience. Only good writers and developers can do that. I'll be with my 8800 GTS for at least another year or two (OK, maybe less if I get a big bonus...but in this economy, that's doubtful!)

You have 2 8800's in SLI and you feel like your obsolete? Jeez...
 

WaitingForNehalem

Platinum Member
Aug 24, 2008
2,497
0
71
Originally posted by: KeypoX
Originally posted by: Liet
Huh? I've got a single 8800 GT, a Q6600, and 4GB of 5-4-4-12 800, and everything runs flawlessly. Your alarmist "OH GOD, 3 MONTH UPGRADE CYCLE!" numbers are off.

huh? 8800gt ($100), Q6600(200), 4gb (15) = 315 cost more than a console that will last much longer than 1 year. Not to mention the other parts you need.

PC gaming is way overpriced. And will die, anyone in there right mind will switch. But a lot of PC gamers are not in there right mind. Also the problems with PC gaming lately... GTA, FAllout all the crappy ports of great great games.

Upgrading your PC every couple years is very excessive. Just replaced my grandmas computer IBM running windows 95. Because no printer drivers for 95. She did not need a new computer but o well hopefully this one will last mroe than a couple years till they stop making drivers for vista. (no way could i install linux, she would not want to try or learn anything new)

I see many people saying buy this or that its so cheap blah blah blah blah. It will last for 2 years. But you forget the other upgrades you will need. So every 2 years you will need to spend more than a new console. Just to run your games at med settings.

Also did anyoen see the PC vs XBox vs PS3 graphics comparison on gamespot? Yeah PC looks the worst... http://www.gamespot.com/featur...ml?tag=topslot;thumb;4

I just bought a 4870 :(. I just like pc better lol. But it is not the smart buy

Did you even look at the comparison?

In what will come as no surprise, the PC shames both consoles in the image-quality comparison. Everything from the textures to the antialiasing to the reflections looks better on the PC. Foliage, piping, and far-off buildings look far superior on the PC due to transparency antialiasing effects. Even draw distance is better on the PC, as the rocks and a fence near the burned-out bus aren't even visible on the consoles.

Once again, the PC is the overall champ here. A high-end video card goes a long way when it comes to running a game at insanely high resolutions with detailed textures and superior antialiasing. Objects in the seating area and the sheets of paper in the middle of the room get blurrier and blurrier as you switch between the platforms. Even the text readout that's practically in front of your character's face looks better on the PC.

The platforms look largely the same, except that the PC edges out both of the consoles in antialiasing and textures, which you can see in higher detailed surfaces and smoother edges in the PC shots.

GTAIV is the one game we tested for this comparison that didn't let us max out the image-quality settings on the PC. At the moment, no video card has enough RAM to load up high-quality textures with high resolutions at maximum-quality settings. We could, however, load up medium textures with very high-quality rendering and mostly maxed-out sliders. Surprisingly, GTAIV does not support antialiasing in any form, which heavily detracts from the game because the city environment has a lot of hard edges, wires, and random foliage. Even with all the problems, GTAIV looks better on the PC by a wide margin. The PC's high resolution and draw-distance levels keep higher-quality textures, lighting, and transparency effects visible farther into the distance.
 

A Casual Fitz

Diamond Member
May 16, 2005
4,654
1,018
136
Originally posted by: CKent
Consoles a guarantee? RROD?

Better yet, think of how awful games looked on the PS2 in the few years preceding the ps3, compared to what even a modest and aged PC could do.

Exactly, thus PC gaming's prime time. I barely game on my PC now but I did pre-360.
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
It makes me cry that my PC cannot handle two World of Warcrafts open in Dalaran (the new main city) at once... I literally crawl at 10-15 fps on each with the following PC:

Q6600
4GB OCZ Plat. DDR2-800
HD4870 512MB (I think this is the culprit... the low amount of vram)

It'd probably also help if I finally sent my dead raptor back to WD as HDD accessing is high in WoW.
 

AzN

Banned
Nov 26, 2001
4,112
2
0
You don't need to upgrade your computer to play games.

The way it works is you buy a console and the graphics never get any better within it's boundaries. With PC you can get the same experience by buying a graphic card and not upgrade for 3 years.
 

evident

Lifer
Apr 5, 2005
11,894
496
126
i want to see the OP's response to this. his allegations are ridiculous. as everyone said, you don't need to upgrade everytime theres something better.