PC Gaming on HDTVs (Emulating the Console Experience)

[tential]

I'm in the midst of preparing to buy a HTPC. The goal of this PC is in fact a do it all PC. I currently have a 360, and my laptop which is always connected to my TV and that is how I watch all my movies and TV.

The Goal: To have my PC do it all
I have a 70 inch television and I was excited to fire it up and play Xbox 360 games. Now though, I can see every imperfection and the limitations of Console hardware, which is never updated and is always vastly outdated compared to a PC. Skyrim looks better on my laptop than it does on Xbox 360.

I'm wondering if it's possible to add a GFX card to my HTPC, and a wireless controller, and be able to basically emulate the feel of playing console games, except with MUCH better graphics quality. Is this possible or will a HDTV hold me back. Not compared to PC gaming which I understand will be able to achieve higher resolutions on smaller monitors producing a crisper image, but compared to console gaming.

Thanks!

 

[Annisman*]

Absolutely go for it! I plopped a gtx 650 ti in my htpc, which is a very inexpensive card, and play many games (usually third person or racing games) on my 55 inch hdtv with a wired 360 controller. because you are clearly looking for superior graphics, you should spring for a more powerful card than the one I have though. If you have steam, download the steam big picture beta and be prepared to be blown away by their television interface, it's just the cherry on top.

 

[tweakboy]

You can do it, but it WILL NOT look as good as pure PC Monitor.

Gaming is excellent pictures are excellent.

Text is horrible. So you cant do web browsing on it but Gaming will be great, especially if you have low latency. There will be ghosting and unsmoothness on FPS games.

gl

 

[Soundmanred]

You can do it, but it WILL NOT look as good as pure PC Monitor.

Gaming is excellent pictures are excellent.

Text is horrible. So you cant do web browsing on it but Gaming will be great, especially if you have low latency. There will be ghosting and unsmoothness on FPS games.

gl

More unexperienced BS.
I've been doing it for years.
Doing it now on a 65" LCD.

 

[jacktesterson]

You can do it, but it WILL NOT look as good as pure PC Monitor.

Gaming is excellent pictures are excellent.

Text is horrible. So you cant do web browsing on it but Gaming will be great, especially if you have low latency. There will be ghosting and unsmoothness on FPS games.

gl

Wrong.

 

[tokie]

I plan on hooking up my computer to a 46" plasma.

I'm concerned about the text without 4:4:4 subsampling, but I'm not sure how bad it is.

I would be playing games like BF3, Dota 2, etc with wireless keyboard/mouse.

 

[jacktesterson]

I've been gaming on my 50" Plasma for years. Looks Excellent, Text is excellent. Prefer it over a monitor. See Sig.

 

[Annisman*]

Tweak boy is wrong, any lcd/plasma tv purchased in the last 4 years will work perfectly imo. When if surf the web I just enlarge (zoom) the web page if need be, and I have desktop icons set as large. There are so many easy tweaks to get a comfortable image on everything.

 

[Silverforce11]

There's plenty of tiny HTPC mITX cases out there that can handle a full sized GPU. You can get a very nice one, Silverstone's SG06, with its sexy front panel and built in excellent 450W PSU.. in my sig is the SG05.

 

[tokie]

There's plenty of tiny HTPC mITX cases out there that can handle a full sized GPU. You can get a very nice one, Silverstone's SG06, with its sexy front panel and built in excellent 450W PSU.. in my sig is the SG05.

I have the SG08 and it can handle a full 6950.

The other concern I have is that the fans can get a bit loud if it is underneath the TV.

 

[Silverforce11]

I have the SG08 and it can handle a full 6950.

The other concern I have is that the fans can get a bit loud if it is underneath the TV.

SG08 has a huge 180mm fan from top right? It's silent, downward positive pressure.

Unless your 6950 is a reference design, such a setup should not be noisy at all.

 

[Final8ty]

My PC is hooked up to my 50" Pioneer KURO Plasma and my 360, PS3 don't stand a chance in comparison on many levels.
Emulating the Console Experience, potentially exceeding it + a 360 wireless controller with PC receiver .

 

[tokie]

SG08 has a huge 180mm fan from top right? It's silent, downward positive pressure.

Unless your 6950 is a reference design, such a setup should not be noisy at all.

I have a reference 6950 which is loud. For some reason my i5 2500K is also noisy since the stock Intel fan goes at 2000rpm.

I need to get a lower-wattage video card and find a CPU cooler that works in this case.

 

[Dave3000]

I used to have connected my PC to my receiver to my 32" 1080p TV and my 23" 1080p monitor simultaneously. I used a GTX 680, DVI to monitor, HDMI to TV. The only drawbacks I saw with doing it this way is that it takes longer to get into games if I want to switch to the TV for games because of the extra step to get the inputs setup using my harmony remote before getting into the game. If I could dedicate this PC for gaming and leave it connected to my TV and buy a 2nd PC and connect my monitor to it then I wouldn't have do to the extra step to use my TV for PC gaming. Also I can switch to my stereo system' audio in addition to switching to my TV after doing some configuring in the sound properties in Windows 7 so when I want to play a PC gaming on my TV, it would automatically switch to HDMI audio that get's routed to my receiver and the onboard audio on my motherboard automatically disables, until I turn off my TV and receiver then it goes back to motherboard's onboard audio. The TV/audio switching thing worked flawlessly most of the time for me. There are just some games that I prefer playing on my 32" TV with my real stereo system, 360 gamepad, without having a computer desk in front of me

 

[gpse]

don't forget an x-box 360 controller, makes PC gaming on a tv awesome!

 

[toyota]

too bad you cant use a controller for many games.

 

[Annisman*]

too bad you cant use a controller for many games.

Sure, but most games that you would play on a tv have support. Who cares if an rts doesn't have support for example, you would never play one from your couch.

 

[toyota]

Sure, but most games that you would play on a tv have support. Who cares if an rts doesn't have support for example, you would never play one from your couch.

I dont care anything about an rts game but there are plenty of games that have no controller support. even the Mass Effect series does not have have official controller support. and even plenty of Windows Live games such as FEAR 2 and Bioshock 2 do not have controller support either.

 

[Annisman*]

Worst comes to worst whip out a kb and mouse

 

[tweakboy]

More unexperienced BS.
I've been doing it for years.
Doing it now on a 65" LCD.

You have lag ,,, PERIOD ,, is vsync on ? if not you will get tearing.

Uneexperienced you wish man Im 35 and I was using prodigy when you were in your dypers diapers.. whatever........ stupid leave your comments to yourself if they are stupid ones. jealous guy you are.

You cant play FPS games with a mouse and its not lag free like a CRT or 1ms monitor.. SO RELAX MADRID , spain. Professionals still use CRT in tournaments so relax with your 65 inches ,, Have you played UT3 or BF3 or MW3 ,,,,,, with a controller ? lol its not fast and smooth ,,,, like crt end of story........ its horrible actually,, why you need so big TV , to compensate for your mid section ? I used to be a pro Quake 2 player so relax, jealous guy I have more experience then you brother,, Im 35 what are you,, a jerk who makes stupid comments on my posts ?

 

[jacktesterson]

You have lag ,,, PERIOD ,, is vsync on ? if not you will get tearing.

Uneexperienced you wish man Im 35 and I was using prodigy when you were in your dypers diapers.. whatever........ stupid leave your comments to yourself if they are stupid ones. jealous guy you are.

You cant play FPS games with a mouse and its not lag free like a CRT or 1ms monitor.. SO RELAX MADRID , spain. Professionals still use CRT in tournaments so relax with your 65 inches ,, Have you played UT3 or BF3 or MW3 ,,,,,, with a controller ? lol its not fast and smooth ,,,, like crt end of story........ its horrible actually,, why you need so big TV , to compensate for your mid section ? I used to be a pro Quake 2 player so relax, jealous guy I have more experience then you brother,, Im 35 what are you,, a jerk who makes stupid comments on my posts ?

 

[toyota]

You have lag ,,, PERIOD ,, is vsync on ? if not you will get tearing.

Uneexperienced you wish man Im 35 and I was using prodigy when you were in your dypers diapers.. whatever........ stupid leave your comments to yourself if they are stupid ones. jealous guy you are.

You cant play FPS games with a mouse and its not lag free like a CRT or 1ms monitor.. SO RELAX MADRID , spain. Professionals still use CRT in tournaments so relax with your 65 inches ,, Have you played UT3 or BF3 or MW3 ,,,,,, with a controller ? lol its not fast and smooth ,,,, like crt end of story........ its horrible actually,, why you need so big TV , to compensate for your mid section ?

in your time here, you have made a fool of yourself more than all other members combined. most of your comments are silly inaccurate nonsense. my favorite thread of recent from you is the one where you were caught pirating your games. that alone shows what kind of person you are.

 

[Soundmanred]

in your time here, you have made a fool of yourself more than all other members combined. most of your comments are silly inaccurate nonsense. my favorite thread of recent from you is the one where you were caught pirating your games. that alone shows what kind of person you are.

He doesn't realize I'm older, more educated, more experienced, and more knowledgeable.
(And I don't resort to insane personal attacks, I call him out when he's wrong.)


TB: Tell me you've actually used such a setup, and I'd possibly respect that. As it is, I doubt you have and just go on hearsay, using terms like "laggy, ghosting, ms" etc.
I have an incredibly fun time using my slow TV and slow controller, and my friends love it. I can't see any downsides!

toyota: It does suck that the ME series and Bioshock II don't support controllers, I was disappointed when I found out about both, but just busted out my wireless mouse and keyboard for them. It's not a problem that can't be worked around, and most popular games support the 360 controller. I use my C3P0 360 controller from the Star Wars bundle (I heard it had .2 ms less lag than a regular controller once I defrag it weekly.).

Today's PC game played on a 65" HDTV and 7.1 Klipsch surround with my C3P0 controller is Family Guy : Back To The Multiverse - HILARIOUS!

p.s. - Can anyone tell me what Madrid, Spain has to do with anything?

 

[dragantoe]

upgrade to a gtx 660 instead of the 650 ti so you never have to worry about fps

 

[Final8ty]

too bad you cant use a controller for many games.

My friend uses a 360 controller on his pc for every game except for EVE online and if the game does not have native 360 controller support then he remaps using Xpadder.