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Thread: PC versus new generation consoles

  1. #1
    Ultimate Member porsch1909's Avatar
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    PC versus new generation consoles

    Which is better? WHen I say new generation I mean Xbox360, PS3 or Wii.


    I always err on the side of PC. You just can't play a first person shoot 'em up without a keyboard and mouse IMO.

    But graphics wise. I mean the average lifespan of a top end graphics card is about 5 or 6 months. How long is it before a new and better console comes out? 5 or 6 years?

    When a new console comes out, everyone rants and raves about how much better it is than a PC. But in most cases it just isn't. Personally I think Playstation over-estimated how many people would pay almost £500 for one of their consoles. But they do come with in-built blu-ray players. Which was a shrewd marketing tactic! And they are in very short supply!

    Just looking for you opinions!

  2. #2
    PC Aficionado MJCfromCT's Avatar
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    With the amount of money Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft spent on their newest consoles, expect them to wait at least 5 years for a new generation...

    Also, it depends on the PC, I guess...the Wii is a joke (graphics-wise, that is, gameplay is certainly fun). The 360 is as powerful as a top-of-the-line machine from about a year ago, high-end PCs already have more power than it...the PS3 is probably the closest, but, like always, PC hardware will continue to gain in power.

  3. #3
    Senior Member rockinup1231's Avatar
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    I see one advantage that PC's have over any console and that is to adapt and evolve faster than a console. Graphics can only get as good as the console will allow. At a certain point coompanies eventually push the console to the limit, but the PC can grow beyond it's limits.

    cpu's are always getting better, mobo's better, and ram better, and hard drives larger. By the time a new console comes out, a good computer at that time will have already surpassed any console's limits. I guess what I am trying to say is that PC's get better at a faster rate than consoles do. Which means that PC's virtually have no limits.

    Now they are coming out with quad core cpu's, so PC's may totally dominate gaming over the consoles this time around. If all these people can afford a $500-$600 PS3, than buying a good gaming computer or making there own shouldn't be much of a problem.
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  4. #4
    Ultimate Member RockNRoll's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by MJCfromCT
    With the amount of money Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft spent on their newest consoles, expect them to wait at least 5 years for a new generation...

    Also, it depends on the PC, I guess...the Wii is a joke (graphics-wise, that is, gameplay is certainly fun). The 360 is as powerful as a top-of-the-line machine from about a year ago, high-end PCs already have more power than it...the PS3 is probably the closest, but, like always, PC hardware will continue to gain in power.
    Ya know... I thought it was just me, but thanks for confirming that. I was in GameStop recently and they had zelda on the Wii and man it looked almost exactly like Ocarina of Time on the N64 (the little intro thing riding the horse, and graphically, looked the same). Why such bad GFX I thought they were actually decent, but there were jaggies and blocky pixels everywhere.

    Anyways, I agree with rockinup. Very well stated.
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    Senior Member chriswhitelaw's Avatar
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    consoles rule over pc's because with consoles you never have to buy anything else but the system itself. darn video card upgrades and more memory and 1024x768 nonsense , AA and direct X and open gl , come on! then when the game doesn't run right on there computer all you here is " why isn't my game working" or " you have to upgrade your video card drivers"

    console put in the game and start playing there ya go , nothing else needed but you , your tv and a controller.

    CONSOLES FOREVER!
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  6. #6
    Ultimate Member porsch1909's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by chriswhitelaw
    consoles rule over pc's because with consoles you never have to buy anything else but the system itself. darn video card upgrades and more memory and 1024x768 nonsense , AA and direct X and open gl , come on! then when the game doesn't run right on there computer all you here is " why isn't my game working" or " you have to upgrade your video card drivers"

    console put in the game and start playing there ya go , nothing else needed but you , your tv and a controller.

    CONSOLES FOREVER!
    I find that part of the fun of keeping a computer. It is a valid point. But if you know some basics about computer and keep your computer relativley up to date you can play almost any game....you may need to turn the settings down on the PC. But I very much doubt it would look worse than consoles usually look.

  7. #7
    Senior Member tasty danish's Avatar
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    i'm with chris on this one, except for the consoles forever part. i'm a pc gamer first and foremost.

    that said, i'm soooooooooo tired of trouble shooting and tweaking and dealing with copy protection et. al.

    what's great is it seems my errors always crop up from no where. i'll play a game for x number of hours, shut it off. turn it on the next morning and BAM i have to reinstall something. then i have a hard drive failure. then my powersupply, and in the PSU going it takes and mobo with it, on and on and on.

    i've been going non-stop on my 360 for about a month or 2. no crashes, no reinstallation, no errors, no bsods.

    it's been a VERY welcome break.

    another thing i can't understand is you cry and moan for a $600 PS3 and then go buy 2 $600 SLI cards. at least the PS3 is a whole machine, not just a component.
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  8. #8
    Senior Member rockinup1231's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by porsch1909
    I find that part of the fun of keeping a computer. It is a valid point. But if you know some basics about computer and keep your computer relativley up to date you can play almost any game....you may need to turn the settings down on the PC. But I very much doubt it would look worse than consoles usually look.
    Even though we've grown beyond the PS2, some games I've played that the console had a hard time running. By that I mean...the menus were slow and choppy, the game was high graphic quality but was choppy. The first game I had trouble with was a NEW PS2 playing NASCAR 07.

    I enjoy working with my system. Not everyone is that inclined or has the will, so chris is entitled to his opinion. Either you would like to have a great lightning fast computer or a console with the sole purpose of gaming and surfing the internet. Or gaming in general.

    Like I stated, game designers will push these things to the limits, and eventually to far and end up with crappy games that won't sell. Seeing how much work has gone into these consoles, it is highly unlikely that a new console will come out before game designers get to this point.
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    Ultimate Member RockNRoll's Avatar
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    Problem though usually, is, I mean in the long run PC hardware costs more, but when a new console comes out you have to buy it, whereas when a new game comes out you probably only need to do SOME upgrading to be able to play it.

    But in the long run people will fight about this till there's water on the sun, but it's all about personal opinion. Consolers and PC Gamers are like arch nemeses in the gaming world lol.
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    Senior Member rockinup1231's Avatar
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    I hold on to one system for a long time before touching it. Look at my sig. That has served me just fine for most games I've wanted to play.

    RocknRoll is right. Depends on your opinion, or what I think is how lazy you are and/or if you can build your own computer.

    Post 600, yeah!
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  11. #11
    Ultimate Member MadPistol's Avatar
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    8800 GTX is far superior to the RSX processor in PS3. put a good Core 2 Duo, 2GB ram, and a nice sound card with that, and you've got a PC superior to the PS3 in everyway. In terms of hardware, PC's are already well superior to current consoles.

    Yes it is more expensive, but think of all the things the PC can do that the PS3 can't. Suddenly, the price of the PC becomes very justified.

    I think troubleshooting computers is part of the fun. Without that, what's the point in upgrading to bigger and better things? If it works without a glitch, why would you ever want something more? That's the job of consoles: work without a glitch. They are supposed to give the "perfect" gaming experience.

    So why do a lot of people still prefer computers over consoles?

    2 reasons:

    1. Upgradablility

    2. Keyboard and Mouse.
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  12. #12
    Hooya! Rabbitrunner51's Avatar
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    For me, i can see the point of this post, in comparing a PC ( lets say high end ) to the current XBox 360 or PS3, but in truth most are missing the real point of WHY so much hype over consoles, or possibly , to quite a few of us PC gaming gurus.

    The reason for console is quite obvious and yes, they are needed, even though i will more than likely never get one. Just my own reasons.
    Gamers,who like to play Lan parties need them as do many of others like youngerkids who may not have rich parents who can afford to buy them new PC parts every few months to keep up with ever changing gaming needs.
    I concur about most of us PC gamers liking the keyboard and mouse over the gamepad. Gamepads just do not work for me in FPS games. They are meant for racing and or fly8ing games.. thats a fact. Just watcing my very experienced friend fiddling with his , playing on a Nentendo Gamecube one night , gave me the clues to why this is so. I taught him one night to use a PC with keyboard and mouse, and while he ws akward at first, gradually he became proficient enough that now he MOSTLY uses a PC for gaming.

    Consoles have a need. That is why they make and improve them. Of course they are trying to keep up with PC's by todays standards. But.., Even with not as good as graphics or close it is good enough if your into having and using a console.

    As far as being able to play games on a TV, just get a RCA jack cable and cordless keyboard and mouse, and use your computer.
    Also, if you wnt the resolution of a PC screen monitor, then one would have to spend a hefty amount on a HDR TV or similar plasma , but then you would have a sweet setup me thinks .
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    If you think you can play PC games at at low settings and have them look as good or better than current consoles, especially when you pair them up with a HDTV, you are mistaken. I've played both PS3 and XBOX360 on a 720p tv set and the graphics (depending on the game) are stunning. It would take all the power of a high end PC to match or beat it.

    When consoles are first introduced, they are always more powerful than what's available for PC's. In about a years time when the PC get's new hardware, it catches up and starts to become more powerful than the consoles, and we've just reciently started getting the performance edge back with the intro of DX10 and the 8800 series cards.

    As far as the "upgradablity" factor, that there is a double edged sword. That is also a reason that people DON'T prefer PC's over consoles. The accrued cost involved in being able to play the latest games for the next 5 years isn't cheap. The cost of a high end PC + the money spent on upgrading it in a 5 year period to be able to play all the latest and greatest games is going to far exceed the cost of a console+HDTV+games. Sure, by the end of that 5 year time, you will have a PC that is far more powerful than the console, but the money the console gamer saved is more than enough for him to now go and get the next gen, and be one up on the PC gamer once again.

    The 8800 is more powerful than the GPU in the PS3, but don't forget that these are two different systems we are talkign about. The PS3 doesn't need as robust of a GPU as PC's do. The CELL processor is far more powerful than any x86 CPU available today. Whatever features the 8800 can do that the RSX cannot is simply rendered in software by the processor.
    Last edited by RamonGTP; 03-07-2007 at 05:10 AM.

  14. #14
    Hooya! Rabbitrunner51's Avatar
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    Great info and factual data Ramone. Obviously you are more hip and read up on things.... I enjoyed reading that.. Thks!
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    What about the most basic thing in PC vs consoles, the games themselves. Games like God of War, Forza, and the Gran Turismo series (my personal favorite) are just not available on a PC. But some games are just better played on PC (not sure the name but say C&C, Warcraft, first person shooters etc. Others are better to have a contoller in your hand.
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