The Big Bad Console Thread - Sway your Station with an Xboner !
- Thread starter Xexx
- Start date
CPU wise, even on average gaming computers, PCs are significantly ahead of both consoles. Intel's CPU performance is just too good - AMD can't match it.
GPU wise, I believe the Radeon 7790, a $150usd graphics card, performs as well as the PS4's GPU on paper. Of course, consoles use their hardware more efficiently, but even then a $300-350usd graphics card should account for that.
Still, the main bottleneck is going to be the amount of ram on the graphics card. This probably won't be a problem for a year or two though, and by then graphics cards will ship with tons of ram as standard.
Edit - Just wanted to add -- consoles are limited by power usage, while desktop PCs are not.
To keep power usage down and keep temperatures low, both Sony and Microsoft had to put mobile chipsets into their machines. While these chipsets are very power efficient, they're not terribly powerful. Desktop PCs are, obviously, not limited in terms of power usage, allowing for power hungry CPUs and GPUs to be used to get better performance.
In terms of the CPU, I'll quote Anandtech --
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6972/x...laystation-4/2
So, basically, an Intel Atom.
In terms of the GPU, the PS4s GPU is roughly equivalent to a Radeon 7790 on paper.
Since consoles are more efficient than PCs, we generally need to double the power of the PC to match the console.
Going forwards, an Intel i5-2500k or above should be enough for the next few years at least. Most games are CPU limited anyhow, and this is unlikely to change considering how 'weak' the console CPUs are.
GPU wise, a $300-400 gpu should (in theory) be able to run PS4/Xbox One games at 1080p 60fps, if not higher. More powerful graphics cards should be able to run games at higher resolutions with more AA.
Of course, this is a very reductive way of comparing the Xbox One/PS4 to the PC. The true reality is a lot more complex.
The real interesting bit will be how optimised the API layer will be for these consoles. Because there is still the issue of the current Windows / PC architectures still being orders of magnitude more inefficient than the consoles. PC may have a lot of bandwidth, fillrate raw flops and such, but the latency is still very slow compared to consoles. Carmack has a couple good writeups about it. And its a Windows architecture and API issue (along with a driver issue). The hardware may be more powerful but you'll struggle to get even half the theoretical performance. Once PC moves to integrated memory like the PS4 a lot of those bottlenecks and overhead will go away.
So basically you don't need top-end PC hardware to play games for the next generation either. Unless a PC exclusive ultra graphic intensive MMO comes out, which is doubtful.
Which is great news to me - having to upgrade video cards every 6 months-1 year back in the early 2000s sucked. Back when there was actual PC exclusive games that took advantage of the best PC hardware.
Which is great news to me - having to upgrade video cards every 6 months-1 year back in the early 2000s sucked. Back when there was actual PC exclusive games that took advantage of the best PC hardware.
Xalara
Golden Squire
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Generally speaking video game companies write their own APIs (if you can call it that) because they can specialize the calls for exactly what they need so that they don't waste performance. General APIs (OpenGL) are supported but will rarely be used by big companies with enough resources. Beyond that the PS4 has the equivelant of a Radeon 7870 in it and the Xbox has the equivealant of a Radeon 7790 in it. Arguing about Intel vs AMD is stupid because the CPU doesn't matter nearly as much as the video card. Plus both of the new consoles are tightly integrated at the hardware level compared to the PC so doing an apples to apples comparison is difficult.
Cant agree more...I really enjoy (as does my wallet) not having to replace video cards and RAM every year.
Need? No, but hopefully with everything being X86 architecture they should be able to make much more scaleable engines that can take advantage of high end hardware better. That's going to be a big plus if you're a PC gamer who is into doing lots of hardware upgrades.
Joeboo
Molten Core Raider
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Definitely. This last half decade or so has been the first time since 3D acceleration came to market in the mid 90s that I haven't bought a new video card with every new generation of cards. In the last 5-6 years I was able to skip form an Nvidia 9800gt to an AMD 4870 to a Nvidia 660Ti, a good generation(or 2 or 3) between each card, and at no point was I ever not able to play a game that I wanted to, and play it well. I want my $800 back that I spent on my dual 12MB Voodoo2s, lol. It's a great time to be a PC gamer, can't wait to see what games look like as 4K monitors start to come to market now and hopefully become affordable for the masses over the next 3 or 4 years.
Vaclav
Bronze Baronet of the Realm
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How big of a monitor you planning to buy and how close you planning to sit? 30" screen at 1440p is still pristine for my 16/20 (yes better than 20/20 under professional testing - the professionals at Wilmer don't have charts below 16/20 to test with however so no clue how much better than one step I am...) eyes at 18-24". Unless you're burying yourself in your monitor it's just pointless epeen territory - I can't handle being much closer to my monitor myself before the brightness starts to bother my eyes personally (probably a downside to the sensitive vision) but still you should be at least 12" away to give space for a keyboard and mouse at a minimum.
Or in other words, unless you're talking something like 40"+ monitors I doubt they'll even bother producing 4k anytime soon because it's pointless. And frankly I'd not want a monitor that big myself, at that point I'd just use a TV and enjoy added functionality.
Or in other words, unless you're talking something like 40"+ monitors I doubt they'll even bother producing 4k anytime soon because it's pointless. And frankly I'd not want a monitor that big myself, at that point I'd just use a TV and enjoy added functionality.
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Who seriously approves these responses? Never go full retard...
I just can't handle it anymore
hodj
Vox Populi Jihadi
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Microsoft really have hit the full retard button because they really are at this point basically telling people "Don't buy our new system, buy our old system...or a competitors"
Its like they really just don't get the deeper meaning of their responses. Telling people "Stick with our old system" when you're ostensibly trying to sell them a new one is batshit fucking crazy.
Its like Ford telling you to buy a Pinto instead of a new Focus or Fusion or whatever.
Its the dumbest possible response they could come up with short of "No, you should just buy a ps4 or a wii u instead"
Its like they really just don't get the deeper meaning of their responses. Telling people "Stick with our old system" when you're ostensibly trying to sell them a new one is batshit fucking crazy.
Its like Ford telling you to buy a Pinto instead of a new Focus or Fusion or whatever.
Its the dumbest possible response they could come up with short of "No, you should just buy a ps4 or a wii u instead"
