I've bought high end PC kit for a couple of decades. However recently I feel I would be being ripped off if I bought into the latest GPU's. I could afford to and still get tempted, but its just no longer sitting well with me anymore. So I decided to move across to a console where I don't feel liberties are being taken. Its all subjective of course.
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GPU pricing, PC Gaming Becoming an Extreme Luxury?
- Thread starter humbug
- Start date
I've bought high end PC kit for a couple of decades. However recently I feel I would be being ripped off if I bought into the latest GPU's. I could afford to and still get tempted, but its just no longer sitting well with me anymore. So I decided to move across to a console where I don't feel liberties are being taken. Its all subjective of course.
And that's completely valid and you haven't decided to come and call people names who are still buying PC hardware, which is nice.
Associate
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- 1 Aug 2017
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- 686
Really, i guess some people are ok with the lack of a open digital market, it's closed nature, the reliance on retail (i hate physical media and value space), no free online gaming, pay-walled features, ***** network speeds (PSN is held together with duct tape and glue, XBL is only slightly better and Nintendo, well, lets not even go there), lack of original IP, a non existent strategy genre, almost no mod support, it's focus on AAA and sequels, lack of I/O options, adverts embedded within the interface, only 1 of the 3 support digital refunds, etc.
The only positive aspect going for consoles is their very few exclusive first party titles. Everything else, and i do mean everything else, is a step backwards.
Want to play console games? Wait until the generation is over, pick up the console for less than £100, and the exclusive games for under a tenner a pop. Then sell the lot once your done and make your money back. That's console gaming for me in a nutshell.
Also, don't believe the hype. Console focused games media are useless. Everything is "brilliant" according to them. You see it all the time whenever a high profile exclusive or new console gets released. It's just marketing BS.
You'll see the same nonsense when these next systems arrive in a couple of year.
I find it a more positive experience than you. I particularly enjoy the lack of faffing to play a game. The better HDR implementation. Built in 4k blu ray player. Price. My downloads are 100mb/s so not bad at all.
I agree with the refund aspect of the digital market. But in terms of pricing and not being open, I usually do OK as they frequently have sales. Steam never made me feel I'm dealing with a company of fantastic virtue and moral fibre.
I agree with the refund aspect of the digital market. But in terms of pricing and not being open, I usually do OK as they frequently have sales. Steam never made me feel I'm dealing with a company of fantastic virtue and moral fibre.
You certainly raise some valid points, although I think when it comes to a social experience with a group of people, consoles do still rule the roost here. Having a set-up in a lounge/game room environment is ideally suited to that dynamic, and while you can of course do this with a PC, it's not got the same immediate accessibility. Not to mention an expensive PC is wasted on a 1080p TV, extremely demanding on a 4K one, and you can forget HDR working properly... that is one aspect where consoles do have quite the edge over PC's (assuming you have a TV capable of displaying HDR properly).
Some people also have no time for tinkering with game settings for the smoothest graphical experience. Of course, we can argue that this is what makes PC gaming so enjoyable, but I know people who just get immensely frustrated with this aspect and simply want to play the game. There are certain people who are just better suited to console gaming.
Nothing can replace a mouse and keyboard though... I've never got my head around control pads for FPS gaming, it's just so counterintuitive to the experience... and ALWAYS harder, which is why crossplay would be a joke (until they implement mouse and keyboard on consoles which is on the horizon now it seems).
Because you'll find most people on this forum buy for their signatures and to top leaderboards and not for the love of gaming..... You just have to look at the likes of the roll of honour list and then see how many people hardly play any games at all or buy said hardware and then run every thing on low for high FPs and competitive reasons.
Oh and don't get me started on the people that buy games just to benchmark and get to the top of the leaderboard then when their score gets beaten, they go back and overclock a bit more just to regain the title but after said benchmark is done, they drop the overclock lel...
Nothing wrong with all that of course, as pc is an enthusiast niche platform and if you're into that thing then great
Personally I can't wait to get back to console not just because of pc gaming becoming too expensive for what it is but more so, so I can get back to just getting into the game and enjoying it for what it is rather than faffing about with settings just to squeeze as much FPs as possible, installing different drivers etc. Etc. And well the biggest reason being..... getting to play good titles which are only available on ps 4.
Don't get me wrong, I loved tweaking games settings, installing redux etc. back in the day but nowadays, I just simply CBA, not enough time for that now and I rather be playing the game or doing something else than faffing about especially when pc games are often so broken/unoptomised on release day/week/month.
Soldato
- Joined
- 19 Oct 2008
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- 6,066
I just use GeForce experience to optimise games. I find that works well. It saves me tinkering and learning what each and every setting does. Better alternative to console gaming 
Problem for me was, that was never a good enough solution for the smoothest experience. Maybe if you were with a gsync monitor, but for locked 60, it was all over the place, hence stopped using it.
Because you'll find most people on this forum buy for their signatures and to top leaderboards and not for the love of gaming..... You just have to look at the likes of the roll of honour list and then see how many people hardly play any games at all or buy said hardware and then run every thing on low for high FPs and competitive reasons.
Oh and don't get me started on the people that buy games just to benchmark and get to the top of the leaderboard then when their score gets beaten, they go back and overclock a bit more just to regain the title but after said benchmark is done, they drop the overclock lel...
Nothing wrong with all that of course, as pc is an enthusiast niche platform and if you're into that thing then great
Personally I can't wait to get back to console not just because of pc gaming becoming too expensive for what it is but more so, so I can get back to just getting into the game and enjoying it for what it is rather than faffing about with settings just to squeeze as much FPs as possible, installing different drivers etc. Etc. And well the biggest reason being..... getting to play good titles which are only available on ps 4.
Don't get me wrong, I loved tweaking games settings, installing redux etc. back in the day but nowadays, I just simply CBA, not enough time for that now and I rather be playing the game or doing something else than faffing about especially when pc games are often so broken/unoptomised on release day/week/month.
I put my PC in my sig as I thought everyone did it so that when you are talking about performance in a game or your experiences with a game, others could see your spec and see where you were coming from. Naive I guess.
I do wonder what percentage of PC owners that is though. Probably very small and only on an enthusiast forum like here. My son and a few friends game on PC's and I never hear them talk about benchmarks.
Associate
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- 1 Aug 2017
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I disagree agree with you on the above. My gaming PC is in the living room, i can have it boot straight into big picture mode, connect 4 Xbox controllers and have 4 others play games like TowerFall Ascension (which is great fun btw), BattleRock Theater, Castle Crashers, Hammerwatch, Invisigun Heroes, etc, in an instant.
As for HDR on PC, the biggest problems aren’t technical roadblocks but competing, partially incompatible standards, there are no less than 5 HDR standards currently available. Anyway, most won't compromise the benefits of the PC platform just for HDR alone. It's one feature that'll be rectified on the platform once there is a definite standard.
Caporegime
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- 30 Jul 2013
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HDR is mostly working now on Windows 17763.1
Xbox is still better at it though. You have a Standard Dynamic range menu screen and HDR starts when the games load up.
Windows has to send a HDR signal all the time for some reason, and then you have to fiddle with a slider so that the SDR doesn't look washed out.
Xbox is still better at it though. You have a Standard Dynamic range menu screen and HDR starts when the games load up.
Windows has to send a HDR signal all the time for some reason, and then you have to fiddle with a slider so that the SDR doesn't look washed out.
If you have a dedicated fixed PC in the living room, that's fine... but not everyone has that. For anyone else, a console simplifies matters, given it's not used for anything else. I won't hold my breath on HDR for the PC... it's as messed up now as it's ever been, and the almost meaningless HDR standards for monitors aren't helping matters. It'll be rectified eventually, but we'll be waiting a while yet.
I put my PC in my sig as I thought everyone did it so that when you are talking about performance in a game or your experiences with a game, others could see your spec and see where you were coming from. Naive I guess.
Yes no doubt there will be people that do it just for the same reason you listed but a lot on here do it for the epeen waving status.
Of course, the worst case will be on enthusiast forums such as this.
Personally I find the same with in real life friends too, console gamers just enjoy the games for what they are and nothing else where as with pc, it's all about having a l33t "battle station" and so on, again nothing wrong with that though.
I also find pc gamers take online a lot more seriously than console gamers too.
Also, another thing.... Cloud streaming for gaming.
Just got into the geforce now beta and WOW! Assassins creed orgins max settings at 1080P with a constant 60 fps and I mean a "constant" 60 fps...... To get that, you would need at least a 8700k and 1080ti lel.......
You have the option to tweak for 60 or 120 fps etc. too.
This is the future (well when people have better internet speeds and unlimited tariffs)
Also, there was no input lag on my end (350MB connection)
Just got into the geforce now beta and WOW! Assassins creed orgins max settings at 1080P with a constant 60 fps and I mean a "constant" 60 fps...... To get that, you would need at least a 8700k and 1080ti lel.......
You have the option to tweak for 60 or 120 fps etc. too.
This is the future (well when people have better internet speeds and unlimited tariffs
)Also, there was no input lag on my end (350MB connection)
Not really, that combo would get you closer to 4k at 60fps, i say closer as the game is pretty badly optimized and requires more grunt to run than it should. Or at least that was the consensus on it when it came out, wether that's changed or not i've no idea.
You aren't going to be getting a "constant" minimum of 60 FPS at 1080P in that game with stock settings on said hardware, at least not in the bigger/more populated cities. Start of the game, yup, probably be pushing 100+ FPS but later on, doubt it, unless they have improved performance since release..... Haven't followed benchmarks since release.
Presumably performance has been increased since release as it generally does, doesn't take away from the fact that their games generally run like crap because of their drm software and overall lack of optimisation.
Yup don't disagree but that is why I've found the geforce now software very impressive, breezes through the game flawlessly.
Of course, you'll need a good internet connection though.
Soldato
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https://www.gamersnexus.net/industry/3368-manufacturers-on-tariff-impact-to-pc-prices
Hopefully I can get new i9 9900K CPU, new Corsair Hydro H100i PRO AIO cooler, new PC case and MSI Geforce RTX 2080 Gaming X Trio by end of year before tariffs raise to 25% effective from 1 Jan 2019 that will affect everybody.
Damn you President Trump! Hope people will vote for Democrats.
Cant imagine what prices will be like in 2019 with 25% tariffs... £400 for Ryzen 7 3700X, £500 for PS4 Pro console, £500 for Xbox One X console, £400 for Nintendo Switch console, possible £500+ for AMD Navi graphic card and £300 for next generation Gigabyte AORUS Z470 Gaming 7 motherboard.
Hopefully I can get new i9 9900K CPU, new Corsair Hydro H100i PRO AIO cooler, new PC case and MSI Geforce RTX 2080 Gaming X Trio by end of year before tariffs raise to 25% effective from 1 Jan 2019 that will affect everybody.
Damn you President Trump! Hope people will vote for Democrats.
Cant imagine what prices will be like in 2019 with 25% tariffs... £400 for Ryzen 7 3700X, £500 for PS4 Pro console, £500 for Xbox One X console, £400 for Nintendo Switch console, possible £500+ for AMD Navi graphic card and £300 for next generation Gigabyte AORUS Z470 Gaming 7 motherboard.
