Anyone sick of graphics card upgrades ?

[tmileson]

only worry i have about a new xbox 360 is the overheating issue. i know not all consoles are suffering from this issue, my cousins rans perfectly fine we did a gaming session for over 6 hours and the console gave no problems at all. but i will wait, maby they will pull out a new revision or something.

The PSU on my 360 doesn't even get warm... No idea how this overheating thing seems to have built up, either some people had the psu brick in deep shag pile carpet, or there was a few dodgy ones. I've not heard first hand from anyone in the UK with a 360 overheating - including all the OCUKers that have them now...

 

[CossackNoodle]

Im not bothered about new gpu releases but what got me was the agp-pci e
but now i have my pc which ive spent a hefty amount on i will hopefully have it for the next few years but hey money is money i might not be here tomorrow so nothing to worry about (apart from tomorrow )

 

[Moeks]

its also the same for me i will be honest and say im poor! i cant afford the latest and greatest things, there just too expensive and not only that but there bloody terrible value for money, the only thing thats worse for holding its value are shares in railtrack...

Absolutely no reason to spend huge amounts on hardware to get it to do what you want. Again lets go back to the original spirit of OcUK, overclocking which was always all about buying cheap hardware and making it run as quick as the expensive stuff ...overclocking always was about trying to get more than you paid for, something for nothing so to speak ...well except your own tweaking and some time and effort anyway.

I admit over the last few years I've had a lot more money than I ever had when I started out in all this, I don't really need to buy cheap and make it go fast and I've been drifting lately into just buying more and more top end or near top end stuff because I can. But it doesn't really give me the same pleasure as buying an old Celeron 300mhz and making it run at 500mhz did all those years ago. Had a power supply blow on me the other day and take my old Abit nf7 in my 2nd computer with it, so I’m left in a position where im going to have to buy a new motherboard and cpu for that system, so I’m going to buy cheap again and make it go like stink ...(here’s hoping) ...no sense in wasting money. And it may even end up running faster than my main system (A64 3400 DFI LP 250Gb) if it does i'll swap the 2 over. Kind of exciting as I don't know quite what I'm gonna get, but an Opteron 144 is a good start I think.... will it or wont it end up pounding my stock 3400 ...hehe well we'll see

Hardware class system my rear, he who gets the most for his money in the one laughing, not the guy who just spent £500 on a new graphics card that's probably no more than 35% faster for several hundred % of the cost.

 

[bfar]

I thinks the poster has a point - some people would say a £400 graphics card isn't worth it for just 3 or 4 decent games.

I've got better value for money on previous upgrades because there was more to play on them.

Having said that, its a matter of opinion. Younger gamers don't have that 'seen it all before' syndrome, and are more likely to love games others wouldn't.

 

[WiBu]

I'm a happy upgrader and currently have 2 GTX's in my system (not the 512mb, I'm waiting for G80 for my next upgrade). I have a 24" monitor and I like to have the ability to push out great looking graphics to it. I have never drank (if were not counting my young years), smoked or done any drugs so I spend the saved cash (it's amazing how much a night out can actually cost) on my computer; money well spent imo.

But the thing you must remember most is that you do not have to upgrade, you do not have to play the latest games with full detail. Your games will not look better and perform the same on your old card just because the game is newer; it will look about the same and perform the same as old games did if you run them at the appropriate details.

 

[WiBu]

Sorry, double post. Please delete.

 

[BS Dave]

I'm with the WiBu.

Just wait before you upgrade, save for a part that you will see a difference with, skip one even two generations of cards, sell your old bits to your aunt.

And read about stuff on the forums to make sure you buy the right bits, make sure they give you a real boost.

I've got a load of friends that game happily on 9800pros and are only just thinking about 939 and pcie.

There's no way i'm upgrading to M2 for at least a couple of years, and there's no point as a gamer going for dual core for a while yet either - Source isn't going dual core and i'll wait to see what the UT engine does.

Good graphics look nice but it's the game play and mouse and keyboard that give pcs the edge.

 

[MrM3]

Just wait before you upgrade, save for a part that you will see a difference with, skip one even two generations of cards, sell your old bits to your aunt.

my aunt is getting bored of these upgrades
and suggests I get a 360 then revolution then ps3 every 6 months and sell those to her when I have moved on... damn she is cunning

 

[BS Dave]

lol your aunt!

 

[CoupeMad]

im not sick of graphics card upgrades at all.

I dont bother wasting my money on having the latest card.

Extra FPS or "special" effects like AA etc is hardly pant wetting, infact, its rather pathetic.

 

[skullman]

PGR3 is awsome on the 360, it looks fantastic plays the same and never slows down, you dont see massive re-draw in the distance and the online game is outa this world.

what spec PC would you need to get anything near as smooth in game play.how much would the hardware be to play PGR3? yes as stated the games are more expensive! but if you look around not that much more expensive. i have just spent 3 hours on the 360. just loaded up kameo which i bought online for £35 and it also looks really cool and plays so smooth.

I never have to worry about drivers, and as for fps when the xbox supports a usb key board and mouse will the fps just control like on PC!

you cant knock microsoft on this one, the xbox 360 kicks arse big style and we have yet to see the best from it iam sure. to build a pc to play like a 360 you would need to spend in excess of £1000 minimum. so anyone thinking of building a gameing PC should not over look this great console!

bring on DOA4 looks amazing on Xbox.com

Dont suppose youve seen Quake 4 running on a 360? Check out the poor framerate. It chuggs along - barely. Then see it running on your Uber PC as specified in your sig.

 

[vapor matt]

Dont suppose youve seen Quake 4 running on a 360? Check out the poor framerate. It chuggs along - barely. Then see it running on your Uber PC as specified in your sig.

well i cant say ive even seen Q4 on the 360! so i have no idea how it plays, but there again i cant see it being any more demanding than COD2, but i cant coment as i havnt seen it, and yea Q4 is dam fast on my rig, but at £2000+ i would hope so.

all iam saying is for £280 the xbox has no rival and as stated before the GFX card is not the end of the upgrade cycle to get top end performance! PGR3 is what can be achived with decent codeing on the 360, and game developers will be falling over to get codeing for it, it has public apeal and xbox live coolness, top end PC graphics are 2 expensive for most and only the die hard PC owners will shell out on the top of the range hardware. as consoles get more grunt the pc will take a back seat in gameing as NV and ati will do battle in the console wars to come.

The xbox 360 will win over a lot of pc gamers who have strugled to get there ££££££ worth out of the pc hardware market with driver issues and badly coded PC games that make that expensive GFX card chug!

 

[LoadsaMoney]

PGR3 awesome on the 360, watch you don't cut yourself on those jaggies mind, OUCH!!.

 

[Flanno]

I was in my local gamestop tonight and had a go on PGR3 on the 360. Indeed it was sweet. They finally figured out how to configure it correctly with the Samsing LCD. Also like Kameo and PD0 a lot. If a few more good titles like these come out (and they will I am sure), and games prices drop a bit, I could see myself getting a 360 in a few months time and just not bother upgrading my video card setup for ages. Especially looking at the release schedule for the next 6 months - I see a lot more 360 games I would like to play, compared to PC Games.

Of course the real stickler is the price of the 360 games. In Ireland they vary between 65 and 75 euro !!! And I picked up The Movies and POP : The 2 Thrones for the PC for under 50 euro in total in a sale in Virgin today.

 

[tmileson]

Just seen some details for the XBox 360 version of Final Fantasy XI including the fact that it supports USB mouse & keyboard - should make playing FPS etc a doddle...

 

[chaparral]

Am sure you can build a pc for a fair bit under a £1000 that would be able to run the same spec games at the same res as an xbox 360.

 

[Flanno]

I am sure you could, but in 6 months time or a years time, will that 1000quid PC be able to play the latest games and look as visually stunning as the Xbox 360 version ?

As the developers get more familiar with the 360 hardware, visually - better and better games come out for it going by the previous Xbox. When the Xbox 1st gen games came out they were nothing special, but just look at how well Doom3 and Far Cry Instincts looked on the Xbox towards the end. Very very good. I know low res, but they optimised games very well for the Xbox considering it wasnt much more then an Celeron 733 and some sort of Geforce3 hybrid which according to Toms hardware at the time said it only had the polygon capability of a Geforce 2 GTX.

They optimise squat for the PC. Just look at the recommended requirements on most graphically intensive PC Games. Usually you will have to sacrifice something graphically if you just meet them. And what if you have the latest and greatest card - seeing as the developers are programming for the lowest common denominator, you see very few games today taking advantage of what the latest uber graphics card can do. So you get people complaining about how badly Fear, COD2, etc.. runs on their state of art rig.

For me the whole thing has become exasperating......which is why I think I wont be upgrading anything for a long long while, so will be giving at least the next 2 gen of video cards a miss.

 

[Flanno]

PGR3 awesome on the 360, watch you don't cut yourself on those jaggies mind, OUCH!!.

what jaggies - I played it tonight on a correctly configured samsung lcd in 720p mode and there was very little aliasing I could see. Aren't all 360 games using a min. of 2x AA. I havn't seen any racing game on the PC that plays as smooth or looks as nice. Quake 4 was just a bad port.

 

[vapor matt]

I dont have any jaggies on my 360 playing PGR3! looks real sweet and plays a dream with no slow down or anything! least i dont have to get a set of drivers to work with it lol, the 360 rocks simple as!

and yea games are expensive but not to bad if you know where to look, then again in 6 months these expensive games will become cheaper and sell in the 2nd hand market really cheap. does game even do 2nd user PC games?

 

[Moeks]

Bahh to consols, they are too simple, too easy ...I used to call them 'idiot-box's' but I will retract that since I do not want to call anyone here who uses them an idiot as that was not what I meant exactly, but you get the picture.

I guess I am more of a hardware enthusiast than a gamer these days, I used to be a big time gamer but now I find most repetative, boring and easy. Eve Online, Star Trek Birth of The Federation (ancient and buggy but hugely playable for a trek fan) and Civilisation 4 are about the only things that can keep me interested now.

I find games like PGR are very short lived, they get boring quickly as there isn't very much to them except racing. Good to play with friends though I guess, but even so I'd rather play Age of Empires 2 or 3