Are we overpaying to run games maxed out?

Suarez7

Suarez7

Suarez7

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Just been thinking about this after I built my new rig. I really think we're paying over the odds just to run games smoothly on max details. I mean £1500 and still you will struggle with some games at 1440 and 1600p. When I first started PC gaming it didn't bother me being able to max out games but over the years I've changed and now I really don't enjoy having to lower details to make it playable. I know some of it is due to bad optimization though and shoddy console porting.

What's your opinion then? Do you think the price of hardware can be justified?
 
If you have the money to spare then max out as much as you want... I prefer to go for as much bang for buck as possible, all the higher end stuff depreciates in value more.
 
When you mention resolutions like 1440 and 1600P, yes you are going to pay through the nose for the privilege, Your going for an elite minority of gamers with cash to spare.

come back down to 1080P or 1050P and it doesn't cost much to max most games out, even today a carefully specced 2nd hand £600 will easily chew through most things without taking as much of the price drop hit you would get from buying very high end brand new.
 
Generally speaking, no. Though as said, once you go down the route of : very high res & AA, minimum of 60 fps +, multi-monitor and so on, then you're looking at bleeding edge.
 
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I don't know. I'd say probably yes, but if you are smart and shop around you can build a decent rig for a reasonable price. I think one big thing that's changed is that the manufacturers have realised that they can charge an idiot and/or slash moneybags premium for components for the first few months of sale, but if you're happy to wait a while the prices do come down.
 
I really don't see the point of those resolutions, I sit 1 meter away from a 32'' TV @ 1920x1080 and I can't say I see pixels or that it's blurry.

Aside from the desktop space, why would you use such high res ?

A 700€ pc will easily play most games maxed.
2nd hand hand parts 2600k/3770k, 8gb, etc... Only thing expebsive is the GPU, which with luck you'll spend 200 at 2nd hand!

Quite frankly, if you save on the GPU and buy a 2nd hand GTX570 or so, you can have a complete gaming pc for 450 euros.
 
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Never really understood some peoples obsession with things being at 'max' if they look perfectly acceptable at high or medium.

Often I suspect a lot of people, if sat down at a random PC with a game wouldn't be able to tell you whether it was on medium or high or maximum without being able to directly compare to something else.
 
Kenai said:
Often I suspect a lot of people, if sat down at a random PC with a game wouldn't be able to tell you whether it was on medium or high or maximum without being able to directly compare to something else.
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How else would you expect them to know, some kind of innate ability to detect game settings?!
 
PMKeates said:
How else would you expect them to know, some kind of innate ability to detect game settings?!
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The point being, that the differences are often so imperceivable without being able to directly compare that I honestly don't honestly understand why people get so hung up on it. Is it even related to the visuals of the game at all or is it more a psychological thing about being able to set everything as high as possible?

Without the little slider to tell them they were on max, most would never know the difference. If people weren't told they weren't at maximum, most would be more than happy with the level of visuals high provides I expect.

If you can't tell the difference between high settings and max settings without something to compare to or tell you that you're at max, does it really warrant spending hundreds if not thousands on equipment to set your games to max?
 
Kenai said:
If you can't tell the difference between high settings and max settings without something to compare to or tell you that you're at max, does it really warrant spending hundreds if not thousands on equipment to set your games to max?
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You mean like Bioshock Infinite?:D
 
Suarez7 said:
Just been thinking about this after I built my new rig. I really think we're paying over the odds just to run games smoothly on max details. I mean £1500 and still you will struggle with some games at 1440 and 1600p. When I first started PC gaming it didn't bother me being able to max out games but over the years I've changed and now I really don't enjoy having to lower details to make it playable. I know some of it is due to bad optimization though and shoddy console porting.

What's your opinion then? Do you think the price of hardware can be justified?
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Simple, value for money. For mid range value for money is maximized, for high end tech you pay relatively more money for relatively smaller increase in computational power.

Some people go for max value for money, others for maximum available computational power no matter the cost. So depending on what kind of person you are, you are either overpaying or not.
 
Kenai said:
Never really understood some peoples obsession with things being at 'max' if they look perfectly acceptable at high or medium.
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This. It's like there is a holy grail to run at 16xAA and 32xAF, with shadows maxed and the sky reflecting off every puddle.

My rig cost about 350-400 squid, for an i5, 7850 and 8gig ram. It plays everything really well at 1080p, but obviously not maxed. Games still look stunning tho.
 
What is this thread about?

The fact the PC architecture is constantly evolving and a premium is initially charged to recoup some of the the R&D of such technology?

Is this not how it has always been?

Anyone remember paying through the nose for 1024x768 software rendered 3D?
 
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