game console beating systems

dtokez

dtokez

dtokez

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hi all, im just wondering out of interest how much u would have to spend to get build a pc more powerfull or similar in performance to a xbox360 or a ps3? i remember when the 360 came out it would have cost a hell of a lot for a pc gfx card to match the 360s power how about now? pocket money or a fair price still? i have no idea of the spec of a xbox or a ps3?
someone said to me the other day that xbox's and ps3's have been sold at launch at a loss, making money instead on game sales, is that true??

ps hopefully this is in the correct section of the forum but seems as im just wondering about pc hardware to match a console i think it probably is :)
 
at this point, with the price of the xbox 360 and the ps3 i don't think that you could build a computer to be more powerful for gaming. I don't know what the sales are like but it's usual to sell things at a loss, it's logical if you think about it because if the companies sold their products at their true value then no one except footballers would be able to buy their producst. It's like the bugatti veyron, that car sells for approximately £500,000 but it costs £5,000,000 to make.

But if you are into big time gaming and only have a budget of £200, i'd stick to consoles, (a descent gaming rig would probably cost a minimum of £400), cos in terms of PC's, that really is'nt going to buy **** these days, and if it did, it would probably be just that, ****.
 
apparently the ps3 has a RSX 65nm graphics chip (Nvidia Demos RSX) but that's about all i know, not what it's comparable to, but it's not going to outspec a top of the mill pc eitherway but it will cost a lot less. The 360 uses the R500 graphics processor, which runs at 500MHz core, has a 10MB embedded DRAM architecture and a unified shader system. It sports 512MB of GDDR3 RAM, running at 700MHz (and yes, i did copy and paste that part about the xbox 360's graphics, lol, i'm feeling lasy)
 
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PS3's graphics hardware is similar to Geforce 6800 Ultras in SLI or somewhere in the Geforce 7 series, whereas the Xbox 360 is similar the Radeon X1900 series.

They may be technology from like 4 years ago, but you have to remember that consoles and PC's and especially the games, they are developed and optimised differently.

£400-600 with a few shortcuts here and there could easily get you hardware specs that are way better than the consoles, but again, it is really down to the games and how much of a graphics w***e you are.
 
the xbox and PS3 were never high end even when they were released. I had a e6600 and 8800gtx at that time and it was way better.

TBH the consoles aren't as cheap as they appear.

Take the xbox as an example; you add rechargeable kit, wireless, second controller, Gold membership, higher RRP of console games and it starts to become a lot more expensive quickly. (not to mention the cheap quality of the product - RROD and loud as a vacuum cleaner). That said it has the best controller and games library of current consoles.

PS3 was actually better VFM contrary to public perception since it included a lot more (wireless, free online play, bigger HDD and BluRay - it was the cheapest Blu Ray player for a long time). not as many games as Xbox, but quiet and great for movies, provided you have a HD set-up.

Building a PC may not be as expensive as you may think -> lots of second hand components and not to mention the existing stuff you must have lying around (hard drives, DVD drives, case, PSU etc...). Unfortunately many games are developped for consoles first and then ported to PC so they are crippled out of the box in terms of pushing the limits of PC (except poorly optimised games such as GTA4, which is a joke of a port)

Anyway I own PC, PS3 and Xbox, so I am not really biaised (other than actually using them and coming to my own conclusions).

PS I am a not an epileptic Wii-tard (with only 3 worthy games: Wii Sports (gets boring quick though), Mario Galaxy and Zelda)
 
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I see the wii as more of a party console than anything else, PS3 and Xbox360 are used a lot in competitive play, a lot of online gaming leagues are using both consoles, big gaming organisations, such as dignitas, 4kings, fnatic, etc are picking up console players for games such as Dead or Alive 4, which was also used in the CGS Franchise before it collapsed.

PC's how ever, will always be the more dominant gaming machine, with such a wider variety of games, the ability to upgrade with out having to buy a complete new machine, the only real thing missing from a PC, is how bad it is at having "2 player" games, yeah sure it's fantastic to play online, but as far as 2 player split screening, that will probably never happen =]

PC Building can be expensive, but can be very cheap depending on what you need, if you're looking for the most up-to-date components, you're looking at spending about £1,100. I think I saw a thread on here not so long ago, that was under £1,100 for an Intel i7 based system, which is said to be the best chip on the market, if you're on a budget, go AMD, they're still very good processors, it's a hell of a lot cheaper than Intel, but in my opinion, just as good, perhaps not for overclocking, but in terms of gaming, a lot of people I know chose AMD over Intel every time.

And by the way, if you're looking for a mid-range gaming PC, you'll be looking at about £500 minimum, that includes case, DVD rom, HDD, extra fans + cpu cooler
 
exhumedye said:
PC's how ever, will always be the more dominant gaming machine, with such a wider variety of games,
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Not exactly a wide variety when it is mostly FPS, RTS and the occasional Racing and RPG now and then. The PC does have the "potential" to offer the variety, but its the Consoles that have always lead in that area, and this is including the past 25 years or so with previous generations.
 
mythrandyr said:
apparently the ps3 has a RSX 65nm graphics chip (Nvidia Demos RSX) but that's about all i know, not what it's comparable to, but it's not going to outspec a top of the mill pc eitherway but it will cost a lot less. The 360 uses the R500 graphics processor, which runs at 500MHz core, has a 10MB embedded DRAM architecture and a unified shader system. It sports 512MB of GDDR3 RAM, running at 700MHz (and yes, i did copy and paste that part about the xbox 360's graphics, lol, i'm feeling lasy)
Click to expand...

i didnt know the 360 was such good spec really seems as its a few years old now! how much would a comparative gpu cost and what kind of cpu does it run on? someone said a x3 core?
 
The comparison cannot really be drawn. A 360 benefits from every one having exactly the same hardware, so the games can be written entirely optimised for this. Consequently poor console hardware can play pretty games well, and a direct port to PC, which has to run the game despite it being optimised wrong, will make the console appear to be better than it is. For the money, a 360 is hard to beat. But it is quite likely to overheat and die on you because the build quality is pretty shocking.

This is why Gentoo will fly on a system that Ubuntu drags its heels over, all in the code optimisation.
 
yeh i see what ur saying there jon, makes a lot of sense. its a shame the 360 sounds like a hovercraft or i would use it a lot more :(
 
danrogers said:
i didnt know the 360 was such good spec really seems as its a few years old now! how much would a comparative gpu cost and what kind of cpu does it run on? someone said a x3 core?
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The Xbox 360 uses a IBM built CPU, codename the "Xenon" and while it does have 3 cores, it is a completely different thing altogether i.e. similar to IBM's PowerPC CPUs. So you can't really compared it to a PC CPU of today's standards.

The PS3 uses the "Cell" processor which was built by Sony, Toshiba and IBM and that is also completely different too, and its also derived from IBM's PowerPC as well.

And just for kicks, the Wii also uses an IBM built CPU, just the same as the Gamecube did.
 
Sasahara said:
I believe the PS3s GPU is like a custom 7900GT.
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It is actually based on the 7800GTX rather then the 7900GT however it is still way behind a 4870x2 or GTX295 in terms of GPU power.

In terms of the 360 I think it is something around the 2900 series cards.

As such you don't need much to get a PC that can beat a Games Console on raw power. The problem with the PC is that the code is not optimized, and it has too run a whole range of General Purpose OS code as well as the game.

It has to run the whole range of Nvida/ATI and Intel/AMD systems, run acceptably on a 17" monitor at 1024 x 768 with a 3 year CPU and GPU card as well as the people with a Core i7 and a GTX295 with a 30" monitor.

You pick up a PS3 and you know what you are getting. Pick up a PC and it's a lottery of what is in there.
 
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