games lagging the hardware

Electroshadow

Electroshadow

Electroshadow

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when are pc games going to catch up to the hardware that our rigs are packing.

I mean, i can remember the days that when a new big title game came out i would have to upgrade my rig to be able to play the game.

nowadays im waiting for something to stress my rig. i think crysis must have been the last good game for that but it plays absolutely fine.


Is any one else thinking this? is there anything coming out soon?


i know that there are a lot of good games on the consoles but when i turn on my xbox 360, i think to myself this is a great game but it would look so much better on my pc....
 
surely it's a sign that developers are taking the time to code games decently.

Demigod, Prince or Persia, Burnout Paradise and Mirror's Edge are all games I've played recently that looked nice, and ran like butter at 1920x1200.
 
no complaining about no more upgrades.

just that with the graphics cards we have now i was expecting more from games.


forgot about mirrors edge some screen shots ive seen of it look as though you could really be there. whats the game play like?
 
Electroshadow said:
forgot about mirrors edge some screen shots ive seen of it look as though you could really be there. whats the game play like?
Click to expand...

repetitive, but fun :)

It depends if you like platformers - I really enjoyed the PoP series, and found Mirror's Edge to have a similar kind of gameplay, only a lot more polished.
 
We'll see a nice expansion in a couple of years when the new consoles launch. It's just a shame that the really big PC R+D isn't happening these days.
 
Electroshadow said:
when are pc games going to catch up to the hardware that our rigs are packing.

I mean, i can remember the days that when a new big title game came out i would have to upgrade my rig to be able to play the game.

nowadays im waiting for something to stress my rig. i think crysis must have been the last good game for that but it plays absolutely fine.


Is any one else thinking this? is there anything coming out soon?


i know that there are a lot of good games on the consoles but when i turn on my xbox 360, i think to myself this is a great game but it would look so much better on my pc....
Click to expand...
When piracy declines on the PC and games sell strongly they will have a reason to make enhanced PC games. Right now consoles sell more games and the PC despite having more gaming hardware than PS3+X360+Wii combined still gets less support. ATI + Nvidia should be doing more to promote it as they stand to lose the most but I guess they have fallback contracts to make console chipsets so are happy to chug along.

Apart from Crysis in 2007 nothing since has come close to using the PC hardware. GTA4 is a lot better on PC but it started out as a console title as do most games.

I doubt if this year will see any change if anything the PC will get less games support than last year as piracy is hurting the PC more than most other platforms.
 
I believe it's mainly due to the fact that most new games are designed primarily for the consoles or at least with it in mind. Due to this the games can only demand a certain amount of power as the consoles have an upper limit to the hardware capabilities. The reason Crysis was more demanding for most pc hardware was because it was designed for computers, not consoles, which theoretically don't have an upper performance limit (when taking upgrades into account).

Ultimately computer gamers will only have to upgrade their computers about as often as new console generations are released, with exceptions being made for future Crysis like titles.
 
is it not because at the moment PC gmaes have hit a bit of a plateaux where to get even minimal gains you have to put in a substantial outlay?

so top end grapchics cards now in theory should have a longer life as it getting harder to get large gains in performance that you used to when upgrading..then add in the fact that due to the architecture you can have multiple GPU's thus getting you a decent performance boost for not so much more cash

I suspect ATi and nvidia get most of their revenue from their more mid range items..and mid range these days still delivers a decent punch..nobody wants to keep changing a card every 6 months!
 
Electroshadow said:
i can remember the days that when a new big title game came out i would have to upgrade my rig to be able to play the game.
Click to expand...

It could just be that in the past you didn't actually have computers that were all that. Your current spec is a quad at over 3.5ghz, 8gig of RAM and a GTX280. That's fairly high end and I know that many people start off with fairly modest rigs for their first couple of builds.

The fact is I don't ever remember a time when you consistently HAD to upgrade to play the big titles.... sure, it helped a lot for Quake 2, Quake 3, GTA3, Doom 3 etc but generally speaking you were talking a upgrade schedule of around every 18-24 months to give you a good setup (maybe slightly less for GPUs). If you look at the market today there are titles out there like GTA4 and Crysis which really hammer midrange rigs if you crank all the settings right up.

For me I simply don't but the idea that modern games are lagging the hardware, I mean I've got the most expensive gfx card I've ever owned (£242 for a GTX280) and I can easily soak up all that power if I crank up the settings.

If you really are itching for an upgrade and think that your rig is way too fast for gaming then get yourself a nice 30" monitor. That 2560x1600 resolution will help soak up the power and I'd imagine that Crysis with 8xAA should give you the slideshow you desire.

The bottom line is, current hardware simply doesn't have enough power to run the latest games smoothly if you really go berzerk on the settings, never mind future games.
 
True, I have a lot more money compared to when I was running an AMD Duron/GF3 ragged and therefore have better components on each successive build. It seems that the "aspirational" games just aren't there. Everything is within reasonable reach.

I remember playing the original Unreal and giving myself migraines 'cos of the slideshow stutter
 
It's a one size fits all situation with developers these days unless the game is a single platform exclusive.
 
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