In 5 years, My PC un-upgraded or my PS3

[HangTime]

A console will nearly always have a longer lifespan than a PC if you aren't going to upgrade. In your case, it's pretty much guarenteed as you only have a GTX260.

Look at it this way, a decent 5 year old PC would be something along the lines of Athlon 64 3000+, 1GB RAM, 6800GT. You will really struggle to play games on that.

That said, I doubt a PS3 will be much cop in 5 years time either, surely something better will be on the market by then.

 

[wakayoda]

The PS3's product lifespan is designed to be 12 years

Sony have confirmed this many times

 

[Glaucus]

ps3 would be better. not because it's more powerfull. But because new games would be designed for that spec. Where in pcs the games would be designed for new software. However with that spec I'm sure you could still game at lower res for years to come and with soem cheap upgrades gfx card and a qaud core. i'm sure you could be gaming fine in 5 years time and better than ps3. so it depends if you want a direct comparison or a cheap upgrade comparison.

However I can not believe ps3 will still be around in 5 years.

The PS3's product lifespan is designed to be 12 years

design life has nothing to do with when ps4 will be released. it's the same as xp support is only just starting to shut down even though vista and now w7 is out.

 

[cmndr_andi]

I was under the impression that Sonys really long outlook for the PS3 was due to the massive development costs of the Cell chip. With this in mind they wanted to put off designing a new platform for as long as possible to get as much out of their investment as possible and delay initiating (very expensive) development of the PS4.

Therefore, I don't see a PS4 arriving in 6 years+ to be particularly unlikely.

As i'm sure you know, your PC can happily play all multi-platform games (with a few exceptions like the abominable GTA4) and do it with high framerates, larger draw distances, high resolutions etc. etc. As the PS3 hardware isn't going to be changing, then I think it's reasonably safe to assume that any well-ported PS3 game will run fine on your PC for the lifetime of the PS3.

So, to answer your question - I believe your PC will do well in 5/6 years if you are just interested in multi-platform games. Obviously, PC exclusive titles will be a different story, but that is to be expected. Also, when the Core 2 has been put to bed by Intel you may consider buying a cheap second-hand Q9550 or Q9650 (hey, it might happen ) - this should protect against any bad ports (I believe GTA 4 was so bad because it pretty much needs 3 cores to play well, like the 360 has).

 

[arknor]

Look at it this way, a decent 5 year old PC would be something along the lines of Athlon 64 3000+, 1GB RAM, 6800GT. You will really struggle to play games on that.

That said, I doubt a PS3 will be much cop in 5 years time either, surely something better will be on the market by then.

would still play dragon age at a res everyone was used to back then.

its possible to game on a 5year old comp but for around 300 quid you could easily build a nice dual core intel rig with a good GFX card anyway and play on max settings still (without buying 2nd hand bitS)

 

[krooton]

Look at it this way, a decent 5 year old PC would be something along the lines of Athlon 64 3000+, 1GB RAM, 6800GT. You will really struggle to play games on that.

I doubt that would struggle with even the most recent PS2 releases, compare apples to apples

 

[Tefal]

Your PC is much more powerful then a PS3....

and in five years time your PC will still be more powerful then a PS3

except pc games will be optimised for newer hardware and generally less optimized over all.

the ps3 games will perform much better on lower specs due to less programs running/better optimisation.

 

[gazzamcg]

I was under the impression that Sonys really long outlook for the PS3 was due to the massive development costs of the Cell chip. With this in mind they wanted to put off designing a new platform for as long as possible to get as much out of their investment as possible and delay initiating (very expensive) development of the PS4.

Therefore, I don't see a PS4 arriving in 6 years+ to be particularly unlikely.

But Micorosft will probably release the 720 in two - three years time.

Sony will have no other choice but to release the ps4 to compete with the 720.

Games on the consoles are already being restricted due to the limitations of the 360 & ps3.

 

[niggyg]

would still play dragon age at a res everyone was used to back then.

its possible to game on a 5year old comp but for around 300 quid you could easily build a nice dual core intel rig with a good GFX card anyway and play on max settings still (without buying 2nd hand bitS)

Really?

I'm building a HTPC and it's coming in over £300 using second hand purchases.
I'd like to see your spec for this claim.

 

[LabR@t]

when people stop buying the ps3 they will launch the ps4 simple business plan really.

 

[cmndr_andi]

But Micorosft will probably release the 720 in two - three years time.

Sony will have no other choice but to release the ps4 to compete with the 720.

Games on the consoles are already being restricted due to the limitations of the 360 & ps3.

I don't see this happening either. Microsoft has announced that Natal will be the next big update and that works with the 360. They too got burnt by massive development costs and want to string out their current generation out as long as possible. Considering less than 50% of people have HD TVs, throwing in a new "more HD" console doesn't make a whole lot of sense in the near future.

 

[gazzamcg]

I don't see this happening either. Microsoft has announced that Natal will be the next big update and that works with the 360. They too got burnt by massive development costs and want to string out their current generation out as long as possible. Considering less than 50% of people have HD TVs, throwing in a new "more HD" console doesn't make a whole lot of sense in the near future.

Yeah, but that's just an accessory for the 360. It's not expanding the 360's cpu and gpu capabilities.

Obviously something like that or maybe better will come with the launch of the 720.

If the 360 & ps3 are to last another 6 years as the main consoles that you suggest, personally that would be bad for gaming.

Or what about Nintendo, say they release a new console in the next 3 years which would be more powerful than the 360 & 720, then MS and Sony would have to react.

 

[Tigjaw]

Your computer, bar the processor, is already better in every aspect than the PS3. The PS3's graphics card is so out of date now too. How can the PS3 be a better choice for the future?

 

[arknor]

Your computer, bar the processor, is already better in every aspect than the PS3. The PS3's graphics card is so out of date now too. How can the PS3 be a better choice for the future?

ps3 will still have games developed for it in all likely hood.

while pc games wont be aimed at his specs if hes unlucky he might not be able to play games in 5 years time even on minimum settings without a small upgrade.

probably not likely to happen though , he could easily pick up a quad core for cheap within the next few years and pick up a better gfx card once there cheap enough second hand if hes satisfied with having a mid range rig in a few years

 

[snowdog]

PS3 games won't get prettier in the next 5 years at all, it already struggles and runs games at appalling low res (cod games) and framerate (gta iv) upscaling it to a higher res, If a pc won't be able to run games similar to ps3 games then it's because of no other reason than laziness on developers side. A 7900GS ( or GT?) in the PS3 can onyl do so much...

the ps3 games will perform much better on lower specs due to less programs running/better optimisation.

You forget the settings on the consoles though, a Geforce 7800GT can EASILY run CoDMW2 on such a low res as it does on the console. I mean I used to play CoD4 on a 6800GS at release, medium-high graphics, no AA, but only because I ran it at 800x600... It looked very similar to Console CoD4 which runs at 1024 x 600... It ran very smooth on my pc, just had to lower the resolution.

Anyone on pc can lower the resolution to the silly low figures on the consoles like 600p, and still play any game smooth... People just don't do it. I was confused why people expected better so much performance in GTA IV than on consoles, when it ran and looked **** on consoles anyways and ran at 1280x720. Sure you may have a gpu twice as fast, but when you play at 1920x1200 your resolution is also more than twice as large stressing the GPU far more. The game runs on 3 cores ( I think) on a console so unless you have a tri core cpu why do you expect it to run on an inferior cpu on pc ?

 

[skullman]

Cheers for the acknowledgment, but I thought it was common sense really. If a mid-range PC of today can outperform console versions of cross-platform titles then theres no reason why things shouldnt be any different in 5 years.

Your computer, bar the processor, is already better in every aspect than the PS3.

....even so, cross-platforms titles are never going to take full advantage of Cell anyway are they?

 

[drunkenmaster]

Your PC is much more powerful then a PS3....

and in five years time your PC will still be more powerful then a PS3

One of the only sensible posts in this thread, right now a 260gtx can EASILY play a game in higher res and higher settings than a PS3, this will continue in 5 years, even if new game is far to hard for teh 260gtx to run on max settings, even if you drop down to medium settings and no post processing, the PS3 will STILL be using LOWER options, so will run the same game at a lower rest/lower speed or lower settings.

YOu need a quad core now? tosh, barely any games require a quad core, infact no game out won't run on a dual core not a single one, some games are faster on a quad, that doesn't mean unplayable without, likewise most games aren't any faster with a quad.

In 5 years you'll probably be on dx12, but dx12 will be backwards compatible with everything down to DX10. Infact newer games on PC in 5 years WON'T be backwards compatible with DX9, so anything behind a 8800/2900xt wouldn't be viable in 5 years, anything dx10 and up will still be supported in 5 years, without dx9 and with companies having moved away from it in 5 years you'll unlikely even see the best games released on the PS3 anymore, just the PS4. Unlike the PS2/PS3, games likely won't be as compatible on PS4/PS3, so you won't get releases on both at some point in the future.

There is no question your PC will play games significantly better in 5 years than a PS3, and theres certainly a question if major releases in 5 years even make it onto the PS3, they will almost certainly be compatible with the 260GTX.

a PS3 has only a little more power than a 7900gt, its outclassed by a 8800, let alone a 260gtx.

 

[SkeeterUK]

Quad is needed more and more the last year or two. Gta 4 being a prime example.

 

[Duran]

think of the 8800gtx. it came out the same year ps3 was released and it was more powerful and 3 years later its still more powerful and plays games better compared to a ps3.

 

[Tefal]

when people stop buying the ps3 they will launch the ps4 simple business plan really.

So why is the ps2 still selling.

And was selling very well at ps3 launch.