Meaningless recommended PC specifications

BloodWolf said:
wtf is a joe pubic
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An average user who often might still think the monitor is infact the whole computer (like my step dad)
Has no idea what is really meant by RAM and other specs.
 
PinkFloyd said:
An average user who often might still think the monitor is infact the whole computer (like my step dad)
Has no idea what is really meant by RAM and other specs.
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Oh I get ya. Thanks for clearing it up. ;)
 
I really like the WEI as a way of judging specs, it really should be pushed a lot more.
I guess it might make a lot of lower end pc's look as rubbish as they are though, for example, pushing the lowest end GPU with it's MASSIVE 512mb MEMORY!!! Would come to an end immediately, which is good.

For the average non-enthusiast PC user, I'd say that even the "DX9 compatible hardware" bit could cause problems, WEI could help just make things easier.
 
Psyk said:
The problem is that clock speed is a pretty meaningless number. Especially now that processor architechture has changed considerably in the last few years.
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I'm well aware of that, but how on earth are random numbers picked out of the air any better? At least AMD's rating system (and to a lesser extent the PR system before it) has some semblance of comparison to it. Even as a reasonably experienced system builder I'd need to do some research before knowing how fast say a P4 '850' or '920' is.

It'd be nice for example if say a E6600 had an approximate equivalency in terms of a standard 800fsb P4 - rated at 6000 or whatever.
 
HangTime said:
I'm well aware of that, but how on earth are random numbers picked out of the air any better? At least AMD's rating system (and to a lesser extent the PR system before it) has some semblance of comparison to it. Even as a reasonably experienced system builder I'd need to do some research before knowing how fast say a P4 '850' or '920' is.

It'd be nice for example if say a E6600 had an approximate equivalency in terms of a standard 800fsb P4 - rated at 6000 or whatever.
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Good point. Maybe they should start putting flops ratings on the specs for processors. Even that isn't a great measure of processing power, but it would be more accurate than anything else.

I suppose graphics cards have always had the same problem. They just have a model number that has no particular significance compared to similar cards from other companies. Although there does seem to be a rough correlation between Nvidia and ATI model numbers.
 
ps3ud0 said:
Since most of these people will be buying pre-built, perhaps its ideal for PC manus to start sticking the WEI rating on a label on the machine to save confusion instead of/in addition to the actual PC spec...
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I cant see this ever happening tbh. It would mean that the big PC retailers wouldnt be able to build a PC out of glitter and cornflake packets, then hide it behind a high end processor.
 
They should just write all the recommended specs in binary, or hex, and then see Joe Nooby confuse the hell out of himself as he reads the specs and thinks...."I havent got a 01001100111010101011, I better pop down to "a place where they sell pc's and act like n00bs" and ask the experts".

E.D.I.T'ed =D
 
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Schnippzle said:
They should just write all the recommended specs in binary, or hex, and then see Joe Nooby confuse the hell out of himself as he reads the specs and thinks...."I havent got a 01001100111010101011, I better pop down to ****** and ask the experts".
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can't mention the purple shirt bridage dude
 
HL2 Lost COast tells me it needs a 2.2Ghz in steam - i only have a peasly 1.8ghz A64...

we shall see what steam has to say when my conroe kit arrives Tuesday/Wednesday ahhaha
 
Torquar said:
I cant see this ever happening tbh. It would mean that the big PC retailers wouldnt be able to build a PC out of glitter and cornflake packets, then hide it behind a high end processor.
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No.

WEI.jpg


I agree, using the WEI score would probably be the best solution for this problem. :)

Edit: And thats why I don't like jpg's, omfg. :(
 
Psyk said:
I suppose graphics cards have always had the same problem. They just have a model number that has no particular significance compared to similar cards from other companies. Although there does seem to be a rough correlation between Nvidia and ATI model numbers.
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The situation with graphics cards has kinda developed over the years as we see more and more parts available. Look around nowadays and Nvidia probably have at least a dozen different cards available to cater for different markets, with almost as many from ATI. Go back to the early days of 3d accelerators and it was pretty simple... you had maybe 2 or 3 different cards per generation from each manufacturers. Even as recently as the GF3 we only had 3 different cards from nvidia. Then along game the Geforce4 series with like 4 each of the TI and MX range. From then onwards things have got out of hand and it's easy to see how a 'newb' could get confused. Even the numbers don't necessary mean very much with ATIs 9500 series being faster than the 9600 series for example. To compound matters, there are loads of board partners all churning out different versions running at non-standard clock speeds etc, different types of RAM (GDDR2/3) etc.

I guess what I'm driving at is that in the old days if you bought a PC with a Voodoo2 or a Geforce 3, you couldn't go far wrong, the worst you could get was an 8meg V2 or a Ti200 respectively. Nowadays if you were to look at the GF7 series you've got it ranging from the 7950GX2 all the way down to the 7150TC or whatever it is.
 
Emlyn_Dewar said:
I really like the WEI as a way of judging specs, it really should be pushed a lot more.
I guess it might make a lot of lower end pc's look as rubbish as they are though, for example, pushing the lowest end GPU with it's MASSIVE 512mb MEMORY!!! Would come to an end immediately, which is good.

For the average non-enthusiast PC user, I'd say that even the "DX9 compatible hardware" bit could cause problems, WEI could help just make things easier.
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Well thats why i dont think its a good system, and no better than the present one. When all said PC gaming isnt an xbox or PS and tbh if you dont know what RAM is or what youve got and what your general PC spec is then.

1. You shouldnt be gaming on a PC
2. Youre most likely to have a xbox or PS anyway.
 
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