Xbox 360 graphics

Thing · 4 Apr 2006 at 10:54

On Crysis - it's the reason I've decided not to buy a PC for a couple of years and stick with my laptop.

I don't have the kind of money to upgrade a sysem to DX10 when it arrives. Right now I'd get a 2nd hand 360 or just stick with my GC for gaming and save up to get whatever's top when DX10 hits.

LoadsaMoney · 4 Apr 2006 at 10:58

Why does everyone keep banging on about DX10 now for, have you noticed the only DX10 game that ever gets mentioned is the Crysis one, becuase its the only one, im certainly not going to rush out and waste £500 on a card for one single game, why not wait till theres enough out there that it warrants the purchase of a DX10 card, that won't be for a good while yet, and even then G80/R600 will be old gen cards.

Thing · 4 Apr 2006 at 11:02

LoadsaMoney said:
Why does everyone keep banging on about DX10 now for, have you noticed the only DX10 game that ever gets mentioned is the Crysis one, becuase its the only one, im certainly not going to rush out and waste £500 on a card for one single game, why not wait till theres enough out there that it warrants the purchase of a DX10 card, that won't be for a good while yet, and even then G80/R600 will be old gen cards.

But, sooner or later it will be the industry standard and I'd rather wait until I have a machine that is the industry standard (or a little ahead of it, never hurts) than save up now to buy something I'll need to upgrade hugely in a year or so time.

nbkpsycho · 4 Apr 2006 at 11:06

Can you use directx 10 on older cards if u buy windows vista ??

Rojin · 4 Apr 2006 at 11:13

Threads like this make baby Jesus cry...

I have both, I bought a 360 for sports, fighting and driving games. Also initially as a media centre front end but it's just too noisy. I have a PC for fps games and work. It is true that if the 360 had a keyboard and mouse I'd probably not have to upgrade my pc for a longtime (although that in itself is addictive) but it doesn't and for me fps games whilst enjoyable on the 360, are far more playable on the pc.

Graphics wise, which this thread was about, CoD2 looks better on the PC, but then again playing it on a 42" plasma does have it's plus points as well...

SteveOBHave · 4 Apr 2006 at 11:34

nbkpsycho said:
Can you use directx 10 on older cards if u buy windows vista ??

Apparently not. The running buzz is that to use an older card or more accurately an older iteration of DX, Vista will use a software layer to work with those cards and older. DX10 will talk to specific 'features' on a DX10 compatible card that do not exist on current VGA Cards.

I just bought the Gainward 7800GT 512 GLH and it says on the box "Vista Ready".

I'm not too sure how quickly Vista will catch on, or if there is any point in upgrading to it if there are still lots of teething issues, at least not until the first Service Pack. I think I will give it about 6 months. Unless there is a killer game/app that 'forces' me into it

. You never know tho, the general consumer is a hell of a lot faster to take on new technology compared to when XP was released.

King_Boru · 4 Apr 2006 at 12:25

Thing said:
But, sooner or later it will be the industry standard and I'd rather wait until I have a machine that is the industry standard (or a little ahead of it, never hurts) than save up now to buy something I'll need to upgrade hugely in a year or so time.

If you go by that rule you will never upgrade or buy anything! There is always something new around the corener in this business. Chances are you'll buy your 'industry standard' computer and it will be out of date 4 weeks later. What are yo going to do then? Cry? Its pointless waiting around.

I really dont see the point in people saying 'I'm waiting for DX10' when there is no release date (afaik) and only one or two game developers using it. DX9c is only now becoming the standard and still not everybody uses it.

King_Boru · 4 Apr 2006 at 12:27

LoadsaMoney said:
Why does everyone keep banging on about DX10 now for, have you noticed the only DX10 game that ever gets mentioned is the Crysis one, becuase its the only one, im certainly not going to rush out and waste £500 on a card for one single game, why not wait till theres enough out there that it warrants the purchase of a DX10 card, that won't be for a good while yet, and even then G80/R600 will be old gen cards.

Totally agree. It was the same story for DX9c. Only now is it starting to be used more often and still not everybody uses it!

easyrider · 4 Apr 2006 at 12:32

Thing said:
But, sooner or later it will be the industry standard and I'd rather wait until I have a machine that is the industry standard (or a little ahead of it, never hurts) than save up now to buy something I'll need to upgrade hugely in a year or so time.

There is no good time to upgrade in pc simple as.

All this waiting is futile IMO.

Months and months of waiting for technology and by the time it comes its old.

The waiting game doesn't work.

Live for the now and enjoy the technology thats on offer.

Naffa · 4 Apr 2006 at 13:53

King_Boru said:
If you go by that rule you will never upgrade or buy anything! There is always something new around the corener in this business. Chances are you'll buy your 'industry standard' computer and it will be out of date 4 weeks later. What are yo going to do then? Cry? Its pointless waiting around.

or buy a 360 which you wont ever need to upgrade

Tommy B · 4 Apr 2006 at 14:04

AaronW said:
Is there a card on the market that comes clost to the 360 graphics?

I am sure I read that the new playstation will use something similar to the new 7900GT.

IMO the rendering quality of the top range ATI & Nvidia cards is superior to the Xbox 360.

As a lot of people have said, the potential is there, it's just the programming of the games which needs to be worked on.

The Xbox 360 is not new technology. It's nothing amazing. It's just EXTREMELY efficient as it's a console built for gaming. PCs are horribly innefficient; which is why Apples are superior in pretty much everything except gaming.

easyrider · 4 Apr 2006 at 14:27

naffa said:
or buy a 360 which you wont ever need to upgrade

Its not need to upgrade.

I think the word is CAN'T upgrade

Rojin · 4 Apr 2006 at 14:28

naffa said:
or buy a 360 which you wont ever need to upgrade

Unless you want to make it quiet

I'm trying to sum up the courage to take mine to bits at the moment but keep chickening out!

melchy · 4 Apr 2006 at 14:32

Tommy B said:
IMO the rendering quality of the top range ATI & Nvidia cards is superior to the Xbox 360.

As a lot of people have said, the potential is there, it's just the programming of the games which needs to be worked on.

The Xbox 360 is not new technology. It's nothing amazing. It's just EXTREMELY efficient as it's a console built for gaming. PCs are horribly innefficient; which is why Apples are superior in pretty much everything except gaming.

The VGA in the 360 is something new though, a similar unified architecture is being adopted for DX10 and should be along in the next generation of PC VGA's i think.

oweneades · 4 Apr 2006 at 14:51

Rojin said:
Unless you want to make it quiet

I'm trying to sum up the courage to take mine to bits at the moment but keep chickening out!

I really want to take mine apart as well , fit new fans (for better cooling not because they are loud) and stick some AS5 on the CPU and GPU to cool it down but I know as soon as I try it will bork itself and I won't be able to get a replacement :rolleyes:

I am happy with mine though as well as I am happy with my pc (when I use it)

Will keep on gaming on both and enjoying the advantages and the best games for both.

Mobius 1 · 4 Apr 2006 at 14:51

Hmmm... Well. I don't like the fact that next gen consoles come out too quickly, only felt like yesterday that i got my ps2, GC and xbox. Although ive sold them all on now (GC+xbox). I just think the market is going too fast. I found, the graphics say, on the ps2, were amazing at first, better than anything my pc could produce. But now, i can barely stand to play it anymore, due to the horrible jaggies etc. Yes, call me a graphics whore if you want to. But come a few years time, the same will probably happen to the 360. Of course, this is just MY opinion. At the end of the day it all comes down the personal preferance, if you prefer playing with a controller rather than keyboard and mouse then fair enough. Buy a 360. But i'd say atm, the 360 and PC's are virtually on par with graphics. The 360 maybe a little faster at the resolution of television sets. Although, i'd like to see a 360 running at 1600x1200 full AA and AAF.

Tommy B · 4 Apr 2006 at 15:13

melchy said:
The VGA in the 360 is something new though, a similar unified architecture is being adopted for DX10 and should be along in the next generation of PC VGA's i think.

They've left it too late.

My 7800GTX was the biggest waste of money. It didn't blow me away, it simply made game play "satisfactory" again. I worked hard during the summer hols to get the money (I think it was £350) and I was truly disappointed. The only reason I didn’t send it back to OCUK is because I’d already sent back an X800 XT, which was also crap.

I’m still stuck in medium-settings in games like COD2 and AOEIII. I'm just sick of it! Just because a few lucky people spend £1000 on Graphics alone, games companies seem to think all gamers will. Well they won't. This whole SLI thing annoys me so much. Why can't the cretins make ONE earth-shatteringly awesome card? SLI is a waste of time, money and nothing more than a ploy. The performance is NEVER 100% better. (reflecting 2xpower, 2xcards etc)

Alternatively, why don't they do a "pick 'n' mix" style SLI, so you can add cards to obtain even more overall graphics power without having to remove the existing ones?

I felt my money had been spent on something that simply wasn’t up to the job. A few years ago, that would have bought me the crème de la crème of graphics cards. Developers don't help either. How many times have I told you lot that Max Payne was a truly OUTSTANDING game. The graphics were awesome and played smoother than butter on a P3 500mhz Voodoo 3D 3000. Why can't modern games be like this? I can't think of an example tbh. The only game my setup "pwnd" -as the geeks say- is FEAR.

oweneades · 4 Apr 2006 at 15:21

Tommy B said:
They've left it too late.

My 7800GTX was the biggest waste of money. It didn't blow me away, it simply made game play "satisfactory" again. I worked hard during the summer hols to get the money (I think it was £350) and I was truly disappointed. The only reason I didn’t send it back to OCUK is because I’d already sent back an X800 XT, which was also crap.

I’m still stuck in medium-settings in games like COD2 and AOEIII. I'm just sick of it! Just because a few lucky people spend £1000 on Graphics alone, games companies seem to think all gamers will. Well they won't. This whole SLI thing annoys me so much. Why can't the cretins make ONE earth-shatteringly awesome card? SLI is a waste of time, money and nothing more than a ploy. The performance is NEVER 100% better. (reflecting 2xpower, 2xcards etc)

Alternatively, why don't they do a "pick 'n' mix" style SLI, so you can add cards to obtain even more overall graphics power without having to remove the existing ones?

I felt my money had been spent on something that simply wasn’t up to the job. A few years ago, that would have bought me the crème de la crème of graphics cards. Developers don't help either. How many times have I told you lot that Max Payne was a truly OUTSTANDING game. The graphics were awesome and played smoother than butter on a P3 500mhz Voodoo 3D 3000. Why can't modern games be like this? I can't think of an example tbh. The only game my setup "pwnd" -as the geeks say- is FEAR.

COD2 ran fine on my system below (in sig) with a leadtek 7800GTX (450/1250). That was on high settings with the texture settings set to Extra / high and high (in the order of the menu).

It *should* run on high settings for you as well.

Tommy B · 4 Apr 2006 at 15:25

oweneades said:
COD2 ran fine on my system below (in sig) with a leadtek 7800GTX (450/1250). That was on high settings with the texture settings set to Extra / high and high (in the order of the menu).

It *should* run on high settings for you as well.

Yeah, that was all fine, bu as soon as AF and AA kicked in, it killed it completely.

Anyways, if prices don't start falling I'll be grabbing a PS3, and swapping my PC for a Mac :eek:

I'll try COD2 now actually.

oweneades · 4 Apr 2006 at 15:28

Tommy B said:
Yeah, that was all fine, bu as soon as AF and AA kicked in, it killed it completely.

Anyways, if prices don't start falling I'll be grabbing a PS3, and swapping my PC for a Mac

I'll try COD2 now actually.

Mine was with AA set in game to 4x and the ingame AF (which I think is 8x).

The only time I got the occasional stutter was in thick smoke.

That was on the level 'crossroads' (the only level I tested it on)