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Well,...this is kind of surprising. I see 550 dollar builds these days with tri-core cpus and mid range cards(mostly 5770s). I didn't realize that the lower sector of gaming could still retain so much power. Most of the problem I see comes from the fact that with HP and Dell pretty much having a stranglehold over the budget PC, people can't find options that are both more powerful as well as cost efficient. Why couldn't there simply be more companies that build reasonably priced budget towers for consumers that capably make use of the superb cost/power output ratio of today's parts. When people think PC gaming they mostly think of the 2000 dollar alienware products. Even if assembly and labor were added in, as well as the OEM OS, I can still foresee a price increase of only maybe 100 dollars at most. Cost is probably in my experience, the single most relevant barrier entry to other gamers. If it was just possible to peel back the misconception of PC gaming as being expensive, the movement as a whole would be so much stronger. Seriously, I did not expect 550 dollars to be able to play games on high settings at 1650x1050 at all. Thoughts?
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PC gaming is indeed getting cheaper and we can give a big fat thanks to AMD for that. It's was all about goddamn NVidia (and Intel too, to an extent) JACKING UP the prices of their gear to un-affordable levels. Even heavy gamers don't want to spend $400+ on just their graphics and the HD 5xxx series basically told NVidia "err fuck you, we'll give gamers the same performance at half the price". NVidia cut the cost of most of their cards by almost 30% just to stay in competition (should see what the GTX 260's release price was). Cost vs performance, the Phenom II is also a far better choice giving 6-core performance surpassing i5's and close to the i7 (not the i7 extreme which is miles ahead in both performance and price).
Today, an AMD+ATI-based gaming PC can give you POWERHOUSE performance for a very, very good deal.
Sadly HP, Dell (and the likes) will continue to rip people off simply because the average PC user doesn't know WHERE to buy their computer from or what to look for. It's almost as if the "geek shops" are underground cults or something.
A $1000 NZ computer bought from a dedicated tech shop will give almost TWICE the performance of a $1000 pre-made Dell or HP from your local TV/Computer store.
The biggest barrier into PC gaming for the average consumer is lack of knowledge, nothing else.
Man, some people are still stuck with the idea that XBox/PS3 consoles have superior graphics vs PC's, go figure -_-
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Actually, given that you can buy an Xbox 360 for roughly $200, they have pretty decent graphics for the price you pay (although of course a $500 custom built PC will do better).
You are completely right ZeroRacer, the cost of computers is going down and down, while the power in PCs continues to increase. Moore's Law ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_law) is absolutely holding true.
It's important to also note, however, that although the cost of hardware is continually going down, software is constantly becoming more and more expensive (at least as far as games go). Or so it would appear.
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08 Oct 10, 02:17AM
(This post was last modified: 08 Oct 10, 02:19AM by Mael.)
My guess is console gaming will get much cheaper in the next two generations. We will soon be at the point where console games have little necessity to become graphically superior. The current generation of consoles is almost there. I'll bet my last dollar the focus will be on more accurate physics and scenes of denser complexity rather than increasing individual object polygon counts.
Once physics are nailed down, the next step is accurately reproducing audio in accordance with the game environment in real time.
PC gaming will continue to showcase the upper limits of current technology, but the casual gamer will not be interested in 96x AA and higher. Console prices will drop while pc prices will remain comparatively high. I'll be shocked if Sony's next console exceeds $500USD.
As for Moore's law, without some new ideas it won't continue for many more years.
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ZeroRacer Wrote:HP and Dell pretty much having a stranglehold over the budget PC LOLWUT
Perhaps, as Stupefy pointed out, people who don't know where else to buy a computer often go to Dell or HP, but trust me, they have no stranglehold on anything except "sheep" consumers and bloatware.
U|Zarj Wrote:software is constantly becoming more and more expensive (at least as far as games go). Or so it would appear. To the contrary, AssaultCube is constantly increasing its value for its cost!
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I think we will see PC Gaming getting cheaper just to compete with the growing functions and capabilities of consoles. In the past, consoles were just for games and movies, whereas PC Gaming provided the user with the ability to game, as well as enjoy the features of a normal PC (Internet, Social Networking, Word Publishing). Today, the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 are basically on the verge of turning into (affordable) home theater computers, with features such as Youtube, Facebook and movies on demand. Soon enough, they will match the current gaming experience (graphics/power wise) that is showcased currently for the PC.
However, one advantage PC Gaming has, is that it allows the user to upgrade as new and better technology comes out, instead of waiting 4-5 year intervals which consoles face. Compared to PC hardware, both the PS3 and Xbox 360 are miles behind (its understandable though, since technology moves so fast these days). So really, consoles will always have to play catch-up with PC until the changes in the physics/audio of games become unnoticeable.
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you can play ac on a $50 computer ;)
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http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.p...891&page=2
The hardware it uses could probably be found for a few dollars cheaper these days, but it really proves that the pc is well in the affordable boundaries for gaming purposes.
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(08 Oct 10, 10:44AM)ZeroRacer Wrote: http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.p...891&page=2
The hardware it uses could probably be found for a few dollars cheaper these days, but it really proves that the pc is well in the affordable boundaries for gaming purposes. Bookmarked, that is awesome.
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@XFA: I sometimes play AC on a computer I made from parts scrounged from boxes marked "FREE." :-P
@Ruthless: I think the line between computers and game consoles will be more blurred when gaming consoles come with a universal keyboard.
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@DES|V-Man I cant host a server on a free computer I have. Not all free things are good.
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But when the free things happen to be good, that's grrrrrrrrrreat!
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I got a $700 dollar laptop that runs AC at a steady 200fps, sometimes goes up to 400fps in the narrow hallways. I have a five year old PC with a Radeon X300 and Pentium D 2.8Ghz processor (would probably sell for $100 now) that can run AC at a steady 120fps, with optimizations. So yes, AC gaming is incredibly cheap. And the Intel GMA that came with it runs better than the X300 :D
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