I'm curious how my PC's capabilities compare to those of the current-gen consoles?

[Oly J]

Hi all, I'm right in saying "current-gen" for PS4/XB1/Wii U by this point aren't I? nobody is still calling them next-gen right? anyway, I'm planning to get a Wii U eventually, and if the next cover of OPM announces what I sincerely hope it will, (but probably won't) I'll only be getting a PS4 that much sooner but in september I got what I assumed to be quite a high-end PC (at least compared to what I'm used to) and I'm wondering how it compares

I'll put up what specs my still-not-very-knowledgeable self can find, if I need more data what do I need and how do I find it?

processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3770 CPU @ 3.40Ghz 3.90GHZ
Installed Memory (RAM) 8.00GB
64-bit operating system
I also have a Radeon HD 7970 graphics card which has 3GB of RAM

thanks for any help

 

[OneCatch]

Compares hugely favourably in raw hardware terms.
Your CPU is faster (albeit with less cores but that doesn't so much matter).
You've got 3GB of VRAM plus 8GB of DDR3 compared to the 8GB VRAM on the consoles - so when you account for the footprint of the console OS vs the footprint of an average PC, you still come out on top.
Your graphics card itself is better than in the consoles (the PS4 is roughly equivalent to a 7850).

The problem is that some of this generation's games have thus far been a bit dicey in terms of resource management and bad porting - the whole thing with COD Ghosts apparently requiring 8GB of RAM on PC in spite of it running with 512MB on the 360 for example.
Your computer is better than mine though, and I doubt I'll be significantly worried about specs for a few years yet. You should certainly be fine to play any upcoming releases (Titanfall, Destiny, etc) on High if not Ultra.

If you want a quick look at all your specs, you can use the third party program; Speccy.
GPU-Z and CPU-Z are utilities which can give more details on your graphics card and CPU respectively.

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

Your graphics card itself is better than in the consoles (the PS4 is roughly equivalent to a 7850).

I was currious about this, so AMD7850 is the bench mark to beat when i upgrade? (obviously i'll got a little higher, just for a bit of raw power vs shitty porting?)

 

[OneCatch]

Your graphics card itself is better than in the consoles (the PS4 is roughly equivalent to a 7850).

I was currious about this, so AMD7850 is the bench mark to beat when i upgrade? (obviously i'll got a little higher, just for a bit of raw power vs shitty porting?)

It's kind of difficult tbh because of the rather unconventional architecture of the consoles. Hopefully someone a little more knowledgeable than me will discuss it in a bit more detail. Calling AWAR, Albino Boo, DoPo!

The 7850 seems to be what people are broadly comparing the PS4's graphics capabilities to, but bear in mind that devs do tend to work out to squeeze more out of console hardware as the generation goes on.
Plus the 7850 doesn't technically exist anymore - because of AMD's rebrand it's been supplanted by the R9-270X.
As always, bigger is better but disproportionately expensive, and I'm not precognitive, but if I had to guess I'd say anything better than an R9-280 / 7970 / GTX 670/680 and you'll be sorted for a looooong time if you aren't fussy on having absolutely everything on Ultra.
Might be worth waiting a few more months for this generation's developers to settle down and get into a proper production cycle before you upgrade though.

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

I'll probably wait until the HD7770 has to drop below medium settings to play 1080p before i look into replacing. nice to know i wont have to spend too much

 

[Zac Jovanovic]

It'll be a while until developers utilize the new console hardware to a point where it can be a match for your PC, but it's possible and it's probably going to happen in a few years.

 

[ProtosOmega]

You have to also consider the operating system and drivers with comparing consoles to a PC. There are a lot less bottle necks in a console, so generally developers can get a lot more out of less with a console.

 

[Robert Marrs]

Much better than any of the new consoles. The gpu may start to fall behind in a year or two at least if you are looking to run the newest games on ultra but its still more than capable for the next few years. Everything else should be solid for about the same amount of time.

 

[fix-the-spade]

I was currious about this, so AMD7850 is the bench mark to beat when i upgrade? (obviously i'll got a little higher, just for a bit of raw power vs shitty porting?)

In practice a reasonable PC with a 7850 2GB in it will outperform a PS4. For example the 7850 2GB (not 1GB, not enough VRAM) can run BF4 at 1080p on high settings and maintain a frame rate around 50-60fps, which the PS4 can't and doesn't. In some other games (notably Assasin's Creed 4 and Call of Doge) it's much closer, CoD I'd say runs marginally better on PS4 than it does my system.

The 7850 absolutely creams the Xbone though, Titanfall looked lovely in the beta on my 7850 and kept close to 100fps the whole time, I was quite impressed by that.

Hardware wise the new consoles have been very disappointing, a PC with an i5 of any model since Sandy Bridge, 4GB or more of RAM and a fairly recent GPU (AMD7850+ or Nvidia 570+) with 2GB or more of VRAM can match or exceed what both consoles can do right now, it doesn't look like upgrading to match them in future will be too expensive either.

 

[fix-the-spade]

I'll put up what specs my still-not-very-knowledgeable self can find, if I need more data what do I need and how do I find it?

processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3770 CPU @ 3.40Ghz 3.90GHZ
Installed Memory (RAM) 8.00GB
64-bit operating system
I also have a Radeon HD 7970 graphics card which has 3GB of RAM

thanks for any help

That is miles ahead of either console on pure hardware terms, keeping the drivers up to date will have you running just about anything on high or ultra fine. The only exception would be multi screen gaming or playing huge scenarios on ARMA 3, which is a real resource hog.

 

[Zipa]

Your computer is vastly more powerful than the 8th gen consoles. You could likely last out the entire generation without putting another part in your rig as long as you maintain it properly. (Keep drivers up to date, blow the dust out of parts once in awhile)

 

[EXos]

It'll be a while until developers utilize the new console hardware to a point where it can be a match for your PC, but it's possible and it's probably going to happen in a few years.

If they were build with new hardware then it would apply. But they are build on years old PC architecture.
Optimization worked on the PS3 and Xbox 360 because nobody made drivers for it before.
The next-gen will get the same optimization as any normal PC hardware.

You have to also consider the operating system and drivers with comparing consoles to a PC. There are a lot less bottle necks in a console, so generally developers can get a lot more out of less with a console.

Not really. Otherwise they would change this on PC.
If GDDR5 was better to run a system on they would have changed it. But GDDR5 is great to handle a big packet of data for a single purpose. Multiple different application using the same chip will build up latency.
This is also why they recommend a high ram video-card for multiple screens. The high ram doesn't really help with a game on a single monitor when compared to a card with the same chipset.
(Side not the PS4's ram is even slower then what PC's use now)

On the flip side it's the same with the Xbox's Ram it's good for multiple applications running but it's lacking in the graphical department.

The PS3 and Xbox 360 were powerful machines that pushed technology and were on-par with high end PCs. This generation is not.
They have been out for 4-5 months and budget gaming PCs are already on their heels with the 750 GTX TI.
While I remember that my 8800GTX could only barely keep up with the PS3 in 2005.

To the

Hi all, I'm right in saying "current-gen" for PS4/XB1/Wii U by this point aren't I? nobody is still calling them next-gen right? anyway, I'm planning to get a Wii U eventually, and if the next cover of OPM announces what I sincerely hope it will, (but probably won't) I'll only be getting a PS4 that much sooner but in september I got what I assumed to be quite a high-end PC (at least compared to what I'm used to) and I'm wondering how it compares

Not a bad machine and it will stay ahead of the current consoles perhaps you'll upgrade in 2-3 years just to make everything look better but it will not look any worse then on the PS4 or Xbox One.

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

Hardware wise the new consoles have been very disappointing, a PC with an i5 of any model since Sandy Bridge, 2GB or more of RAM and a fairly recent GPU (AMD7850+ or Nvidia 570+) with 2GB or more of VRAM can match or exceed what both consoles can do right now, it doesn't look like upgrading to match them in future will be too expensive either.

that leaves me with micxed feelings. atleast my wallet will survive

 

[Oly J]

Your computer is vastly more powerful than the 8th gen consoles. You could likely last out the entire generation without putting another part in your rig as long as you maintain it properly. (Keep drivers up to date, blow the dust out of parts once in awhile)

thanks, um, as mentioned I'm still new to this, uh, what's the best way to keep drivers up to date? because I've had this rig since September and not even thought about it

 

[Zipa]

Your computer is vastly more powerful than the 8th gen consoles. You could likely last out the entire generation without putting another part in your rig as long as you maintain it properly. (Keep drivers up to date, blow the dust out of parts once in awhile)

thanks, um, as mentioned I'm still new to this, uh, what's the best way to keep drivers up to date? because I've had this rig since September and not even thought about it

Windows update will take care of most of them, for your graphics card you can select Steam to do it for you. Click the Steam menu button from Steam itself on your PC then hit check for video driver updates. http://store.steampowered.com/hardware/amd

Or you can download them directly from AMD. There is an auto detect option there so if you are unsure which driver you need it will find it for you. http://support.amd.com/en-us/download

 

[Baron Teapot]

I have almost that same setup, except my graphics card is a Radeon HD 6970 and I've 16GB RAM, oh and my processor is only a 2nd generation Core i7 overclocked 2600K. Can you tell I'm boasting a bit? 'Cause I am. I'm whipping your nose with the tip of my frighteningly-speedy PC gamer willy.

I can run all games on 1920 x 1080 Ultra settings. Unfortunately, I don't run Windows 8 (and I never will) so I don't have access to the latest DirectX. But, most people don't either, so it would be weird for a game studio to focus on a profile that's only a very small portion of their market; Windows 7 is where it's at. Windows XP can only support upto DirectX 9, which means you'd be missing out on a lot of that graphics card's cutting-edge capabilities if you run that, like the Hull, Domain, Tessellation and Geometry shaders in the rendering pipeline.

You won't need to upgrade for a long time. Consoles will never catch up to the more mid-to-high end PCs. Unfortunately, consoles can extract a little more from their hardware, and push it further. Still, I'd be quite pleased: you'll be gaming for years to come.

 

[Zipa]

I have almost that same setup, except my graphics card is a Radeon HD 6970 and I've 16GB RAM, oh and my processor is only a 2nd generation Core i7 overclocked 2600K. Can you tell I'm boasting a bit? 'Cause I am. I'm whipping your nose with the tip of my frighteningly-speedy PC gamer willy.

I can run all games on 1920 x 1080 Ultra settings. Unfortunately, I don't run Windows 8 (and I never will) so I don't have access to the latest DirectX. But, most people don't either, so it would be weird for a game studio to focus on a profile that's only a very small portion of their market; Windows 7 is where it's at. Windows XP can only support upto DirectX 9, which means you'd be missing out on a lot of that graphics card's cutting-edge capabilities if you run that, like the Hull, Domain, Tessellation and Geometry shaders in the rendering pipeline.

You won't need to upgrade for a long time. Consoles will never catch up to the more mid-to-high end PCs. Unfortunately, consoles can extract a little more from their hardware, and push it further. Still, I'd be quite pleased: you'll be gaming for years to come.

Well Win 7 users might get access to DX12 though I guess Microsoft are likely to continue to hold it to ransom by only releasing it with Windows 8.1.1 (or whatever they call the upcoming update) or the upcoming 9. Still though hopefully OpenGL or Mantle can replace it finally now that people like Intel, Nvidia and AMD are putting their heads together.

 

[RicoADF]

Not really. Otherwise they would change this on PC.
If GDDR5 was better to run a system on they would have changed it. But GDDR5 is great to handle a big packet of data for a single purpose. Multiple different application using the same chip will build up latency.

I believe he was actually referring to how consoles don't have extra software and other stuff running on them using up processing power, ram etc. A console is built with one role in mind, gaming, and while they do other things like watch movies etc generally they don't do them while gaming and anything that's done alongside it has been designed around (eg: the downloading updates/games in the background on the PS4 is handled by a separate chip specifically built for that purpose and thus keeps the load off the main system). As a result a game can utilize the whole potential of the hardware in question where as games on a PC have to compete with other software (including a lot of redundant stuff running in Windows).

That said the hardware quoted by the OP will easily survive for quite a while, only upgrades I can see coming is maybe some more ram in a few years and then a few years later possibly a new video card if you want to keep graphics as high/ultra, otherwise it should last you most of if not all of this gen.

 

[OneCatch]

Your computer is vastly more powerful than the 8th gen consoles. You could likely last out the entire generation without putting another part in your rig as long as you maintain it properly. (Keep drivers up to date, blow the dust out of parts once in awhile)

thanks, um, as mentioned I'm still new to this, uh, what's the best way to keep drivers up to date? because I've had this rig since September and not even thought about it

Just make sure Catalyt Control Centre is set to update itself, maybe check the AMD website every few months for new drivers anyway.
Other than that just make sure that Windows Update is working and auto-update is enabled for programs and hardware where possible.

You can check individual drivers in 'Device Manager' if ever you need to.