PC is "Far Superior" to Next-Gen Consoles, Says Nvidia

[MrHide-Patten]

You don't say, my gaming experience would also be improved by a chair made out of breasts... doesn't mean it's going to happen.

Frankly being happy with the knowledge that I could just play Journey when it came out was good enough reason to be a dirty console scrub, and if I'm trully hurting fir a game that's only avaliable on PC I guess I'll just haveto use the high end one at work and endure an xbox controller.

 

[emeraldrafael]

I still dont see any of the appeal of PC gaming but I guess that's just me. I cant think of a single game (All things equal) i've played and enjoyed that I would enjoy more on a PC than I would on a console (other than maybe a pokemon hack like Blaze Black).

But I can see why people like PC gaming, so to me its just different strokes. each has its own advantages but I personally don't like PC gaming.

 

[Grabehn]

Next they're going to say that we need oxygen to live or some shit like that...

 

[Ushiromiya Battler]

And cue the people tearing their throats out over which piece of hardware they enjoy playing their games on better in 3, 2, 1.

ERMAGHERD, NVIDIA RR STUPID, MY MICROWAVE OVEN IS BEST TO PLAY COD GHOSTS WITH.

To be fair, yes, my microwave is the best experience I've had with CoD Ghosts.

Back on topic: what nVidia said is pointless, and the title should be changed as it seems a bit bait-y.

They only said that PCs are way more powerful than next gen consoles, which is true, but the title might mislead people.

Off topic gripe: WHY WONT UBISOFT PATCH AC IV ALREADY, FFS.

I BOUGHT A FUCKING 670 LIKE A MONTH AGO, AND AC IV DOESNT EVEN LOOK THAT GOOD, YET MY CARD STRUGGLES TO RUN IT ABOVE 30 FPS ON MAX.

WHAT THE FUCK MAN.

It feels like next gen ports are following a trend of being badly optimised.

Pssstt, get 3D3Overrider and force vsync and triple buffering.
Pretty much solves the under 30fps issue on every pc.

OT:
Wow, I never knew Nvidia, I never knew....

Vsync is off.

I always turn it off when investigating how well the game can run on my pc.

And when on max, its at 30-40 fps when I am just exploring an island, on ship battles it could very well drop to like, 20.

I don't play it on max, but the fact that I can't at a decent framerate pisses me off, as my card more than meets the recommended requirements, and can run Far Cry 3 on Max at a constant 60fps.

Weird, I had the same problem up to the point where I installed D3Doverrider and forced vsync and triple buffering.
Got the fix off the steam forum, solved the fps problems for pretty much everyone in the thread.

I have now have around 30-40fps on sea and 40-60in towns.

EDIT:If I remember correctly the vsync option is broken, so it doesn't matter whether you have it on or not in game.
Forcing the vsync through d3doverrider, nvidia panel or Ati's equivalent should supposedly fixing it.

 

[taciturnCandid]

PC has a larger library including EVERY previous console generation and the GTX Titan kicks the crap out of EVERY consoles GPU so it's not really that surprising. If you want high-end gaming just put in 4 titans in quad-SLI and crank everything up to 11 at 4K+ resolutions. Can you get such power in a console?

Even as a PC Gaming Elitist myself I have to ask if you can get that kind of power in under a 400 dollar package...cause last I checked that was about half the price of one Titan.

There is no question that running four titans in quad SLI will hammer the ever living dogshit out of anything that any console can do, but you've essentially also spent $4,000 to do it.

I'm no console apologist, I don't use my XBox 360 for anything but watching TV shows on demand and I barely use it for that now that I have Netflix on my Nexus 7 but regardless of that, you have to be somewhat impressed with what the PS4 is doing at its price point....the XBox One...not so much.

PS4 price point..... plus playstation plus.

2 years of PS+ is 100$

So to have a ps4 for two years is already 500$

PCPartPicker part list [http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2bBw1] / Price breakdown by merchant [http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2bBw1/by_merchant/] / Benchmarks [http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2bBw1/benchmarks/]

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor [http://pcpartpicker.com/part/amd-cpu-fd6300wmhkbox] ($117.96 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus M5A78L-M LX PLUS Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard [http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-motherboard-m5a78lmlxplus] ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory [http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f314900cl9d8gbsr] ($52.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive [http://pcpartpicker.com/part/western-digital-internal-hard-drive-wd10ezex] ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB Video Card [http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-video-card-r78702gd5toc] ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Case: HEC Enterprise MicroATX Mid Tower Case [http://pcpartpicker.com/part/hec-case-enterprise] ($9.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply [http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-power-supply-cx500] ($25.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) [http://pcpartpicker.com/part/microsoft-os-gfc02050] ($79.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $516.88
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-11-29 20:27 EST-0500)


Pretty much the same price as a ps4+2 years of ps+ and outdoes the ps4. If you already have an OS or use steam os then it is less.

 

[gnihton]

I love my PC but I just don't see its continued viability moving forward.

It's consoles that are going to be phased out. They're not necessary any more. The Steam box is just supposed to be a Frankenstein of console and PC in an attempt at dominating the market, because it's closer to something good than a console.

If you're going to throw the state of the economy into it, how about not buying an entertainment system at all. You don't need them to live. Just as I don't need to spend money on a good PC, you don't need to spend money on a piece of shit console. Nvm the fact that you actually save money on a PC if you buy more than, like, 10 games every 5 years.

 

[Terminal Blue]

Didn't think I'd get home, but managed to get equatorial with some repeated aerobraking and inclination burns, got the lander back on the ground, and had just enough fuel to dock the transfer stage (took some more aerobraking)

I recently launched a rescue mission for the crew of my manned base on Duna (the docking port fell off their lander, so they can't go home otherwise) so I must congratulate you on a successful mission. Interplanetary missions always feel incredibly epic!

But yeah, this is exactly the kind of game which defines the PC, and also why I feel Matt Wright is missing the point here. You don't need the "ultimate game machine" to play games like KSP, or Dwarf Fortress, or Minecraft. A decent computer will help, but my five year old decaying wreck still manages fine.

The reason I play on PC is to pay lower prices for games, and to have access to indie and modded games without being fucked over for it. By contrast, the only reason not to play on PC are a bunch of overpriced exclusives with a 10 hour playtime.

 

[Aeonknight]

I love my PC but I just don't see its continued viability moving forward.

It's consoles that are going to be phased out. They're not necessary any more. The Steam box is just supposed to be a Frankenstein of console and PC in an attempt at dominating the market, because it's closer to something good than a console.

If you're going to throw the state of the economy into it, how about not buying an entertainment system at all. You don't need them to live. Just as I don't need to spend money on a good PC, you don't need to spend money on a piece of shit console. Nvm the fact that you actually save money on a PC if you buy more than, like, 10 games every 5 years.

I would disagree. Consoles have the advantage of being idiot proof over PC. They always have and always will. Though you may be hard pressed to find someone like that on the internet, there are people who don't know which PC parts to get, so they'd rather just stop by GameStop and pick up a console. And that market is much larger as well. Consoles aren't going anywhere, at least not until public schools start teaching PC architecture (which they should.)

 

[Shim3d]

Consoles aren't going anywhere, at least not until public schools start teaching PC architecture (which they should.)

I took a class that taught that in my high school, I agree.

OT: Is this supposed to be news...? From what I know the consoles demographic aren't the type to care for or want a Titan. As long as it can run the latest Forza, Fifa, Cod, Tekken or so, performance isn't a priority.

 

[blackrave]

Meh rather play on platform that does all multiplatform stuff + exclusives that i like. PC unfortunately doesn't have any exclusive games that i want to play. i don't care about graphics i only care about games.

The PC have the best exclusive: professional hobo post-apocalyptic survival "simulator"- Neoscavenger
(fun game, but still in beta)

But in all seriousness
PC gaming isn't as much about graphics (although must admit that if game and hardware can, then result can be quite amazing)
As much about mods (Minecraft without mods isn't full game) and backwards compatibility from stone age (I can play every game of Deus Ex, Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, C&C, Need for speed, X, Civilization, Simcity series on one machine with little to no hassle)
Not to mention if publisher/developer decides to pull darkspore on you, you can always apply crack and keep playing your game.
Besides you need PC anyway, so why not?

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Of course the platform you can upgrade with the newest hardware available if you have the cash is going to outperform a locked box console. Doesn't mean consoles are less fun because they might be less shiny. It all comes out to subjective likes and dislikes, and I happen to like both PC and console games. Each has a different experience and different set of games available which to me makes gaming diverse and fun.
And I've been a PC gamer almost as long as I've been a console gamer (NES was my first followed by my first homebrew PC 8086 chip... which was quickly upgraded to a 386...). Ahhh mammaries... err memories.

 

[Alorxico]

Strange, the only reason I bought a "gaming computer" was to play Sims 2, and now it is my preferred way of gaming. Why? Because I discovered that the people playing the games via PC usually had the tools and know-how need to FIX the bugs and glitches in the games that the developers refused to fix. I was sick of losing hours of game play on my 360 over a known issue that the game designer said was "unfixable" only to learn it was patched three months earlier on the PC version and NO ONE had any issue with the patch.

Score one for the PC.

 

[Mad World]

While I concur, Nvidia probably wouldn't be so quick to say this if they had won the rights to have at least one of the consoles use their technology. If memory serves, Nvidia wanted too much money, so the developers went with AMD; thus, all three next-gen consoles use AMD GPUs.

 

[Amir Kondori]

While I personally prefer PC gaming to console gaming Nvidia is only saying this because they lost all the console contracts to AMD, who was able to provide an integrated CPU/GPU solution, which Nvidia could not, and were likely to offer more competitive pricing.

Since then Nvidia has come out several times to denounce console gaming. Of course I think consoles will be just as much a driving force in games this generation as they were in the last generation.

 

[Vivi22]

That's as may be, Matt Wright, but if you cannot provide that superior experience at a price competitive with the console option the flailing and failing global economy simply will not be able to bear the price.

In terms of gaming - a standardized product like the consoles or, soon, the Steam Box is much easier to plan for, requires less testing across the dozens of possible hardware combinations and is, thus, somewhat easier to plan for.

I love my PC but I just don't see its continued viability moving forward.

I could build a PC that's competitive with any console for about as much as most people would spend on a console and PC. More than competitive really.

And the whole "dozens of possible hardware configurations makes it hard to test and plan" is largely a myth now. No one is coding their games down to the hardware level on PC's. Doing that would literally be stupid. You code using the standard API's that everyone uses, for hardware architecture that's pretty standard, and the manufacturers like Nvidia support this standardized coding through the release of their video drivers. In fact, since most console games are coded using a variant of either Direct X or OpenGl, there's not a whole lot of difference between the platforms. Even less so now that the new machines are using standardized PC hardware.

There are only a few reasons that games run into problems these days, and most of them come down to either insufficient testing, complexity of the coding required by modern games, developer incompetence or, in the rarest of cases, and actual hardware or software incompatibility. But those almost never actually happen relatively speaking and are probably among the easiest problems to test for and diagnose at the users end. And even then, most of these could easily fall under the first few categories instead.

And the best part is, consoles suffer from the exact same problems, in fairly comparable numbers most of the time, despite standardized hardware. Case in point being every Bethesda game ever made since their programmers are incompetent and their testing is inadequate.

EDIT: and to add a bit to the cost point, PC games are, on average, quite a bit cheaper than console games. The extra money spent on a decent PC will pay for itself long before you've upgraded if you play enough.

 

[BoredRolePlayer]

This coming from the company where none of the new consoles uses Nvidia...yeah I wonder why they are flapping their mouths now?

 

[Olas]

While this is hardly news, it's a nice to have a reminder every now and then that these "console wars" are for a distant second place slot.

To be honest, I can nwever tell the damn difference in gameplay or graphics anyway. My PC copy of Bioshock Infinite looked and felt the same as my mates 360 version. My PC version of Borderlands 2 looked and felt the same as my PS3 copy. My Assassins Creed 3 PC copy wouldnt even fucking play, but my PS3 copy had no problems.

It all feels the same to me to be honest. The only difference I notice between my PC and my consoles is that my back hurts a lot less when playing the latter....

The advantage to PCs extends beyond graphics. PCs have free modding, a playable library that goes back decades, a better controller (M+K), plus you probably already use a PC for other things anyway. Why get 2 devices to do the work that one can provide?

Even when it comes to price PCs are catching up to consoles, and surpassing them in many ways. Unlike consoles where a whole new device has to be bought periodically, PCs can be upgraded piecemeal as individual components get outdated or break which saves money. PC also has more sources of cheap games than consoles, helped by its library of older games.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if you could put together a relatively low end PC that's still more powerful than a console at a competitive price. And that's TODAY, imagine how it'll be years down the road.

From what I can see, the only thing consoles really have going for them is console exclusives, which isn't an inherent superiority, it's just them rigging the system. There are games exclusive to PC too though.

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

Really.

The PR guy (call it what you want it's the same job) from a company that makes products that can only be used in PCs wants us to buy PCs instead of consoles?

You shock me with your incredible news. Maybe next you will tell me that the marketing director of Kellogs thinks that Kellogs help you with heart problems or the PR guy from Mercedes knows for a fact that Mercedes make better cars than Porsche. My god I cannot keep up with all these startling new revelations, mayhap my brain will fall from my head at anymore delirious facts of this nature.

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

So I take it Nvidia's still butt hurt about not making the chips for this gen's console market? And what's this "extra functionality" they're talking about? You don't need a gaming pc type word documents. My phone provides more than enough processing power for that. Most people need a laptop, not a pc, to be productive but gaming laptops have several draw backs

They are forgetting the fact that not all of us like Windows.
Speaking for myself, I only use Linux (for a variety of reasons, mostly coding).

SteamOS will for sure make things better for Linux gaming, but right now someone that uses Linux or MacOS will for sure be better with the consoles.

I thought I might have been the only person on these forums who's major problem with pc gaming was Windows. Feels liberating.

But in all seriousness
PC gaming isn't as much about graphics as much about mods and backwards compatibility from stone age. Not to mention if publisher/developer decides to pull darkspore on you, you can always apply crack and keep playing your game.
Besides you need PC anyway, so why not?

See, I just like to keep it simple. I use my (aging) gaming pc for the stuff you mentioned: mods, old school, pc genres, free indi games, and cheap Steam games. But when it comes to new triple A's that I want to play unaltered on my TV with a controller, what's the point? I might as well use my ps3 cause it boots in 5 seconds and I don't even half to bend over to turn it on. As for cracking games, if I just buy my games on blue ray now, in 10 years I can play them on my space computer's ps3 emulator

 

[grigjd3]

I might as well use my ps3 cause it boots in 5 seconds and I don't even half to bend over to turn it on.

I don't really care what anyone games with and I'm glad you enjoy your gaming system. I have a PC, PS3 and WiiU and I previously have had a 360. However, my PC boots in two seconds, is attached to a 40" 1080p LED television and a pair of B&W bookshelf speakers powered by a Yamaha RX-V457 receiver and I have a 360 controller for it as well as a joystick, keyboard and mouse. I can also turn it on by remote. The PS3 is a nice bluray player that I can play Uncharted on. The WiiU has a control structure that other devices don't have. These arguments that people get into are largely silly though. That my PC boots in two seconds does not matter to your gaming experience with the PS3 and that the $400 price tag for a console requires more money on games and an extra $60 for every additional controller as compared to a $1200 initial price tag on a PC that I can't play games with other friends in the room is about what money you have and what priorities you put on your money. I also like gaming on tablets, playing Carcasonne, and tabletop rpgs... Now I've forgotten what I was saying. I guess I will go read a book or something.