Valve Boss: New Intel CPU Allows a "Console-Like Experience" on the PC

[Wicky_42]

lol, I think Gabe jumped the gun on this one. Sure, the new generation of i[3/5/7]s perform pretty awesomely, but they are no-where near a substitution for a dedicated graphics card. The onboard chip seems to be more for HD video processing, not real-time 3D graphics. Also, Gabe? Majority of people buying this generation of chip are going to be going for the i5K, you know, the easily affordable one? If you're talking about 'console gaming', then leave PC enthusiast-level hardware out of it!

Also, flame-bait much? I mean, seriously, how many PC gamers have gone 'Oh, if only I got more of a console experience from my machine!'?! None - if they really want to have a box that play games simply then they'd get a console - kinda the point.

These comments are way too understanding, thoughtful, and non-contentious. I expect more from forums.

I'll try to do better:

Well, I've been getting a pretty "console-like experience" from the fact that all games now are crappy console ports for the brain dead who can't type or figure out how to use a keyboard and mouse -- sometimes even simultaneously. The PC has been consolized enough, thank you very much. And what's next, making for a painless "toaster-like experience on the console" by reducing button count or reducing functionality even further? Keep PCs complicated for elitists, please. Actually is a gaming rig any more costly or complex than a console plus HD home theater system? Pro-console people always seem to omit that bit. Maybe if we stopped pirating, people would even make games for us PC gamers.

lol, that certainly brought a bit more authenticity to this thread, what with it being a multi-platform gaming forum and all ^_^

 

[UnravThreads]

but wasn't the whole idea for PC's to be better than consoles?

The hell? The PC isn't 'better', it's 'different'. What it gains in power and useability, it loses in complexity and depth. A console can be plugged in to the TV and that's that, but a PC has a much higher requirement in terms of upkeep and, of course, upgrades (But seriously, the notion that you need to upgrade once a year is utter bull).

again, PC gaming costs too damn much because now if i want to play games without the fear of them crashing or freezing or lagging on me, i have to go out, purchase this, and learn how to install the damn thing without zapping my computer to death

Uh, PC gaming doesn't cost much more than the initial jump into console gaming. Factor in the higher price of games for consoles, and the difference really doesn't exist beyond the hardware. Again, as I said above, the upgrade-once-a-year (Or every six months as a variation) isn't true, nor is the £2000 price tag for a PC. I can go out and get components for a PC for £700 (Give or take ~£50) and it'll give me superior performance, visuals, usability, versatility, control and sound over a £200 console, and it'll last a good three years at the very least, assuming no hardware failures (And, come on, it's not like consoles are immune to failure either). What's the price difference between a gaming PC and someone with a laptop/desktop and a console? Almost nothing, and the gaming PC gives a superior experience for most games.

Basic PC use and maintenance is very, very, very easy to learn and a lot of websites out there exist to help people with it. My PC is, bar Windows XP, running nothing but freeware. CCleaner, MyDefrag, SpyBot, Microsoft Security Essentials, iTunes (I've got an iPod Touch, so yeah), Opera/Firefox. They're all simple and easy to use, and work brilliantly for me. A console doesn't allow you anywhere near that level of control, and whilst it might be 'easier' to use games with, once a game is installed on a PC (Default options almost always work perfectly) that's it. Nothing else has to be done.

well it sounds better then alot of integrated cards but it still doesnt sound like it will really take the place of a graphics card for anyone in the know, but still I suppose anything that makes pc gaming easier is a good idea since the big reason its not as popular as console gaming is that its more complicated

Newsflash: PC-based gaming is more popular than console gaming and has been since at least Windows 95, possibly going back earlier due to Apple and Commodore/Amiga. It often doesn't have the sales levels of console games (With a few exceptions, usually Blizzard games and other titles), but the market for both is different.

The PC market is wider and deeper than the console market, and you just have to look at the games shelves (Or more likely stock lists online) to see what I mean. Where are the big RTS titles on your 360? Where are the adventure games? Where are the hidden object games? Most of them are on the PC (The DS is also a good platform for them, though) and exclusively on PC.

To say PC gaming 'isn't as popular' is ridiculous.

 

[The Lunatic]

I suppose it's good news for the entry level enthusiast, but, I doubt it's ever going to keep up with dedicated graphics cards.

 

[GonzoGamer]

Great, when do I get my cube that does everything so I don't have to fuck with tiny ass compenents?

(My hands are too big for HDD installation )

That's what I want too. Hopefully this is a step in the right direction. Been a long long long time coming.

The headline was a bit confusing. Lately I've been hoping my console experience will be more like the PC.

And I don't see how PC gamers will rage over this news. This is the only thing that the console has over the pc. Now the PC really will be superior...
if it works.

Hey, I may not even get a console when the next gen rolls around.

 

[Vrach]

Oh I can't wait to see the PC elitists raging about this one.

I don't know about the elitists, but as a PC gamer, I think this might really be a good thing. The variety of graphics cards has undeniable negative side effects on PC gaming and I'd be glad to see it gone, or at least the eternal arms race between the few major manufacturers reduced.

You do of course realise that arms race between major manufacturers is what's driving the hardware industry forward right? Without that race you wouldn't have dirt cheap graphic cards with fantastic performances on the market right now, go check out 6850/6870.

Not to mention, this is just one step Intel's taking in that same race after AMD overtook ATI. Now you've got one of the two greatest processor manufacturers working right alongside one of the two greatest graphic processor manufacturers. Two goals that are not actually that far apart, it's a match made in heaven as made obvious by the several recent ATI cards and AMD's step into hexacore processors.

Intel can stick to trying to sell overpriced processors with useless components to people who think their name is worth forking cash over. I'm pretty happy to see them push AMD's buttons considering every time they do, the consumers are the ones who end up enjoying the products of their competition

 

[TheDoctor455]

So... this CPU mimics the Xbox Live community?

Yeah... sounds great.

Just kidding...
a faster CPU is always good news.

 

[Mercsenary]

The variety of graphics cards has undeniable negative side effects on PC gaming

What.

That's like saying "The variety of HDTVs has undeniable negative side effects on the television medium."



Neeeh... I cant spend 30 minutes on the Internet to figure out what kind of card I would like. It's too much effort to figure out what my present and future demands will be. Just give me one single Processing unit that does everything at a medium level.


There are three types of cards, highend(for your PHOWARRRRRRRRRRRRR YEAH LOOK AT THEM GRAPHICS), med end(I just want to play and if it looks nice as well sure) or low end(I dont care/have the latest gen games, nor do I want to play them at the current moment.)

It's not that hard to figure out what you want. But noooo, lets cater to console crowd.


I dont blame em a whole lot; the console market is very big so why not move in on it. Still, I feel like something of value was lost here.

 

[Carlston]

Oh I can't wait to see the PC elitists raging about this one.

Can't believe anyone think the console/pc elitist debate really is even meaningful anymore.
When they test this bad boy out for months, can keep the heat in check and not destroy itself it might be worth looking at.

As for consoles, I still prefer the player made contents, mods and map, as well real aiming with a mouse. Not very elite.

But console gaming is fine if the game centers and is well made around the controls. But even those games are held back, or we forgetting one system had a quad processor and it's games are weakened down to be identical to the "other" system.

Oh and wait aren't all consoles made after pc hardware about 10 years old now? I wouldn't want my pc gaming taking that form.

 

[DarkRyter]

I have no idea what you're talking about, Gabe.

What do you mean?!

 

[SNIPERFOX ft. Harry P.Ness]

'' up to 1.35 GHZ''

.....my old AMD processor can do 2.8 GHZ. am i missing something?

i didnt really get this, is this supposed to be for the PC, because 1.35 GHZ is not a lot, but this on consoles will be good?
then again, extreme heat issues will
ensue

:s im confuuuuuused, so confuuuuuuuuuuused :s

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

Can't believe anyone think the console/pc elitist debate really is even meaningful anymore.
When they test this bad boy out for months, can keep the heat in check and not destroy itself it might be worth looking at.

As for consoles, I still prefer the player made contents, mods and map, as well real aiming with a mouse. Not very elite.

But console gaming is fine if the game centers and is well made around the controls.

Oh and wait aren't all consoles made after pc hardware about 10 years old now? I wouldn't want my pc gaming taking that form.

So you start off by condemning the Console Vs PC elitism war then jump straight into a PC elitist rant?

._. Great debating skills there...

I don't believe in the arguing but hey, it's always fun to see elitists rage about something.

 

[SomethingUnrelated]

Oh I can't wait to see the PC elitists raging about this one.

Haha, yeah, my thoughts exactly when I entered the thread with a bit of a smug grin on my face.

 

[saruman31]

It will most likely be over priced and AMD will deliver the same thing for less money. Like always.

 

[Freechoice]

It's poorly worded. At first, I thought "I don't want to be treated like I'm dumber, drunker and all I want to do is play Halo." But then I learned that reading is power and they just want to bring simplicity to the PC. Not something I'd much care for, but there ya go.

Also, thank you all for making jokes that have made me laugh. My day has been brightened!

 

[johnman]

Oh I can't wait to see the PC elitists raging about this one.

I suppose I fall into the catagory of PC elitist since I dislike consoles immensly and game only on PC. But I see this as only a good thing. Laptops will especially benfit from this, since they have numerous problems with dedicated graphics cards.
The DRM on the chips is more of a concern though

'' up to 1.35 GHZ''

.....my old AMD processor can do 2.8 GHZ. am i missing something?

i didnt really get this, is this supposed to be for the PC, because 1.35 GHZ is not a lot, but this on consoles will be good?
then again, extreme heat issues will
ensue

:s im confuuuuuused, so confuuuuuuuuuuused :s

Graphics cards have their own processors on them which does nothing but graphics. They are not as powerful as the main processor which has a much heavier workload. 1.35ghz on a graphics processor is quite powerful.

 

[The Lunatic]

'' up to 1.35 GHZ''

.....my old AMD processor can do 2.8 GHZ. am i missing something?

i didnt really get this, is this supposed to be for the PC, because 1.35 GHZ is not a lot, but this on consoles will be good?
then again, extreme heat issues will
ensue

:s im confuuuuuused, so confuuuuuuuuuuused :s

They're referring to the clock rate of the GPU, one would assume, anyway.

 

[Carlston]

Can't believe anyone think the console/pc elitist debate really is even meaningful anymore.
When they test this bad boy out for months, can keep the heat in check and not destroy itself it might be worth looking at.

As for consoles, I still prefer the player made contents, mods and map, as well real aiming with a mouse. Not very elite.

But console gaming is fine if the game centers and is well made around the controls.

Oh and wait aren't all consoles made after pc hardware about 10 years old now? I wouldn't want my pc gaming taking that form.

So you start off by condemning the Console Vs PC elitism war then jump straight into a PC elitist rant?

._. Great debating skills there...

I don't believe in the arguing but hey, it's always fun to see elitists rage about something.

I don't believe in the arguing but hey, it's always fun to see NERD rage about something.
Or make up some make believe social status of console players vs PC players. God, sounds like tween middle school labeling. Yawn, so no bad trolling stay on the tech subject.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

I don't believe in the arguing but hey, it's always fun to see NERD rage about something.
Or make up some make believe social status of console players vs PC players. God, sounds like tween middle school labeling. Yawn, so no bad trolling stay on the tech subject.

... What? ._.

I think I could get a more logical paragraph out of a door frame...

 

[Lunatitch]

Wow, I'm actually surprised that nobody has mentioned that AMD has already "been there and done that"... I give you the AMD Fusion APU: http://www.amd.com/us/press-releases/Pages/amd-fusion-apu-era-2011jan04.aspx

As far as I can understand from tests from 3rd party websites, it's more likely to be used in laptops etc in the price range of +/- $399. Mostly optimised for BluRay/HD video playback.

Why Intel goes the whole "consolise" the PC... is beyond me, gamers will always prefer a dedicated graphics card. As multiple sources have confirmed, the only thing holding game progress, are the (5 year old) consoles.

 

[nofear220]

Oh I can't wait to see the PC elitists raging about this one.

I don't know about the elitists, but as a PC gamer, I think this might really be a good thing. The variety of graphics cards has undeniable negative side effects on PC gaming and I'd be glad to see it gone, or at least the eternal arms race between the few major manufacturers reduced.

The problem that I see with this is that integrated graphics cards (I know this isn't the same thing, but it's similar) were already attempted and were an unmitigated disaster. I hope this turns out better.

Isn't making PC gaming "more console like" a step in the wrong direction?