PC Gaming vs Console

[Reed Rothchild | 9,520]

1 minute ago, arch_8ngel said:

You can cut this one off the list by just deciding you don't want to stain the fence   I know that is my strategy for fence upkeep...

Somehow I don't think this strategy will be received well by the boss 

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

8 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Somehow I don't think this strategy will be received well by the boss 

I feel like convincing my wife that staining the fence is a waste of time is a lot less effort than actually staining the fence, but to each his own

[Andy_Bogomil | 815]

If I was a bit younger and playing more modern games I would DEFINITELY own a good gaming PC. I still think about it since I play a few online games and they're a pretty abysmal experience with capped FPS, dual analog controllers, and absolutely horrid connections/netcode on console (although the latter can transfer over to PC). Still not worth the upgrade considering how little I play modern games now though.

It also boggles my mind how little you can customize you controls in most modern games on console. You have to use the accessible menu to find a work around and I absolutely loath the L3 and R3 button configs for your typical controller. I ain't buying no computer just for that though.

[BortLicensePlate | 652]

I'm more interested in getting a low-end pc that can handle older games from gog or whatever. I just find myself less and less interested in keeping up with new stuff as time goes on 

[RH | 4,902]

Consoles do what PCs don't!

[zeppelin03 | 314]

42 minutes ago, B.A. said:

Obviously I could physically assemble one easily enough.  It's that I don't want to do the research on all the non-intuitive spec readouts that would be necessary to select the optimal components. 

Logicalincrements.com is a site I've used for parts lists. They make recommendations at pricepoints every $50 or so.  Great resource if you aren't sure what goes together.  Sure there are some optimizations that could happen but it's very serviceable.

 

People's interest in these GOG games could probably be covered by the AMD APUs that came out the last year or two.  Those are some cheap parts too.  The cost of a console to open up the whole of PC gaming isn't a bad proposition.  Throw in a graphics card down the road and you can play most anything.

Edited August 10, 2020 by zeppelin03

[avatar! | 1,809]

Also something about the PC attitude just rubs me the wrong way...

[zeppelin03 | 314]

5 minutes ago, avatar! said:

Also something about the PC attitude just rubs me the wrong way...

The PC gaming attitude and PCMR memes are quite a bit different in my experience.

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

25 minutes ago, BortLicensePlate said:

I'm more interested in getting a low-end pc that can handle older games from gog or whatever. I just find myself less and less interested in keeping up with new stuff as time goes on 

Basically anything you can buy will fit that bill

[DefaultGen | 5,401]

I spent $400 on a PS4 Pro for higher performance and everything still runs at 30fps. Next gen AAA games still run at 30fps. 2 years from now you'll buy the Xbox Pro X Series Pro and they'll still push it too far so it runs at 30fps. 40 years from now console graphics are just going to be a series of images indistinguishable from photographs flickering at 30fps.

My Magnavox Odyssey from 1972 outputs a silky smooth 60hz image though. I'm not asking for 4K 144fps here, but F-Zero GX looks better than The Last of Us 2.

Edited August 10, 2020 by DefaultGen

[BortLicensePlate | 652]

51 minutes ago, arch_8ngel said:

Basically anything you can buy will fit that bill

Cool, that's what I like to hear!

And like, old crappy 90s joysticks would work on a newer PC right? 

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

2 minutes ago, BortLicensePlate said:

Cool, that's what I like to hear!

And like, old crappy 90s joysticks would work on a newer PC right? 

That is probably harder to do, since at least early-90's joysticks used a "gameport" which was a specific type of serial port that was pretty much exclusive to dedicated sound cards at the time.

 

That said, with a little effort you could probably rewire one to use USB, since USB-encoder cards are very plentiful (for people that build home sim cockpits), and old joysticks are all digital inputs.

[ZeldaFreak | 3,600]

1 hour ago, zeppelin03 said:

Logicalincrements.com is a site I've used for parts lists.

PCpartpicker is one I use as well, although it doesn't do automatic recommendations based on price point I don't think. It's invaluable if you already know what you want as far as parts go, though.

[ZeldaFreak | 3,600]

1 hour ago, zeppelin03 said:

The PC gaming attitude and PCMR memes are quite a bit different in my experience.

Yeah, I don't think barely anyone in the community actually acts like that, those are usually just memes and people joking around. Yes, there are some advantages PC has over console, but nobody reasonable is going to unironically rub it in the face of console gamers like that, and if they do then frankly they can go fuck themselves.

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

6 minutes ago, arch_8ngel said:

That is probably harder to do, since at least early-90's joysticks used a "gameport" which was a specific type of serial port that was pretty much exclusive to dedicated sound cards at the time.

 

That said, with a little effort you could probably rewire one to use USB, since USB-encoder cards are very plentiful (for people that build home sim cockpits), and old joysticks are all digital inputs.

Somebody has had to Of made a gameport To usb adapter right?

[ZeldaFreak | 3,600]

1 minute ago, MrWunderful said:

Somebody has had to Of made a gameport To usb adapter right?

Probably, yeah. There's been adapters made for virtually everything else at this point.

[avatar! | 1,809]

1 hour ago, DefaultGen said:

I spent $400 on a PS4 Pro for higher performance and everything still runs at 30fps. Next gen AAA games still run at 30fps. 2 years from now you'll buy the Xbox Pro X Series Pro and they'll still push it too far so it runs at 30fps. 40 years from now console graphics are just going to be a series of images indistinguishable from photographs flickering at 30fps.

My Magnavox Odyssey from 1972 outputs a silky smooth 60hz image though. I'm not asking for 4K 144fps here, but F-Zero GX looks better than The Last of Us 2.

People have been talking about 120 fps on PS5, but at this moment it's just talk. Honestly, ease of gaming and fun games is more important to me than anything else, but I don't mind a bit of eye candy...

[zeppelin03 | 314]

2 hours ago, DefaultGen said:

I spent $400 on a PS4 Pro for higher performance and everything still runs at 30fps. Next gen AAA games still run at 30fps. 2 years from now you'll buy the Xbox Pro X Series Pro and they'll still push it too far so it runs at 30fps. 40 years from now console graphics are just going to be a series of images indistinguishable from photographs flickering at 30fps.

My Magnavox Odyssey from 1972 outputs a silky smooth 60hz image though. I'm not asking for 4K 144fps here, but F-Zero GX looks better than The Last of Us 2.

The smoothness of higher FPS really does make a difference.  Games just feel more responsive.  I can live with 30 when there is no option but would always accept more.  I'm hoping next gen devs keep using checkboard rendering and other tricks to reduce the need for true 4k.  Put those savings towards 60fps.

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

2 hours ago, MrWunderful said:

Somebody has had to Of made a gameport To usb adapter right?

Just looked it up on Amazon and there are adapters from $15 - $30 that claim to do it.

I don't think I liked my old Gravis joystick anywhere near enough to pay that kind of money to be able to use it again though

 

You'd probably be better off finding whatever flight-grip style arcade joystick people are using to refurbish old cabinets, since those will be digital rather than analog, which is all that really matters for this (and will be much tougher grade).

[Hammerfestus | 3,833]

Can you still play Diablo?  

[Tanooki | 4,932]

I dont know much about a $3000 PC, seems a bit dramatic for the trade guild there.

5 1/2 years ago warranty, tax, shipping I put out about $2K for a Sager/Clevo DIY laptop, all removeable and upgradable parts basically the laptop form of a desktop pc.  Mid-tier i7, 16GB of ram, Nvidia 980M w/8GB of ram (equal to a 970 desktop but more ram than it), blu ray, wifi ac, bluetooth, burner the works, even raid capable up to 4 drives.  Only just now am I seeing a random few games where it may not do the med-max tier quality at 1080p output with Star Wars fighter game coming up maybe being an issue as my hardware is all above board except the CPU may lag it.

Sure it wasn't a $400-500 retail out of the box console, but the console also isn't something all that much to be proud about either.  Think about it.  My system can beat a PS4Pro/XB equal at same resolutions at a solid 60fps and higher when they gag trying to maintain 60 usually rocking and slogging in the 40s if that.  My system also isn't just a dedicated games and movie player, it does everything a PC can.  is it really fair to compare prices and play the PC master race snotty angle?  I think not.

 

Dollar to dollar pound to pound the PC beats the crap out of it, even at a gaming level considering my hardware isn't perpetually locked up with multi-GB asinine firmware and game repair download files on wait screens -- it does that in the background and with less frequency while I do a 1/2 dozen other things.  Also how many of these consoles still will play all their old stuff from 10, 20, 30 years plus ago?  None.  Throw a virtual machine on your PC (like PCem) and you're set (which I recently did using a real bios, win98se, and set it with a 1GB space on a P100 setup to play games 64bit windows hates.)  DOSBox works most the time, but some stuff is sketch, and that fixes that.

[Tanooki | 4,932]

1 hour ago, zeppelin03 said:

The smoothness of higher FPS really does make a difference.  Games just feel more responsive.  I can live with 30 when there is no option but would always accept more.  I'm hoping next gen devs keep using checkboard rendering and other tricks to reduce the need for true 4k.  Put those savings towards 60fps.

It's not just FPS it's also frame time around that FPS.  Digital Foundry is a real stickler on it.  Want to see a hellish example?  Dark Souls Remastered got the best version review on the Switch?  Why?  At the same 1080p output the Switch is locked 100% at both FPS and frametime at 30fps.  It looks as nice at the same resolution, runs entirely fluid in both motion and frame rate, so everything feels as tight as some classic 2D title.  The PS4 and XB versions try and force 60fps, but anytime there's more than 1 thing going on screen beyond your player it drops commonly into the 40-45fps range with a frametime that yo-yos around which causes it to delay response to visuals on screen and visuals tend to shutter and clip unevenly giving a crappier experience.  An out of date custom TegraX1 handheld outperformed notably better hardware trying to strive for a mark it had zero hopes of ever hitting.  Had they accepted reality and locked them at 30fps like on Nintendo it would have been smooth and amazing.

[zeppelin03 | 314]

19 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

It's not just FPS it's also frame time around that FPS.  Digital Foundry is a real stickler on it.  Want to see a hellish example?  Dark Souls Remastered got the best version review on the Switch?  Why?  At the same 1080p output the Switch is locked 100% at both FPS and frametime at 30fps.  It looks as nice at the same resolution, runs entirely fluid in both motion and frame rate, so everything feels as tight as some classic 2D title.  The PS4 and XB versions try and force 60fps, but anytime there's more than 1 thing going on screen beyond your player it drops commonly into the 40-45fps range with a frametime that yo-yos around which causes it to delay response to visuals on screen and visuals tend to shutter and clip unevenly giving a crappier experience.  An out of date custom TegraX1 handheld outperformed notably better hardware trying to strive for a mark it had zero hopes of ever hitting.  Had they accepted reality and locked them at 30fps like on Nintendo it would have been smooth and amazing.

Frame time is important for sure. Consistency will make a game feel much better than stutters and hitches.  I'm all for stable 30.  Hopefully next gen can do that for 60. Sekiro and some other newer titles are straining the consoles now.  Developers will probably push graphics hard though and we will stick with 30.

[Tanooki | 4,932]

1 minute ago, zeppelin03 said:

Frame time is important for sure. Consistency will make a game feel much better than stutters and hitches.  I'm all for stable 30.  Hopefully next gen can do that for 60. Sekiro and some other newer titles are straining the consoles now.  Developers will probably push graphics hard though and we will stick with 30.

Yeah you get it.  I'm fine, would be more so if I wasn't stuck happily with 1080p as it is TVs, with 4k on consoles, but if you're going to do it, work within the limits of the hardware.  Great if you can push a 4K image, but when that image is shambling in the mid 30s and 40s while you lie about 60FPS performance, it just makes your game play much like the comment, full of shit.  I wish they'd get off the 60fps lying high horse, or back it up.  I get they have to peddle the equal of half decade old PC quality performance parts to meet a budget to peddle their systems to happy consumers not wanting a $1000 console but something has to give, and well price won't be, so try and meet reality with reasonable expecations.  I know the gamers will be fine and the media would fall in step with it not goading some pathetic whiny battle which would make it better for all.  We've seen how pretty PS5 can be, and developers they know the hardware at least, maybe start fresh and set real expectations.  Look that stunning, but lock it at 30 or lock it at 60, but damn well 95-100% of the time KEEP the game not matter what at those levels and frame time too.  It's doing no favors having some parkinsons style play mechanics and frame time going on during a battle.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,520]

5 hours ago, arch_8ngel said:

I feel like convincing my wife that staining the fence is a waste of time is a lot less effort than actually staining the fence, but to each his own

My wife cannot be convinced of anything.  I just try to stay out of the way and avoid becoming collateral damage