Console gaming vs high end computer

Pepsiboy700 · 10-27-2005, 06:39 PM

Ok, i am about to build a good pc for x-mas and now im starting to be converted towards getting a console. People are like get the 360, its so much better than a pc and cheaper. Then i remember someone saying its better to get a pc then a xbox casue its cheaper and more features. So my 2 questions, build a awesome gaming pc or buy xbox 360. Also is it cheaper to do a pc or a 360?

PZEROFGH · 10-27-2005, 06:43 PM

i would go with computer, but if i had the money i would go with both

what happened to PS3 lol

Nikkon · 10-27-2005, 06:49 PM

If you are buying a computer soley for the purpose of gaming then its is most likey going to be a waste of money. However, if you are like most people and also use the computer for school/work then it is more than worth getting the computer.

Flanker · 10-27-2005, 06:57 PM

Lol yea dude, the Playstation 3 owns you.

Thing is, with these consoles, theres been a HUGE change in the way people look at game consoles. Before, when consoles like the PS2 came out, they would be only slightly better than a mediocre PC at the time. But now; the PS3 and XBox360 will put ANY system out there to shame. Even a 4GHz Athlon 64, with 4GB RAM (all utilized) with Dual 7800GTXs won't be able to compete with either of the new consoles. See what a big thing this is?

Before this, the case was that you could build a PC that was better than the console. The justification was that the PC would perform better and that most games that come out on PS2 or Xbox would also come out for PC (that was my justification, atleast). But now, the PC WON'T perform better. To boot...A top-of-the-line PC would cost like $3000, or $2000 if you're an overclocker. To compare, a REGULAR Xbox360 will cost $300 upon release (The Deluxe is $400). And the PS3 will cost around there (I haven't been keeping up). Compare the prices and you have your answer.

I have never bought a game console before, but now I might buy both the Xbox360 AND a Playstation 3.

Flanker · 10-27-2005, 07:06 PM

Follow-up post; about the consoles.

The reason that the new consoles are so good (Sony's chairman wants us to call the PS3 a 'supercomputer') is because of the new hardware used in it. For example; The PS3 uses the Cell microprocessor. It has 8 cores EACH running at 3.2GHz. The clockspeed is comparable to P4s, so its like 8 x 3.2GHz Pentium 4s. For AMD fanboys; its like 8 x Athlon 64 3200+s. See? The Xbox360 on the other hand uses 3 PowerPC processors, I don't know exactly how powerful they are, but the CPU performance of the Xbox360 is half that of the PS3. Also, while I was into this, nVidia said they were developing the graphics card that was going to be used in the PS3. That was a long time ago, so it might be the 7800GTX or it might be something even more powerful :eek:.

As for the use of the consoles themselves; Sony is trying to promote theirs as a supercomputer gaming machine, while Microsoft, though still targeting the gamers, is also trying to target the rest of the family with features such as wireless connections with the PC, and tons of other stuff like video and photo viewing/editing and stuff.

Finally; If someone here knows what a Flop (floating-point operation) is, could you explain?

beedubaya · 10-27-2005, 07:43 PM

The thing is with the consoles is they don't have to worry about so much backward compatability as PCs do. PCs have to be made backward compatable with programs as far back as the DOS/Windows 3.1 days, and this really hurts performance. Second, most people prefer consoles because they don't have to worry about learning technical stuff as they would with a PC. Also, PC games generally have a "nerd" stigma surrounding them, which causes people not to want to play them just because they might be viewed as a geek. Some of the most popular jocks are console gamers. It really boils down to what you prefer. Personally, I will stick with PC because I don't like the idea of having to use a TV to play all my games on. TV quality is horrible compared to the hi-def of a PC monitor. You can get a hi-def TV, but if you bought an XBOX 360 plus a good hi-def TV, you would end up paying more than you would for a high end PC.

DoomUK · 10-27-2005, 07:45 PM

@ Flanker: Well yes, but bear in mind a couple of things: XBOX360 and PS3 will be DX9 (or equivelant), whereas DX10 is upon us with the relese of Vista next Summer. Thus, the desktop market will have video hardware that will fundamentaly put PS3 and XBOX360's to shame.

Also take into account that the early titles for these new consoles are **apparently, not 100% sure on this** not multi-threaded, that is they are not immediately programmed to take advantage of the multi-core CPU architecture.

There is no PPU in either machine.

New consoles being dubbed 'supercomputers' is nothing new. Upon the release of PS2, George Lucas supposedly stated that the system had more horsepower than all the SGI workstations that were used to create Episode I put together...

Quote:

Originally posted by beedubaya
TV quality is horrible compared to the hi-def of a PC monitor. You can get a hi-def TV, but if you bought an XBOX 360 plus a good hi-def TV, you would end up paying more than you would for a high end PC.

Good point also.

I'll be buying both consoles anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing them in the flesh immensely, in particular Project Gotham 3

. Just don't expect me to thrown down my keyboard+mouse just yet...

Flanker · 10-27-2005, 07:50 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by beedubaya
The thing is with the consoles is they don't have to worry about so much backward compatability as PCs do. PCs have to be made backward compatable with programs as far back as the DOS/Windows 3.1 days, and this really hurts performance. Second, most people prefer consoles because they don't have to worry about learning technical stuff as they would with a PC. Also, PC games generally have a "nerd" stigma surrounding them, which causes people not to want to play them just because they might be viewed as a geek. Some of the most popular jocks are console gamers. It really boils down to what you prefer. Personally, I will stick with PC because I don't like the idea of having to use a TV to play all my games on. TV quality is horrible compared to the hi-def of a PC monitor. You can get a hi-def TV, but if you bought an XBOX 360 plus a good hi-def TV, you would end up paying more than you would for a high end PC.

Good points, but I disagree with the TV part; though TV quality sucks, the games still manage to look awesome. Overall, this time around, if you just want something to game on, then the console is the way to go. But PCs are just something else...and have much more to offer gamers than consoles.

One thing I forgot to add was; With more cores, come more challenges. A very interesting problem has come up; the more cores you have, the more threads you have, the longer it takes to write the code for the program that you want to run on those 8 threads. If you run Half-Life 2 or Doom 3, single-threaded games, on a Cell processor, they will run half as well as they would on a top-of-the-line regular PC. In the graphics department, there is no challenger to the Cell processor, but in the threads; well, it'll take MUCH longer to write the code for those games. Don't get me wrong, games WILL come out, but it will just take longer. Lol, despite this, the day the Xbox360 comes out, 20 games will also come out for it, the biggest console launch in history. Oh yea, the Xbox360 is in the same hole as the PS3, but to a lesser extent, as there are only 3 processors on the Xbox360.

Flanker · 10-27-2005, 07:53 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by DoomUK
@ Flanker: Well yes, but bear in mind a couple of things: XBOX360 and PS3 will be DX9 (or equivelant), whereas DX10 is upon us with the relese of Vista next Summer. Thus, the desktop market will have video hardware that will fundamentaly put PS3 and XBOX360's to shame.

Also take into account that the early titles for these new consoles are **apparently, not 100% sure on this** not multi-threaded, that is they are not immediately programmed to take advantage of the multi-core CPU architecture.

There is no PPU in either machine.

New consoles being dubbed 'supercomputers' is nothing new. Upon the release of PS2, George Lucas supposedly stated that the system had more horsepower than all the SGI workstations that were used to create Episode I put together...

*Quote*

Good point also.

I'll be buying both consoles anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing them in the flesh immensely, in particular Project Gotham 3 . Just don't expect me to thrown down my keyboard+mouse just yet...

Haha, nice points. I was typing as you posted so I didn't see your post. Yea, you brought up some very good points, well we'll see what happens. I will also be buying both consoles (or trying to buy, gonna get PS3 for sure) to see what they have to offer.

Riceball · 10-27-2005, 08:01 PM

Yea actually i've just been converted to a pc gamer. All my life, i've played consoles and to this day i have a ps2, xbox, and gamecube. For some reason, i just love the whole pc-gaming scene much more than the console part. I'm not bashing on console gaming or anything, but i've kinda gotten out of it and gone to pc.

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