how do people justify prices on gaming desktops?

i've been trying to convince myself to throw down money for a gaming PC but i can't seem to make sense of the math.

take for instance people who buy a radeon 5970, a $700 graphics card. for $100less i can buy an xbox360 and ps3. surely theres more value in 2 gaming systems than 1 graphics card which can't do much on its own.

now lets take a regular gaming machine that should cost around $800 given that you use an intel processor and not amd and you want to play on max. considering most people already have a computer for internet usage and other programs, you'd be spending all that money just to play games. i say to myself.. with $800 i can buy 13 new games for my consoles or 40 used games. or just a lot of new clothes, a lot of beer, who knows.

and dont say i can upgrade my existing computer because its a laptop which already does everything i need from a computer minus gaming.

so how do you convince someone who already owns a cheap desktop or laptop to spend that money on another one just for games? i really want to play starcraft2, diablo3, swtor, etc. but all that money just to play those games on max?

also, when i read reviews on those $700+ graphics cards, people say "amazing card! plays all games on max!" and i say to myself.. you just spent that much on a graphics card, what do you expect? did you really have nothing more useful to spend that much money on?

then again, i am a broke university student.. which might explain a lot

People don't want to play on max always, and PC graphics far supersedes every console. A PC game on low would still beat the quality of a console if it properly written and coded. Take for instance Crysis, lets see if Crysis 2 on consoles can even match the quality of the original Crysis when it comes out.

I actually see your point and like your arguement. For me its this: Ive been a PC gamer for quite sometime now and getting me to switch to a console is no easy task. I consider my PC to be a hell of a lot more powerful then a xbox or ps3. I also prefer keyboard+mouse to a traditional controller. This being said, I think its a matter of preference really. If your into console gaming and/or prefer a controller then your probably going to go for the xbox or ps3, or possibly both. Like I said I am a PC gamer and I speak for many when i say that its (personally) better then any console. Now the tricky part is "what if i dont have any money for a mid-range+ gaming rig?" I cant really say what to do for this seeing as my computer was a generous gift from my mom. My best advice would to be getting a job and saving up.

But now im just getting off topic. I'm pretty noob when it comes to whats inside the pc (although im learning) Sadly the only way i can answer you is by saying that its all preference on what you want to buy. It has nothing to do with pricing or math IMO

Your first problem was looking at $700 graphics cards, price/performance goes to crap around $200 or so and gets more and more rediculous after that point. Your second problem is thinking that a computer is limited to being a gaming machine, like the consoles. When in fact it can do infinitely many more things a console can, as well as some people need more powerful computers for school/work (such as myself since I'm a graphic design major). To me having one device that can do both my schoolwork and play games is much more practical than buying a console as well as a cheaper personal computer.General_X

How much did you pay for your laptop? If you would have never bought that and built a desktop for games instead, you'd probably have more money than you do now.

Besides my opinion that consoles suck because of poor controls(mouse/kb), lower resolution, crap frames per second, no extensive mods to games, and just overall much worse graphics just to name a few, pc users are generally game enthusiasts. The extra money is well spent on their hobby. To the casual gamers, a console will do. It's just like any other hobby such as cars for instance, a Honda Civic will serve the same general purpose that a Ferrari will, personal transportation, but if you like cars and have the money, a Civic isn't going to cut it. BeavermanA

Even then, if you knew a thing or two about cars then you would know that Ferrari isn't actually that great. :P

[QUOTE="BeavermanA"]Besides my opinion that consoles suck because of poor controls(mouse/kb), lower resolution, crap frames per second, no extensive mods to games, and just overall much worse graphics just to name a few, pc users are generally game enthusiasts. The extra money is well spent on their hobby. To the casual gamers, a console will do. It's just like any other hobby such as cars for instance, a Honda Civic will serve the same general purpose that a Ferrari will, personal transportation, but if you like cars and have the money, a Civic isn't going to cut it. RobboElRobbo

Even then, if you knew a thing or two about cars then you would know that Ferrari isn't actually that great. :P

[QUOTE="RobboElRobbo"][QUOTE="BeavermanA"]Besides my opinion that consoles suck because of poor controls(mouse/kb), lower resolution, crap frames per second, no extensive mods to games, and just overall much worse graphics just to name a few, pc users are generally game enthusiasts. The extra money is well spent on their hobby. To the casual gamers, a console will do. It's just like any other hobby such as cars for instance, a Honda Civic will serve the same general purpose that a Ferrari will, personal transportation, but if you like cars and have the money, a Civic isn't going to cut it. BeavermanA

Even then, if you knew a thing or two about cars then you would know that Ferrari isn't actually that great. :P

CIassic cars ftw :D

tbh ive spent (360 was 420 euro, ps3 was 350 euro, wii was 300 euro (piece of ****).....god damn now that i count it :(, and then my hd sammy was 1000 euro) over 2000 this gen alone on consoles never mind games so either way gaming ends up costing you a lot of money

$700? yes they are that kind of cards but you are a lot of card for less tehn $300 that can give a lot pf power to run a lot of new games on high maxed out settings.

look at my rig on my sig total price i paid for it if you dont count the sales tax and shipping cost i spent around close to $500 and it can run crysis, metro 2033, BF:BC 2, all on very high maxed out settings with no lag what so ever

$700? yes they are that kind of cards but you are a lot of card for less tehn $300 that can give a lot pf power to run a lot of new games on high maxed out settings.

look at my rig on my sig total price i paid for it if you dont count the sales tax and shipping cost i spent around close to $500 and it can run crysis, metro 2033, BF:BC 2, all on very high maxed out settings with no lag what so ever

acsam12304

Well, in today's world, you're going to need a PC at some point. Say this costs $500 or so. Then add the cost of a $300 console, and theres your gaming PC.Roggirek

This. Console fan boys do tend to forget a PC isn't just used for gaming..

my 4850's in crossfire are pretty dam good at 1680x1050 as far as crysis goes didn't like it to much but any other of my games i throw at it are pretty much maxed out for the most part.

My 4890 is getting old but it still has enough grunt to push 1080p pixels in any game on high. Your 460 shouldn't have too many problems. I also built this PC for games, there is nothing on it but drivers and Flash and 120GB+ of games.desertpython

i hope one of the game are not Star Wars Unleashed cuz that game on the PC is 30GB big:P

If I was a broke university student, I'd still stick with a PC because aside from playing games with it, I could do my homework and projects on it. From my own experiences as a student, I wouldn't have a lot of time to play games anyway. I might as well do everything with one box. Plus, a cheap laptop wouldn't cut it for me. Laptops are notoriously slow compared to desktops when it comes to tasks such as video-editing and encoding/transcoding. I already saw that first hand while editing videos taken during our recent road trip.

As for my gaming PC..... it's fairly weak for a recent (Nov 2009) build and it cost less than $800. But, I game at low resolutions anyway (1440x900 or 1280x768 ). It's plenty enough for most games at those resolutions.

I am a PC gamer and console gamer.

$1200 Game PC
CPU: AMD x4 955 @ 3.8

GPU: ASUS 5870 1gb

MEM: 8gb Mushkin 1600mhz

HDD 1.5 TB/226GB left

MB: Biostar 890FX

Case: Antec 1200

PSU: Antec 650W

Maxes everything at 1920x1080. (Need a monitor running on 50inch DLP not good for PC gaming but good for console gaming)

I have a 360(28 Games)/PS2(15 Games)

I use the PC for gaming and programming.

I use to buy $80 graphic cards back in the day to just get by playing pc games on lowest settings but soon I tried $160 then $300+ I hope I stop there.

If you want to game on low-med settings a $600-$700 gaming rig is possible if built with amd. To answer your question it really is only justifiable to the individual to spend X amounts of money on a gaming PC but it is always cheaper to build then buy.

Well, in today's world, you're going to need a PC at some point. Say this costs $500 or so. Then add the cost of a $300 console, and theres your gaming PC.Roggirek

I paid way to much for my rig, thats for sure. Side note: Always buy from the net. Because it's cheaper.

I usually just build my own rig which is about 1/2 the price or more than the ones u buy fully assembled. Like the way overpriced Alienwares.....

People don't want to play on max always, and PC graphics far supersedes every console. A PC game on low would still beat the quality of a console if it properly written and coded. Take for instance Crysis, lets see if Crysis 2 on consoles can even match the quality of the original Crysis when it comes out.

GTR12

also, when i read reviews on those $700+ graphics cards, people say "amazing card! plays all games on max!" and i say to myself.. you just spent that much on a graphics card, what do you expect? did you really have nothing more useful to spend that much money on?

then again, i am a broke university student.. which might explain a lot

Decrate

You dont need a $700 graphics card to max out games, my GTX 260 can max out all games and only cost me £130, which is about $200-300 :)

By the fact that all the games can be had for free. :P

I'm sure somebody's already said it but beside the back compatibility, depth, price, variety and sheer number of games available for PC, a computer's something that every home's going to have anyway, so why not save a little money and make it into your games machine at the same time?

bah! every time I think I am spending too much on an item, I just think of the (rich) people who spend $10,000 on a wrist watch.... yeah.

Though, I do tend to like my games to have better visuals, to me it really doesn't justify the higher price over a console. I have the extra money, so I do drop some cash for nice video cards. The reason PC gaming is far superior to consoles is one simple thing that I don't think anyone mentioned here. MODs. I can not even begin to tell you how much better games like fallout 3 and Dragon age are with many of the player made MODs out there. Also Games like half life 2 get some pretty good graphical upgrades like from fake factory. That 2004 game is one of my best looking games with the cinematic 10 mod. So, old games get overhauled by player mods, so they meet todays standards in gaming. You can not do this on a console. I buy fewer games a year on PC because I get so many more hours in with mods.

I'm a tinkerer and a control freak. If I'm not happy with an aspect of my machine, I can upgrade it to get just what I want when I want it. Yes, it's on the expensive side, but sometimes you should buy a high-end piece of equipment (be it a computer, TV, car or whatever) to appreciate the high end and what it can give you.

The PC is just so flexible on every level (including variety!).

bah! every time I think I am spending too much on an item, I just think of the (rich) people who spend $10,000 on a wrist watch.... yeah.

Rob_101

there are games that will only succed on the PC like WoW. but me, i've built a PC for Diablo 3, and Mass Effect (i dont have a x360).

And nobody hasn't mentioned exclusives yet? xD Crysis, STALKER series, Stacraft 2, Diablo 3, Team Fortress 2(any valve game for that matter), Sins of Solar Empire, etc etc 20+ years of back catalog that beat any console. Not to mention ithat it's impossible to play most games with a controller.nintendog66

team fortress 2 is included in the orange box. which is also on the ps3 and x360.

[QUOTE="Roggirek"]Well, in today's world, you're going to need a PC at some point. Say this costs $500 or so. Then add the cost of a $300 console, and theres your gaming PC.mouthforbathory

i do the same thing. i have like 10 wish listest. i try to build a PC so cheap but have a bit of power to run a game in high settings. and i also do a very over kill build to see if i ever have the money to spend on a over kill PC will be like. :D