Nearly time to move to AMD?

Nah. Doesn't really matter too much to PC gaming what consoles do, and TressFX runs fine on my nVidia hardware.FaustArp

I'd expect it to with the amount you paid :P

[QUOTE="FaustArp"]Nah. Doesn't really matter too much to PC gaming what consoles do, and TressFX runs fine on my nVidia hardware.Postmortem123

I'd expect it to with the amount you paid :P

I was just thinking if next gen consoles are going to be AMD built, and with the likes of Tomb Raider using TressFX, is it time to switch? surely future next gen ports would be better with AMD cards?couly

i look at it like this:

a.) the intel cpu blows away the amd cpu and leaves them in the dust

b.) the amd apu blows away intel's apu and leaves them in the dust

as for video cards i prefer nvidia (drivers and overall quality) but it seems they just go back and forth with ati/amd as to which one is the reigning king for a while.

the fx8350 (IMO) is the best bang for the buck and it (and it's successors) will see the biggest benefit from the console running amd cpu's in the future (because games might be direct ports from the new "somewhat high end" consoles) but that doesn't mean the amd will somehow instantly become magically faster or make intel obsolete.

i don't think amd will ever even catch up to intel at this rate, and if it weren't for the consoles using amd cpu's and gpu's then amd would go out of business (and almost did a few years back). IMO microsoft and sony both probably have a strategic business deal with amd to keep them alive so that intel, apple, android and google tech doesn't take over every tech market completely and in doing so make windows obsolete - steam and origin could be big factors in this as well.

if microsoft doesn't come up with something to keep putting their operating systems on, while at the same time everyone continues to leave windows PC for smartphones and tablets which are advancing to the stage where they will become PC's without windows OS, then microsoft will go out of business. and (IMO) that's why you see microsoft trying desperately to get into the tablet market with windows surface tablets and windows smartglass/windows phones - they have to compete in that market to take back A LOT of the customers they lost and are losing to that market (this is why nintendo is dying - smartphones and tablets are taking their consumer base away). so don't be surprised if the xbox720 will be something new, like a tablet that docks into a pc docking station with windows on it. sony ps4 will probably try something like this (with vita) as well.

i'm not saying this is how it is and all that. i'm just saying this is what i think will happen because if it doesn't pan out this way then microsoft will become irrelevant due them losing all their customers because they refuse to pay attention to what consumers want to buy since they would rather see their operating system monopoly continue it's domination over the tech industry, and how the tech industry evolves with each new version of windows that they release - directx ties into all of this as well.

i may be wrong or i may be correct (no one really knows except those on the inside), but that's how i see it.

[QUOTE="couly"]I was just thinking if next gen consoles are going to be AMD built, and with the likes of Tomb Raider using TressFX, is it time to switch? surely future next gen ports would be better with AMD cards?buccomatic

i look at it like this:

a.) the intel cpu blows away the amd cpu and leaves them in the dust

b.) the amd apu blows away intel's apu and leaves them in the dust

as for video cards i prefer nvidia (drivers and overall quality) but it seems they just go back and forth with ati/amd as to which one is the reigning king for a while.

the fx8350 (IMO) is the best bang for the buck and it (and it's successors) will see the biggest benefit from the console running amd cpu's in the future (because games might be direct ports from the new "somewhat high end" consoles) but that doesn't mean the amd will somehow instantly become magically faster or make intel obsolete.

i don't think amd will ever even catch up to intel at this rate, and if it weren't for the consoles using amd cpu's and gpu's then amd would go out of business (and almost did a few years back). IMO microsoft and sony both probably have a strategic business deal with amd to keep them alive so that intel, apple, android and google tech doesn't take over every tech market completely and in doing so make windows obsolete - steam and origin could be big factors in this as well.

if microsoft doesn't come up with something to keep putting their operating systems on, while at the same time everyone continues to leave windows PC for smartphones and tablets which are advancing to the stage where they will become PC's without windows OS, then microsoft will go out of business. and (IMO) that's why you see microsoft trying desperately to get into the tablet market with windows surface tablets and windows smartglass/windows phones - they have to compete in that market to take back A LOT of the customers they lost and are losing to that market (this is why nintendo is dying - smartphones and tablets are taking their consumer base away). so don't be surprised if the xbox720 will be something new, like a tablet that docks into a pc docking station with windows on it. sony ps4 will probably try something like this (with vita) as well.

i'm not saying this is how it is and all that. i'm just saying this is what i think will happen because if it doesn't pan out this way then microsoft will become irrelevant due them losing all their customers because they refuse to pay attention to what consumers want to buy since they would rather see their operating system monopoly continue it's domination over the tech industry, and how the tech industry evolves with each new version of windows that they release - directx ties into all of this as well.

i may be wrong or i may be correct (no one really knows except those on the inside), but that's how i see it.

Not disagreeing with you but I think you've missed the largest chunk of where MS get their OS money from. They get the majority of their OS sales from Dell, HP etc where these companies have ongoing contracts with other major companies and organisations. The likes of Dell cycle millions of PC's through tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of offices, world wide every year through contractual upgrades and general replacements. This is the market MS is trying to keep sweet with the likes of Windows 8 and it's more modern U.I. ideas, with the back end being more hidden and harder to access.

Of course MS want a slice of the mobile market, any IT company, in a position to do so, would be dumb not too but it's deffinately not the focal point.

On topic (sorry :) )

PC gaming hardware is not going to change dramatically because of the consoles using AMD hardware. Intel, AMD and Nvidia will continue along their projected cycles which have been pretty much set in stone since some bloke with a hammer and chisel carved first chipsets from solidified sand.

As for the software support, I've yet to come across a game that struggled to run on my PC because of any AMD 'optimisation'. Sure you may lose a few frames here and there but there will never be any real gimping going on. If developers did deliberately gimp one set of hardware while optimising the other, they'd find themselves in the legal sh1t storm rather quickly.

AMD make good stuff but don't go AMD just because the consoles are. When you do come upgrade, look into it, take advice, decide how much you want to spend and select the best options based on what you can afford.

Nvidia and Intel tend to have more powerful options available but with that comes a higher price point and AMD often give better value for money. It's not 100% accurate and more of generalisation and always subject to change, depending on which way the wind is blowing and always remeber that graphics driver support can make or break any GPU on the market.

TL: DR

MS make money from companies like Dell and HP

Research all upgrades you decide to make.

It will definitely be interesting to see. Especially seeing how console devs go really deep into the hardware to get every last bit of performance out of it. We might see more optimization for AMD, I definitely agree.

But...that will only come after the 2nd generation of PS4 games. Which would be like...three years from now? Looking at past history, the PS3 was launched in 2006 with Uncharted as one of its first titles. Two years later in 2008 we see Uncharted 2, which makes a huge leap in visual clarity since the dev really got to optimizing for the PS3. 

By then, I hope that AMD's APU project succeeds to the point that I can get a computer the size of like a DVD case which can run Crysis at max.