Will consoles catch up with PC ever again?

When Xbox 360 was launched it had visuals that roughly matched a PC of its day. But I've been recently looking to buy a gaming rig and I've been saving my cash and I've seen gaming rig online for £1399 (which is quite expensive) and it had a quad core i7 3.4 Ghz CPU (overclocked to 4.6ghz) 16GB of RAM and a top end GPU with 2GB of VRAM. It got me thinking, would the next gen consoles be able to match that? even ones released in 2013 I doubt it, and by then PCs would be even more powerful.

so what do you guys think? will consoles ever catch up or will PCs always be ahead. coz I don't see next gen consoles coming with more than 6GB of total RAM. PC's will be well ahead in most terms. unless Sony/MS come up with a miracle.

Consoles will never catch up with PC.

Just the gap between them gets smaller.

Tip:Never buy a high end PC like the one you mentioned.

You can get a 2500k, 4 gigs of RAM and a GTX 570 for half the price of the PC parts you mentioned above and play everything on max.

Every six months new GPUs come out that outperform the previous ones.

When Xbox 360 was launched it had visuals that roughly matched a PC of its day. But I've been recently looking to buy a gaming rig and I've been saving my cash and I've seen gaming rig online for £1399 (which is quite expensive) and it had a quad core i7 3.4 Ghz CPU (overclocked to 4.6ghz) 16GB of RAM and a top end GPU with 2GB of VRAM. It got me thinking, would the next gen consoles be able to match that? even ones released in 2013 I doubt it, and by then PCs would be even more powerful.

so what do you guys think? will consoles ever catch up or will PCs always be ahead. coz I don't see next gen consoles coming with more than 6GB of total RAM. PC's will be well ahead in most terms. unless Sony/MS come up with a miracle.

CwlHeddwyn

[QUOTE="CwlHeddwyn"]

When Xbox 360 was launched it had visuals that roughly matched a PC of its day. But I've been recently looking to buy a gaming rig and I've been saving my cash and I've seen gaming rig online for £1399 (which is quite expensive) and it had a quad core i7 3.4 Ghz CPU (overclocked to 4.6ghz) 16GB of RAM and a top end GPU with 2GB of VRAM. It got me thinking, would the next gen consoles be able to match that? even ones released in 2013 I doubt it, and by then PCs would be even more powerful.

so what do you guys think? will consoles ever catch up or will PCs always be ahead. coz I don't see next gen consoles coming with more than 6GB of total RAM. PC's will be well ahead in most terms. unless Sony/MS come up with a miracle.

Plagueless

Gaming PCs where almost twice as powerfull as the 360 when it came out according to Nvidia.

I cant see the next batch being any different tbh.

[QUOTE="CwlHeddwyn"]

When Xbox 360 was launched it had visuals that roughly matched a PC of its day. But I've been recently looking to buy a gaming rig and I've been saving my cash and I've seen gaming rig online for £1399 (which is quite expensive) and it had a quad core i7 3.4 Ghz CPU (overclocked to 4.6ghz) 16GB of RAM and a top end GPU with 2GB of VRAM. It got me thinking, would the next gen consoles be able to match that? even ones released in 2013 I doubt it, and by then PCs would be even more powerful.

so what do you guys think? will consoles ever catch up or will PCs always be ahead. coz I don't see next gen consoles coming with more than 6GB of total RAM. PC's will be well ahead in most terms. unless Sony/MS come up with a miracle.

Plagueless

if one of the next gen consoles is set to push tech, then it will probably match or do slightly better than PCs for a year or so, then quickly fall behind as PC tech advances further.

However if consoles go the Wii U route where it is rumored to come out with what would be considered current mid to low end gaming PC hardware then no, they won't match high end PC capablities.

maybe

Consoles have a huge advantage over PC, they can write straight to metal, they can reach 100% of that consoles power pretty much

while PC has to deal with drivers and Microsofts horrible directx, so out of a high end PC, you get like 10-20% of its actual power, its a huge issue that should have been fixed by now, but Microsoft have a monopoly still, so it wont be fixed anytime soon

While the common trend has been for consoles to leap every few years and match high-end PCs when they make that leap, it's unlikely that they're going to keep this up. There is a limit on the computing power you can stuff into a box that's small enough to be a viable console, which is mainly determined by heat dissipation. Computers are far larger than consoles on average and can have their interior exposed to the air, which means that their thermal dissipation capacity and hence the hard limit on their computing power vastly outstrips that of consoles. Given that modern consoles are already experiencing heat dissipation issues, it's unlikely that the next generation will be able to "leap" up to high-end PC levels.

while PC has to deal with drivers and Microsofts horrible directx, so out of a high end PC, you get like 10-20% of its actual power, its a huge issue that should have been fixed by now, but Microsoft have a monopoly still, so it wont be fixed anytime soon

HaloinventedFPS

You make it sound like it's the fault of MS somehow. Direct X is needed because of the vast variety of hardware PC games have to deal with, a problem console games don't have. If you or someone else have a better alternative please show us.

and TC, the PC you listed is such an overkill.

When Xbox 360 was launched it had visuals that roughly matched a PC of its day. But I've been recently looking to buy a gaming rig and I've been saving my cash and I've seen gaming rig online for £1399 (which is quite expensive) and it had a quad core i7 3.4 Ghz CPU (overclocked to 4.6ghz) 16GB of RAM and a top end GPU with 2GB of VRAM. It got me thinking, would the next gen consoles be able to match that? even ones released in 2013 I doubt it, and by then PCs would be even more powerful.

so what do you guys think? will consoles ever catch up or will PCs always be ahead. coz I don't see next gen consoles coming with more than 6GB of total RAM. PC's will be well ahead in most terms. unless Sony/MS come up with a miracle.

CwlHeddwyn

Unless the next gen of consoles have componenents that you can buy and replace yourself then they never will.

Consoles shouldn't try to. The console experience could be defined as "good enough" - most people are happy with what they get, even though the PC offers a higher quality experience (that they often aren't aware of)...at a higher price.

Gaming PCs are high maintenance (by comparison) and have a shorter lifespan before being replaced (or at the very least, upgraded).

Consoles and gaming PCs are aimed at slightly different markets, much like how a hatchback is aimed at a different audience to a sports car. We all want to be entertained, but some value cheaper simplicity over expensive power.

With "cloud" stuff being pushed by everybody, I wouldn't doubt that sometime in the near future games will follow suit and Onlives approach will be the way we play games.

At most a console can be as powerful as a mid range PC. When you factor in things like SLI/XFire, the limited budget for console hardware and the insane overclocks, it should be obvious, that a console could never overpower a high end PC.

[QUOTE="HaloinventedFPS"]

while PC has to deal with drivers and Microsofts horrible directx, so out of a high end PC, you get like 10-20% of its actual power, its a huge issue that should have been fixed by now, but Microsoft have a monopoly still, so it wont be fixed anytime soon

edidili

You make it sound like it's the fault of MS somehow. Direct X is needed because of the vast variety of hardware PC games have to deal with, a problem console games don't have. If you or someone else have a better alternative please show us.

and TC, the PC you listed is such an overkill.

Ok I'm sorry but the general consensus that the 360 was equally as powerful as the top tier PCs of late 2005 and 2006 is simply FALSE. The xbox 360's graphics performance is inferior to the 2005 7800 GT. PC gamers could enjoy 2 of those graphics cards, or a 7950GX2.

So in raw performance Pcs were far ahead.

As for games? Perfect Dark Zero Project Gotham Racing both looked worse than Half Life 2, Far Cry, Doom 3 and FEAR 1 on PC.

By the time Gears of War 1 on 360 was out the 8800 GT was launched and could flawlessly run Oblivion in 1080p, which was the graphics king at the time, a long with games like Company of Heroes.

The 360 mostly only had PS2 ports in its early days and wasn't optimized anyhwere near like today.

maybe

Consoles have a huge advantage over PC, they can write straight to metal, they can reach 100% of that consoles power pretty much

while PC has to deal with drivers and Microsofts horrible directx, so out of a high end PC, you get like 10-20% of its actual power, its a huge issue that should have been fixed by now, but Microsoft have a monopoly still, so it wont be fixed anytime soon

HaloinventedFPS

Thanks for the laugh! :lol:

[QUOTE="HaloinventedFPS"]

maybe

Consoles have a huge advantage over PC, they can write straight to metal, they can reach 100% of that consoles power pretty much

while PC has to deal with drivers and Microsofts horrible directx, so out of a high end PC, you get like 10-20% of its actual power, its a huge issue that should have been fixed by now, but Microsoft have a monopoly still, so it wont be fixed anytime soon

Johnny_Rock

Thanks for the laugh! :lol:

Consoles nowadays are almost the same as PC's with roughly the same components used to build them. They're optimized for gaming though, which gives them an edge in their launch year(s).It's actually simple, if you want a next gen console that can compete with $2000 gaming PC's, they will be expensive...simple as that.

[QUOTE="Johnny_Rock"]

[QUOTE="HaloinventedFPS"]

maybe

Consoles have a huge advantage over PC, they can write straight to metal, they can reach 100% of that consoles power pretty much

while PC has to deal with drivers and Microsofts horrible directx, so out of a high end PC, you get like 10-20% of its actual power, its a huge issue that should have been fixed by now, but Microsoft have a monopoly still, so it wont be fixed anytime soon

o0squishy0o

Thanks for the laugh! :lol:

I totally agree. those driver issues can become a real pain...and when a new operating system launches...ah, don't let me remember Windows Vista that destroyed my Crysis, Supreme Commander, Starcraft2, Heroes of might and magic5, The Witcher, ...

[QUOTE="Johnny_Rock"]

[QUOTE="HaloinventedFPS"]

maybe

Consoles have a huge advantage over PC, they can write straight to metal, they can reach 100% of that consoles power pretty much

while PC has to deal with drivers and Microsofts horrible directx, so out of a high end PC, you get like 10-20% of its actual power, its a huge issue that should have been fixed by now, but Microsoft have a monopoly still, so it wont be fixed anytime soon

o0squishy0o

Thanks for the laugh! :lol:

Why should I disprove him? He claims something ridiculous - that the same company, using the same API only yields 10% of the performance on PC compared to Xbox (hint - the X in XBox is derived from Direct X). When you throw a crazy statement like that you should provide some data to back it up, not expect people to disprove it, which by the way isn't so hard - just look at quality and performance of multiplatform games on PC and 360.

When Xbox 360 was launched it had visuals that roughly matched a PC of its day. But I've been recently looking to buy a gaming rig and I've been saving my cash and I've seen gaming rig online for £1399 (which is quite expensive) and it had a quad core i7 3.4 Ghz CPU (overclocked to 4.6ghz) 16GB of RAM and a top end GPU with 2GB of VRAM. It got me thinking, would the next gen consoles be able to match that? even ones released in 2013 I doubt it, and by then PCs would be even more powerful.

so what do you guys think? will consoles ever catch up or will PCs always be ahead. coz I don't see next gen consoles coming with more than 6GB of total RAM. PC's will be well ahead in most terms. unless Sony/MS come up with a miracle.

CwlHeddwyn

If the next-gen consoles do real 1080p with antialiasing and increased polygon counts along with the optimization console games are known for, I'd be happy. Brute force isn't always everything like a number of PC games are known for requiring.

Consoled will never be ahead in terms of raw power. It's just not possible as stated very vell in this thread. The only way a console could get ahead of a high end pc graphically is if MS/Sony released a PC and called it a "console".

However, consoles don't have to be at the level of high end PCs They simply need to continue to evolve and be noticeably better than the gen before. I do think it is possible(but unlikely) for a console to have games that look better than the PCs best games sometime in the future.

Seeing as a console is an optimized/closed PC, it is much easier to harness most of its power. That can never really happen with a PC for a few reasons. The most obvious ones are that some of the PCs power will be required for other apps that are running and that PC games are made for so many different configurations.

So assuming that in the next 2-3 gaming gens that graphical leaps begin to slow(a real possibility), then I can see a point where the visuals(NOT the specs or capabilities) of a console overmatch a PC.

[QUOTE="Plagueless"][QUOTE="CwlHeddwyn"]

When Xbox 360 was launched it had visuals that roughly matched a PC of its day. But I've been recently looking to buy a gaming rig and I've been saving my cash and I've seen gaming rig online for £1399 (which is quite expensive) and it had a quad core i7 3.4 Ghz CPU (overclocked to 4.6ghz) 16GB of RAM and a top end GPU with 2GB of VRAM. It got me thinking, would the next gen consoles be able to match that? even ones released in 2013 I doubt it, and by then PCs would be even more powerful.

so what do you guys think? will consoles ever catch up or will PCs always be ahead. coz I don't see next gen consoles coming with more than 6GB of total RAM. PC's will be well ahead in most terms. unless Sony/MS come up with a miracle.

mbrockway

ps3 uses XDR ram you cant compare the costs as you dont know what its like to make millions of systems.

When Xbox 360 was launched it had visuals that roughly matched a PC of its day. But I've been recently looking to buy a gaming rig and I've been saving my cash and I've seen gaming rig online for £1399 (which is quite expensive) and it had a quad core i7 3.4 Ghz CPU (overclocked to 4.6ghz) 16GB of RAM and a top end GPU with 2GB of VRAM. It got me thinking, would the next gen consoles be able to match that? even ones released in 2013 I doubt it, and by then PCs would be even more powerful.

so what do you guys think? will consoles ever catch up or will PCs always be ahead. coz I don't see next gen consoles coming with more than 6GB of total RAM. PC's will be well ahead in most terms. unless Sony/MS come up with a miracle.

CwlHeddwyn

[QUOTE="o0squishy0o"][QUOTE="Johnny_Rock"]

Thanks for the laugh! :lol:

KiZZo1

Why should I disprove him? He claims something ridiculous - that the same company, using the same API only yields 10% of the performance on PC compared to Xbox (hint - the X in XBox is derived from Direct X). When you throw a crazy statement like that you should provide some data to back it up, not expect people to disprove it, which by the way isn't so hard - just look at quality and performance of multiplatform games on PC and 360.

When Xbox 360 was launched it had visuals that roughly matched a PC of its day. But I've been recently looking to buy a gaming rig and I've been saving my cash and I've seen gaming rig online for £1399 (which is quite expensive) and it had a quad core i7 3.4 Ghz CPU (overclocked to 4.6ghz) 16GB of RAM and a top end GPU with 2GB of VRAM. It got me thinking, would the next gen consoles be able to match that? even ones released in 2013 I doubt it, and by then PCs would be even more powerful.

so what do you guys think? will consoles ever catch up or will PCs always be ahead. coz I don't see next gen consoles coming with more than 6GB of total RAM. PC's will be well ahead in most terms. unless Sony/MS come up with a miracle.

CwlHeddwyn

During 2005 to 2006, there was large changes with the GPU architecture i.e. the move to unfied shader architecture.

Unless there's a large change with the basic GPU design, you wouldn't see another 2005 scenario.

Ok I'm sorry but the general consensus that the 360 was equally as powerful as the top tier PCs of late 2005 and 2006 is simply FALSE. The xbox 360's graphics performance is inferior to the 2005 7800 GT. PC gamers could enjoy 2 of those graphics cards, or a 7950GX2.

Mozelleple112

It depends on the workload i.e. if the shader program was complex (i.e. not NVIDIA "The Way It's Meant to be Played" DX9c era title) it would stomp on Geforce 7800 GT.

With raster operations, Geforce 7800 GT still has the edge.

maybe

Consoles have a huge advantage over PC, they can write straight to metal, they can reach 100% of that consoles power pretty much

while PC has to deal with drivers and Microsofts horrible directx, so out of a high end PC, you get like 10-20% of its actual power, its a huge issue that should have been fixed by now, but Microsoft have a monopoly still, so it wont be fixed anytime soon

HaloinventedFPS

MS reduced the impact of DX with DX11. My Radeon HD 4650M still runs most console ported games quite well at 720p HD resolution e.g. Crysis 2.

At the same workloads, CS is more efficient than the traditional pixel shaders (PS).

DX11 CS vs DX10.1 PS

Unlike Crysis 2 DX11, BF3 uses DX11 CS for it's deferred rendering. It's an uncharted territory for PC gaming.

Also, AMD's statement also gives us some hints on non-DX10/non-DX9c limiting results i.e. using custom extensions on DX10.1 Radeon HDs and maybe applicable on Wii U.

Radeon HD DX10.x hardware can run DX11 CS4.x with DX11 middleware. Wii U's RV7x0 GPU includes Fetch-4 hardware feature.

[QUOTE="Plagueless"][QUOTE="CwlHeddwyn"]

When Xbox 360 was launched it had visuals that roughly matched a PC of its day. But I've been recently looking to buy a gaming rig and I've been saving my cash and I've seen gaming rig online for £1399 (which is quite expensive) and it had a quad core i7 3.4 Ghz CPU (overclocked to 4.6ghz) 16GB of RAM and a top end GPU with 2GB of VRAM. It got me thinking, would the next gen consoles be able to match that? even ones released in 2013 I doubt it, and by then PCs would be even more powerful.

so what do you guys think? will consoles ever catch up or will PCs always be ahead. coz I don't see next gen consoles coming with more than 6GB of total RAM. PC's will be well ahead in most terms. unless Sony/MS come up with a miracle.

mbrockway

Considering eight gigabytes of random access memory is starting to become standard for the computer right now, anything less than four gigabytes for the consoles next generation would be dissapointing. I know that sounds like a lot but both the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 could have done so much more with just one gigabyte of memory compared to 256 and 512 megabytes of random access memory respectively. (Yes I know the Playstation 3 technically has 512 megabytes of memory, but it is set up oddly compared to the Xbox 360).

Just curious what games (any platform) breaks 4gb. I mean, I've only seen one game break 4gb* and that's X-Plane 9 which eats more RAM the farther I "fly" from my starting point. FSX came close at 3.9gb*. I haven't seen any other game on the PC go past even 3gb*.

* Includes system overhead (OS, utilities).

[QUOTE="mbrockway"][QUOTE="Plagueless"] Dont know why you dont see next gen consoles coming with more than 6 gigs of ram, but whatever. Im sure that at the beginning of next gen consoles with be comparable or MORE powerful than PC's, and just like always they will be sold for a loss the first few years. Ram isnt expensive.DarkGamer007

Considering eight gigabytes of random access memory is starting to become standard for the computer right now, anything less than four gigabytes for the consoles next generation would be dissapointing. I know that sounds like a lot but both the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 could have done so much more with just one gigabyte of memory compared to 256 and 512 megabytes of random access memory respectively. (Yes I know the Playstation 3 technically has 512 megabytes of memory, but it is set up oddly compared to the Xbox 360).

Be prepared to be dissapointed then, because in all likely hood we're looking at 2GB of total ram on the next Xbox and PS4. Ram used in consoles is faster and more expensive. Without an extensive OS and the introduction of a new resolution for HD TVs there is little reason for more.

When Xbox 360 was launched it had visuals that roughly matched a PC of its day. CwlHeddwyn

I think the gap between consoles and PCs is currently the smallest in history of videogames by the end of a console generation.

I think the gap between consoles and PCs is currently the smallest in history of videogames by the end of a console generation.

BlbecekBobecek

In terms of hardware NO. Not by a longshot. PC's are incredibly more powerful than cosnoles.

In terms of software - you're mostly right. There are very few titles that showcase the PC's strengths. Mind you, when they do, the difference is night and day, but most titles don't bother optimizing for the PC. So while we do get superior graphics, the level of difference that SHOULD be there, usually isn't.

[QUOTE="BlbecekBobecek"]

I think the gap between consoles and PCs is currently the smallest in history of videogames by the end of a console generation.

Kinthalis

In terms of hardware NO. Not by a longshot. PC's are incredibly more powerful than cosnoles.

In terms of software - you're mostly right. There are very few titles that showcase the PC's strengths. Mind you, when they do, the difference is night and day, but most titles don't bother optimizing for the PC. So while we do get superior graphics, the level of difference that SHOULD be there, usually isn't.

PCs were always incredibly more powerful than consoles by the end of their lifespan, but Im talking about actual graphics. In the last year of the original PSX lifespan, there were games like Quake 3 Arena, Max Payne, CounterStrike, Unreal Tournament, etc. All those games are miles ahead of anything PSX could show us.

Currently we are still bascially stuck on Crysis that might have impressive textures, FPS and view distance but its still basically pixelcounting to prove it looks better than console games. The same goes for Witcher 2, etc.