Abdul Hafeez
Member
Preface: This thread is not meant to be about PC elitism or anything of that sort. I think consoles are a completely reasonable alternative to PCs due to the lower initial investment.
First, here are the specs that matter:
I had absolutely no interest in this game prior to release and never cared much for Tolkien-derived films and games. But the reviews were shockingly positive and I decided to go for it. I think it's safe to say that most people were surprised by this game's VRAM requirements for high and ultra texture quality, especially for 1080p. I was certainly upset that my $500 video card that was the best in its class only 2 years ago was already unable to run modern games at their maximum graphical settings. I can run The Witcher 2 at its highest configuration (with the exception of ubersampling) at 1080p60, so seeing games that don't look much better, if they look better at all, running poorly on the same hardware was disappointing. But my disappointment didn't last for long. I realized what was really bugging me was the thought that I might be playing the game at a lower visual quality than the best console version (which I guess is going to be PS4 most of the time). But after playing the game for 10 hours or so, it became clear that my initial frustration was rather silly. I was playing the game at 1080p at a more or less locked 60 frames per second. I had entirely forgotten about the console version because even if the PS4 version had a slightly better texture quality (which is entirely possible given I was running at medium textures and Digital Foundry found the console versions to be equivalent to high on PC), the version I was playing had better draw distance, higher vegetation range, basically better everything except for texture quality. And it was still running at 1080p60, which is what really matters (the console versions run at 30 fps).
I think many people get hung up on the idea of maximizing the graphics settings when they play on PC, but lets be honest: The benefit of going from high to ultra is usually negligible for most games. And the drop in performance is almost never worth it. Plus, the idea that you might be running the game at a lower quality than the console versions is inane. Because who cares if one aspect of the game is better on PS4 than it is on your PC. You still have the privilege of flexibility. Tune the settings just right (and this is super easy now with GeForce Experience and whatever the AMD equivalent is) and you get a significantly better play experience. And since I made the transition to playing primarily on PC almost 2 years ago, I've found the ability to choose whether you want to prioritize visuals or performance incredibly liberating. It would be great if the consoles gave you the option to drop some settings and increase the frame rate.
Anyone else on GAF have a similar epiphany in their PC gaming experience?
TL;DR - Don't fret if you can't run a game on the highest settings on your PC. Turn down some options and enjoy the vastly better performance!
First, here are the specs that matter:
CPU: Intel Core i7 3770K 3.5 GHz
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 with 2 GB VRAM
RAM: 16 GB
OS: Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 with 2 GB VRAM
RAM: 16 GB
OS: Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit
I had absolutely no interest in this game prior to release and never cared much for Tolkien-derived films and games. But the reviews were shockingly positive and I decided to go for it. I think it's safe to say that most people were surprised by this game's VRAM requirements for high and ultra texture quality, especially for 1080p. I was certainly upset that my $500 video card that was the best in its class only 2 years ago was already unable to run modern games at their maximum graphical settings. I can run The Witcher 2 at its highest configuration (with the exception of ubersampling) at 1080p60, so seeing games that don't look much better, if they look better at all, running poorly on the same hardware was disappointing. But my disappointment didn't last for long. I realized what was really bugging me was the thought that I might be playing the game at a lower visual quality than the best console version (which I guess is going to be PS4 most of the time). But after playing the game for 10 hours or so, it became clear that my initial frustration was rather silly. I was playing the game at 1080p at a more or less locked 60 frames per second. I had entirely forgotten about the console version because even if the PS4 version had a slightly better texture quality (which is entirely possible given I was running at medium textures and Digital Foundry found the console versions to be equivalent to high on PC), the version I was playing had better draw distance, higher vegetation range, basically better everything except for texture quality. And it was still running at 1080p60, which is what really matters (the console versions run at 30 fps).
I think many people get hung up on the idea of maximizing the graphics settings when they play on PC, but lets be honest: The benefit of going from high to ultra is usually negligible for most games. And the drop in performance is almost never worth it. Plus, the idea that you might be running the game at a lower quality than the console versions is inane. Because who cares if one aspect of the game is better on PS4 than it is on your PC. You still have the privilege of flexibility. Tune the settings just right (and this is super easy now with GeForce Experience and whatever the AMD equivalent is) and you get a significantly better play experience. And since I made the transition to playing primarily on PC almost 2 years ago, I've found the ability to choose whether you want to prioritize visuals or performance incredibly liberating. It would be great if the consoles gave you the option to drop some settings and increase the frame rate.
Anyone else on GAF have a similar epiphany in their PC gaming experience?
TL;DR - Don't fret if you can't run a game on the highest settings on your PC. Turn down some options and enjoy the vastly better performance!
