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[Grief.exe]

Because they don't have to run a large operating system at all times. Perhaps I'm overestimating how much this works them, but I was under the impression it wasn't insignificant.

You are vastly overestimating the amount of CPU required to run Windows. When you are gaming, its probably 1% of usage.

As I sit here, my CPU is at 2-4% and my memory is at 20%, the vast majority of which is tied up in the large amount of Chrome tabs I have open.

Can you buy games if you don't have a PC?

Yes, just log onto the Steam website on Thursday and buy games. You can even use the mobile app to purchase games as well.

You can then play them later when you have access to a PC.

 

[TAJ]

Nice.

And seriously, the thread title sounds like "after 10 days as a man/woman...". That just rubs me the wrong way lol. Everyone is a PC gamer, you don't need to undergo a surgery or otherwise come through a radical change!

Drugs are bad, mmmkay?

 

[Zeth]

And then there are people like me that went computer game ONLY back in 1989 with the Amiga and have now come full circle to being pretty much console only. I mean I basically went like this:

Atari 2600 - 1983 to 1985
Sega Master System - 1986 to 1989
Amiga - 1989 to 1993
PC - 1993 to 2005 (technically to today, but major gaming use ended in 2005)
Dreamcast - 2001 to 2007 and 2013 to ? (wife wants her fishing games back)
Gamecube - 2003 to 2008
Xbox - 2005 to today
PS2 - 2005 to today
Xbox 360 - 2005 to today
Wii - 2006 to 2012 (collected dust)
PS3 - 2008 to today
Wii U - 2012 to today (collects dust)

Right now PC gaming take up maybe 5% of my gaming time. I have a high end PC and over 100 Steam games.... but damn if I can be bothered to play them or sit in front of my monitor and cramped office chair after sitting in front of the SAME monitor and office chair for my work from home job. PC gaming is almost dead to me, and I was just never into mods at all. And I've become a metascore whore for Trophies and Achievements. I love my consoles. Note the HUGE amount of time from 1989 to 2005 where I did not own a SINGLE console (well except for Dreamcast a bit at the end)... and yet I still feel PC gaming is almost dead to me.

You should update Steam and check out Big Picture Mode. It is absolutely awesome (prefer it to any console OS) and is natively supported by TONS of games.

 

[Seanspeed]

That is because those games require DX10 or DX11 which Microsoft didn't support for XP.

They could have, but attached it to Vista to spur adoption rate.

But that's the kind of thing that happens. Support dies for older operating systems.

That's not one of the biggest concerns, but its still something to factor in. I'm not trying to sour anybody on PC gaming. I'm just trying to be realistic, that's all. Like anybody who is a fan of anything, fans will tend to downplay the negatives of it. I see that happen with PC gamers quite a bit.

I was roped in a bit earlier by people telling me how affordable building my own PC would be and all, but to build something just mid-tier, I'm still looking at slightly over 900 pounds altogether(that includes monitor, mouse, k/b and whatnot). That's not cheap. I could lower than down to about ~700-750 quid if I chose an dual-core processor and a low-mid range 7850 or something, but I wanted something that wouldn't immediately be outdated and that was good to go for upgrading in the future.

Seriously, I want to hear that my PC specs will be good enough to handle the next 5 years or whatever. I'm giving up console gaming for a period of time, so I don't want to feel like I've got something less. I do, however, want to be realistic about how things will progress over the next few years.

 

[More_Badass]

You should update Steam and check out Big Picture Mode. It is absolutely awesome (prefer it to any console OS) and is natively supported by TONS of games.

How does this work? Do I need an HDMI cable?

 

[GravityMan]

Steam's Big Picture Mode >> Any console OS UI.

And seriously, the thread title sounds like "after 10 days as a man/woman...". That just rubs me the wrong way lol. Everyone is a PC gamer, you don't need to undergo a surgery or otherwise come through a radical change!

Weird thing to be bothered about.

 

[Crawl]

http://gaben.tv/

 

[Kurdel]

How does this work? Do I need an HDMI cable?

Nope. You can activate it in the top right corner of the Steam screen or by pressing the home button on a synched 360 controller.

You can also set up a combination of button presses to take a screnshot with a controller.

I presse home+A, and it takes a screenshot. It's a neat feature.

 

[Grief.exe]

But that's the kind of thing that happens. Support dies for older operating systems.

That's not one of the biggest concerns, but its still something to factor in. I'm not trying to sour anybody on PC gaming. I'm just trying to be realistic, that's all. Like anybody who is a fan of anything, fans will tend to downplay the negatives of it. I see that happen with PC gamers quite a bit.

I was roped in a bit earlier by people telling me how affordable building my own PC would be and all, but to build something just mid-tier, I'm still looking at slightly over 900 pounds altogether(that includes monitor, mouse, k/b and whatnot). That's not cheap. I could lower than down to about ~700-750 quid if I chose an dual-core processor and a low-mid range 7850 or something, but I wanted something that wouldn't immediately be outdated and that was good to go for upgrading in the future.

Seriously, I want to hear that my PC specs will be good enough to handle the next 5 years or whatever. I'm giving up console gaming for a period of time, so I don't want to feel like I've got something less. I do, however, want to be realistic about how things will progress over the next few years.

I agree, I'm not trying to downplay any issues here. Or try to fool you that there isn't a pretty sizable initial investment.

I usually complete forget to factor in monitor, mouse, keyboard, headphones, etc. I'm sure those items cut into your budget very significantly.

A 760 will be able to last you a good amount of time, maybe even the whole of next-gen. It is significantly more powerful than the PS4 in terms of raw power.

How does this work? Do I need an HDMI cable?

Nope, you can check out Big Picture right now. Launch it from your library page in the Steam client.

 

[Seanspeed]

You are vastly overestimating the amount of CPU required to run Windows. When you are gaming, its probably 1% of usage.

As I sit here, my CPU is at 2-4% and my memory is at 20%, the vast majority of which is .

Yea, its been a while since I've had a decent computer, I guess.

My CPU is constantly spiking to 50% and beyond, not doing much of anything.

 

[Grief.exe]

Yea, its been a while since I've had a decent computer, I guess.

My CPU is constantly spiking to 50% and beyond, not doing much of anything.

Once you OC a Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge/Haswell there is basically more power than you can use for gaming. Its seriously almost exponentially more powerful than the Jaguar processor in the PS4/XBO.

Skylake is going to be ridiculous though. Massive Die Shrink, DDR4 standard, PCIe 4.0. Will alleviate the major bottlenecks we have been running into.

That is when I will upgrade, it also releases when I graduate from college. Coincidence?

 

[Seanspeed]

I agree, I'm not trying to downplay any issues here. Or try to fool you that there isn't a pretty sizable initial investment.

I usually complete forget to factor in monitor, mouse, keyboard, headphones, etc. I'm sure those items cut into your budget very significantly.

A 760 will be able to last you a good amount of time, maybe even the whole of next-gen. It is significantly more powerful than the PS4 in terms of raw power.

Yea, I don't expect it to, though. And that's ok. I'm fully prepared to upgrade in 2-3 years to get best use of the Oculus Rift. I'm stupid excited about it.

I could buy something better now, but its a pretty large price gulf to something significantly better. I'm sure I can this 'significantly better' for a more reasonable price if I just wait things out a bit.

Once you OC a Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge/Haswell there is basically more power than you can use for gaming. Its seriously almost exponentially more powerful than the Jaguar processor in the PS4/XBO.

Skylake is going to be ridiculous though. Massive Die Shrink, DDR4 standard, PCIe 4.0. Will alleviate the major bottlenecks we have been running into.

That is when I will upgrade, it also releases when I graduate from college. Coincidence?

Yes, but a pretty great one.

 

[SneakyStephan]

Once you OC a Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge/Haswell there is basically more power than you can use for gaming. Its seriously almost exponentially more powerful than the Jaguar processor in the PS4/XBO.

Skylake is going to be ridiculous though. Massive Die Shrink, DDR4 standard, PCIe 4.0. Will alleviate the major bottlenecks we have been running into.

That is when I will upgrade, it also releases when I graduate from college. Coincidence?

When is skylake due, sounds good (especially the die shrink, I want to be able to run my cpu fan at <500 rpm under load and still have enough performance for 100+fps in future games)
Might finally replace my trusty 4 year old phenom II 3 core when it's out.

 

[More_Badass]

Nope. You can activate it in the top right corner of the Steam screen or by pressing the home button on a synched 360 controller.

You can also set up a combination of button presses to take a screnshot with a controller.

I presse home+A, and it takes a screenshot. It's a neat feature.

But it's meant for you to play Steam games through your TV, right? At least that's the impression I got.

 

[Almighty]

Yep. PC is better than its ever been, but consoles are still the king of reliability and it-just-works systems. Thats what you get with locked down hardware in closed ecosystems.

But no worries, as PC is the king of just about everything else ;P

If we are talking about hardware I am going to have to disagree with you. I have come to the conclusion that console hardware is cheap crap. After going though 3 360s, 2 PS3s, and a Wii just this generation. Console hardware hasn't been reliable for a long time in my opinion. My PCs on the other hand have been rock solid. I might just be lucky but the only hardware failure I have had in the same time frame was my case fan going out.

Software wise yeah I will give you that. The PC can be a mine field in that area and it is one thing I imagine consoles will always beat it in. Though I also noticed over the years that the more experienced a user is with the PC the less they run into issues. Or to put it short a lot of the problems people have with the PC comes from the user doing/installing dumb stuff.


Anyway welcome to darkside OP. Might I suggest you eventually check out Shogun 2 Total War and Crusader Kings 2 if you are into strategy games. Sadly this thread is just another reminder for me that my 5 year old PC is getting long in the tooth. Hopefully I will be able to replace it next year.

 

[MonkeyDot]

The 11th: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUo1PgKksgw

 

[Grief.exe]

When is skylake due, sounds good (especially the die shrink, I want to be able to run my cpu fan at <500 rpm under load and still have enough performance for 100+fps in future games)
Might finally replace my trusty 4 year old phenom II 3 core when it's out.

So Broadwell is the refresh of Haswell and that is coming in 2014. Broadwell is technically the die shrink, going down to 14nm. Haswell/Broadwell are honestly skippable though, especially if you are already on a Ivy Bridge/Sandy Bridge platform.

Skylake is the leap forward from Broadwell/Haswell, but is still at 14nm. That is happening in 2015.

The refresh of Skylake is Skymount, which is 10nm and will probably come in 2016

If we are talking about hardware I am going to have to disagree with you. I have come to the conclusion that console hardware is cheap crap. After going though 3 360s, 2 PS3s, and a Wii just this generation. Console hardware hasn't been reliable for a long time in my opinion. My PCs on the other had have been rock solid. I might just be lucky but the only hardware failure I have had in the same time frame was my case fan going out.

Software wise yeah I will give you that. The PC can be a mine field in that area and it is one thing I imagine consoles will always beat it in. Though I also noticed over the years that the more experience a user is with the PC the less they run into issues. Or to put it short a lot of the problems people have with the PC comes from the user doing/installing dumb stuff.


Anyway welcome to darkside OP. Might I suggest you eventually check out Shogun 2 Total War and Crusader Kings 2 if you are into strategy games.

Most PC parts also have a 5+ year warranty, if not lifetime.

 

[BLunted]

Yeah, I just returned to PC gaming about 2 months ago after a 6 year hiatus, and it's fucking glorious!

Dunno what the hell I was thinking and I am never going back!

 

[DrSlek]

So Broadwell is the refresh of Haswell and that is coming in 2014. Broadwell is technically the die shrink, going down to 14nm. Haswell/Broadwell are honestly skippable though, especially if you are already on a Ivy Bridge/Sandy Bridge platform.

Skylake is the leap forward from Broadwell/Haswell, but is still at 14nm. That is happening in 2015.

The refresh of Skylake is Skymount, which is 10nm and will probably come in 2016



Most PC parts also have a 5+ year warranty, if not lifetime.

I'm currently running a Phenom II x4 955. I don't know whether I should get a skylake in 2 years or wait for skymont in 3....either way, I'll be building my next machine around the expected advances to come around that time. Namely DDR4, and GPU RAM stacking. Delicious nVidia Volta....

 

[MidgarBlowedUp]

Excellent stealth troll thread.
Congrats on owning a PC with an internet connection, I guess.

 

[Grief.exe]

I'm currently running a Phenom II x4 955. I don't know whether I should get a skylake in 2 years or wait for skymont in 3....either way, I'll be building my next machine around the expected advances to come around that time. Namely DDR4, and GPU RAM stacking. Delicious nVidia Volta....

2015 seems like the year to upgrade. Haswell and 700 series were literally designed as stopgaps and not a major leap forward.

I actually said earlier in the thread how good CPUs like 955 and E6000 are. They could easily carry you forward into Next-Gen.

 

[Sothpaw]

Been PC only since around 2004. I haven't missed anything of value as far as I'm concerned. Also, time is limited so the time spent playing a console exclusive would have just taken away from playing another amazing PC game.

PC gaming is truly superior. If PC gaming ever dies, I would probably spend more time on one of my other hobbies than go to another platform.

 

[More_Badass]

Excellent stealth troll thread.
Congrats on owning a PC with an internet connection, I guess.

What?

 

[Almighty]

2015 seems like the year to upgrade. Haswell and 700 series were literally designed as stopgaps and not a major leap forward.

I actually said earlier in the thread how good CPUs like 955 and E6000 are. They could easily carry you forward into Next-Gen.

2015 dammit just my luck. I always seem to upgrade right before the next generation of hardware hits. I might have to try and tough it out this time and upgrade a year later then I was planning. I might have to switch to playing the graphic intensive games on the Ps4. I doubt my Core 2 Duo E8500 and GTX 260 will be up to it much longer.

 

[jonscrambler]

free online!
free cloud saves!
free automatic updates!
free to play games!
free backward compatibility!

 

[Presco]

I don't really need to or really care about having max settings. Medium across the board is fine with me.

As numerous other people have mentioned, keep your current laptop and build a budget gaming rig. You will experience nothing but frustration trying to game on a laptop at the budget you're trying to work with. Seriously, you're making a mistake.

 

[Seanspeed]

As numerous other people have mentioned, keep your current laptop and build a budget gaming rig. You will experience nothing but frustration trying to game on a laptop at the budget you're trying to work with. Seriously, you're making a mistake.

He's mentioned several times he spends a lot of time on the move.

 

[Tenrius]

what

Nice.



Drugs are bad, mmmkay?

Steam's Big Picture Mode >> Any console OS UI.



Weird thing to be bothered about.

Well, I meant that "becoming a PC gamer" is not a process of any significant importance and even the existence of this process can be argued (since most people most likely already have access to a PC PC and probably played a video game on it at some point). I understand this came off weird, but really, people often seem to make a big deal out of it when it's not. Note that the OP is not necessarily an example of this, I was just commenting on the wording.

 

[RoninChaos]

I'm running a phenom x4 955oc'd at 3.6. Ghz. I have 12 gigs of ram at 1600mhz and a GTX 670. I want to say its got 4 gigs of ram on it. I got it a few months ago.

I'm still feeling the itch to upgrade but is there really any need?

 

[Kikarian]

I really should convert to PC gaming, but don't have computer capable to play the games.

 

[Grief.exe]

I'm running a phenom x4 955oc'd at 3.6. Ghz. I have 12 gigs of ram at 1600mhz and a GTX 670. I want to say its got 4 gigs of ram on it. I got it a few months ago.

I'm still feeling the itch to upgrade but is there really any need?

lol no

 

[RoninChaos]

lol no

I haven't really kept up with the pc scene since 2009. I tweaked here and there but was under the impression that the phenom chips weren't nearly as good as their I tel counter parts, especially now n

 

[DrSlek]

I haven't really kept up with the pc scene since 2009. I tweaked here and there but was under the impression that the phenom chips weren't nearly as good as their I tel counter parts, especially now n

They aren't nearly as good. But for their cost, they're excellent. AMD has always had a great power/price ratio.

 

[RoninChaos]

They aren't nearly as good. But for their cost, they're excellent. AMD has always had a great power/price ratio.

But are they enough of a bottle neck that I SHOULD upgrade or should I wait till 2014 or 2015's new stuff?

 

[DrSlek]

But are they enough of a bottle neck that I SHOULD upgrade or should I wait till 2014 or 2015's new stuff?

I had a similar question above and was told that my CPU (identical to yours) should easily carry me into the next gen.

So wait until 2015. That's when the magic happens.....also might be a good idea to start saving money now. It's gonna be an expensive year.

 

[Sober]

I'm running a phenom x4 955oc'd at 3.6. Ghz. I have 12 gigs of ram at 1600mhz and a GTX 670. I want to say its got 4 gigs of ram on it. I got it a few months ago.

I'm still feeling the itch to upgrade but is there really any need?

I believe the feeling the in PC hardware thread on GAF and some other places is, "if you're not satisfied with the performance, then upgrade".

I have a 955BE at stock speeds and DDR2 RAM and 6870. I decided to upgrade, but even this still holds up, just not ultra high settings at 1080p anymore for non UE3 games.

I actually just had all my parts collected for my next PC sitting in my room right now, might jump in and get it done tomorrow.

 

[SneakyStephan]

So Broadwell is the refresh of Haswell and that is coming in 2014. Broadwell is technically the die shrink, going down to 14nm. Haswell/Broadwell are honestly skippable though, especially if you are already on a Ivy Bridge/Sandy Bridge platform.

Skylake is the leap forward from Broadwell/Haswell, but is still at 14nm. That is happening in 2015.

The refresh of Skylake is Skymount, which is 10nm and will probably come in 2016
.

Bummer I was hoping it would be the one after haswell.

Broadwell is the shitty gen right? the one where they won't bother with high end desktop parts or overclocking support?

Maybe i'll pick up a 30 euro second hand 955BE somewhere to tie me over till 2015 if I run into too many issues with my poorly overclocking 720BE and can't get 60 fps anymore.

 

[More_Badass]

As a one time game/console collector, believe me when I tell you this: the console equivalent is to buy every console. Then that leads you down winding paths like getting a game on one platform, then buying it again on another to play with someone who only has that version. And that's before touching on buying previous generation stuff.

If we're going to discuss PC gaming in terms of potential compulsive purchases... Yeah, not only do consoles have an equivalent, they lock you out of entire first party lineups and other exclusives until you give into temptation.

So really there just isn't a fruitful conversation to be had about which style of gaming is easier to fall into a money pit with.

As for how you "don't see many who don't," insane compulsive upgrades only exist on the Internet for me. Part of why leaning towards PC gaming is so easy for me is because all my gaming friends in real life primarily play PC too. And not one upgrades a single part more than every few years. One is a gaffer, Butzopower, and he can afford to go down that path but doesn't because an extensive upgrade every five years is all he's ever needed. Dude doesn't buy shit just to buy it.

Ha, I know what you mean. I'm planning on getting two copies of GTA V. One for 360, so my brother can spend hours playing MP with his friends. And one for PS3, so I can focus on single player

Now, back on topic, so AMD is the better GPU to look for? Someone above said some positive things about AMP cards

 

[SneakyStephan]

Ha, I know what you mean. I'm planning on getting two copies of GTA V. One for 360, so my brother can spend hours playing MP with his friends. And one for PS3, so I can focus on single player

Now, back on topic, so AMD is the better GPU to look for? Someone above said some positive things about AMP cards

I wouldn't recommend amd from my experience over the past 4 years.
Shoddy drivers, no driver level downsampling support, no SGSSAA support, uneven frametimes, way too many games broken on release, and a 10+ year history of ATI (now AMD) treating their products as legacy as soon as there have been 2 product refreshes, which means NO more support or driver updates.

Unless you go for a 7850 for value (nvidia has nothing at this price) it isn't worth the inferior drivers.
And before people come in here saying 'it's been fine for me', I bet you that I've played a wider selection of games than you on my amd cards and that you dodged some bullets , and you come across as the 40 year smoker saying 'my arteries and lungs are fine'

 

[MikeDown]

Welcome to the Master Race! WE have the supreme technology, we have the supreme peripherals, we have the supreme discounts, we have the supreme pizzas!

 

[Cynar]

I'm currently running a Phenom II x4 955. I don't know whether I should get a skylake in 2 years or wait for skymont in 3....either way, I'll be building my next machine around the expected advances to come around that time. Namely DDR4, and GPU RAM stacking. Delicious nVidia Volta....

Same boat as you. Might as well wait as the consoles coming aren't much better at all which means games should have no problem until then.

 

[xJavonta]

Downloading, installling, meeting minimum requirements etc is still all the same. It hasnt gotten easier, instead gamers have become more accustomed to using pc's.

Lol lies, I seriously can't remember the last time I've looked at system requirements. It's been download and play for me for forever.

 

[MasterOfPastures]

Another soul saved from the filthy horde of peasant ways.
Welcome, fellow master. Get yourself System Shock 2.

 

[teh_pwn]

Once you OC a Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge/Haswell there is basically more power than you can use for gaming. Its seriously almost exponentially more powerful than the Jaguar processor in the PS4/XBO.

Skylake is going to be ridiculous though. Massive Die Shrink, DDR4 standard, PCIe 4.0. Will alleviate the major bottlenecks we have been running into.

That is when I will upgrade, it also releases when I graduate from college. Coincidence?

Is skylake going to be 8 cores? Bin chips so I can spend $200 more on an i9 that OCs to 5.5 GHz on a well engineered stock cooling system? Intel needs to step up. I need something to tide me over to sweet, sweet quantum/graphene computing.

 

[Grief.exe]

Another soul saved from the filthy horde of peasant ways.
Welcome, fellow master. Get yourself System Shock 2.

Yes. Get System Shock 2.

One of the best games I have played this year.

Is skylake going to be 8 cores? Bin chips so I can spend $200 more on an i9 that OCs to 5.5 GHz on a well engineered stock cooling system? Intel needs to step up. I need something to tide me over to sweet, sweet quantum/graphene computing.

What is this? I don't even know.

 

[More_Badass]

Yes. Get System Shock 2.

One of the best games I have played this year.



What is this? I don't even know.

Late to the party? Yeah, never played it either. It's one of those games I've heard about for years but never played it. But me and old school graphics/controls don't blend well.

 

[JimmyRustler]

Miss the PC when it comes to shooter controls and high resolution. Not for anything else. Too much hassle. Oh the hassle I had when I was a PC gamer.... Remember when Counterstrike ran only in a small window on the Desktop for some reason. Took me hours to fix it. NEVER AGAIN !!

 

[Daingurse]

Good for you OP, the next step is building your own PC. Then you will become infatuated with specs and the sheer flexibility of the platform. At Least that's how I got the specs bug. I'd be a black clone of Dennis if I had the paper.

 

[More_Badass]

I've wanted to play a STALKER game for years. It was the interest in that series that drove to get Fallout 3.

I learned like 10 minutes ago that there's a whole series of STALKER games. I checked on Game Debate and their analysis was that I can't run Shadow of Chernobyl but I could run Clear Sky and Call of Pripyat at low to medium

So:
1) Which is the better of those two and why?
2) Would you agree with that assessment?

Now the annoying part is that on Reddit, someone said that if I can run Clear Sky, I should be able to run Chernobyl. What do you think? I really don't want to buy a highly anticipated game and then not even be able to enjoy it

 

[Mass Effect]

Just in time for the Steam Summer Sale. A waring though (one that has probably already been given multiple times); Do try to avoid falling into the trap of amassing a huge backlog that you'll never be able to play. I have one, but it hasn't reached a level where I won't be able to catch up.

However, it is your money and you can spend it how you please, but just try to be careful!