Trying to decide between xbox 360, pc, and ps3.

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stainer711

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I'm having a hard time trying to decide what to spend my money on right now. I currently have a rig with a e7200 C2D @ 3.6 and an overclocked gtx 260. I know that in order to play games maxed out at 1080p that are going to come out over the next year i'm going to need to upgrade. I'm willing to shell out for a core i7 (which i'll overclock to 4.0ghz) and gtx 285 sli machine but only if I can guarantee that it will allow me to run games at 1080p and 60fps for a year or two because I cannot afford to spend 1k+ dollars on a new rig every year. How long can I expect such a rig to last? If it's only a year or less I think I'll simply get a 360 or ps3 and a huge LCD tv. I just bought my gtx 260 last December and really hate that I have to upgrade again to keep up, but if it will be the last upgrade i'll have to make for a seriously long time I'll definitely go for it.

** I would be able to save a crap ton of money if I did Gtx 260s in SLI because I already have one. Would this be enough for 1080p @60fps for a while?
 
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since you already have a GTX 260, i'd go for another one in SLI. Having those in SLI will give you near GTX 295ish peroformance. There's another thread asking a different question but it's almost the same answer in this thread. Here's a comparison for you too.
 
I'd ask what exactly you're playing that needs morem performance right now. If you were going pc I'd at least just use your 260 for 4-5 more months and then get tons more bang for your buck, and maybe some games that it might make a difference on.
 
I haven't gotten my monitor yet, but I'm assuming that the awesome games coming out in November and earlier such as Wolfenstein and AC2 won't run very well at 1080p on my current setup. I'm assuming that in 4-5 months the I7 will still be the best processor to get for gaming, so i don't see any reason not to buy it as soon as possible. Do you think that another processor might come out in the mean time or that the hardware will be cheaper by then? Should I upgrade my processor and wait on buying any more GPUs for the moment?
 
I don't want to suggest that you fly off the chain here, and this might not even be an option, but why not play at less than maximum graphics? I realize it kindof sucks, but when you consider the price of PC gaming, its much cheaper if you just tone the graphics down a bit.

I'm probably a bit biased since I'm a college student with no income, but every time I get close to building a desktop to move past gaming on my laptop (8600m gt), I suck it up and the urge to upgrade passes for a few months. I even beat crysis on this thing and enjoyed it!
 
My main goal right now is to build an awesome gaming rig capable of some great stuff. I'm not really into the idea of toning down the graphics/resolution.
 
stainer711 said:
I know that in order to play games maxed out at 1080p that are going to come out over the next year i'm going to need to upgrade.
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I really have my doubts about this. There are no PC only games I am aware of scheduled for the next year which are going to push the limits of hardware. Virtually everything is being developed as multiplatform or console ports as developers shy away from taking risks on PC developed games which push graphical boundaries. I base this extrapolation on the fact that I am yet to come across any games which really push my rig all that much at 1920x1440 with AA and AF, especially the multiplatform games.

Of course, your mileage will differ if you are going down the road of insane wide screen resolutions, but at the rate I am going I doubt I will need to upgrade my machine until DX11 games become the norm.
 
Bad gaming on xbox 360 or good gaming on a more expensive pc..
Thats what you have to ask yourself, and i KNOW all the xbox fanboys will come to me and flame, but this is the truth, graphics in games such as cod4 have no where NEAR the texture quality as it does on pc.. but if you want to play with your "school mates" i guess get a console..
 
It all depends on what you prefer, if you're into PC gaming more than consoles, then PC seems the right choice for you.

If you're into console gaming too, it'll come down to which games you prefer, I consider the PS3 & Xbox 360 equally good, both have excellent games.

Xbox 360:
Left 4 Dead
Gears of War series
Mass Effect
Alan Wake (not released yet)
Splinter Cell Conviction (not released yet)
Forza Motorspot Series
...etc


PS3:
Metal Gear Solid 4
Uncharted series
Valkyria Chronicles
God of War 3 (not released yet)
Gran Turismo 5 (not released yet)
Final Fantasy 14 (MMORPG, not released yet)
...etc
 
I just read an article that talked about the very, very small perceivable differences between 1080p and 720p. If it is not that easy to tell the difference between 720p and 1080p I don't see any reason to opt for a pc that can display 1080p when I won't be able to tell any difference from the xbox that displays 720p, especially since my pc monitor will only be 27 inches.
 
Dont buy a new card because you think games coming out in the next year wont play well... wait for the games to come out THEN buy the card. Video cards are constantly dropping in price and new models coming out, there's no sense in trying to prepare for games that may or may need a new card, when by the time they come out new hardware will be available for less money anyway.

Which console to buy depends on what games you want to play. Want to play Gears 2, Halo 3, Forza Motorsport, etc, get an xbox 360 (I dont know all the 360 exclusives, sorry :p). Alternatively, Killzone, MGS4, Resistance, Gran Turismo, etc, get a PS3. If you want a Bluray player you could also think about the PS3. There are a few other considerations too, for example, I much prefer the xbox 360 controller, yet the PS3 has better wheel support (can't use my G25 on the 360). From what I've read, xbox 360 works better on PC monitors because it supports more resolutions and has in built scaling, while the PS3 relies on your monitor to scale it (and many monitors have crap scalers, even the good ones usually aren't brilliant).

To be honest, there aren't too many "awesome" games which are console only. Most FPS games are better on PC, so its hard to justify buying a console for Halo or Killzone when PC offers so many great FPS titles.

So look through the games available on each console which AREN'T available on PC, and decide based off that (just google it, there's plenty of sites that list all the exclusives). If there's nothing in the list you want to play, just hold on to your money until a game comes out you want to play or until your PC needs an upgrade to play a certain game.
 
I'd try and get more mileage out of that 260. I'd spend the money on a console and open a new platform of games you can't play now on PC.

I have a 1080P screen and just run it in 720p for the PC games my rig can't cope with. If Wolfenstein is a beast, I will happily upgrade.
 
What do you guys think about that 1080p vs 720p argument? Does it apply to pcs too? Is it stupid for me to want to play games in 1080p on a 27 inch monitor when supposedly you can't tell the difference between 720p and 1080p unless the screen is larger than 40 inches?
 
stainer711 said:
What do you guys think about that 1080p vs 720p argument? Does it apply to pcs too? Is it stupid for me to want to play games in 1080p on a 27 inch monitor when supposedly you can't tell the difference between 720p and 1080p unless the screen is larger than 40 inches?
Click to expand...

I think that argument is based on movies and hd tv shown on your set when you are sitting at normal tv viewing distances. When you sit very close to the monitor like with pcs, you are more sensitive to the resolution than when you are 8 feet away, and I bet you could notice a difference.
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stainer711 said:
I'm having a hard time trying to decide what to spend my money on right now. I currently have a rig with a e7200 C2D @ 3.6 and an overclocked gtx 260. I know that in order to play games maxed out at 1080p that are going to come out over the next year i'm going to need to upgrade. I'm willing to shell out for a core i7 (which i'll overclock to 4.0ghz) and gtx 285 sli machine but only if I can guarantee that it will allow me to run games at 1080p and 60fps for a year or two because I cannot afford to spend 1k+ dollars on a new rig every year. How long can I expect such a rig to last? If it's only a year or less I think I'll simply get a 360 or ps3 and a huge LCD tv. I just bought my gtx 260 last December and really hate that I have to upgrade again to keep up, but if it will be the last upgrade i'll have to make for a seriously long time I'll definitely go for it.

** I would be able to save a crap ton of money if I did Gtx 260s in SLI because I already have one. Would this be enough for 1080p @60fps for a while?
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Go with a console and a huge LCD TV. Fact is if playing games at less than the maximum settings and tweaking games and hardware setups drives you crazy, you are screwed. You will never win the hardware war, it simply does not matter what you buy now, new PC hardware will come out soon, new games will take advantage of it (@ max settings), and you will be screwed again. There are already games out there right now that will stress a GTX260 SLI setup running 1080P, so you are not even getting ahead of the game if you go SLI now given your comments.

Also the future of PC gaming is not looking very good for exclusive titles. There are a lot of multi platform games coming out, however PC gaming exclusives are getting limited to RTS and MMO games.

If you get a console setup, everything you buy from now until the console dies will run properly with no tweaking or regular upgrading required by you. Newer PS3 and 360 games keep looking better all the time as well thanks to further refinements and optimization. Both the 360 and PS3 are doing very well right now and have a lot of great exclusives lined up that you will not be able to play on PC.
 
stainer711 said:
What do you guys think about that 1080p vs 720p argument? Does it apply to pcs too? Is it stupid for me to want to play games in 1080p on a 27 inch monitor when supposedly you can't tell the difference between 720p and 1080p unless the screen is larger than 40 inches?
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It all depends how close you sit to your monitor and what sort of content you're viewing. I can't say specifically for 1080p compared to 720p, but for my 1680x1050 20" monitor, I can say, for viewing text, 720p looks blurry unless I sit at least 6 feet away. In games, it depends on the game. Some games look quite blurry at 720p scaled, others I can barely tell the difference (Crysis Warhead is one I can barely tell the difference, I think this is because it has a lot of filters so naturally looks blurry anyway).

You really have to try it on a game by game basis. Some games work better at high res but lowering other settings, other games work better if you max out all the settings but play them at a lower res.
 
I think this notion of 1080p at 60FPS is over rated.. My rig is a Q9550 @ 3.6Ghz and a 260 XFX black edition GPU, and I play all my games at 1920x1200 (more than 1080p) and the FPS varies, but has never been an issue in COD 4/5/Fear2/DOW2/Crysis on my 24" screen. In some cases its over 100, in others it dips down to the 40's etc.. gameplay is always smooth.

In fact my PC rig will blow any console out of the water when it comes to graphics and gameplay for all the above games (due to keyboard/mouse).

I do have a set of consoles as well though hooked up to a 40" 1080p LCD, but if I had to make the choice you have then I personally would keep your PC as is and only upgrade it when it starts to feel slow, and buy a console as well to go with it (whether its PS3 or 360 or Wii)

And yes... there is a difference in the graphics on my console (eg. PS3 version of COD4 or the BRAID game on the 360) and my PC when playing the game. You will notice far more 'fidelity' and precision in the PC versions - especially in the multiplayer aspects of COD4... the consoles have noticeably lesser graphics when playing online (less animations / wind blowing objects around etc).

But I love the freedom of choice of being able to play any game on any platform, rather than being locked in.
 
stainer711 said:
The following chart illustrates that 1080p will not only be noticeable but fully appreciated at pc gaming range:

http://s3.carltonbale.com/resolution_chart.html
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That's a lie :p

Seriously, if 1080p couldn't be "appreciated" on PC monitors, it'd imply we can't read text on our monitors without increasing the DPI settings, because we wouldn't be able to resolve the pixels that make up the letters. Clearly that's not true.

If you look closely at the chart and realise most people sit about 3 feet from their monitor, which is right in the 1080p "band" for screens of approximately 22 to 24". Infact, if you look closely at the chart, if you were sitting 2 and a half feet from your monitor (which I'm sure many people do), even on a 22 to 23" screen you should be able to resolve even up to 1440p.

What that chart is saying is if you have a 24ish inch monitor, you WONT notice the difference between 720p and 1080p if you sit more than 5' away. From my personal experience, I'd go one step further and say at least 7' away assuming you are looking at text, because its not simple enough to say what resolution the eye can resolve, but other factors come into it such as the quality of the scaling and how sharp the original image was.

Some games and movies (as I mentioned earlier) you wont notice even sitting 3 feet away, such as Warhead. Other games which naturally have more sharp textures and finer details, its more like 6 to 7 feet. It really does depend on the content.
 
Just get both, LOL. I got a PS3 and an Xbox 360 Recently. Also I have a decent Corei7 rig with 2 GTX260's Sli'd.
Games look awsome from the PC on my 25.5" samsung monitor but the Xbox and Ps3 look way better on the 42" LCD TV, on the PC LCD the are kinda blurry even though they are running at 1080p.
 
Your GTX 260 is ten times better than any console. Even if you can't play next years games at max settings, it will still look ten times better than a console.

Why would you even consider such a huge downgrade to shitty console graphics? That doesn't make any sense to me.
 
Here's a nice little flowchart I came across once...

video_game_flowchart.jpg

:p
 
What you're saying doesn't make sense, ghost. The games should look way more blurry on your tv than your pc monitor.
 
stainer711 said:
What do you guys think about that 1080p vs 720p argument? Does it apply to pcs too? Is it stupid for me to want to play games in 1080p on a 27 inch monitor when supposedly you can't tell the difference between 720p and 1080p unless the screen is larger than 40 inches?
Click to expand...

It doesn't matter as image quality in TV lcd plasma whatever is always worst than in PC monitor also changing resolution in pc games is not scaling like in console games, other parameters also change
 
Owning both, PC and xbox, if you must play every game at max settings you have no other option but a PC. The reason being is moving towards a console will be a step down in graphics and if your unwilling to sacrifice this on a pc, you sure won't be happy with any console.
Having said that I play more on the xbox than I do on the PC, simply due to my friend base is more on that solution and I enjoy playing with them more than I care about the level of detail.
 
Stereophile said:
Graphically, there are no PC racing games that come close to GT5.
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Aside from pixel peeping, I think they are a lot of great looking console games. Take stuff like Rachet and Clank, MGS4, Motorstorm: PR... all look exceptional and are extremely polished experiences. For the most part, I prefer the overall look and feel of a unqiue console game more than I sit there and stare at fences in PC games while adjusting AA modes to see which is pixelated more. I think half the people here either sit 3 feet from their TVs or are too busy staring at walls instead of playing the games.
 
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stainer711 said:
I know that in order to play games maxed out at 1080p that are going to come out over the next year i'm going to need to upgrade. I'm willing to shell out for a core i7 (which i'll overclock to 4.0ghz) and gtx 285 sli machine but only if I can guarantee that it will allow me to run games at 1080p and 60fps for a year or two because I cannot afford to spend 1k+ dollars on a new rig every year. How long can I expect such a rig to last? If it's only a year or less I think I'll simply get a 360 or ps3 and a huge LCD tv. I just bought my gtx 260 last December and really hate that I have to upgrade again to keep up, but if it will be the last upgrade i'll have to make for a seriously long time I'll definitely go for it.

** I would be able to save a crap ton of money if I did Gtx 260s in SLI because I already have one. Would this be enough for 1080p @60fps for a while?
Click to expand...

The problem is that no one here can predict the future. No one can gaurantee what you will be able to run at max settings a year down the road. As many have stated before you can make that killer rig now and theres a good chance you will be set for a while, but no one can gaurantee that. One other thing you need to consider is whether you will consider the console viable for the next couple years. Cost wise a console and a massive LCD isn't anymore cost effective.

Honestly I would stick with what you have, or SLI another 260.

Stereophile said:
Graphically, there are no PC racing games that come close to GT5.
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Assuming that they even know how to do damage models correctly. I think GRID gives it a good run.
 
I have been so busy in recent years that I have actually come to prefer casual gaming. A la' Xbox 360. The only time I can ever game is a little while on the weekends, and by then ,I just want to chill. I no longer want to sit in front of a computer screen, that's what I do all damn week.
 
Yeah, I'd say the OP's current pc should be good for almost another year. the GTX260 will play everything that's out now at near max settings, and I don't see anything coming out this year to challenge that: not Crysis 2 (toned down engine), not Wolfenstein (still Doom3 engine), or anything else I'm aware of. As far as I know, the next thing that will prompt a hardware upgrade (at least for me) will be Rage and Doom4 using id-tech-5; but it would be a really bad idea to try and predict what hardware will be required to run this smoothly. I've tried this before and gotten burned on both price and performance fronts. OP should absolutely wait 'till the big games come out, see how they run on current rig, read benchmarks, and upgrade or build accordingly.

In the meantime, if you just gotta get rid of some cash, I'd personally advise go w/ PS3 (for blu-ray and a few fun multiplayer games) or Wii (for obvious reasons). Just about anything that's good on 360 is better on pc, so why bother with that one.
 
You are just fine. Outside of Crysis I don't see why your 260 should be a problem. I am still using a 8800 GT in my I7 920 and won't upgrade my video card until I am not able to play at 1920 x1200 maxed out without AA.

If you do decide to upgrade I would keep ityour CPU/MOBO and wait on the video card until it becomes necessary.

Given how badly Crysis flopped, I think the earlier posters point about game companys not being willing to roll the dice on pushing the graphics boundaries too hard is dead on right. Particularly during an economic downturn it is more likely you will see small improvements with a focus on optimizing so they can seel to a wider market.

If you do add a console, my vote is the 360. You can pickup a harddrive cheap on E-bay to keep the cost down.
 
Luthorcrow said:
Given how badly Crysis flopped, I think the earlier posters point about game companys not being willing to roll the dice on pushing the graphics boundaries too hard is dead on right. Particularly during an economic downturn it is more likely you will see small improvements with a focus on optimizing so they can seel to a wider market.

If you do add a console, my vote is the 360. You can pickup a harddrive cheap on E-bay to keep the cost down.
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What makes you think Crysis flopped? The first game sold over a million copies.
 
I find that the PS3 complements a PC better than the 360.

The PC winds up getting a lot of 360 titles anyways, and with your rig they're always going to be better played on your PC.

BTW, a GTX260 should be good for another year or so... hold off on an upgrade until DX11 games become the norm.
 
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