Equivalent PC ...

[Sword]

Hi,

Aside from all the pros and cons of each, what PC would roughly equate to the power of an xbox 360 in terms of playing, say, NFS Carbon?

Mine is a P4 3.2, 2gig ram, SCSI HDs, Gainward 7800GS+ with 512meg

How would that compare?

ta,
Sword

 

[FrancescoNoir]

360 will pump out better graphics than that. I reckon in terms of what you actually see on the screen, 360 is somewhere between an nVidia 7900GTX (DX9) and an 8800 (DX10).

Although the 360 is likely to be running at a lower resolution, it has a custom GPU that I think has more extensions and can do fancier effects than a vanilla DX9 card, although maybe not up to full DX10 capability.

Certainly, all of my high-end PC owning friends have been massively impressed (made jealous?) by GoW in particular and I think any pre-8800 GPU would have trouble running that game at a stable framerate.

 

[wormvortex]

I recon GOW looks pratically identical to FEAR on the pc. Also the 360 can't even handle max people on Battle for middle earth 2 with out lagging badly where as my pc can manage it easily

 

[ShadowmanUK]

Battle for middle earth 2 with out lagging badly where as my pc can manage it easily

Thats just poor coding. BFME doesnt exactly stretch the Xbox

 

[m1ket]

Whatever the pc is is will cost a lot more than £199, thats all that matters to me..

Obviously pcs will always run games better as they cost anywhere from 3 to 6 times more.. I was all set to upgrade my pc getting a core 2 duo cpu, new graphics card etc but ive recently come to the conclusion that there arn't enough pc games to justify me upgrading at present, maybe next year at some point

 

[ukkev2000]

Hmm entitled to you opinion; for me, the textures on GOW appear to be far and away beyond the simple flat geometry feel of FEAR - the feel of a dirty, dusty, war raveged wold pulled off far more successfully than any other game.

I'm looking forward to the next year or so to see how quickly the PC pulls ahead in visual quality at 720p - "not much" is my guess.

The lagging? We'll have to see how many other games suffer from it - wasn't COD2 patched to solve a lagging problem at the start? Proves that games can solve the lagging issue - it's probably bugs in the game rather than a platform issue.

To the OP's point, I'd say that games will run and look better on the 360, assuming you don't want to play things like WOW, as they will never see light of day on the 360, dammit

 

[zz101]

I have 7800GTX Sli in my PC and have found that all multi platform titles are better on the PC - generally higher res textures, AA and better frame rate - look specifically at games like COD2, FEAR, Condemned, NFS:MW, Prey etc. I'm also running at nearly twice the resolution, 1680 x 1050, so the technical specs of the 360 are largely irrellevant at the moment as the 360 is not hitting them.

The only exceptions tend to be Ubisoft - GRAW, R6 and SC - where they are obviously developing titles for the 360 and doing completely amateurish ports to the PC for whatever reason. These are not optimised and need countless patches - foertunately the games tend to be crap these days anyway so no great loss.

The only 360 game that has "impressive" gfx is GOW but you have to remember that is a fairly basic game - run to an area, shoot, run to the next area etc.

What will be interesting is when we start to see DX10 stuff on the PC and how the 360 copes in comparison.

 

[FrancescoNoir]

Indeed. The trailer that has impressed me most graphically has been the most recent Bioshock video. The texturing and lighting is simply superb (look out for the bit near the end where the Protector touches the little girl's hand). Whether this was truly running on the 360 platform remains to be seen.

Bioshock is a Vista/DX10 PC release & pretty much a simultaneous release on the 360 too. I think it could be an interesting bellwether to indicate whether 360 can at all maintain pace with the PC underneath the DX10 onslaught in 2007.

 

[antilles]

I simply got fed up buying a £300 gfx card every eight months.....i used to be an avid pc gamer.....nowadays it's got to be big couch + 360 on a 50inch HD telly with 7.1 THX sound @ 150 watts a channel.....

It's just a much more gratifying experience than sitting in the corner of a bedroom with a 17 inch monitor and really noisy Thermaltake cpu fan.....

What you hear now is that pc owners say, "yeah, but, i can connect my pc up to my 50 inch tv...." none of them ever do though.....

Rich

 

[Jack-Deth]

Your not really comparing like with like tho. 360 is a fixed system, no real opportunities to update/upgrate the hardware. But for the price of a graphics card you get a complete system. You don't get compatability issues with the 360 you don't have to tweek the graphics, no installing (of any real nature), just pick up and play. Oh and its cheaper too!

 

[zz101]

7.1 THX sound

Only PC's offer true 7.1 sound.

Also i find sitting a foot or two away from a higher than 360 high def 20" screen much more immersive - but there you go...

I want the best possible quality and I'm willing to pay - the 360 is good budget choice though.

 

[lordal]

It's the price of the games on the X-box that is making me hold off, games on the PC tend to come out between £18-£25 for a new release compared to £35-£40+ for the console equivalent. That soon adds up for a decent collection of games...

 

[jms_uk]

The PC games may be cheaper, but the overall outlay in speccing up a decent PC system probably negates those "savings" by a fair margin in the long run don't you think..?? (And we're not even talking the 6-8month product refresh that nVIDIA and ATI would rather have you stick to, in order to "stay current")

I'm an avid PC game AND a newly converted X360 fan... trying to compare like for like really isn't worth it. Sure, a top specced SLI, dual core machine will render the same games as a 360 at a higher resolution etc.etc. but on a 20" screen is it *really* worth running a game at greater than 1080p resolutions?

IF those PC gamers genuinely benefit from those higher resolutions on (typically) smaller screens then fair play...

We all know that each system has its pros and cons, we all know that you don't get something for nothing (i.e. a £200 console vs a £999 PC - something will give eventually) but for now, just enjoy having the choice..

 

[wormvortex]

To be fair to the pc though you really don't need to upgrade your Graphics card anywhere near as often as Nvida/ATI would like you 2. My 7800gt runs every game i've tried on max settings with no slowdown at all. Only if your monitor has stupidly high resoultions do you need to get a new graphics cards for some game. (excluding the whole DX10 thing). Sli's a complete rip off as well. One of the reasons i went from pc to 360 was that i knew the £279 would be all i have to spend to make the games work as good as they can and the fact i don't install a game load it up and get then find i'm greeted with the B.S.O.D

 

[Kutocer]

I've always been a PC gamer and will be but i haev to agree on the price of the upgrades (and ya can see by my spec below) is too much, with the 8800 out which the GTX outperforms a Xfire 1950XTX machine in some tests i am tempted to but some new gear.

I have had my 360 now for a few months and i am more than impressed with what i have with my 42" panny but with the likes of Crysis coming ut which i hear will be on the 360 but i reckon because of DX10 it will look no way near as nice as the PC version i will always go back to PC gaming.

I love all aspects of gaming and i am going to purchase the Wii and the PS3 when i can as they all have games that won't come out on other machines. I hate all this fanboy stuff, slaging other machines off to high heaven i say they are narrow minded and are missing out on alot of great gaming out there.

 

[antilles]

Only PC's offer true 7.1 sound.

So? I don't see many PC's with the kind of raw living room power that my home cinema has.....PC surround systems tend to have weedy little match box speakers.....and how are you supposed to accurately place 8 speakers when you're sitting 14 inches from a small monitor?