CEO of WildTangent on Console Gaming Future

[Jitway]

Alex St. John: I've known Tim Sweeney a long time, and he makes a very important point. To be clear, PCs are fantastic gaming platforms, in spite of Intel and Microsoft. And they should absolutely be pinioned for the stupid stuff they've done to make the PC not as good a gaming platform as it would inherently be without their help screwing it up.

 

And so the shame of it is, the PC's a fantastic gaming platform, superior to anything anybody's every imagined, superior to every console, and Microsoft and Intel put crap in the PC that make it not so good. And so if you see a PC that is not denuded by things interfering with it by Microsoft and Intel, in many cases like an Intel crappy graphics chip, or a bloated Vista operating system, it's a fantastic gaming platform. And the shame is, if the low end of the PC market, the mass market PCs that everybody buys did not come with these crappy graphics chips on them and was not burdened with a fat OS, that the PC would be a larger contiguous gaming platform than all the next-generation consoles combined, probably would be clearly superior; the PC is the home of the most profitable game in history generating more revenue than the top 10 console games combined—that's World of Warcraft generating a 1.2 billion dollars a year in revenue, that's a pure PC game.

 

So it is clear that PC gaming absolutely killed [the market] in terms of revenue, killed it in terms of consumer usage—the average console gamer, according to Powers Associates, spends more time playing PC games than console games.

 

 

I found this story very interesting on both points. While I agree that to keep your pc up to par to play the latest and greatest games can get very expensive. They are just so much better graphic wise then console. Now don't get me wrong I am not going to throw away or sell my consoles and I will most likely still buy the next generation console when it comes out.

 

 

Full interview HERE

[Chibi Kami]

Every layer of interface and interpretation that data travels through reduces performance by approximately 90%. No crap.

 

Personally, I'd just set up a linux machine with WineX to run windows DirectX applications.

 

To solve the onboard Intel graphics chip problem, STOP BUYING PREBUILT COMPUTERS!!!

GigaByte motherboards come with built-in high-end nvidia geforce chips (mine's a 6100. It's no 8800, but it does kick ass) AND a PCI-E16 or AGP port for putting in your own.

Microstar motherboards will even give you 2 PCI-E16 ports on some models so you can slave the cards' cumulative graphics processing power.

RAM can be bought at 1GB 667mhz for around $100.

An Antec chassis with a sufficient power supply shouldn't cost you more than $120.

The processor is NEVER that expensive if you're willing to go with last year's model (a good idea as last year's AMDs happened to kick ass).

And you probably already have a monitor capable of at least 1024x768 resolution.

Anything else you might need shouldn't run you more than $100

 

And there you have it; A gaming computer system with all parts for around $800. Now all you need is to know how to build the thing without blowing it up.

[ken_cinder]

1GB of PC5300 for $100? Eww, I paid that for 2x1GB of PC6400 AData (Lifetime warranty and good performing RAM). That's 'spensive.

 

As for motherboards, if you're a gamer, you shouldn't EVER buy a board with onboard video. The added cost alone is such a waste from the start.

Onboard audio used to be a no-no, but within the last couple years, the hardware has become decent enough that you can do without something like an expensive card like an X-Fi. My 7.1 SoundMax onboard does a super job, and is EAX compliant......I need nothing else.

 

And Antec cases are CRAP, period. They don't even look good anymore. They're overpriced for no apparant reason. You needn't buy any "branded" overpriced case, it's just a case and no case is going to do anything special for you that paying over $100 for is going to be worth.

 

The bulk of your money should be spent on core components, in the following order of importance for performance and stability.

 

1: Power Supply - DO NOT CHEAP HERE. Theres also no reason to spend $300 on a PSU, just don't buy a $30 one either. You get what you pay for here, really. Cheap PSU that can't supply stable voltage and enough amperage for your components to digest, WILL kill your hardware.

 

2: Motherboard - Don't buy some bargain bin special. Like a PSU, this can be detrimental to performance and kill components. Cheap boards, have cheap components.

 

3: RAM - Doesn't do your system any good to have a key component in it like RAM, slowing it down or dying out of nowhere. RAM is plenty cheaper than it used to be. I remember paying over $200 for a 128MB stick of PC133 SDRAM at one point. But like with cases, all of these "specialty" RAM modules, generally use the same chips as lesser brands and you're just getting ripped off. Heat spreaders hide the chips, so the average joe that might even look, won't notice.

Find RAM with a lifetime warranty, and you're pretty much set. Stay away from "Timing comparisons" as a difference in timings by 1 or 2, is negligible.

 

Everything else, go with what fits your needs. Just make sure the 3 core components can deliver what is needed for the rest. Don't buy a 300w PSU that only has 15amps on it's 12v rail, and expect to run an SLI/Crossfire setup with higher end cards..........you're just asking for trouble here.

[BlackKnight]

This argument is invalid.