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Forums - PC Discussion - Are the "PC Master Race" days over?

Conina on 05 January 2020
patronmacabre said:

 

patronmacabre said:

I feel like anyone who grew up as a PC gamer understands the appeal of a console. It's just nice always being sure that a game on a console will run reasonably well. Consoles are also appealing because the machines and the operating systems themselves don't degrade after about five years. I love being able to go back to my PS2 and having it work almost perfectly, whereas if I were to go back to my PC from 2000, that machine would likely melt trying to even start up.

You are feeling very much, aren't you? I hope you feel well.

You don't have to go back to your PC from 2000 to play PC-games from the year 2000... most of them will also run on newer PCs. And in most cases they will even run much better now due to scalability of PC games, they run in resolutions and settings which would have been insane in the past.

 

You missed the crux of my argument. I wasn't talking about backwards compatibility, I was complaining about the annoyance of software rot. Computers age after five years (three to four years for laptops) and don't run as fast as they once did. Anyone who has never experienced this has never used the same computer for that long a span of time. The only way to really fix it is to straight up reformat your hard drive and reinstall Windows. 

The reason for computer rot is that there is planned obsolescence in the software and hardware of PCs that is non-existant in consoles because of the nature of generational changes. A console doesn't need to degrade, because games will eventually just stop coming out for that system. 

It is also seemingly apparent that hardware manufacturers, Nvidia in particular, are speeding up the rates of hardware obsolescence with their graphics cards, as there are reports that the Geforce 700 series do not play games as well as they properly should.

I don't mean to get into an argument, but it seems more and more apparent that that so many new PC gamers have no idea what they're getting into. A GTX 980 isn't going to futureproof your computer against the next generation even if it should, because PCs have built-in planned obselence. 

Okay, i waited almost another five years. The software rot didn't happen.

My last clean install of Windows was in October 2013 (so even before launch of the PS4 and XBO), when I bought my still current CPU (i5 4670K for less than €200), mainboard and RAM. I upgraded to Windows 10 in 2015, but that wasn't a clean install, all settings and installations were brought over to the newer OS.

Since then I installed thousands of PC games and it didn't matter either. The system didn't get slower, benchmarks still give the expected results.

The hardware obsolence also didn't happen. The GTX 980 ist still well above the minimum specs of any existing PC game. Slower performance due to newer graphic drivers has also been disproven over and over again from various tech sites comparing results of different drivers.

https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/6u4cpw/is_nvidia_ruining_your_performance_linus_tech_tips/

Driver optimization efforts are of course focused to the newest GPU generation, but old hardware doesn't get slower with new drivers. It stays the same or even gets a bit better.



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Libi on 05 January 2020

PC master race???? WTF is that?



haxxiy on 05 January 2020

You didn't need to wait five years Conina. A console-priced GTS 8800 640 or similar from 2006, for instance, handily outperformed the PS3 and the X360 in every multiplat from their launch to their discontinuation with the added bonus of still being able to play e-sports at half decent framerates nowadays.



 

 

 

 

 

VideoGameAccountant on 05 January 2020

I feel like the people who get upset about "PC Master Race" are people who play on consoles and don't like when people point out PCs do everything consoles do and more. With consoles becoming more like PCs, the question is "Why not get the real thing."

PC Gaming has only grown over time. With the remnants of the great recession and the fact games are getting more expensive, companies are ensuring that they get their games on PC as well as consoles. There are fewer and fewer games that can be played only on one console. Microsoft is even moving towards PC more. I know you can get a lot of XBox games through Games for Windows and XCloud is coming to PC too. So unless you really like the "Sony Game" the only console with any meaningful exclusives is Nintendo. There's no reason you can't do all your gaming on PC. And hey, since you have to buy a PC for other things anyway, why not just spend the money and make it a gaming PC while your at it.

Right now, the only advantages consoles have over PC is 1)Convince and 2)The manufacturer can subsidize the cost. Even then, you're at the mercy of third parties to make games for that platform and for the manufacturer to make one that's powerful. So, in the end, PC is a very attractive option and may even be the best option. PC Master Race is not dead. If anything, you'll see more of it in 2020 and it will intensify if the showing of the new consoles are less than stellar.



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HoloDust on 05 January 2020



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Random_Matt on 05 January 2020

Damn, necro thread.
My rig destroys next gen already.



Conina on 05 January 2020

The funny thing is that the site that claimed the death of PC gaming in the OP is dead since 2016. ;)



KLAMarine on 05 January 2020

As long as modding is a thing, days are not over.



Random_Matt on 05 January 2020
John2290 said:
Random_Matt said:
Damn, necro thread.
My rig destroys next gen already.

Pity there aren't a swath of games to take full advantage of it. 

Plenty thanks.



OdinHades on 05 January 2020

PCs are better than consoles in every way imaginable, but also way more expensive.

That's really all it comes down to. Don't know if that has anything to do with "master race" or something, that you'll have to decide for yourself.



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