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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Microsoft: We Think The Future Is Without Console Generations

Cerebralbore101 on 07 September 2016

Lol someone recommend a good book that will explain everything in detail. I understand that there's a CPU which does the thinking, RAM which is temporary memory, hard-drive space which is permanent memory, and a GPU which creates the graphics... somehow.



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Alby_da_Wolf on 08 September 2016
Pemalite said:

[...]

Alby_da_Wolf said:

but another thing that initially struck not just me, is that Steam statistics showed that older PCs remain active in gaming much longer than tech enthusiasts suspected (I too initially thought relatively old and slow PCs were mainly stuff for retrogamers like me, but they are far more widespread), and they are the ones that allow PC gaming to grow even with lower purchases of new PCs.

Most games can be downscaled surprisingly well and most older PC's are actually pretty potent and can run games with a few settings disabled, hardware/tech has stagnated for a long time.
Not to mention most older PC's just need a GPU upgrade and they are up and gaming again.

Alby_da_Wolf said:

The true power of gaming PCs is quite nebulous indeed, and I suspect the average is, again, lower than expected by a minority of enthusiasts that would like PC power to continuously skyrocket. Now these things aren't really surprising anymore, but initially, when Steam numbers started becoming more significant in PC gaming, they were so.  OTOH I don't think SW houses were taken by surprise, as PC/console multiplats became very common during 7th gen, when the gap between the average gaming PC and consoles was a lot wider, particularly in main RAM size, while now, compared to then, even if consoles are far behind high-end PCs, they are a lot less limiting if compared to the average PC.


Actually Steam probably under-represents the true power of PC hardware... Why? It doesn't account for Multi-GPU configurations, there are old systems from half a decade ago with Dual Radeon 5870's that are probably still outbenching newer PC's.

Or if you have Enduro/Optimus based rig Steam statistics will not count your discreet GPU but the GPU that is active, which is often the integrated part.

About GPU upgrade, yes, for less than 100 euros two years ago I bought a passive cooled R7 250 that, despite being mid/low-end back then and definitely low-end now, can run all my backlog, and most of the oldest games maxed-out too.

About representing HW power, not accounting for multi-GPU configs can make Steam under-represent the power of the high-end part of gaming PCs, but multi-GPU configs are quite a small minority, while despite being universally considered unsuitable for gaming, Intel GPUs are used by around 10% of Steam users, not to mention all the old, faster than Intel, but now low-end GPUs of the past still in use, dragging the overall average definitely lower than expected.
Anyway it's possible that in the near future, thanks to the success Polaris should enjoy thanks to its good price and value for money (although the latter is a little lower than the most optimistic predictions), under-representing it could lead Steam to under-represent overall PC power too, in a heavier way than under-representing multi-GPUs.



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Pemalite on 09 September 2016
Alby_da_Wolf said:

About GPU upgrade, yes, for less than 100 euros two years ago I bought a passive cooled R7 250 that, despite being mid/low-end back then and definitely low-end now, can run all my backlog, and most of the oldest games maxed-out too.

About representing HW power, not accounting for multi-GPU configs can make Steam under-represent the power of the high-end part of gaming PCs, but multi-GPU configs are quite a small minority, while despite being universally considered unsuitable for gaming, Intel GPUs are used by around 10% of Steam users, not to mention all the old, faster than Intel, but now low-end GPUs of the past still in use, dragging the overall average definitely lower than expected.
Anyway it's possible that in the near future, thanks to the success Polaris should enjoy thanks to its good price and value for money (although the latter is a little lower than the most optimistic predictions), under-representing it could lead Steam to under-represent overall PC power too, in a heavier way than under-representing multi-GPUs.

A large percentage of those Intel GPU's actually have a faster GPU behind them thanks to Switchable graphics/Enduro/Optimus that Steam doesn't count.

More modern Intel IGP's are actually semi-decent for low-end gaming/MOBA's though, certainly allot different from their i740/Extreme/GMA lines.



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