Should we welcome Xbox 360 to computer gaming?

[Scoobes]

nightsurge said:

Gnizmo said:

nightsurge said:

I likely know far more about what I am talking about on this subject than nearly anyone else here.

Also, the HD 3850 is just barely below the 9600GT.  Sure it can output 1080p video.  Almost any discrete graphics card can do that.  But there is no way your HD 3850 can play games at 1920x1080 resolution on high settings.  That is what I am talking about here.

If for one second you could understand what I am talking about, maybe you could present a valid argument.

Also, I would love to see someone provide me some proof/info on an LCD TV upscaling a PC image (say the PC image is 1280x720 or so).  Most LCD TV's don't even do upscaling themselves, and when they do it is usually crap.  It is best to let the actual device do the upscaling (the media player or console in this case).

 Again I have to say I don't know where you are getting your information, but it is wrong. I just finished playing some Fallout 3 on ultra high with the resolution slightly below 1080p (1680X1050 which is the highest my monitor supports). I have no doubt if I were to hook it up to a monitor capable of outputting that high that it would keep chugging right along as there are no hints of a slow down currently. This is all while also outputting to a nearby TV so I can watch my favorite downloded shows and play games at the same time. I am nto trying to attack you here so there really isn't any need for being defensive. PCs have long been able to outperform the PS360 while costing around the same.

I looked up what you said, and it does appear that the HD 3850 just barely pulls off with playable fram rates provided no AA or AF is enabled.  29 FPS average and 20 minimum.

Still can't match the performance on 1080p, though

And I am still waiting on someone to find me a retail PC for $500 that has a good enough setup for gaming equal to 360/PS3 levels.

You do realise that even if the graphics on PS/360 is output to 1080P, that the actual graphics settings would not be as good as the PC's 'High' in most games. I believe someone already mentioned earlier that the lowest graphics settings on GTAIV PC were the equivalent of the graphics output on the consoles. Even at lower resolutions on PC the game can still look better then a console version playing at 1080P as PC users can tinker up the effects etc. until we get the optimal settings.

That's the true advantage of consoles, it's already optimised for the console hardware. PC gamers need to tinker until we can get an optimal performance, but the performance nearly always exceeds the console equivalent, even at $600. I bought/built my PC (including monitor) for just over £600 about the time the 360 came out (£350). It manages to beat or at very least equal the consoles on graphics, and usually if it's equal to the console version then it's ported from the console version with no extra optimisation (e.g. Bioshock).

If you count that new games are usually £10 cheaper, no Live costs and cheaper peripherals (larger HDD etc.) then 360 is still cheaper, but not by much. By the end of the gen, if you were to add up the costs, they'd probably be about equal.