Upgrade my PC Video Card or Pick Up a PS4?

[Pemalite]

Shido said:

I think back in 2005-6 things were different. PS360 were powerhouses, GPU and CPU wise, top of the line GPUs were at best within the same performance, and CPUs(specially 360s) were at head of its time. Add the 8+ years lifespam when past consoles where usually 5 to years and that's the reason why a 7800 GT cant play Crysis 3 on medium to high on 720p(I'm pretty sure it will run it at low no problem)

 

Well. Consoles aren't running Crysis 3 on high either.
The reason why a PC with a 7800GT can't pull it off is simple.
The PC version of Crysis 3 isnt gimped like the console versions, you have better textures, lighting, shadowing, higher poly models, you name it, that stuff ain't free on performance, even on the lowest settings Crysis 3 is doing more effects onscreen compared to the consoles.
Crysis 3 on max graphics on PC though could easily compete with next generation console games, easily.

If you take Crysis 1 as an example, you could play that on high with a 7800GT (Using the Direct X 9 trick for better lighting), with better foliage, lighting and other effects over the console version at a resolution higher than 720P.
Pretty much all the Call of Duty's will run fine on a PC that's equivalently equipped to a console at around the same graphics settings too.

Fact of the matter is, PC gamers growl at Developers when a multi-platform isn't graphically superior, thus pretty much every multiplatform on PC looks significantly better, that means you need better hardware.
Look at the praise Crysis and Battlefield 3 got on their launches for pushing PC hardware, Battlefield 3 might as well be half the game on console, again that kind of thing isn't free on performance.

Mantle might shake things up a bit more though, should be interesting to watch as PC games will have far less overhead.

I do concur that when the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 launched, they could give a high-end PC a good run for it's money, but you also need to keep in mind that *just* before the consoles launched the PC was already an entire GPU generation ahead as the Geforce 8000 series launched.

Today, if you are happy to game at 720P@30fps, you could get away with playing most games on a 6+ year old Core 2 Quad and a $30 Radeon 6570, granted not max graphics but console equivalent.