fatslob-:O said:
The GeForce 8800 Ultra wasn't the only thing available that year. There was also the GeForce 8800 GTS which could also crumple the Xbox 360 at a price of $250. When you put things in perspective the neither of the last gen consoles were all that impressive ... The video card isn't the only thing you need. I'm pretty sure you needed an Intel core i5 to drive that GPU to it's highest performance which will also run you about $250. That doesn't even include other components which would raise the initial investment price even more ... Microsoft and Sony can add as much hardware as they want to their consoles but those craving for more power will never be satisfied because the next thing they do is ask for more power instead of appreciating the gains. The only sensible thing left to do was to settle for $400 ... |
The 320MB 8800GTS launched at $300. With inflation that's roughly equivalent to the cost of a GTX 970 now but was really not that much more capable than a 360 when paired with a decent CPU (could run games like GTA IV at proper 720/30fps). Whereas a 970 could take a game that runs at 1080p/30fps on PS4 and run it at 4k/30fps (shadow of mordor for example). The gap is far wider now than it was then, plus I don't see a lot of optimisation happening and Hardline is proof of that. I really think the new consoles X86 architecture ensured that they were pretty much maxed out right from the start. I'm not a dev, but I'm just going on what I've seen.
I was personally satisfied with the 360. So much so that it kept me off the PC for the most part. And I agree, $400 is the right price. I would have preferred they just took a bit of a hit and gave them a much better CPU and a slightly better GPU (7970 equiv. instead of 7850/70). Then maybe I would be satisfied with my Xbox One instead of thinking of selling it for a new GPU.
