Poll: Gaming PCs Cost vs Performance?

[Tinneh]

Pah, I just bought a standard PC from the shop. It can run any game I throw at it, and it wasn't a waste of money like a gaming PC.
Heh, it immediately sets graphics on any game I install to the best available. And this was meant to be a normal PC, not some rip-off 'Gaming' PC...
Why pay thousands for something that only costs hundreds? >.>

Because bragging rights, probably.

I pretty much have the same type of PC.

But, given the opportunity, why not upgrade?

 

[atrain117]

top o the line dell user. xps and pavillions have similar gr4aphics options to alienwares but cheaper. So in reality, you're paying upwards of 1000 dollars just for the different, heavier case.

 

[Hiphophippo]

Well, middle of the line is the way to go, but I don't really build PCs anymore. With the life I have mobility is such a large factor in my computer buying decisions that I just go the laptop route.

Besides, mine was 900 bucks and still runs everything on high. Good enough for me.

 

[migo]

See I notice a lot of people saying "oh consoles are so much better value" tend to be teenagers living at home using either their parent's HDTV or a HDTV that was bought for them. HDTVs are SOOO EXPENSIVE and playing a console on a cheap + small monitor... well... you might as well be playing on a PC in that case.

This is true, I had a PS3 in 2008 hooked up to a cheap "HDTV" (really an XGA monitor with TV inputs), and even though it was better than an SDTV, it really wasn't tolerable. I returned it after 25 days and bought a second hand PS2 that works just fine with it, and strangely that's one of the best aspects of a Wii - it uses an SDTV so the price is actually close to the price tag, whereas a PS3 in particularly really costs 3-4x as much as it retails for.

 

[Azure Sky]

But ultimately I thing more people choose console gaming because they are Lazy Idiots. They can't look at costs of things overall and they are too lazy to bother any more than a ready made PC using ready-installed programs.

I must agree with this, too few people look at things from the broad point of view that it is.
This goes for PC gaming as well in some ways, but it is slightly more obvious.

Also, Name change. ^^

I don't get it

[Edit: Quoting fail] Just ignore that, I pulled an account name change just before I posted that. =3

Spoiler: Snip

"Top of the line" more often than not mean 4x as expensive for only 50% improved performance.

Like GTX 480 is TWICE the price of the Radeon HD 4890 ($450 vs $225) yet gives only 25% better performance with game like Crysis. So you can see how if you aren't very smart PC gaming can be a lot more expensive than is really needs to be.

But ATI is ATI, and not everyone is willing to deal with the driver problems that come with it.

Also, Name change. ^^

ATI is AMD now.

Their drivers have been superior to nvidia's, ever since they worked with M$ to make GPUs for the xbox360.
Back when I still had my old nvidia gf6800 I could compare it to ATI cards (1950pro back then) and less popular and old games would have more problems with the 6800.
Medieval TW would frequently crash. Rainbow six was always stuck in 640x480. Swapping it with the 1950pro immediately solved those issues.
When the 1950pro had a problem it was always the way it rendered shadows in some games (or didn't).
New and popular games would (and still do) run great on nvidia and ati gpus.

The non-enthusiasts are always stuck in the past, but the industry is always in motion. ATI drivers had been poor, back in days of the radeon8500 in 2001 and improved since then.
For a long time nvidia also had a big lead in OpenGL games, but OGL had been pushed out of the PC gaming scene by M$ d3d since then.

Nowadays benchmarks and pricing are the only important factors left.

I can only go by what I have seen.
Take Steam for example, a lot of the time when I look at the game forums there are people with issues with various games, most of the time it turns out to be an ATI Driver issue.

I know they are brilliant cards, and most of them are more stable and cooler then the nvidia cards. But I guess I just like knowing that there are few problems with the drivers for my card.