Poor pc performance with GTA IV and Saints Row 2. What's the deal?

[Untamed Waters]

If you don't know a lot about computers, why are you here slagging the most diverse hardware and software platform out there?

lawl u so kewl u can pick 1 prt of me pst and ignore teh rest lol!

Yes. That burned. But you get the point.

 

[Squarewave]

Though I've seen a few messages mentioning a low FPS in GTA 4, this is the first thread I've seen that actually ask why are the FPS in some console games lower on the PC?

It's a good question. I know all you console fanboys are going to tell us that your lovely consoles are just better gaming systems, but actually that's not true. Go down the specifications of any console and what you've got there is just a cheap miniature PC. An up-to-date PC will have a video card capable of pushing out way more pixels than a console will, especially a year or so after that console's release.

So I'm left thinking the answer is simply this:

The developers aren't willing to optimize their engines to handle PC hardware.

Why? Well, if you want to humor a conspiracy theory, it's because PC piracy rate is off the hook, more copies of games are being pirated than sold, and the developers don't want to invest much time or effort into that market. They put just about as much effort into the PC port as they think people are willing to pay for their games: slim to none.

The xbox 360 has a relatively powerful cpu (a tri-core ppc @3.2 Ghz) and a relatively weak gpu. As such developers will use the cpu to make up for the faults of the gpu.

Now when they port the game to the PC they sometimes take the cheap way out and do only needed code changes ending up with a game running on not only a slower clocked cpu with less cores (2-3ghz dual cores) but with code ment for ppc running on x86. While even midrange gaming PCs have much better GPUs then the 360 the game was never written to take advantage of them. People claim that they get passable frame rates with highend quad-cores but im not about to spend $200+ just for the few crappy ports that come to PCs

I got burned on Saints row 2 pc myself (30fps on foot 5-7fps in car), bought it off steam on an impulse. Reminded me why I stopped buying most games on the PC as its clear most devs have 0 quality control and no incentive to fix a product after they have your money. Chances are the game was only released on pc do to it being relatively cheap to port from 360 > pc if you don't care about quality

 

[Untamed Waters]

If you had a valid point, then I would respond to it.

Why do you keep beating around the bush and using petty insults, complaining that "my argument" is weak. Is it or is it not true that to decently upgrade your video card, you're going to have to spend at LEAST 100 dollars. Is it or is it not true that there is NO guarantee that the game will run properly?

Now, is it true or not true that I can just put the game disc in my disc tray and go with a console? To receive new parts of hardware for a PC is going to take just as long as to get a new console if it breaks.