Will console graphics ever beat PC graphics?

[Continuity]

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It would take a paradigm shift, the current paradigm of discrete graphics and moore's law progression in computing power plus the periodic nature of console generations can only mean that PC's will continue to be on top.
However there are paradigm shifts in the pipe, e.g. APU's like AMD's fusion chip, and consoles starting to embrace the upgrade mentality could ultimately result in there being practically no deference between consoles and PC's except form factor and proprietary packaging. Also you have to wonder if graphics will plateau at some point... I mean, once you've reached photo-realitic graphics at some insane resolution where do you go to upgrade from there?

 

[GordoFreemann]

Consoles are PC, except PCs you can't upgrade.

So no.

Pretty much this, consoles are a sort of computer, just designed to play games. Their graphics are locked at a certain rate in order to make for smooth gameplay despite what may be happening. Although you can make some games suffer from graphical lag, most notably Unreal Tournament III on the console, as it actually supports mods for the console! CRAZY!

 

[nofear220]

Maybe, if PC developer's stopped assuming everyone owned a super computer.

Given the vast majority of PC developers DON'T assume this, I don't think we have anything to worry about.

OT: Console games will never beat PC in visuals, due specifically to hardware limitations. You can't upgrade a console, ever, and the parts inside are generally out-dated within a month.

Your right, but the parts inside are outdated before the console even comes out.

 

[Buizel91]

Unless Microsoft or Sony create a brand new Graphics Card for their consoles that out matches any other for the PC, then no.

However, with Limitations, the Graphics on the Consoles can become more polished and fine tuned...

And i suppose even if Microsoft or Sony did Create a better graphics card, it would be out matched in a few months.

 

[William Dickbringer]

No, consoles will never overtake gaming PCs on graphics. The PC graphics necessarily have to be better, because games are programmed on PCs, as you mention in your post.

this and there are advances in tech for pc that pushes graphics farther so it means you can upgrade the only way consoles can advance in graphics is if they get a hold of tech that's strong enough to last a few years but we know that's impossible because there's a new graphics card more so than a new game console by the time they release the console there would already be a more advance graphics card

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

Generally speaking, when a new wave of consoles is released the console will be far more powerful than a PC with an equivalent price. This is because in general consoles are sold at a deficit which the manufacturer recoups by establishing a large base of consumers for the sale of games. I expect the next generation of consoles will be able to run Crysis on ultra-high settings in split-screen at 60 frames-per-second no problem (since you use Crysis as an example OP).

However, as you know you can get a more expensive PC with better hardware. It's just that equally priced hardware will be inferior to the console's hardware at first.

There's also the fact that since consoles have consistent hardware the software that developers write for it can make better use of the hardware available. Thus the system can seem more powerful than it really is when compared to games on PCs. This can help consoles keep up with PCs in terms of their capabilities, but the standard PC hardware will always outstrip console hardware in time.

 

[veloper]

Back when the ps3 debuted for $500, 4 years ago, it made an impression with it's physics demos.
Texturing, filtering, AA and resolution was less than a PC with a $200 GPU could do ofcourse, but the PS3 still impressed on the CPU side of things for a while.
The xbox360 before that perfomed like a high end PC at best, with no outstanding features.

When consoles debut, they are paradoxically the best value for money, with the Sony taking the cake for selling $800 hardware for a mere $500. That is if you value the technology (and don't mind the small initial games library).

So the answer is no, but still pretty high-end stuff at launch time, getting close to enthousiast PC rigs and at a big discount (if you ignore the price markup for the games you'll prolly be playing on it).

 

[Jacob.pederson]

Consoles themselves will, of course, never be faster than PCs, because they are designed with cheapness in mind; however, that doesn't mean that a certain game can't be faster on a console. Thanks to thousands of tweaking hours and those darn shoddy PC ports, I can think of plenty of games that were faster on my consoles, despite the sli gtx480s. Red Faction Guerrilla and Transformers: War for Cybertron come to mind of the top of my head.

 

[SuperNashwan]

I dont know if anyone remembers it, but a couple of decades back there was a console called the Neo Geo. It came out in a time of SNES's, MegaDrives and Amiga 500's, and it was the holy grail of gaming machines because it could play arcade games. Not the cheesy home computer remakes of arcade games, ACTUAL arcade games. Back then the emotional response to that would have been as if a modern machine could produce in game graphics as good as pre-rendered cutscenes (ie took a really kick ass computer that only huge companies like EA own). Maybe it wasnt that good, but people idolised that machine and I know of very few people who owned one. It sold for around £600 if you could even find one - it was one of those "my mates dad went to japan on business and he bought one in a market there off a strange travelling salesman". Now of course the graphics would be utterly eclipsed by a playstation 3.

Here's a shot from a Street Fighter II rip off. Graphics are typical of arcade machines at the time, at least as far as my memory serves...

http://www.videogamecritic.net/images/neogeo/art_of_fighting_2.jpg

My point? I am surprised that there is no equivalent, super rare mythical beast these days. Maybe corporations own so much of the market that niche manufacturers have no weight to put such things out?

 

[lukemdizzle]

easy answer. when a new console comes out its graphics are better than any previous P.C games but within a year P.C. graphics catch up and surpass console graphics. thats what always happens and I would guess thats how it will continue

 

[spartan231490]

I suspect, that if we do not discover a room temperature super conductor, than console graphics will catch up to pc graphics when we hit the processing power plateau. If that happens, i suspect that a console generation will come out that has just as much processing power as pc's, because pc's will have stopped increasing, and no one will be able to one up you.

 

[SalamanderJoe]

Nope. It is however a matter of time. Maybe they'll selotape two PS3s together for Gran Turismo 6 level graphics...

 

[Buizel91]

actually come to think of it my comp at the moment cost me around $900 but tbh i will probably keep it for at least 2 console generations possibly 3, 4 at a stretch without changing anything in it but because of my freedom with the hardware could update it whenever i want so in the long run if you are looking to play decent games at a decent level of graphics you could probably just buy a reasonably expensive comp and just update the graphics and processor once every 4-5 years and you are set and will probably cost less then buying a whole new console every time.

I'm sorry this is off topic, but my god your Avatar is so amusing!

 

[SuperNashwan]

I suspect, that if we do not discover a room temperature super conductor, than console graphics will catch up to pc graphics when we hit the processing power plateau. If that happens, i suspect that a console generation will come out that has just as much processing power as pc's, because pc's will have stopped increasing, and no one will be able to one up you.

If I have to have a tank of liquid nitrogen sitting in my bedroom, I dont care. I NEED to game

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well they can be on par when they come out, but the computer world moves forward constantly and so there will always be something better next month.

But I can't see the graphics need much improvement, the current consoles would probably be able to squeeze out the Crytek engine at a decent pace(if it was optimized well enough).
And if you can get any game to the Crysis graphic level, what more could you possibly want?

 

[Vykrel]

No, consoles will never overtake gaming PCs on graphics. The PC graphics necessarily have to be better, because games are programmed on PCs, as you mention in your post.

yup. consoles will surely catch up to what PC's are capable of right now, but at that point, PC's will undoubtedly be capable of even better graphics than they are now.

 

[LightOfDarkness]

Consoles will slightly overtake PCs when the new generation comes out. Then the NVIDIA-ATi video card war heats up. As does the Intel-AMD CPU war.

Heck, bleeding edge PC technology will likely out-perform the next 3 or so generations of consoles, namely due to motherboards that can hold 2 hexacores, 48 GB of RAM (enough to store a few games to get write and read speeds upwards of 500 MB/s) and 4. Fucking. Video cards.

2 overclocked 6-core i7s running with 4 NVIDIA 480s, all running on a theoretical hard drive with up to 1200 MB/s read and write speed.

With liquid nitrogen for cooling so that it doesn't melt when you breathe on the power button.

Rich bastards are getting close to this. All they need is a case big enough to hold all the tubing, and tubes that can withstand liquid nitrogen.

 

[SuperNashwan]

you should check out some neo geo emulation btw there are some truly classic games

I might just do that, as a kid I wanted one soooo badly for christmas. That and that 'Photon' laser tag game, but we were poor and all I got was sausages and lard

 

[Woodsey]

Consoles will slightly overtake PCs when the new generation comes out.

They never do actually - people seem to say this, but when you think about it, they can't.

When a console comes out it may be the equivalent of a mid-entry PC (hence the price), but they don't just pick some hardware over a few weeks and then assemble it. They choose the hardware a fair bit before launch to then sort everything out; I'd be willing to bet it's 6 months to a year old before it's even released, and even then it's not the top of the line stuff packed in.