Xbox or New video card?

[Steven C \(Doktersteve\)]

Holy Cow!
Just noticed this thread. Someone must have dragged it up from Google
groups.
Thanks for your opinion, it is appreciated.

Steven.

 

[NightSky 421]

No brainer.. upgrade your PC...

The small headaches with PC's drivers, differing hardware, etc, is small
compared to the expenses of buying console games, subscription costs for the
Live service, and you still only have a console good for only gaming...
instead take the money and put like $200 a year into it, each time replacing
the slowest bottleneck in your system... eventually you will have to
overhaul to a completely new system but it is likely a better investment
than just a console...

IMHO anyways..

Ax.

Despite some of the strange problems I sometimes come across with the PC, I
always find myself coming back for more. I've been using PC's for twelve
and half years now already since abandoning the Atari and am glad I've stuck
with it. Console systems are cool in certain respects, but I have a certain
devotion to PC gaming. I could mention the merits of both sides, but I
don't intend to turn this into a PC versus Console war - I prefer to be
agnostic. Whatever turns your crank is what's best.

 

[John Hall]

I would opt for the PC. It's always upgradeable, it's storage capacity and
flexibility is it's strength, and quite frankly, games look better and play
better on a good PC. If you want you can always be on the cutting edge with
a PC. With the Playstation or XBox the technology gets old real fast.

JK

 

[Robert P Holley]

No brainer.. upgrade your PC...

The small headaches with PC's drivers, differing hardware, etc, is small
compared to the expenses of buying console games, subscription costs for the
Live service, and you still only have a console good for only gaming...
instead take the money and put like $200 a year into it, each time replacing
the slowest bottleneck in your system... eventually you will have to
overhaul to a completely new system but it is likely a better investment
than just a console...

IMHO anyways..

Welcome to last month.

 

[DRF]

The above was precisely the reason why I bought a console.

Buy a console, then upgrade your PC - since a PC is always in need on
constant upgrade to keep up with the latest versions and power requirments
of buggy software/games. With a console, only upgrade is when a new
console comes out every 3-5 years now. Its alot more portable, and only
needs a TV to hook up to.

 

[Victor]

Yeah, i am interested in people's opinions on how much of an improvement i
might see from that card. its a pain in the butt unless you find someone who
went the same route as you and can give you some real life performance
numbers.
The 9600 inst FASTER by much, but it is a dx9 card. Of course, the xbox is
Dx8, but coders seem to get some incredible gfx from it (see the realtime
movie for HALO2 that was shown at e3).

Yeah, well the thing is, the XBox has two things going for it re.
graphic speeds. First, the resolution is low(ish) and second, the
system is designed for optimum use of its components, something which
many PC's (especially upgraded ones) aren't.

I've played Halo on the Xbox and I've played Halo on a PC (2,6 GHz
with Geforce4Ti200, 1 gig ram), and I prefer the Xbox version simply
because it is smoother on the console than on the PC (which it
shouldn't be, given the much faster hardware that's in my PC).

There's also the matter of the controller, which is a lot more fun to
use when playing than a keyboard. That said, I still play stuff like
Civ3 and Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 on my PC, and I can't really imagine
those kind of games as Xbox ports.

If i plunk down money for the new card, i can get games and demos for free
basically, and dont have to worry about buying junk (i can try and buy), but
i see more and more games at pawnshops for the xbox, so i guess i can always
go that route, and get good games at about $40 canadian, which is a really
great deal if you think of it.
And this way i know I really WANT a game if i plunk cash down for it, as
opposed to demos and crap on the pc.

True. $40 canadian ain't bad for a good Xbox games, and there are some
really good ones out there now.

/vic

 

[Trident9440]

yes, go for the R9600Pro card!
I have similar situation like you earlier this year. I saw a lot of
new
games come out only on the game consoles (PS2, XBOX and GC) then I
decided
to buy a PS2 and will not upgrade my video card for the next few years
untill PS2 is out of date. But I was wrong.
PS2/XB are good consoles and I enjoied them for a couple of months
But with more and more new PC games coming out, such as HL2, Doom3 and
many other real time strategy games, I have to give up investing on
the
game console for few reasons:
1. for FPS games, you have to have a mouse.
2. for games like AOE, WarcraftIII, PC is the only way to go
3. for internet games, PC has far more titles available
4. for better sound effect, I would not say XBox can compete with my
Creative SB Live.
5. you can download game demos before you buy it.
6. you can get patches for the game titles you purchased. no one game
has no bugs.
Now I had spent another few hundred dollars for a new ATI R9800 card.
That's the gaming life..
Trident9440

 

[Dirk]

1. for FPS games, you have to have a mouse.

False.

If you are competing against other mousers, then this is true but
since you aren't... Also, if you are unwilling to learn using console
controller, it's true but this is user choice, you might as well say
that for FPS games you have to have 36" HDTV and full Dolby Digital
sound setup...

2. for games like AOE, WarcraftIII, PC is the only way to go

True. Here you could say "you have to have a mouse"...

But these games mostly don't need state of the are video adapter,
so you can keep playing them on PC without upgrading...

3. for internet games, PC has far more titles available

True. Also PC gaming is free, XBox Live isn't.

However, it's fair to mention the benefits of XBox online gaming:
- better *online* sports gaming
- much less cheaters even if you play with strangers
- everybody has equal hardware so it's your own skill that matters
- standard, universally supported voice chat

4. for better sound effect, I would not say XBox can compete with my
Creative SB Live.

Depends on the rest of your sound setup. Both can produce about same
quality of sound I think, but average XBox owner is more likely to
have state of the art Dolby Digital sound system for his TV than for
his computer, so for average user XBox likely wipes the floor with his
PC's sound capabilities.

5. you can download game demos before you buy it.

With XBox you can buy OXM and get demo disk. Not free, but still not
expensive either per demo, considering you also get the magazine, plus
no CD burning and re-installation needed if you want to keep the demo.

6. you can get patches for the game titles you purchased. no one game
has no bugs.

False. This is the very reason I no longer play with PC.

Almost all XBox games have no bugs worth mentioning, while most PC
games really need patching up, simply because they can be patched so
developers can release crappy code to be fixed later. There are some
bad apples with XBox too, but so few that avoiding them is no loss.

Also, for Live play, there are some kind of patching options. Like
Unreal Championship is supposed to become much better online after
updating it from Live (no personal experience here).

Now I had spent another few hundred dollars for a new ATI R9800
card. That's the gaming life..

Yeah, that's the _PC_ gaming life...
Console gaming life is a bit different.

Please note, I'm not saying PC gaming is somehow inferior to console
gaming, no way. I'm just commenting on your IMHO false claims.