Current Events > The entire world of PC gaming rigs is a big scam, right?

(+) Yeah! (+)

streamofthesky posted...

Yeah.
I want to move to PC gaming b/c Sony went to shit (Xbox always was) and Nintendo doesn't get / can't handle lots of games.
I don't give a single flying fuck about super high resolution or high FPS (steady 30 or 60 is fine), I don't play resource hog AAA western games for the most part...
I just want something that will play games and not need to be replaced for 8-10 years.
But the "community" is geared towards "oh, with this rig you can do all these neat lighting effects...." like dude, I don't fucking care.

Though if you got a set budget, I'd say go for it and go nuts.

streamofthesky posted...

Yeah.
I want to move to PC gaming b/c Sony went to shit (Xbox always was) and Nintendo doesn't get / can't handle lots of games.
I don't give a single flying fuck about super high resolution or high FPS (steady 30 or 60 is fine), I don't play resource hog AAA western games for the most part...
I just want something that will play games and not need to be replaced for 8-10 years.
But the "community" is geared towards "oh, with this rig you can do all these neat lighting effects...." like dude, I don't fucking care.

A lot of the recommend components would be based on what you want to target. If you're satisfied with 1080p and 60fps I'd probably recommend a 6GB card even

Will_VIII posted...

A lot of the recommend components would be based on what you want to target. If you're satisfied with 1080p and 60fps I'd probably recommend a 6GB card even

That sounds really low....

Like, I've had laptops from over a decade ago w/ more than that.

streamofthesky posted...

That sounds really low....

Like, I've had laptops from over a decade ago w/ more than that.

Laptop GPUs are gimped due to the cooling situation compared to their desktop equivalent

Will_VIII posted...

Laptop GPUs are gimped due to the cooling situation compared to their desktop equivalent

Yeah, I expect them to be lower.
So you suggesting an amount of GB for a desktop today that's so low that even on laptops I could get better than that over 10 years ago was odd to me...
Like, I remember having 8 GB and even just a bunch of tabs in Firefox would burn up the memory hard.

I'm referring to VRAM not desktop memory. 16GB of desktop memory would be a minimum recommendation

Yeah, Video RAM and regular onboard RAM are two different hardware components.
The former is part of whatever video card you have.

It's a bad idea to futureproof these days since the hardware is designed to fail after a few years. The "6" cards are the only common sense options.

Will_VIII posted...

I'm referring to VRAM not desktop memory. 16GB of desktop memory would be a minimum recommendation

BombermanGold posted...

Yeah, Video RAM and regular onboard RAM are two different hardware components.
The former is part of whatever video card you have.

Ok. You just said a "6 GB card" so I thought you meant RAM.
Got it.

I bought a medium-priced Alienware like 9 years ago, which means it's probably actually atleast 10 years old, and it still runs new stuff just fine, so I've just never really bothered to get into anything fancier.

HashtagSEP posted...

I bought a medium-priced Alienware like 9 years ago, which means it's probably actually atleast 10 years old, and it still runs new stuff just fine, so I've just never really bothered to get into anything fancier.

And if it's still chugging along just fine now to your satisfaction? Congrats! You got what you paid for and then some.
See, that's the investment right there.

pinky0926 posted...

Ok. Tell me how it makes financial sense to spend a couple of grand on a gaming PC.

Because it will last 5+ years before upgrades and youll save at least $1000 in buying games during that time thanks to Steam sales, Humble Bundles, GMG sales, Fanatical sales, etc., compared to buying a console and paying full price for games, while running games with better visuals and higher frame rates than a console would, and having full modding support.

Plus you can, you know, do actual work with it if you have a job that it would be helpful for.

PraetorXyn posted...

Because it will last 5+ years before upgrades and youll save at least $1000 in buying games during that time thanks to Steam sales, Humble Bundles, GMG sales, Fanatical sales, etc., compared to buying a console and paying full price for games, while running games with better visuals and higher frame rates than a console would, and having full modding support.

Plus you can, you know, do actual work with it if you have a job that it would be helpful for.

Don't forget online is free.

pinky0926 posted...

+ That hardware is trash, You should use X hardware instead.
- Actually pretty much any of the top games will run on the "trash" hardware at 60FPS on a 1440p monitor, which is realistically as good as I ever expect

+ If you want a superb gaming rig, consider spending over 1200
- as above pretty much all current AAA games will run on excellent settings at half that price

Maybe, if you are content to have the thing running at max power all the time. I spent 2000 to play in 1440p and have some peace for the time being. I remember Oblivion on PS3 making noises that didn't sound right and being like close to melting, it's probably gotten better but I do not want to rely on the judgement of the one who decides it's fine for a game to "work" like that and publish it.

pinky0926 posted...

Maybe I'm misunderstanding things

You are

So, I don't want to read through 50+ posts, so forgive me if any of this has already been said...

No, it's not a scam. You just have to realize that you're getting advice from people that all have different opinions and build goals. If you just want a PC that plays games at 60 fps on low to medium settings, then you really don't need to spend a lot.

That's what makes PC building great though. You can tailor your build and costs to what you want to accomplish. I spent roughly $3,000 (2,376) on my PC, because that's the kind of build that I wanted. I play most of my games in 4K

But if what you want costs less, then there's nothing wrong with that. The main thing is to make sure that all of your parts are compatible (pcpartpicker helps with that).

I got my rig built in 2017, got my 3080 in 2021 and all I had to do was upgrade my psu and pop the gpu in and I was gaming at either 1440p/60fps max settings or 4K/60fps at max settings.

I'm still doing that tlin 2024.

PC gaming trumps console gaming in too many way to not be the better option.

Corbenik posted...

Don't forget online is free.

Cant believe I forgot that. Its a minuscule amount in the grand scheme of things, but its still basically a free $60 game per year.

PraetorXyn posted...

and youll save at least $1000 in buying games during that time thanks to Steam sales, Humble Bundles, GMG sales, Fanatical sales, etc.

Who in the world is buying that many games? I doubt I've even spent $1000 on games in the first place within the last 5 years, let alone had $1000 in savings through sales.

pinky0926 posted...

Ok. Tell me how it makes financial sense to spend a couple of grand on a gaming PC.

You save more money long term via steam sales of which there are far more than sales on consoles. Unless youre one of those people who only buy one or two games a generation

I've been getting by on refreshing my computer every 3-4 years with a rebuild every five or so. But the price/performance parts are harder to come by. Considerably.

8800GT was a steal, GTX 275 was a steal, RX 480/580 was a steal, and my current 5700XT has been by far the best bang for buck card I've used ever. But even cards that are 20-30% faster than it now are 500-600 dollars, and flagships go for thousand+ now. It's absolutely bonkers.

UnholyMudcrab posted...

Who in the world is buying that many games? I doubt I've even spent $1000 on games in the first place within the last 5 years, let alone had $1000 in savings through sales.

I mean, when you see a game you want to play that normally goes for $60 or $70 on sale for $10 or less, why wouldnt you buy it? Humble Bundle gives games for pennies on the dollar. Ive got over 1000 Steam games at this point and Id be surprised if I spent $5000 on the lot of them.

PraetorXyn posted...

I mean, when you see a game you want to play that normally goes for $60 or $70 on sale for $10 or less, why wouldnt you buy it?

Depends if you'll actually play them or just buying it for the deal.

pinky0926 posted...

Ok. Tell me how it makes financial sense to spend a couple of grand on a gaming PC.

If you don't game much, don't care for having the best quality, or only play a handful of games that don't need much power in the first place, then it doesn't matter.

If you do play a lot of games and care for higher quality, then you'd be kidding yourself to stick to consoles. Unless you're a physical media diehard, steam makes gamestop look like a fucking joke.

streamofthesky posted...

Yeah.
I want to move to PC gaming b/c Sony went to shit (Xbox always was) and Nintendo doesn't get / can't handle lots of games.
I don't give a single flying fuck about super high resolution or high FPS (steady 30 or 60 is fine), I don't play resource hog AAA western games for the most part...
I just want something that will play games and not need to be replaced for 8-10 years.
But the "community" is geared towards "oh, with this rig you can do all these neat lighting effects...." like dude, I don't fucking care.

I'm kind of in the same boat. I like Nintendo's games and I like my Switch so I'm not looking to give up console gaming but I've been looking at what I want to do for games that Nintendo doesn't get. There's so little that's exclusive to PlayStation or Xbox anymore that I was thinking a gaming PC might be a better way to go if it's not too expensive. That's why I was asking about prices. Like you, I really don't care about having the best possible performance, I would just want games to be decently playable. So I really wouldn't want to spend a lot on a PC but I also don't want to get stuck with cheap components that are going to be prone to breaking or have to keep upgrading every year or two just to meet minimum requirements for new games.

UnsteadyOwl posted...

I'm kind of in the same boat. I like Nintendo's games and I like my Switch so I'm not looking to give up console gaming but I've been looking at what I want to do for games that Nintendo doesn't get. There's so little that's exclusive to PlayStation or Xbox anymore that I was thinking a gaming PC might be a better way to go if it's not too expensive. That's why I was asking about prices. Like you, I really don't care about having the best possible performance, I would just want games to be decently playable. So I really wouldn't want to spend a lot on a PC but I also don't want to get stuck with cheap components that are going to be prone to breaking or have to keep upgrading every year or two just to meet minimum requirements for new games.

If you want to play at 1080p 60 FPS a cheap computer would last you like a decade, because a toaster can do that. Its all about what you want.

UnholyMudcrab posted...

Who in the world is buying that many games? I doubt I've even spent $1000 on games in the first place within the last 5 years, let alone had $1000 in savings through sales.

It depends on what you're buying. At full price, it only takes 17 games to pass $1000.

UnholyMudcrab posted...

Who in the world is buying that many games? I doubt I've even spent $1000 on games in the first place within the last 5 years, let alone had $1000 in savings through sales.

When they're cheaper than a fucking snack at 7/11, you tend to amass games. Then you have the existential crisis of not having enough lifespan to play them all.

i regret getting an amd gpu

UnsteadyOwl posted...

I'm kind of in the same boat. I like Nintendo's games and I like my Switch so I'm not looking to give up console gaming but I've been looking at what I want to do for games that Nintendo doesn't get. There's so little that's exclusive to PlayStation or Xbox anymore that I was thinking a gaming PC might be a better way to go if it's not too expensive. That's why I was asking about prices. Like you, I really don't care about having the best possible performance, I would just want games to be decently playable. So I really wouldn't want to spend a lot on a PC but I also don't want to get stuck with cheap components that are going to be prone to breaking or have to keep upgrading every year or two just to meet minimum requirements for new games.

Honestly, a console is still perfect for all that. You get the 500 dollar box that you know guaranteed that it will run games decently for the rest of it's entire generation, and while its true that exclusives is no longer the big deal it was in the past the few that happens is still a thing. (Also if you are smart enough to get a disc capable model then cheap disc versions of recent games is still a thing). To play those few locked down playstation games you either hope they got ported at all like with bloodborne, or you just wait........wait, wait, wait. Could be a short like half a year wait.....could be a year. Could be 3 or so like with persona 5. Could be a goddamn decade like with kingdom hearts and them finally ending up on other consoles+the epic store on PC. Regardless, its a lot of damn waiting. You wait to finally, finally play that timed playstation exclusive on the PC.......then you wait for the next one. Its a never-ending cycle.....sony is not completely invested in the day 1 PC thing like microsoft is, so you will wait. Me personally, I waited enough for games like FF7 remake, then rebirth, then the part 3 for this, and I already know damn well I want to play games like stellar blade and the wolverine insomniac game NOW god damn it.

I get it that its not too big a deal for most that is already heavily into the PC ecosystem since I am sure most of us have a pretty sizeable steam library (but lets be honest.......a lot of us do like playing the brand new releases and talking about it alongside everyone else playing certain games when they are new), but it ain't for me. Life is short, and my ass could be dead from like 3 months from now. Now you make ask "well mad-dogg, if you are gonna' die then what does it matter?" With this I say..."well when I am kickin' in with the after-life homies, I can at least say "man......that stellar blade was pretty cool. Because I got to play it instead of never getting to because it didn't get ported until *insert date hear......maybe*.

Only type of games I actually use my desktop PC for is the indies that is only on steam. The them and us, frontier hunter: erza's fortune and pizza tower type of stuff. Bonus in that my steamdeck can handle these same time of lower requirement games too. That and emulators for whenever that next old jrpg with a new english fan-translation comes along.

rwbonesy posted...

i regret getting an amd gpu

Why?

rwbonesy posted...

i regret getting an amd gpu

yeah dlss is awesome. i can still play games on a 4k tv without it looking like crap w/ my 2080ti because of DLSS (4k + dlss >>> native 1440p imo)

looks better than ps5's upscaling thing as well. i compared pc and ps5 versions of ratchet and clank rift apart (ps5 performance mode and pc settings equivalent of it)

tho i was getting better performance on the ps5 tbf . tho i think my cpu was the bottleneck in my case

PraetorXyn posted...

If you want to play at 1080p 60 FPS a cheap computer would last you like a decade, because a toaster can do that. Its all about what you want.

This. I'm still rocking a build that has a ryzen 2600 and rx580 and can still play even the higher end titles at 1080p these days. The only game I've played that it struggled with was Remnant 2 for some reason but I'm fairly certain that game was an optimization tire fire at launch, and I've yet to revisit it.

Honestly, I wind up using that PC more than my new one due to the fact it's my MM and living room gaming PC lol

Think I spent a little less than 800 when I built that one.

Will_VIII posted...

A lot of the recommend components would be based on what you want to target. If you're satisfied with 1080p and 60fps I'd probably recommend a 6GB card even

I have a 6GB GTX 1660S for 1080p and 60fps and on newer games it's struggling to keep up. Currently considering upgrading to a 3060

if you can live with turning shadows down a notch and maybe one or two other things (which you probably wouldn't notice anyway) and not worry about playing at 4k or even higher, you can literally cut the price by a third, atleast. its only when youre trying to MAX everything at 4k 120fps is when the price can get really crazy.

Here are some advantages that PC has over consoles:

• Free online, we don't need to pay to play online
• Free games that can get added to our library
• Backing up save data we have many options, including Cloud Saving which is free
• We can buy any normal game without subscription
• When upgrading hardware, our games will work on the new hardware
• Able to use mods to improve and extend the game
• Multiple controller option
• Keyboard and mouse option

Console you need subscription to play online, cloud saving to store our save games and retro game. Game Shark and Action Replay doesn't exist for new consoles.

If a person wants to play online and retro game, they need to choose the top tier for PS5. Imagine paying top tier from the start until the gen ends.
$160/year is top tiers.

A Hat in Time PC version thanks to mods >>>> console version
Sonic Adventure DX PC version with mods >>>> Sonic Adventure DX on HD console.

GunmaN1905 posted...

You have to keep in mind that everyone has a PC of some kind, so it's more like about if you want a good PC or a cheap one and a console.

"PC of some kind" these days can be covered by phones, tablets, and computers provided by work, all more than enough to do non-gaming tasks. A personal PC that can function as a gaming rig isn't as ubiquitous as you're implying.

Ratchetrockon posted...

yeah dlss is awesome. i can still play games on a 4k tv without it looking like crap w/ my 2080ti because of DLSS (4k + dlss >>> native 1440p imo)

looks better than ps5's upscaling thing as well. i compared pc and ps5 versions of ratchet and clank rift apart (ps5 performance mode and pc settings equivalent of it)

tho i was getting better performance on the ps5 tbf . tho i think my cpu was the bottleneck in my case

No it wasnt. The CPU will never be a bottleneck at 4K, its always the GPU.

pinky0926 posted...

Why?

AMD GPUs have better price to performance ratio than Nvidia and tend to come with more VRAM (so they will age better), but DLSS is much better than FSR and Nvidias Ray Tracing performance is much better.

The problem is most Nvidia cards are absolutely stupid buys because they are VRAM gimped unless youre getting a high end one.

PraetorXyn posted...

No it wasnt. The CPU will never be a bottleneck at 4K, its always the GPU.

Well it wasn't native 4k

It was with dlss ON (performance) should be like 1080p - 1440p

Also had textures set at medium and rest about what ps5 performance mode presets should be.

Fps drops below 60 with lowered res as well iirc. I'm still on a pcie 3 mobo w/ a 9900k.

I don't see how anything in the OP is a "scam". It's just listing things that random people may say about PC shopping.

For me the extra upfront cost is worth it for mods. I would have given up on some games if it wasn't for mods.

LeoRavus posted...

I don't see how anything in the OP is a "scam". It's just listing things that random people may say about PC shopping.

For me the extra upfront cost is worth it for mods. I would have given up on some games if it wasn't for mods.

Mods is great in my opinion, A Hat in Time is a great example how it can extend the game and make it better.

Imagine playing Monster Hunter World hardest level without co-op due to no online, that is impossible. Luckily PC it is free.

Imagine needing to pay $160 just to play PS2, PS3 and PSP games on the PS5. People don't have the choice to buy individual games.

Consoles are much better for just playing games. I have a 2k gaming PC that I also use for work, just compiling code and running tests all day. I also ssh into it as well from my laptop. You can't do this with a console.

Nowadays, I almost always recommend just getting a console unless you plan on doing other computer related work or tasks.

VirtuousWrath posted...

Consoles are much better for just playing games. I have a 2k gaming PC that I also use for work, just compiling code and running tests all day. I also ssh into it as well from my laptop. You can't do this with a console.

Nowadays, I almost always recommend just getting a console unless you plan on doing other computer related work or tasks.

No they arent. Theres literally not a single thing they do better aside from being cheaper to buy. You cant even use portability for the Switch, as the Steam Deck craps all over it while being far better to use as a controller because the JoyCons are godawful.

https://youtu.be/mgu3E5Luz7M?feature=shared

Also look here. This guy is playing with 2080ti + a 13700k (a good cpu for ps3 emulation!!!! Btw). 4k dlss performance mode. His settings are actually a bit higher than mine than when i played since I matched with the ps5's performance mode excluding textures and I also did have rtx turned off too.

yet he is still getting better performance. In the nefarious boss fight my rig was chugging to high 40s while his stayed around 60 fps.

Only diff is that I have a 9900k! A weak cpu by today's standards. I first noticed this cpu bottleneck with hogwarts legacy i wanna say. Even lowering res to like 720p fps barely went up in hogsmeade lol

VirtuousWrath posted...

Consoles are much better for just playing games. I have a 2k gaming PC that I also use for work, just compiling code and running tests all day. I also ssh into it as well from my laptop. You can't do this with a console.

Nowadays, I almost always recommend just getting a console unless you plan on doing other computer related work or tasks.

Console nowadays relies way too much on subscription.

• Playing online
• Backing up save data (Cloud is free but they lock it so people have to pay)
• Retro games can't simply buy them 1 time purchase ($160 a year for Sony)
• No mods, even though mods can great enhance a game
• No more Action Replay or Game Shark to cheat in a game. Remember cheating isn't only used to make a game easier but also make it harder or do things that was never intended to do.
• Can remove BC completely like the PS4 and Switch

A PC may cost more than a console at first, but with all the spending a console needs, eventually a PC ending costing less.

Plus there is the Steam Deck.

Even with a yearly subscription, consoles are cheaper for a long time. A real gaming PC is like 1500 minimum, with 2k being where they're actually good.

VirtuousWrath posted...

Even with a yearly subscription, consoles are cheaper for a long time. A real gaming PC is like 1500 minimum, with 2k being where they're actually good.

wrong

VirtuousWrath posted...

Even with a yearly subscription, consoles are cheaper for a long time. A real gaming PC is like 1500 minimum, with 2k being where they're actually good.

That's a lie, only if you really want the toppest end, or actually buy in to nVidias incredible bullshit, will you spend that much if all you want to do is play games