Countless blows to PC gaming??
 

Hey all

Has anyone noticed how insanly expensive it is to keep a pc up to gaming standards now days

Every few weeks theres a new graphics card out boasting its the best of the best with cinimatic visuals, or a new processor stating that the previous model is nothing by comparison, which is incredably dishardning for anyone who was set back a few hundred by buying the previous model

Of course with every new piece of hardware that come out the price tag near doubles as well.... i mean its about $600 for a Geforce 8800 :nope: and once youve forked out for that an even better card is out at twice the price with a new game with twice the demand that makes your card near obsolete..

I recently purchased a alienware computer at one hell of a price with the hope it would guarantee me high graphics in all games for at least the next two years...... of course i then saw games like crysis which i doubt even this is going to find fun to try run with graphics maxed out:down:

And theres the worst thought that the games are just going to get more and more demanding after that...... Fair play the games are getting more realistic but the hardware just doesnt keep up, and neither does my wallet

I just built my own cool and quiet rig for right on GBP £1000.00. My specs are as per this thread: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=102328

It has loads of overclocking headroom and I only spent £100 on the graphics card which is also overclock friendly. The only thing I plan on upgrading within the next couple of years is the graphics card to a DX10 card after the current expensive crop of 1st generation DX10 compliant cards such as the 8800GTX which sells for a ridiculous £350 to £400! Apart from this I will add another 2GB of fast memory when I upgrade to Vista OS giving me 4GB worth.

A computer (or anything for that matter) shouldn't be compared to something that is released after it. All that should count is that you have fun with it.

That being said, if you keep up with hardware news it's a lot less overwhelming because you knew, for example, that nVidia would release their 8800 series around December and ATi will release their X2800 series within about a month, several months before the fact.

It helps to know beforehand that you'll be pwnt.

It was never inexpensive to keep a PC up to the latest gaming standards. Nowadays computer upgrades can be actually less expensive than they were like 8+ years ago.

By the way, people who buy Alienware PC´s shouldn´t be allowed to complain about how "insanely expensive" things are, after all you paid 40-50% more than you would have for a custom-built PC or a PC from another vendor.

It's a bit of a sticky one, technology is moving so quickly that the wallet can't keep up but a nvidia 8800 price tagged at £399 here, who can afford that ? Lottery winners ? [certainly not toilet cleaners]. It will be interesting to see the price tag for this in a years time when it will also be deemed as outdated at the rate things are going.
My first Computer was outdated 10 months after I bought it but the Salesman did see me coming, telling me all the stuff that it had, all the terminology sounded like a foreign language at the time.

My computer is 10 years old:huh:

It has been upgraded 5 times...:o

I sat down and counted the cost of another upgrade so I can play SH3 and 4...:damn:

I may as well save another $600 and buy a computer with a warranty and room for more stuuff to add on.:sunny: Then I will keep this one for storage.:rock: :up:

1. Never buy the newest hardware. Wait at least a year from introduction. (Means buy only mid-prized stuff.)
2. Don't upgrade more frequently than every 4 years or so.

Those are my advices to myself.

Its damn expensive. I have a 4 year old PC and it totally sucks compared to todays standards. It can hardly run the stuff i want it to run. But i should be thankful, some people on the internet have less that 1,8 ghz... :o

My Computer is now two years old and I will be doing some upgrading that is needed too run SH4. I think the price of games are a rip off and buy very few of them, this is the trouble with technology it's moving so fast because too many folks want to be bang up to date and will pay the high price. We all should say no I am not paying those prices, if enough people in the world said that you watch the prices fall.

No one is forcing you to buy an ultra-high-end card like the 8800GTX, there are enough much less expensive, yet very good cards on the market.

That's true Gizzmoe, but there are plenty of folks who will. It's the old saying (Keeping up with the Joneses) and I know plenty of folk who believe in that thinking.

Yes, it does seem like an endless battle.

I know it's tough when you don't have a lot of money, but it's important to get the best you can, avoiding the upgrades for a while or at least get a good case and motherboard that can handle the other changes. IMO

Yes, they are willing to pay a high price for a premium product. What´s wrong with that?

I can quote you one example, a friend of mind is in debt for the sum of £10,000 and he loves technology and is still running up his debt.

Don't get me wrong Gizzmoe if people want it they will pay for it.

Nothing wrong with that provided you don't end up to your neck in debt over it ! That's the problem here [UK] .. It's wallowing in debt, a lot of it caused by the 'beating the jones's' attitude that is rife here.