I'm new to PC gaming. A little help please.

[2NE1]

CPU: Core i7-2600 4-core 3.40GHz
GPU: Radeon HD 5770 1024MB
RAM: 8GB
HDD: 2TB
Res: 1920x1080

So that's my new PC and have some question since I'm new to the PC gaming world. Please bear with me on this one! I'll number them to make it easier to read.

1. I'd like to play single player games on my PC but only if they'd look better than on my Xbox 360. I can't afford a better graphics card yet. I'm not too familiar with low, medium, high and ultra setting yet. What is the lowest setting that typically makes PC games look better than on consoles (I'm guessing high right)?

2. I heard from some people that with my GPU I should only have Anti-Aliasing up to 8x in games. Should I not go higher than that and would it make the graphics of a game worse than on a console?

3. What should Anisotropic Filtering be set at usually?

4. Only game I've tried so far is Arcania 4: A Gothic Tale and on highest settings (didn't mess with any individual settings) it would be around 27-32fps. Is that good or bad?

5. Please tell me, Skyrim will look better on my PC than my Xbox 360 right? (Even though the specs aren't out yet..)

 

[Mottamort]

1. You're going to only find a few (Metro 2033 and Crysis 2 dix11 come to mind) games that werent ported to the pc from console anyway, but they're there if you look for them

2. with your resolution ja i'd almost go so far as to say 8x is pushing it, since its high enough res that AA isnt all that important as well as it will totally depend on what you consider to be smooth framerates.

3. As high as you want it. again your card is decent and you should be able to get away with x16.

4. No idea how Arcania 4 runs, but 27-32 isnt all that smooth.

5. We can only hope

 

[2NE1]

ok I see. Having a resolution of 1920x1080 I wouldn't need AA to be that high. So most games are ported from consoles which means graphics wouldn't be all that better then?

 

[Rocking_Star101]

1) As said, not many games are ported from console to PC, but if u have some, then High setting should be good enough. However, if u want u can set it to the Highest ( Ultra ), ur specs. seem good enough to run that on most games.

2)Yes, 8x AA is actually the max. that would be recommended, because it's very demanding & it won't show that much of a difference, as far as gameplay & graphics are concerned.

3)U can set it to 2x or 4x, u can even turn it off if u like. But again, the max. that anyone would recommend is 8x, but u need a very good graphic card for that ( like ATI's Radeon HD 6990 )

4)27-32 FPS, is good for any new game on Highest setting, as far as the average user of computers is concerned ( Although I can't say much, since I didn't see the game myself )

5)Again, idk about the game, but typically I think PC versions are usually better looking, but that usually depends on how you see it & what your likes ( graphics wise ) are

 

[GNCD]

The Witcher 1 and 2. The second one has awesome graphics. Must play for PC. I have the same card as yours and with some tweaks I was able to get smooth gameplay and it still looked awesome. Be warned though, this game will kick your ass.

As for AA, I don't usually bother with it. It just smooths out the rough edges which I don't really notice. IMO, tweaking the graphic settings to get the most out of your hardware is part of the fun in PC gaming.

Have fun!