{Discussion} Reasons why you dont need high end PC.

KHADER87

Honorable
Feb 25, 2015
129
0
10,680
HI,

I want to discuss why you dont need to spend too much $$$ on a PC or to upgrade yours from personal experience.

I did a comparison between my Low - Mid-End rig and my friend's high end rig.

My Spec:
Intel i3 3210 (3rd generation dual core @3.2Ghz)
GTX 750 TI 2GDDR5
Intel DH61HO (Old Intel and Poor chipset)
6GB DDR3 Ram @1333Mhz

My friends Rig
I7 4790 @4.0Ghz
R9 290X
32GB DDR3 @1866 Mhz
Mobo is MSI gaming , cant remember its name nor the chipset

So as you see he has way more powerful PC than mine, but here is the fact we both play games smoothly, yes he run all the games at Minimum 60++ FPS and I dont reach that number with an average of 40FPS both setting on High resolution but you cant sence the difference, yes he has way more FPS but both seems the same, my Rig can run new games which I dont meet the minimum requirement on high like Ryse:Son of rome and medium high like AC:Unity, Call of duty: AW on High, Metro...etc.

I read too many articles says that If you smooth ride with your game you should have 60+ FPS, this is not true, I have 25-30FPS playing ryse on high and its very smooth and playable, so why would anyone spends huge amount of money on frames he wont feel? and I read many articles about games that they dont require more than 1-2 cores, so why buy 4-6-8 Cores CPU that costs to much without adding value?

My opinion save the money and buy something nice to your girlfriend at least you may get something later ;)
 
Solution


A $1000 PC forces compromises somewhere and an assembled system will always be hobbled by its weakest link. Yes PS4 and XBox do dominate the market ( a market driven mainly by the 10 - 15 year old demographic) but I can tell ya by the amount of builds I have done for neighborhood kids, once they get their first job, it's PCs all the way.

Tonite we'll be doing a $1300 build, tomorrow nite a $1700 SLI build. My youngest...

blackleto

Reputable
Oct 14, 2014
96
0
4,660
it's called overclocking

it's called getting max performance out of your rig

it's called playing games that rig's like your's can't handle in 4k

It's called a damn hobby.
 
The gaming experience is oft more impacted by minimum fps than average.

I lay on MMO that is 11 years old..... performance on 3 cores is double that of 1 core. The reason most peeps won't notice is ya have to tell the PC to uses the cores for the game each time ya play it thru task manager / set affinity.

The gaming experience is affected by the weakest link and low end monitor can make all things more or less equal.
 

KHADER87

Honorable
Feb 25, 2015
129
0
10,680


Put hobby aside, I'm talking about those who thinkgs buying expensive parts would give them high edge from others which they wont...

 

mrmez

Splendid
You don't need a high end PC because you didn't go to school, you didn't get a good job and now you can't afford one, so logically you don't need one.

With PC's, you get into diminishing returns very quickly, spending a lot more to get slightly better.
From that perspective it's easy to 'over capitalise' if you like, and also why consoles are still, and always will be be popular.
 

KHADER87

Honorable
Feb 25, 2015
129
0
10,680


Trust me when I tell you that I can buy whatever rig I need, but am not stupid like other who will buy a PC with 1000USD which will run games as smooth as the 500USD rig will, that's why PCs are dying, it costs to much and need continues upgrade, that's why PS and Xbox are now dominating this sector. period.
 


There are many who post builds which consist of the most expensive parts in each category with the thought that spending more will automatically make the system better. This is not wise. However, you do get what you pay for .... for the most part.

This is a familiar argument which is both true and untrue at the same time. For example, it's oft argued that faster RAM does nothing .... and with a weak GPU / CPU it won't.... but use a i7 and a twin high end cards and we see that it does have a significant effect.

For gaming it could very well be that 32 GB can slow you down.... I would say that running a 4790k at 4.0 GHz is a rarity.... most look to run around 4.6 - 4.7 Ghz.

But if you are not seeing a difference at the same resolution and settings with a 750 Ti and 290x, I'd file that under rationalization

 

mrmez

Splendid
So... you can afford to game at 4k, but instead you CHOOSE to game at 1080.
Gotcha.
No disrespect to the 750 Ti, but it's kinda rubbish. Averages under 50fps @ max for BF4, or mid 30's on Crysis 3.
Even better, you can play FC4 on high (not max) at low 30's.

I chose to buy a cheaper rig because before this upgrade, I literally didn't turn it on for 5 years. Still, I won't be stuck with sub 60fps if I'm going to do 1080, thats why I got a 144hz monitor.
 

blackleto

Reputable
Oct 14, 2014
96
0
4,660
Dude what you basically said from a normal person's perspective who wouldn't know about computers is...

Why would you get a 2015 corolla that saves gas when you can get a 2007 honda for half the price....

well lets look at it this way. the 2015 corolla is the Expensive pc, while the 2007 honda is the budget pc.

In the long run the expensive "car" won't need to be upgraded for maybe even 5 years, while the 2007 honda would in a matter of time before it breaks down.

the computer basically pays for itself in a way because you are enjoying your performance all the damn time. From a car perspective, the corolla saves a shit ton of gas while the honda pays a bunch. Thus the corolla paying for itself.

while on the budget pc, you get what you expect because it's what you can afford but wish you had something better cause you know for a fact that it will break up on you sooner or later.

My point? people pay for something that will last them and that they will enjoy every second. It does give them an edge in gaming, such as Overclocking, frame rate, and performance.
 

mrmez

Splendid
Yup.

To play devil's advocate, you can argue that the Corolla is just as good as a Merc A45.
They both have 4 doors and 4 wheels. Air con, air bags and a warranty. What sort of idiot would spend so much on an A45 when my Corolla is just as good?
 


A $1000 PC forces compromises somewhere and an assembled system will always be hobbled by its weakest link. Yes PS4 and XBox do dominate the market ( a market driven mainly by the 10 - 15 year old demographic) but I can tell ya by the amount of builds I have done for neighborhood kids, once they get their first job, it's PCs all the way.

Tonite we'll be doing a $1300 build, tomorrow nite a $1700 SLI build. My youngest son has a $1700 build that he paid for and built himself. He also has a XBox and a PS4 that he also paid for himself. He plays it mostly to spend time with his friends who don't have PCs.... the other two sons don't touch the consoles.

If ya think PCs are dying, check nVidia's (who has no stake in the console market) stock price over the last year.

Don't confuse the flat growth and drops in the fortunes or major PC manufacturers as indicative of the health of the PC gaming market. The blame there has clearly been placed at the feet of Windows 8 . While hardware sales for pre-built PCs have been down, component sales are way up. The GTX 970 has sold more units in 6 months than the 770 has in 22 months... the 970 alone has sold more units than all R7 and R9 cards combined over 18 months.

Video game consoles have always been more popular than PCs for gaming for the same reason that there are more mustangs on the road then ferraris.... there's a huge difference in cost ... McDonalds sells more hamburgers than peter luger sells steaks, cheap cellphones sell way more than expensive ones and there are more kids playing in Little League than there are in major league baseball. By your logic, there's no difference in performance, quality and talent between any of those pairings because the cheaper ones are more popular.

But growth wise let's see how your claims hold out compared to Gartner's forecasts:

Total Video Game Market up 41% from 2012 to 2015
Mobile Gaming up 137% .... 96% above the industry average
PC Gaming up 50% .... 9% above the industry average
Console gaming up 47% .... 6% above the industry average
Handheld Video Gaming down 30% ....

I don't get to play much these days but I played my 1st "computer game" on a mainframe in 1973. PC Gaming exploded in the early 1990s and I have been hearing about the impending death of PC gaming for over 20 years. Still waiting.
 
Solution
just poking my nose in here: remember to be civil guys. there is no reason to go throwing certain terms around.
--

as for the topic:

no, you do not need to spend alot of money to have a gaming computer that you enjoy. the vast majority of people are happy with fair to middling graphic performance, 720p/1080p and around 30-40fps as this is equal to or better than console. this can be achieved with aging hardware or lower end parts perfectly fine.

what does a more expensive pc grant you? better graphical settings, smoother framerates (without framedrop), higher resolutions, better overall performance, longevity of higher performance levels. not everyone requires a higher end system so i always suggest systems based on budget and expectations instead of parroting common parts.

the two are not interchangeable for comparisions though each does have its own niche market. if you expect the best, you pay for it while those who are happy with average performance certainly do not need to spend big money to be happy. one thing to note is that higher end systems tend to age a bit more gracefully than low cost systems.