Just because your PC is dead, doesn't mean the rest of them are. Every time consoles undergo a new generation, just upgrade your PC to the same specs.

My last PC I owned for at least 7 years. When I finally decided to build a new one last year the only games I was not able to play were DX11 ones (because the system still ran XP) and those that were poorly optimized (GTA4). I was still able to play games like Batman or Crysis on decent to good settings with a good framerate. In the 7 years I owned that PC I upgraded the graphics card once and (I think) added some memory to it.

You CAN spend hundreds of money ($, € whatever) on your PC every year but you don't HAVE to. A well maintained system will last you a long time with only minor upgrades.

And PC gaming is not dying.

@Mcfart said:

snip

PC's have such a high turnover rate compared to consoles that it's crazy. The reason that we don't have the NextBox and the PS4 yet is because of the economy, yet shoddy PC ports (yes, BF3 is a port, Witcher 2 is an exception)

snip

Please check your facts first

DICE has always stressed that the main platform for Battlefield 3 is the PC,

source: DICE: Consoles are holding PC games back

http://www.guru3d.com/news/-010-revenue-roughly-1-billion/

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/08/starcraft-2-sales-blitz-a-success-sales-crush-console-games.ars

GUYS PC GAMING IS DEAD ABANDON SHIP

My three year old laptop can run any games.

@SirPsychoSexy said:

Anyone who thinks PC gaming is not dying is in denial. For fucks sake look around, half the people I know don't even own desktops anymore.

There you have it, folks. His friends don't have desktops anymore. All we can do now is burn our worthless machines for warmth.

It's why I changed to consoles a few years ago. All the money I spent trying to make my PC work I can now spend on games. It felt less like I was upgrading once a generation and more like I had to buy something new with every new game that came out.

@ImaLizard said:

http://www.guru3d.com/news/-010-revenue-roughly-1-billion/

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/08/starcraft-2-sales-blitz-a-success-sales-crush-console-games.ars

GUYS PC GAMING IS DEAD ABANDON SHIP

But...but I just started PC gaming back in January. I haven't even been doing it for a year yet.

...No. Nooo. Noooooooooooooo! *Falls to knees and cries*

I don't even game on PC anymore, and I still find statements like the OP's about having to upgrade your PC every 4-5 years to be the most ludicrous shit I have ever heard.

Are you aware that the console life cycle is right around the same amount of time for the most part? Either way you game, you are going to have to shell out for new hardware every few years, and frankly, I wouldn't have it any other way, I want those tech upgrades. But the idea that it kills PC gaming is absurd. Yeah, you will probably have to buy a new video card every couple of years, and update the chip, RAM and MoBo a little less often, but you'll have to dump your ENTIRE console every few years as well, including all the wires, controllers, software, etc. At least with a PC, you can just upgrade certian parts, and a lot of your hardware and software remains the same.

If you look at it that way, doesn't it seem like consoles are the bigger money-suck?

@ZeForgotten said:

You don't need to spend a dime more than $600 to get a good gaming PC. Unless of course you're one of those pathetic graphics whores who just won't play any PC games unless it has a "Super Mega Ultra Alpha Omega" setting in the Graphics menu and they can use it

What's the point then? haha

It doesn't really cost that much to keep a PC running. $1000 every 2 years is enough to keep you REALLY cutting edge. Most everyone with a job can afford that, you just have to make room in your budget for it so I don't buy the "it's too expensive" argument. It sounds like you are just not willing to spend that much (and that is perfectly fine) but that by no means indicates the whole platform you are bashing is dying.

So what I don't like is that people who exclusively PC game talk about how playing games on consoles is not real 'gaming' and what I also don't like is people who are totally satisfied with their console experience alone hate on the PC gaming experience.  So i own an xbox, I built my own PC (something I, who is now 26, have not done since I was 13, it's not that hard folks), have been thinking of a quick $150 mem upgrade except it wouldn't do much, but double that $300 would buy me SLI, which would certainly see an improvement in performance (If I needed it which I don't).  Since I built my own PC I have a good case that's easy to work on and it's all built by me so upgrading and maintenance is super easy.  I don't see how people think PC gaming is dead when the PC is max configurable and upgradable.  Spend a shit amount of money on a shit PC once and never spend a dime again, you'll be dissapointed for sure.  But it doesn't cost that much if you plan ahead.
Also be equal opportuinity people.  I'm going to throw a few hundred hours at Forza 4, and somewhere in the middle of that I'm going to share time with BF3 on the PC.  It's fun when you have choice.

@spazmaster666 said:

@Pr1mus said:

I didn't really bother reading all this but there's one thing that bothers me about the people talking about 1000$ + PCs for gaming compared to 300$ consoles... are they saying that if not for gaming they wouldn't have a PC at all? Take a non-gaming PC and the investment to turn it into a respectable gaming machine that can last 3-4 years and offer visuals on par with consoles is about that 300$ a console cost. With the savings on PC games that are generally cheaper i really don't see how PC gaming is more expensive than console gaming.

This is a great point that most people miss. Another point that many people miss is that the cost of the TV that comes along with those $300 consoles. A decently sized LCD television costs in the neighborhood of $1000 (yes there certainly are cheaper sets but most of them are smaller, budget LCDs that are usually not worth getting), and can be upwards of $2000-3000+ if you want to purchase a really nice set. How often do people buy TVs? I bet 3-4 years wouldn't be an unreasonable time frame?

Well really a solid LCD in a decent size is no more than 600-700 these days, pretty much anyone can afford them, in fact, I don't event they sell tube-TVs in most stores anymore. As for how often, well I've owned one HDTV for 4 years already and it doesn't show a single sign of wear, or degradation, it's as nice as the day I bought it. You also have to consider the fact that basically everyone has a TV of some kind, which every console will work on. Not everyone has monitors lying around, PC sales are overwhelmingly dominated by laptop sales, and fewer people have desktop and desktop monitors, so it's a very expensive initial investment.

Also yeah If not for the games I wouldn't own a PC at all. It's the only reason I would bother with one. I'm usually working on macbook pros, and iPads. So a 1400$ gaming console, not exactly cheap.

@Video_Game_King said:

@Mcfart said:

My 4 year old rig could play pretty much anything at highest...Crysis 1 could run on Medium High.

Nice way to contradict yourself.

He said, "pretty much anything", leaving plenty of space for Crysis to NOT fit into that category.

@RetroMetal:

But it was four years ago, and back then, Crysis was the benchmark for PC power. If you say that your PC could run anything, Crysis better be in there

@RetroMetal:

But it was four years ago, and back then, Crysis was the benchmark for PC power. If you say that your PC could run anything, Crysis better be in there

@Video_Game_King: Still, his lead-in was "pretty much anything". To me that would probably mean something like "everything but the most upper-end games", which would still include Crysis.

But I don't want to argue semantics here.

I don't think that's really a good reason, but it's certainly a barrier to entry.

stop buying cheap shit. This is the rule for buying pretty much any electronic device, you buy mid-to-high instead of low-to-mid and you have less problems as a result.

I gave my friend my old 8800GTX which came out in 2007 and he still get great framerates on it.

You not knowing what to buy =/= PC gaming is dying, I'm sorry but do some fucking research before buying crap like the 8800gt

The people that say PC gaming is dying are the same people that said the world was going to end on May 21, 2011.

Here's why McFart is a moron. 

@Crono: Was? What year is this, where am I!?

Oh look, another one of these. "PC gaming is dying because I don't know how to PC game."

Your "five year old" rig is not five years old. My five year old rig is a Q6600 with 4 gigs of RAM and an 8800GT. Guess what? It still runs modern games just fine. As long as we have six year old consoles, your 5 year old machine should be fine.

Excluding The Witcher 2 of course. It's a real PC game.

@Mcfart: Well said! If you keep saying the same thing for 10 more years, maybe it eventually will be true! It wasn't 10 years ago, it ain't now...but maybe one day!

Considering I can play most games on my laptop (which I need for school, and therefore own regardless of video games), I think your ideas are stupid.

$1000 every three to four years? What are you the worst PC gamer ever? Try $2000 ever other year.

That said, PC gaming isn't dying just because you happen to be poor.

PC gaming is more popular than ever. Sure it's a smaller market than the consoles now, but it has done nothing but grow as the gaming market has.

So sick of these threads where someone who can't afford PC gaming hypothesizes on the demise of the platform. If you can't afford it, use the consoles instead. They are a perfectly viable way to play games.

I'm just gonna go over here and play some StarCraft II; don't mind me.

GUYS...guys... stop playing games on your PCs, just to make OP happy.

I'm certain it was mentioned on several occasions that Battlefield 3's leading platform is the PC.

We have Steam...it's not going to die anytime soon.

PC gaming has always been like this. ALWAYS. You get 12 months max to run games maxed out, another 12 to run games good-decently, and if you're lucky another 12 to just run them. After that you upgrade, why are you whining?

Think of the money you save on games on a pc, most of them become super cheap on steam and other digital services.

You are a moron.

Now go fuck yourself.

PC gaming has always been like this. ALWAYS. You get 12 months max to run games maxed out, another 12 to run games good-decently, and if you're lucky another 12 to just run them. After that you upgrade, why are you whining?

Google such term as Overclocking. As a "PC gamer" it's pretty much your duty to learn to build custom rig with decent cooling.

I run 4-year old PC with E6750. I started like you with 2GB of RAM and 8800 GTS. Upgrade to 4GB was pretty cheap few years ago and you can pick up decent video card for $100-200 right now.

Right now I run E6750 @ 3.4Ghz, GTX 460 (1GB) with 4GB of DDR2 RAM. It runs every game on max easily. Total $ spent on upgrade over 4 years - around $300.

I will probably squeeze out another year out of this rig, then I will spend around $700 to get new Mobo/CPU/RAM and keep the rest.

$1000 every three to four years? What are you the worst PC gamer ever? Try $2000 ever other year.

That said, PC gaming isn't dying just because you happen to be poor.

PC gaming is more popular than ever. Sure it's a smaller market than the consoles now, but it has done nothing but grow as the gaming market has.

So sick of these threads where someone who can't afford PC gaming hypothesizes on the demise of the platform. If you can't afford it, use the consoles instead. They are a perfectly viable way to play games.

PC Gaming is not necessarily dying, it's definitely changing. Indie games are often really neat, and cheap, and will run on a lot of hardware. My friend has a rig that he's been upgrading a little bit over time. He's got an E6600, 4GB of RAM, and an HD 5570(he's gone X1650=>HD3650=>HD5570. It won't run most stuff at 1080p, but it'll run things at his resolution (1440x900 or 1600x900, depending on which monitor he's using) on medium with some high settings.

A lot of the games I'm really excited about on PC aren't necessarily big AAA titles, I'm excited about BF3, but I'm becoming more interested in stuff like Super Meat Boy and free to play games (especially TF2 now, I bought it almost a year before it went free, but I really jumped in when it went free). I don't really care too much about stuff like CoD any more, it just feels the same all the time. I'll probably buy it at some point when it's on sale, but I don't care enough to get most AAA titles immediately on release. I'm not even going to buy BF3 on release day at this point.

2.1 Ghz and 2 GB of RAM? I can certainly understand why your PC gaming is dying. The rest of the worlds? Not so much.

@Video_Game_King said:

@Mcfart said:

My 4 year old rig could play pretty much anything at highest...Crysis 1 could run on Medium High.

Nice way to contradict yourself.

Ha!

@JA050N said:

People have been saying pc gaming is dying every year for the past 10 years.

Hell of a death bed then.

But seriously, PC gaming isn't dying. Just because you can't play some games on your PC, it doesn't mean PC gaming is dying. I can't play a lot of games at all on my PC, but that doesn't make me bitch about how PC gaming is dying.

@Mcfart said:

Warning: Rant Incoming:

My 4 year old rig can hardly play today's games such as The Witcher 2 and the BF3 beta. 4 years ago, it could play pretty much anything at highest: C2D E6400 @ 2.1GHZ, 2GB RAM, and a 7600GS that I upgraded to an 8800GT. This rig cost about $1200 after taxes in total. 4 years later, it can barely play games at Low settings. Even BC2, a 2 year old game, had to be forced on Low. GTA4 wasn't even playable then. Crysis 1 could run on Medium High. Crysis 2 ran sub-30 at low.

PC's have such a high turnover rate compared to consoles that it's crazy. The reason that we don't have the NextBox and the PS4 yet is because of the economy, yet shoddy PC ports (yes, BF3 is a port, Witcher 2 is an exception), force PC players to spend aprox. $1000 every 3-4 years to run the latest games without having them look like Doom 1 at 25 FPS. That's why PC gaming is dying: they are way to costly to keep in line compared to consoles and unless you need a powerful PC for work, then it's $850+ for practically a "console". This is compared to a $100 Xbox (on sale nearly every week), and a $300 PS3...

This also contributes to piracy, because the first question people ask about a PC game these days is: "Will it work on my Rig?" And shoddy ports/varied configs discourage people from dropping 60 clams on it, rather first preferring to "test" it (this ain't XBLA, most games don't have demos, just shoddy "betas" where you fall through the floor).

I wish consoles could have mouse/keyboard configs, then I'd convert to them for my FPSES.

That rig is older than 4 years, its about 6 (at least the parts are) I know because I have almost the exact same rig and I built mine in 2005.

Anyways, 18 months. That's about how long it lasts, how long it has always lasted. The good thing is since most of the games out today are console ports, the PC will last much longer than it did even a few years ago. The only games that really push the limits of hardware are the AAA PC titles (BF3, Startcraft 2..) and those are few and far between these days.

I'm currently thinking about building myself a gaming pc to supplement my aging 360. There are so many parts and different configurations plus manufacturers it really intimidates me. I don't want to pay to much for hardware that isn't going to give me the most bang for my buck. I also want a pc I can hook up and utilize through my television. I simply will not sit at a desk to game so that is a issue for me as well. This is what's holding me back from purchasing one. I enjoy my 360 and my PS3 but I do realize that some experiences BF3 and Witcher 2 really shine on PC hardware. Plus in regards to my 360 I really don't feel the need to own one since there exclusives I've never really went all out for. So a gaming PC would solve my issues when it comes to multiplat releases with my Sony console for it's exclusives. I'm hoping come tax time to drop around 800 on some parts and hopefully I can set myself up for the next few years.

PC gaming was dying, about five years ago. But it had nothing to do with the PC upgrade cycle (which has been as it is for twenty years now, especially since the advent of 3D graphics chips). Mostly it had to do with the structure of the market, the way people purchase and play games. Most of that has since been fixed. The truth is, there's too much money in PC gaming for it to die. It just had a rough go of it for awhile. PC gaming has survived worse lulls in the past. And while I think PC gaming is going to take a second-seat to console gaming until something else changes, it's not going to die off any time soon.

I was building new PCs every two-three years from about 1992-2006, with minor upgrades in between. I rarely spent more than $700. I reused a lot of components: chassis, hard drives, monitors, CD/DVD drives, cables. Newegg was a dear friend of mine. In the end, I didn't quit PC gaming because of the cost of upgrades so much as that I just didn't have time to keep up with components. I use a laptop for most of my heavy computing, and it's not suited for games. So I switched to consoles.

PC gaming right now is thriving, mostly because of Steam, a burgeoning market in retro and indie gaming, and developers willing to put the time into making PC games take advantage of that new hardware that will eventually find its way into consoles. PC game sales aren't quite what they once were, but the early decline in the last decade has flattened and now looks to be snapping back, despite the lousy economy. I think things look good for PC gaming right now.

@Jazzycola said:

Edit: Oh and why is this in off-topic. Isn't this a PC board thread?

Because the OP is too much an elitist for the PC board thread.

What I don't get is why people are always saying how PC gamers are always elitists coming in to threads and saying consoles are inferior. Especially when they make threads like this complaining about PC's and how they're dying and not worth it etc.

Gateway 6800-0e1 I bought in dec 2009 for $1200.00 USD

• i7-920
• 3GB DDR3 (upgraded to 6GB)
• Radeon 4850 (upgraded to 285GTX last BFGtech card they made w/factory overclock)

I still run games maxed out (save for games like Witcher 2 and Metro 2033). I can foresee not having to upgrade for at least another year or two and by upgrade I mean get a new graphics card. The reason I even bought a pre-built machine is because I was at the point where I didn't feel like getting all the parts and doing the labor so I knew I was going to be paying a bit of a premium. I have to say the machine has been serving me well. It's a dream to edit video and encode them. Audio encoding is lighting fast too. The only reason I want to upgrade the graphics card is to get DX11 features, but since DX12 and windows 8 is coming out I think I'll wait.

The one thing consoles did good was slow down the graphics race that was going on around 06-09. We hit this nice technology wall where where we don't need to upgrade every 6 months.

@Jams: You are blinded by your elitism!

@Mcfart said:

My 4 year old rig can hardly play today's games

I am stunned.

@Mcfart said:

Warning: Rant Incoming:

My 4 year old rig can hardly play today's games such as The Witcher 2 and the BF3 beta. 4 years ago, it could play pretty much anything at highest: C2D E6400 @ 2.1GHZ, 2GB RAM, and a 7600GS that I upgraded to an 8800GT. This rig cost about $1200 after taxes in total. 4 years later, it can barely play games at Low settings. Even BC2, a 2 year old game, had to be forced on Low. GTA4 wasn't even playable then. Crysis 1 could run on Medium High. Crysis 2 ran sub-30 at low.

PC's have such a high turnover rate compared to consoles that it's crazy. The reason that we don't have the NextBox and the PS4 yet is because of the economy, yet shoddy PC ports (yes, BF3 is a port, Witcher 2 is an exception), force PC players to spend aprox. $1000 every 3-4 years to run the latest games without having them look like Doom 1 at 25 FPS. That's why PC gaming is dying: they are way to costly to keep in line compared to consoles and unless you need a powerful PC for work, then it's $850+ for practically a "console". This is compared to a $100 Xbox (on sale nearly every week), and a $300 PS3...

This also contributes to piracy, because the first question people ask about a PC game these days is: "Will it work on my Rig?" And shoddy ports/varied configs discourage people from dropping 60 clams on it, rather first preferring to "test" it (this ain't XBLA, most games don't have demos, just shoddy "betas" where you fall through the floor).

I wish consoles could have mouse/keyboard configs, then I'd convert to them for my FPSES.

PC gaming isn't dying you reject. Articles asking the same question were posted on IGN ten years ago, and guess what? PC gaming is still here.

Your PC wasn't even very high-end in 2007 so I have no idea why you would expect it to still fair well in 2011.

I thought most people enjoyed upgrading their computers.

People who think PC gaming is expensive today obviously aren't old enough to remember when anything under $1000 would only get you a stripped-down PC just barely capable of surfing the web, and it wasn't that long ago.