It only took a GTX 760 and Bioshock Infite, but I don't think I can go back. I am seriously considering canceling my Xbox One to upgrade my case and a few other components. I was blown away at the size of the GPU when it arrived yesterday! BARELY fits in the case I have but, thank god it does because I've never seen a game look so amazing. I am going to go broke buying games I've already played just to see the difference. This is like playing in a whole other universe! Can't believe I've been missing out on so much for so long.

Edit: I still plan on getting both consoles in the future, I've just been a "Day One" buyer since the N64 days. Now that I have a competent PC, I'm just considering investing my money that is currently set aside for xbox one, into my new rig. Can't think of any launch day console exclusives that I can't live without. Figure I'll have both consoles within a year of launch either way. I love my gaming.

That sucks, dude.

Hi Brad.

Just cancel your life while you're at it. Master Race has no needs other than to eat graphix.

Welcome. You can find your membership card in the corner along with a rail-gun. There's a recycle bin for controllers down the hall.

@mars: but seriously you should monitor your GPU/CPU temps. If they're not good then you should upgrade the case ASAP.

Sorry to hear that.

The day i become a "elitist" and restrict myself to 1 platform is the day i stop playing games all together.

I believe you must not go to the GTA V forum and make or respond to a thread about the game running like garbage on consoles before your membership is finalized.

Either that, or you must contribute one more comma point to this:

The PC (Personal Computer) is a highly configurable and upgradable gaming platform that, among home systems, sports the widest variety of control methods, largest library of games, and cutting edge graphics and sound capabilities.

Like how PC's can play solitaire for free or something similarly vain.

brad is a smart man

Yep. Welcome to the club. Check out Borderlands 2 with SweetFX:

If you aren't familiar with it, SweetFX is a visual filter you can drop into just about any game to modify color, brightness, lighting, sharpness, AA, etc. All you have to do is copy a 2MB folder into the directory where the .exe of the game is stored, then edit the SweetFX.config file with the settings you want to use. Here is the SweetFX config database - lots of games and multiple configurations per game.

Dishonored was another one that blew me away with SweetFX turned on. I wound up reusing that config for Diablo 3 as well.

@mars: Well, the great thing about switching to PC is that plenty of games that are still $20 or $30 on consoles are only $5 on Steam or elsewhere as downloads. You might go broke, but you'll get a lot of bang for your buck.

And to match up with what someone else said, if you have a big GPU and a crappy case, you'll definitely want to get some kind of GPU temperature monitor, as those things can overheat right quick if they're not ventilated properly. Worst comes to worst, you can take the side of your case off and point a fan in there; it'll generate a lot of dust in the case but it works well as a ghetto solution.

I built my first rig this past year too and my ps3 has just been sitting there ever since. Granted most of that is my fear of it finally exploding (launch 60gb) but my pc has quickly become my primary gaming platform. It's also made me completely unable to play shooters with a controller. Not only the mouse/keyboard superiority (I SAID IT) but also the lack of tweaking ability on consoles. I felt really dumb when I played the killzone vita beta and immediately looked for an fov setting. facepalm.

Also Dota. All the Dota.

Welcome to the fun zone. I'm not sure if I'm going to get a next gen console. At least not for a while. Even if my computer ends up not running games as well as a console, I just prefer the experience. I can choose to knock the graphics down to get the framerate up, something I can't choose on consoles.

I can spend the money of a new console on my current computer and get a massive boost in performance.

Also where is Geralt's hair going?

Bye hair!

Acknowledging that PCs perform better than consoles does not make you an "elitist." Its a fact. Don't let anyone make you feel bad for knowing it.

You'll come back. It may take awhile but you'll come back I think everyone who finally gets a gaming worthy PC for the first time always has that HOLY SHIT WHAT HAVE I BEEN MISSING! Sort of reaction to it. There are enough exclusive things that are awesome on consoles that you'd be just cheating yourself in the long run if you didn't get at least one of the new consoles eventually. That being said enjoy your new rig. Gaming on PC is hella fun.

They come back once those components age out and suddenly you have to drop another $600 to fuel your 60 FPS addiction.

@slaegar: You should see Geralt's face.

@humanity said:

Except you'll actually spend $400 on a brand new GTX 770. The same price as a PS4. Then get far more power out of it than a new console as well as enjoy all of your older titles. I've been playing a lot of Elder Scrolls 3 Morrowind in 1920x1080 with fancy extra textures and tons of SSAA.

Welcome to the fold, (slowly pitches down) we are your frieeeeeendzzzzzz.....

Yeah a brand new graphics card is pretty awesome, if not there is always:

If the PC has been built in the last couple years then the only thing that will be needed to be upgraded throughout the next gen will be the video card so $600 is a gross overestimation and it's not like it's a yearly upgrade either, it's perfectly reasonably when you have Steam and other PC sales to balance things out.

Also "they" is a generalization but I'm sure you didn't mean it like that because the people who would be "addicted" to 60 won't ever ditch PC because consoles are more simple.

I do agree with Demo though, eventually the consoles will build up a library of exclusives that are worth looking at which is why I wouldn't ever go solely for PC and nothing else but I can wait for the next gen boxes to build up that library first.

@probablytuna: Great. Now I'll never not be having nightmares.

Apparently if you get your hands on a Mercedes you become some sort of Mercedes elitist because you prefer riding it than some Honda car.

Elitism, it sure is a bitch!

Admitting games on PC look better than on console doesn't make you an elitist. It's a fact, and anyone who says otherwise is an imbecile.

One thing that also seems to always be unmentioned (didn't see it in this thread, but may have missed it) is mods. Just look at all of the TES games. They can add so much more to game. Friggin' GameSpot is still doing their Top 5 Skyrim Mods every week.

It not only can make your games last longer, but it can also be an unexpected hobby.

@colourful_hippie:

I can't love this picture enough

My condolences.

There is something else than PC? You mean Mac? who uses that!? haha!

PC's perform better than consoles. And every five years (ok this current cycle has been 8 years) the consoles catch up.

If you chart power over time, the PC is a solid diagonal line, and consoles look like a set of stairs, with the two lines meeting every time theres a new console generation. PC is based on gradual improvement year after year, while consoles do rapid jumps with each release.

That said, if you chart power per dollar, the console wins. Every single time. This is as much a fact as the above. You aren't going to build something that runs like a next gen console for $400.

All of the reasons I own a gaming PC aren't because it's better or related to the cost though, it's freedom and control. I like the idea of customizing and tinkering with it and modding my games or running dedicated servers.

By "they" I of course meant the unkempt, unwashed, glutinous PC masses, salivating over their petri dish Cheetos filled keyboards at how smooth the edges of their polygonal characters look.

In all seriousness, $600 is really high balling it of course. If you want to stay at the very top of your game - as in everything always set to max with no frame drops (granted the game is optimized of course) then you probably only need to swap out your OC high end video card every 2 years, maybe every year and a half if you're really obsessed about performance, and even then there simply might not be a new card out on the market yet. Ram you kinda shove in 16gb and you're good to go. A decent motherboard will also last a long time unless they release a video card with a new PCIe speed then of course you need to get that as well.

So yah, realistically like $300-400 every 2 years or a bit more.

@mars WELCOME, BROTHER! No more will you suffer potential eye-strain when looking at blurry textures and jaggy models! No more will you have to gaze upon a video output meant for ants! A new dawn is coming!

A PC elitist is someone who looks at console players and says, "Ha! What losers!" You aren't at that point, hopefully.

I dunno, the recent spate of "Microsoft released more STATS OMG" threads popping up all over, lets just say that fanboys are to blame instead of suggesting it is an attitude exclusive to PC gamer.

Welcome to the fold, brother. Listen not to the plebes, the chaff, the chuds. You have joined a sacred group for people who like to play actually good video games that don't suck.

If you are going to be an elitist you should probably learn how to spell it.

Welcome. And yes, cancel your XB1 pre-order. There's very little sense in jumping on the new console gen day one when you have a capable PC. If money's at all an object for you, it would even be, dare I say, really stupid. Wait for a good lineup of exclusives and a price drop or two, then jump on board. That's my plan with the PS4, and eventually probably Xbone too. In the meantime, maybe upgrade your video card after another generation or two, and then you'll far and away have a more powerful machine than the new consoles.

Welcome, brother. Enjoy the Steam sales.

Come on, bro, don't be that guy.

"pfft... only a GTX 760?" - An actual PC elitist

Welcome my good man. The same thing happened to me a year and a half ago, and I now have spent around 1200 dollars and have a very respectable rig.

Anyways, the high resolution is what did it for me, those high res. textures just make it impossible to go back. Oh yeah, and 60 frames per second. Games just feel so incredibly smooth. You need to check out Skyrim with intense graphics mods as well as some eye candy games like the Witcher 2 and Metro Last Light. Plus, ignore the console boys that "feel sorry" for you. Haha.

@tycobb: A controller have been a part of a gaming PC this the beginning of time, do not toss away controllers. Keyboard and mouse isn't PC gaming, the options to use whatever fits the best is PC gaming.

@mars And to really see what PC gaming is about, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKlzQSANFZs get every single mod and play some Skyrim like it was meant to be played, and not the the shitty looking game SOMEONE gave us. This runs fairly well, at least for me, but I am running a very beefy system. Also, a warning, you might need to use some time in some ini files to make it run stable, due to Skyrim's artifical 3.1GB memory usage. Run over 3.1GB and chances are you're going to get a bunch of CTD, thanks a lot Bethesad.

@cymatics: It was a joke... I have a controller hooked up to my computer.

@tycobb: Well, sorry then, but you never know anymore, with all the whine going around about Brothers A tale of Two Sons and it needing the controller. . After having played it, I can understand why there is no K/M support for this game.

If you only got a 760, the new consoles are probably going to look as good and probably better.

@leebmx: Ouch! As a grammar nazi myself, that stung!

@darthorange said:

@colourful_hippie said:

But don't you see? That's the before picture. Once he booted, he became supreme like in Colourful_Hippie's picture.

I agree that having a current gaming PC really cools the hype for the next gen consoles. I feel comfortable knowing that I can wait and see how the launches play out. Then catch a great black friday deal in 2014.

Yup, 770 is the bare minimum if someone wants to be ready for the beginning of the next gen. No way you're going to have high end 1080p play with high framerates on a 760