The Future Is 4K and It's the PC Not Next-Gen Leading the Charge

There was a time, back in the late nineties and early noughties, when console graphics were king.

[decrypt]

"back in the late nineties and early noughties, when console graphics were king"

Sorry but the only king i remember back in the mid to late 90's was 3DFX. No console could touch the performance of a 3DFX Voodoo chip back in the day. 3DFX Voodoo 2 in SLI was already playing games in 1024*768 60fps on most games (about 720p) back in 1998 lol. Meanwhile consoles started playing games in 720p only with the PS3 Xbox 360 gen in 2006.

[DEATHSTROKE-cro-]

what does it mean to have a 720p game in 1998 if all games had graphics that looked like shit ?!

upscaled shit ? haha

[shivvy24]

@decrypt , whats the point having a 3DFX ! the hd tv/monitor back then would have cost like 15000$

[n4rc]

CRT monitors always displayed crazy resolutions.. 1600x1200 etc

[decrypt]

@shivvy24

People had monitors back then which were capable of outputting 1600*1200 res.

Hence many people were easily enjoying 1024*768 gaming back then.

Hell by 2000 PC graphics were easily powerful enough to run most games at 1600*1200 which is about 1080p of today. Yet console gamers 14 years later still are hoping to get most of their games in 1080p. Just shows how backward console gaming really is lol.

[Yodagamer]

Actually the original xbox was able to output 720p. Heck my first 720p game was xmen legends 2. I loved that series XD

[Baka-akaB]

The 3dfx voodo 2 came in late . For a short while its was a blood bath between various 3d chips , the early direct 3d and open gl cards , and the playstation among other things had a lead . Except of course over resolutions where pc was always leading anyway .

it was an era where Ati was painfully trying to run Saturn and arcade sega port with much difficulties .

3dfx Slaughtered them , but it took a while .

[AgentSmithPS4]

Wow so if I pay more I get more?

[DEATHSTROKE-cro-]

a 3000$ PC can render in 4k and a 400$ console can't?
wow!!!

I'm getting my wallet and buying a 4K PC right now -__-

[nick309]

Its well known that pcs do better at graphics and performance vs consoles, but pc lacks good exclusives.

[shivvy24]

thats the reason i game on consoles, pc has its exclusives but im not into them like the PS/xbox exclusives ! but i am considering getting a gaming pc for titanfall and the amazing steam sales they always have

[Einhert]

PC has and has had plenty of fantastic exclusives, some have been ported to console like the Witcher series.

I'm not saying your opinion is wrong but in terms of exclusives on PC there is plenty of fantastic games particularly from indie developers (as Sony keenly spotted).

The total War series
Wargame Airland Battle
Sins of a Solar Empire
Rising Storm
Primal Carnage
natural Selection II
Guild Wars 2
Arma Series
Amnesia Series
Stalker Series
Project Cars
Kerbal Space Program
hundreds more titles....

And a myriad of older exclusives and games kept up to date and fresh with mods.

To say none of those are "good" would make me dubious.

[Jovanian]

Lacks good exclusives, I don't agree with such a sweeping statement.

Not only does it have some of the most unique and varied exclusives, but modding too, imo, is exclusive in its own right. Find me a medieval combat simulator like Mount and Blade Warband on console, find me a musket-line multiplayer mod like Napoleonic wars, find me an open world game with as much immersion and hardcoreness as stalker, find a game like papers please one of the most unique indie games I've played (which isn't playable with a controller, btw, unless you want your family to starve to death). Find me a game like the stanley parable, a mod for HL2, find me a game mode like Zombie Escape on CSS, probably my most favorite zombie game of all time. Both console and PC have exclusives that are good and bad in their own right, no platform has 'the best', although it can be said PC has a very large collection of exclusives that are varied as well, whereas console has exclusives that are from AAA developers where you more or less know what to expect from game to game.

Example: 'Oh, heres game X. Its made by developer Y, so its gonna be similar to their earlier games. Game X sold well so its going to be made into a trilogy. Each game in the trilogy will build on the first.'

These exclusives are indeed good, but I just feel it lacks the variety of PC exclusives, it lacks the suprise factor and the unique factor that you can only get with small cult classic game releases that would have never been attempted by a big time developer.

[DoctorJones]

This is the game I'm most looking forward to now at the end of the year, and you won't find anything like it on consoles, current gen or next. And it's only on pc.

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

There are loads of other exclusives on pc, many of which are genres not available on console at all.

Don't come here and tell us there are no good exclusives on pc, because that's just a load of crap. You might not be interested in them, but it doesn't mean they aren't good.

[Are_The_MaDNess]

Dota 2 and CS is all you need for Exclusives when it comes to PC.

(and dont say CSGO is on consoles, its NOT the same game)

[webeblazing]

don't try to teach them anything they think only thing pc gamers do is talk about gfx even tho a lot of successful game don't even have the best gfx and let not talk about a the games that console gamers love that use to be exclusive

[decrypt]

Dont need a 3000usd PC to run games in 4K. A well designed 800usd PC can easily run games in 4k.

And btw we had great games back in 1998 which looked amazing for their time:

Quake 2, Unreal, Half Life just to mention a few, nothing on console rivaled those games back then.

@Nick309

Pc has more exclusive than any console out there. Check Dota 2 its bloody amazing.

[tontontam0]

yeah $800 pc could probably run minecraft at 4k

haha

[shutUpAndTakeMyMoney]

Why are u making up numbers?

AMD Mantle could destroy consoles.

Being able to upgrade and still have console level optimization will make console look so behind mor ethan they already are.
http://semiaccurate.com/201...
https://semiaccurate.com/as...

Seems that is the real future.

[2cents]

Future yes, right now? No.

[FrigidDARKNESS]

The new AMD Volcanic Island R290 is capable of doing 4k native resolution at 599.00.

The xbox one is capable of doing Native 4k resolution aswel as playing 4k blu ray movies at launch.

http://www.polygon.com/2013...
http://www.polygon.

[JimmyLmao]

sweet, so are you going to just buy the graphics card for $599 and plug it into you TV? that's all?

[FrigidDARKNESS]

Well i want that r290 g card because it out performs Nvidias top of the line cards at an affordable price. Developers haven't started making Native 4k games so it will be a year or two before we see them.

[Hicken]

By "native" 4k, you must mean movies. Cuz neither of the consoles is capable of 4k gaming.

Nice links.

[Idba]

Well, i can watch 4k movies on my ps3, so there is that :P

[sandman224]

I'm sure Xbox one and ps4 can easily do 4k games but it will never happen due to framerate. And if it does happen I'll be shocked.

[Fishy Fingers]

Contradiction. If it can't render 4k at an exceptable frame rate then it can't really "play" games in 4k can it.

[Baka-akaB]

lol there is nothing easy if it can't with a decent and playable framerate and accepted level of graphic fidelity .

it was the same with the ps3 mostly able to truly do 1080p with small indie stuff

[Wintersun616]

Another one of these "PC is more powerful than console" articles?

Thanks, Captain Obvious.

[Saryk]

My C-64 can run, blah, blah , blah!

[CocoWolfie]

if pc's can offer that affordability to what 'next gen' is then the more too it!

[decrypt]

Its actually cheaper than owning a console lol. Console gaming is much more expensive.

[Idba]

No it isnt

[Jovanian]

@Idba

Console gaming is almost as expensive in the long run as PC gaming, maybe even exceeding it.

Just think, paying for online multiplayer for the 9-10 year life of your console is like 500 dollars, give or take months you don't buy it so lets say 350. 350+400 is 750 right there accumulated over time. Now we have to include the price of upgrading your console to newer versions, which believe it or not, is extremely common, despite console players harking on about how they hate having to upgrade things. Most, if not all, of my friends on console have gone through at LEAST one console in this gen, be it lost due to hardware failure (RROD or BLOD) or due to trading it in for a console with more memory and slimmer, lets say that over the consoles life time 100 dollars will be spent on upgrading it in some regard. Now thats 850. On average, PC games are cheaper than console games, so you also factor that in and by the end of a consoles lifetime, you've got a cost comparable to a med-high-end PC.

The PC does a lot more than the console, too, such as the ability to launch software and do work on it and browse the internet, things that the console can do but isn't really practical for general browsing. So you've got to get some sort of computer, be it a bottom of the barrel cheap as heck desktop or laptop.

People only look at the initial price of 400 and fail to see how things accumulate over the years. It's a very common marketing practice

[Mills93]

@Swadian Good points I liked your post, though I think your forgetting about having to buy the new upgrades for your PC where as with a console the only real upgrades are bigger HDD or a slim version

[Jovanian]

@Mills93

Yes you are right, but people go about upgrading their PC in a few different ways that end up equaling the prices I was talking about in my comment. You could buy a high end build at the start of a console generation and then either upgrade it along the way or wait the duration of the generation and then get another high end build. These are just examples, as many are different. My main point was that the cost of doing these micro upgrades or bulk upgrades is around the price you spend on console gaming in the same time interval

[webeblazing]

don't console gamers upgrade too, by buying a new console every gen and you don't have upgrade your pc everytime a new gfx card come out and you don't have to play every game on max. I been playing on a gtx 460 for the longest it plays most of the games today on max settings between 30-60 fps. but I can drop the res or some settings to make frame rate go up (options). seem console gamers are more concern about gfx

[claud3]

No need for this rubbish 4k crap, HAPPY WITH MY 32" INCH T.V

[Fishy Fingers]

Let's be honest, if you want to play games on the bleeding edge of consumer technology those games need to be powered by bleeding edge machines. That's not going to be a system that's build on a budget (consoles).

[Einhert]

So much misinformed bull in every PC article

"PC has no good exclusives" - Oh is that why PS4 was looking to the PC indie market? Is that why last year PC games software alone made 20 billion? ok..

"Need a 2K PC" - I built my own for under £800 which is already ahead of xbox one and PS4 in terms of specs and the games I play on there already look better. Making this stupid argument says only one thing to me, you lack any sort of money to enjoy yourself because if you were any sort of real gamer you would investigate the best every platform has to offer.

[webeblazing]

don't tell them nothing being in denial makes them feel better

[shahab91]

4k FTW =)

[MrDead]

No the future is 8K. NHK is skipping 4K and going straight to 8K as 4K will be to short lived to even bother investing in.

[Baka-akaB]

It's only trial broadcasting and to force later adoption for the industry ... beside 8k is currently useless on screens below 50"