New Consoles Are Coming, What Does It Mean For PC Gamers?

GC writes - New consoles are being released by Sony and Microsoft in November if we can trust the rumors. Sony will launch the Playstation 4 and Microsoft, the next Xbox which has not been revealed yet.

As announced in february by Sony, the PS4 uses a PC architecture. Eight cores running at 1.6GHz AMD “Jaguar”, 8GB GDDR5, AMD Radeon Graphics and other nice things like W-Lan and a Blu-Ray player.

Nothing is sure for the Xbox, but it will also be a PC-like architecture rumored to be as following: Eight cores running at 1.6GHz AMD “Jaguar”, 8GB DDR3 and 32MR ESRAM, AMD Radeon Graphics.

[Snookies12]

As a PC gamer, it means I'll have new consoles and my PC. I like being able to play any game that piques my interest. :]

Sure I don't have a lot of money for other things, but gaming is an expensive hobby lol.

[PS-Analog]

That's the smart way and, like you said, the expensive option too. If I can get all 3 plus the Wii U, I would be 1 happy gamer.

[ShinMaster]

New consoles push PCs.

[decrypt]

Arrival of new consoles is exciting for PC gamers, because developers these days tend to keep consoles as the lowest denominator. Hence more powerful consoles coming is always welcome. Infact i hope Sony and MS dont make much of a loss this round and are able to provide newer consoles on a 5 year interval instead of the 7 years we have seen this gen.

I cant speak for other PC gamers, but personally for me PC just offers too many games and the reason i keep buying multiplats on the PC is because of the BC the platform offers. I have over 175 games on my Steam library and it only gets bigger as time goes on. Hence it leaves me with very little time to play anything else. I am not interested in 8 hour linear SP campaigns. I would pick up a next gen console for the exclusives but really those exclusives would have to be something different not just 8 hour games. I would like to see something revolutionary like Dayz, Dota etc to convince me to pick up a next gen console. So far i dont see any of that on the next gen consoles, well its too early to tell anyways.

I am just happy new consoles are on their way, which means PC hardware being pushed too.

[T900]

Console fans these days just getting desperate to sway people from PC gaming.

"Since consoles use unified memory as we’ve seen before, graphics might be the point where consoles have the upper-hand. Graphic Cards for PCs usually have 2GB GDDR5 which means this could be a problem in the long run."

Well yes the console will come with 8GB of memory, however 2 gigs of that goes off to the OS. reduce another 2-3 gigs for the game itself. Then what you are left with is about 2-3 gigs for VRAM.

Question is What res and textures sizes do you expect the consoles to run to use all that RAM. With most games still targeted at 720p or 1080p, It would be difficult to imagine consoles actually using more than 1.5-2 Gigs as VRAM. Even then if developers chose to go beyond this, the GPU would quickly become a bottle neck and all you would get is a slide show. Hence no PC GPUs with 1.5 - 2 Gigs of Vram wont be becoming a bottleneck.

"PC gamers might as well save all the trouble and buy a console instead."

Why would we give up all the freedom we have and go console as main platform?

No mods, no upgrade options, No BC.

Looks like a sad console fan article to me.

[socks]

PCs have been bleeding for decades. No push from a terrible article is required.

[MysticStrummer]

"Console fans these days just getting desperate to sway people from PC gaming."

That's pretty hilarious given the number of PC gamers who haunt console articles on here, trying desperately to talk people into gaming on PC.

[cayleee]

@Mystic

So why are seeing articles saying:

"PC gamers might as well save all the trouble and buy a console instead."

If thats not desperate what is?

Also the only reason PC gamers appear in console articles when console gamers spread misinformation like PS4 = High end PC.

Now a 1.6Ghz tablet CPU is considered high end really?

[cayleee]

@Kratos_kills

"Yea it is because 100% of that 8 core 1.6Ghz APU is focused on by developers."

Yet you only have games running at 30fps.

Heres a little hint you could load up a PC with a I5 CPU and convert a video on it (that makes sure all 4 cores are used up), do the same on a AMD 8 core Desktop CPU, I5 will always win.

Heres a benchmark for you:

http://www.hardocp.com/arti...

Thats comparing a AMD 8 core desktop CPU with a intel 4 core Desktop CPU. Intel wins(both are running at 4ghz). Now imagine consoles are getting tablet cores only running at 1.6ghz. From a CPU perspective there is no contest no matter how you slice it.

Almost every PC gamer now has 4 core systems, Hence its not like Devs wont be using 4 cores on the PC. Hence even if they use 4 cores, PC will be way ahead of any console from a CPU perspective.

Now for the age old 512MB arguement. Does the PS3 feature an OS? can it be used for work? no it cant, its funny PS3 cant even do cross game chat. PC isnt just a games machine its a complete do it all machine hence requires the additional RAM for those purposes, that doesnt mean PC is inefficient.

Its the GPU that does most of the work when it comes to games. 8800GTX only comes with 768MB of RAM, thats not a whole lot more than 512 the PS3 comes with. PS3 does all games in 720p, 8800GTX manages all games in 1080p. Thats about 2x more pixels drawn with just a little more RAM. I would rather Argue its the PS3 thats inefficent by that measure.

[user7693958]

lol

[papashango]

the 8800gtx is pretty much all that needs to be said about hardware dedicated to gaming.

it debunked every talking point about the matter.

[ShinMaster]

@T900

Why get so defensive about a couple of articles?
We're talking about people like you always coming to console related articles to talk about specs and how consoles are so "low-end".

[AngelicIceDiamond]

I'll tell you what it means. It means PC fanboys will try and buy that super high end PC that was running BF4 so they can say they have the better version on every next gen game that gets released.

[stuna1]

Funny but true! We already are hearing how the PS4 is not comparable to a mid to low end pc! The fact is we get this! It's just that some prefer consoles over pcs and vice-a-versa.

[MrDead]

Amen brother, I pity the fool that limits themselves to the one option.

[JsonHenry]

I always love it when new consoles come out because it means for the next 3-4 years the PC will be pushed graphically (as a whole) before it starts to stagnate again towards the later years of the console's lifespan.

[TheXonySbox]

Eight cores running at 1.6GHz AMD

LMFAO thats terrible!!! hahahaha

[ATi_Elite]

New consoles mean NOTHING to me except another headache caused by misinformation and false truths.

OK Better multiplat games but Devs were ALREADY pushing to make better PC multiplat games as Dev have heard the complaints of PC gamers and have decided to have the features in multiplats that PC Gamers demand.

Oh I gotta listen to people Hype up features on their New Consoles like they are BRAND NEW TECH meanwhile I've been using said tech for years. Friggin Years!

Oh more Stupid PC vs. Console arguments. I swear these editors just Copy n Paste and just change the editors name on these stupid articles.

OH more stupid "PC Gaming is so expensive CRAP" meanwhile your about to shell out $500 for a new console that has NO BACKWARDS compatibility. SO when your x360/PS3 RROD/YLOD your SCREWED or shell out MORE cash to continue playing your current Gen Library of games.

OH now I have to endure people saying Killzone Shadow fall is the best looking game ever (even though clearly it is NOT) but just two minutes ago Graphics Don't matter when they realize 1080p 30fps is the limit of consoles.

Meanwhile I'm banging out games in 1600p 60 fps on ULTRA "But graphics don't matter".......two minutes ago "KZ:SF has Ray Tracing OMG no PC Game has Ray Tracing KZ:SF is totally better than any PC Game ever".....Quake Ray Traced years ago and Ray Tracing since HD4000/GTX200 series. "Oh but Graphics Don't matter"

So I'm sorry new consoles mean nothing to me but more FALSE and INCORRECT information of a certain demographics thinking consoles are some Brand New Tech when in fact they are just hashed together from old PC parts.

AMD APU, System using one Ram pool.....is ALL OLD, Tablets Cell phones and Desktops have already done it!

....and don't say new consoles push PC cause the greatest evolutions on PC this Gen was Kickstarter, Greenlight, and F2P allowing Devs and Gamers to have even more interaction together and finding a way to generate lots of revenue and curb piracy with F2P.

So instead of the TRUTH and articles detailing what Next Gen consoles have LEARNED from the PC and applying to themselves I gotta sit here and read these bullcrap articles as if consoles are the prototype of all this NEW TECH and Delivery Systems that I've been using for years.

It's Like Neil Armstrong listening to some Astronaut bragging about going to Space for the first time, Sorry Son I've Been there Done that and More!

[NastyLeftHook0]

not a damn thing.

ill play my ps4, pc gamers will play there pc.

[shutUpAndTakeMyMoney]

"not a damn thing.

ill play my ps4, pc gamers will play there pc."

well consider the fact that ps4 is x86 u still think It mean nothing?

I think this means ps4 will get mostly pc ports.

This means pc gamers will be treated like people finally.

Also if most games lead on pc then ps4 and 720 might not hold pc back? Nah it will we all know this.

[TheLyonKing]

Possible it could mean more support for PC gamers since the ps4 and 360 have PC like architecture. But the piracy in PC needs to be managed somehow.

[Blackdeath_663]

piracy is piracy. you can't change that, there is still a large enough market on the pc to make it profitable. besides its really easy to develop for pc since devs make the game on a pc in the first place. in reality devs don't loose much by developing for the pc the only thing they may need to invest time or money in is making a good port (options menu,making sure it runs at high resolution,making sure it runs smoothly on high fps etc...) this doesn't require a lot of work and can easily be outsourced like capcom has done with dmc which runs great on pc. also sales on pc take place on a much longer period of time, witcher 2 for example still gets loads of sales on pc even if its relatively old every time there is a discount on a game a bunch more sales are made. piracy isnt as big nowadays since there are very good services like steam and many other equivalents who sell cheap games so people don't need to pirate. i personally find my self more willing to pay on pc than i was a few years back

[MilkMan]

I cant see this meaning anything to PC gamers.
More games to port or play?

[MontyQ]

pc is the uber just think how many hundereds of ectra hours I got from fallout3 vegas and skyrim just from playing with mods and added quest lines ect. for me yes we all know pc cant be touched in the graphics area but its the mods that the awesome fans of these games put hundreds of hours into making that make some of them just amazing. Most of the ultra graphic mods for Bethesda games make the games look ten fold better then the way they shipped because of pc gamers who put their heart into doing this for free cheers to them

[iPad]

"Eight cores running at 1.6GHz..."

Only 1.6GHz???????

[Tundra]

Architecture and the utilization of those cores mean a lot more than its core speed.

[papashango]

Its AMD bro. Their architecture doesn't hold a candle to Intel.

Though one of my favorite modern cpu's used in my builds was the phenom II x4. I switched to I5 when it came out. AMD needs a miracle to compete

[TheXonySbox]

1.6 @ 8 cores = bad performance you will NOT get 1080p @ 60 fps with that crap.

I dont see how its even possible.
Consoles are junk, lowend hardware with lowend results.

[Tundra]

While not going into full detail, I'm right. See: lower clocked I5s beating AMD fx series cpus.

Architecture does mean more, and I wasn't siding with PC or console. Fact is, AMDs mobile APUs suck at compute performance no matter the clock (PS4 is using a mobile APU). If AMD hasn't created a better set up then compute performance (Unique AI and Physics) will be bad no matter what the clock is.

This is why I said the make up of the CPU normally is a bigger deciding factor.

[CheexInk]

It's funny, to the average PC user that sounds like console fanboy talk, but if they actually know anything about PC hardware they'd know what you said is accurate. Using only cores and clock