PC Gamers, how has your experience with your PC gaming rig been? How much did it cost you when you built it/ bought it and how much did you invest in upgrades? Is the graphical superiority to consoles existent, in your experience, and is it worth the money?
When I built my PC back in 2010, it cost me $1600. I've since added an aftermarket heatsink ($65), a BluRay Disc drive ($100), a new case ($100), and a new graphics card ($300).
My experience with PC gaming has been a mixed bag. In regard to games that I've also played on consoles (GTA IV, Far Cry 2, Resident Evil 5, and Dead Space), the only one that looked significantly better in terms of raw graphical output was GTA IV. On the PS3, it was a blurry mess plagued by low resolution textures, but on PC it's much sharper and the textures are clearer. However, though all of the others sport better post-processing effects (AA and AF), they don't look much better, if better at all, in terms of raw graphical output.
With more recent multiplatform games, such as BF3 and Crysis 3, I can't comment on their console counterparts as I've never played them and have sold my PS3 and XBOX 360. However, I can say that they look amazing on PC, as I can play them at 1920 x 1080 with all settings maxed and experience amazing performance.
In regard to exclusive titles, such as Crysis and Crysis Warhead, the graphical leap is huge, even to this day. The games sport much higher texture resolutions, more realistic physics, realistic water rendering, and very large, open environments. I've never seen anything of their caliber on current-generation consoles.
Overall, I'd say that the graphical superiority is present, though its significance varies according to whether a game is also available on console or is a PC exclusive. I also think that the superiority is worth the money I've put into my machine.
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