Were Consoles EVER Ahead Of PC?

[QUOTE="04dcarraher"][QUOTE="percuvius2"]

Only once at the launch of the 360 it had a more powerful GPU architecture than what was available on PC graphics cards, but that timed exclusivitey probably cost MS some serious coin. Within a short period of time PC was enjoying the lead again and never looked back.

percuvius2

Try and run The Witcher 2 at the same graphical level as the 360 version on that card and watch what happens!

At the VERY beginning of this gen (when the 360 launched) up until about the time Oblivion came out, the 360 looked just as good if not better than most of the PC versions. Once Oblivion came out though it was over.Plagueless

Back in the NES and early SNES days PCs weren't designed to easily handle some of the things consoles could do from day one. I'd say that the 486 processor, Windows 95, and 3D graphics cards were about the time where you started to see major separation between the two.Senor_Kami

Back then it was the Commodore Amiga that carried the torch for gaming on computers. Then, there's also the Atari ST and Apple II GS. All three had games that looked better than the NES. By the time the SNES came along the PC had VGA and audio. The Mac too was pulling its weight during the SNES era because it was the first to have higher-res SVGA games.....Crap. I forgot about the Mac too. So many more gaming options back then.

Just a sample:

SNES:

Mac:

3DO:

PC: Anyone remember this? :-)

PS3 is ahead of everythingthemajormayor

... In number of accounts hacked.

[spoiler] Had to be done. [/spoiler]

[QUOTE="percuvius2"]

[QUOTE="04dcarraher"] The 360's gpu architecture was ahead of the curve of the new standard that was going to be out within a year. However the Xenos was not clearly better then what Pc could get at the time of release. the Geforce 7800GTX for example had 2x the memory, memory bandwidth allowing higher resolutions and detail. 04dcarraher

Try and run The Witcher 2 at the same graphical level as the 360 version on that card and watch what happens!

Are you illiterate? I said try to run The Witcher 2 in the same settings on a 7800 GTX. So go ahead and try to run it. Like I said the 360 GPU was ahead of graphic card GPU's at its launch window, Call of Duty 2 ran much better than it did on the PC at launch.

[QUOTE="arto1223"]

Nope. At release, consoles are typically more powerful that what a majority of PCs are using, but there are always people that are running SLI/XFire setups with crazy powerfull rigs that just put the consoles to shame.

Exactly. Folks can argue all they want about the intricacies of certain games' graphics, or what actually had better games, in their opinion, but consoles never have been, and never will be, more powerful than the most powerful hardware available for a gaming PC. It's literally impossible. All of this technology starts out on the PC in the first place. I've seen a couple posts claiming the original Xbox was more powerful than a gaming PC at launch. How so? The original Xbox was built entirely with off the shelf PC hardware, and not even top of the line hardware. The only time a console has come out with hardware that couldn't be directly compared to mid-range PC hardware at the time, was the PS3, with the Cell. And that's just because the Cell has a weird, non-conventional architecture. As for the claims of how ridiculously powerful the Cell is.. well, we've all seen what it's actually managed to do.

Anyone who says no is lying to themselves.

I wouldn't say ahead, but, when they came out, the first Xbox and the 360 were probably the closest you could get to a PC.

Hermits get a boner over graphics

Z-Fatalis

Yet the indie scene of 16bit types games thrive on PC, much more so than on consoles.

PS3 is ahead of everythingthemajormayor

Totally

[QUOTE="04dcarraher"][QUOTE="percuvius2"]

Try and run The Witcher 2 at the same graphical level as the 360 version on that card and watch what happens!

percuvius2

Are you illiterate? I said try to run The Witcher 2 in the same settings on a 7800 GTX. So go ahead and try to run it. Like I said the 360 GPU was ahead of graphic card GPU's at its launch window, Call of Duty 2 ran much better than it did on the PC at launch.

You cant run TW2 at same settings 360 because the pc version was design for modern hardware,and that the 360 version in many ways was downgraded to work. But yet you ignore the fact that 8600gt can play TW2 at 1280x720 with a mix of low and medium settings. And that a 8600gt is slower then 7800GTX which means if you had a 7800gtx in this day it would be able to do a slightly better job. Now that is so wrong about the call of duty's You could play Cod 2 with a 6800GT at 1024x768 on high settings , lets not forget that also with Cod 4 a 7800GTX can run that at 1280x720 oe 1280x1024 all with high settings while the 360 versions ran both games at 1024x600 with a slew of settings.

I would LOVE to see a PC game look as good as Gears, Uncharted or Killzone with a 512mb shared graphics memory from 2006-5

ClassicRockFTW

I played the PC version of Gears with a 512mb graphics card. Ran nicely, and looked better than the original 360 version.

After the arcade days consoles were introducede into the home, at this point pc's weren't being used for games in the household so I guess they were ahead.

tom_woolley

Yes.

but to expect this to happen again... very slim chances with all this **** going on in the video game industry

[QUOTE="ClassicRockFTW"]

I would LOVE to see a PC game look as good as Gears, Uncharted or Killzone with a 512mb shared graphics memory from 2006-5

the_bi99man

I played the PC version of Gears with a 512mb graphics card. Ran nicely, and looked better than the original 360 version.

I think the mid-90's was it (1994-1996). It's been the PC ever since 3dfx hit the scene.

The PC was also in turmoil during that time frame. PC motherboards were transitioning from the AT form factor to ATX which meant a new motherboard at the time would have two different power connectors, two different keyboard ports, two different RAM slots, a mix of ISA, Vesa Local Bus, and PCI slots, cache DRAM sockets and a slot for pipeline burst cache, Windows 3.1/MS-DOS to Windows 95. Consoles didn't have that problem. They were able to continue evolving without growing pains. But, again, 3dfx came in the nick of time.

jun_aka_pekto

Exactly, 3dfx revolutionized PC gaming and really brought 3D game on PC into it's own. Something that the consoles have been struggling to keep up with ever since. Ninty was actually hot on the tail of PC back then, it's too bad they dropped with the ball with the N64 and haven't really tried to be the powerhouse ever since.

Consoles are ahead in the hearts and minds of true gamers, thats all we need.DarthClark

Consoles are ahead in the hearts and minds of true gamers, thats all we need.DarthClark

Consoles are ahead in the hearts and minds of true gamers, thats all we need.DarthClark

Yeah...true gamers:

[QUOTE="Z-Fatalis"]

Hermits get a boner over graphics

BPoole96

Yet the indie scene of 16bit types games thrive on PC, much more so than on consoles.

Ironically, I find that consolites tend to be much bigger graphics whores.

Find me a good console shot running on real hardware and I will find you a polar bear in the desert.

nameless12345

Are you illiterate? I said try to run The Witcher 2 in the same settings on a 7800 GTX. So go ahead and try to run it. Like I said the 360 GPU was ahead of graphic card GPU's at its launch window, Call of Duty 2 ran much better than it did on the PC at launch.

percuvius2

Wrong.

Yup. I remember being stuck with a C64 and wishing I had a NES :(

You've got to consider a 'typical' gaming PC though and not ultra gaming rigs, and then you could say traditionally console games are technically superior for a short time post launch.

Yup. I remember being stuck with a C64 and wishing I had a NES :(

Elincia64

no contest :)

[QUOTE="percuvius2"]

[QUOTE="04dcarraher"] lol no, The Witcher 2 was majorly downgraded to work on the 360,2D sprites and lack of shadows in many areas you can run TW2 on a measly 8600gt at 720 and use low and medium settings and the 8600gt is slower then 7800gtx. 04dcarraher

Are you illiterate? I said try to run The Witcher 2 in the same settings on a 7800 GTX. So go ahead and try to run it. Like I said the 360 GPU was ahead of graphic card GPU's at its launch window, Call of Duty 2 ran much better than it did on the PC at launch.

You cant run TW2 at same settings 360 because the pc version was design for modern hardware,and that the 360 version in many ways was downgraded to work. But yet you ignore the fact that 8600gt can play TW2 at 1280x720 with a mix of low and medium settings. And that a 8600gt is slower then 7800GTX which means if you had a 7800gtx in this day it would be able to do a slightly better job. Now that is so wrong about the call of duty's You could play Cod 2 with a 6800GT at 1024x768 on high settings , lets not forget that also with Cod 4 a 7800GTX can run that at 1280x720 oe 1280x1024 all with high settings while the 360 versions ran both games at 1024x600 with a slew of settings.

You typed "lol" two messages in a row, what are you a 13 year old chick who thinks she's posting on facebook? Go try and run The Witcher 2 on ANY PC card that was out at 360 launch at the same graphical level. I'm not interested in your EXCUSES only facts and the FACTS are that none can.

[QUOTE="percuvius2"]

Are you illiterate? I said try to run The Witcher 2 in the same settings on a 7800 GTX. So go ahead and try to run it. Like I said the 360 GPU was ahead of graphic card GPU's at its launch window, Call of Duty 2 ran much better than it did on the PC at launch.

RyviusARC

Wrong.

Nope, MS even had to pay to keep the GPU architecture exclusive for the 360 launch, but what would a sony fan know about that?

You typed "lol" two messages in a row, what are you a 13 year old chick who thinks she's posting on facebook? Go try and run The Witcher 2 on ANY PC card that was out at 360 launch at the same graphical level. I'm not interested in your EXCUSES only facts and the FACTS are that none can.

percuvius2

His reasoning is an explanation on what the reasons are for them not running at the same level. The Witcher 2 on PC had less load screens than that of the 360. Certain areas were partitioned with "gates" far more than on the PC version. It was tailored to play on the low end hardware, contrary to the PC version, which was tailored to run on high-end hardware. The comparison you are looking for, just isn't there.

Also, it's highly unlikely that you'd be able to find any evidence for running The Witcher 2 on a 7800GTX, beyond that of forum posts. They're not going to benchmark such an old card, with such a new game.

[QUOTE="percuvius2"]

You typed "lol" two messages in a row, what are you a 13 year old chick who thinks she's posting on facebook? Go try and run The Witcher 2 on ANY PC card that was out at 360 launch at the same graphical level. I'm not interested in your EXCUSES only facts and the FACTS are that none can.

lundy86_4

His reasoning is an explanation on what the reasons are for them not running at the same level. The Witcher 2 on PC had less load screens than that of the 360. Certain areas were partitioned with "gates" far more than on the PC version. It was tailored to play on the low end hardware, contrary to the PC version, which was tailored to run on high-end hardware. The comparison you are looking for, just isn't there.

Also, it's highly unlikely that you'd be able to find any evidence for running The Witcher 2 on a 7800GTX, beyond that of forum posts. They're not going to benchmark such an old card, with such a new game.

EXCUSES , tell someone who cares about EXCUSES.

[QUOTE="lundy86_4"]

[QUOTE="percuvius2"]

You typed "lol" two messages in a row, what are you a 13 year old chick who thinks she's posting on facebook? Go try and run The Witcher 2 on ANY PC card that was out at 360 launch at the same graphical level. I'm not interested in your EXCUSES only facts and the FACTS are that none can.

percuvius2

His reasoning is an explanation on what the reasons are for them not running at the same level. The Witcher 2 on PC had less load screens than that of the 360. Certain areas were partitioned with "gates" far more than on the PC version. It was tailored to play on the low end hardware, contrary to the PC version, which was tailored to run on high-end hardware. The comparison you are looking for, just isn't there.

Also, it's highly unlikely that you'd be able to find any evidence for running The Witcher 2 on a 7800GTX, beyond that of forum posts. They're not going to benchmark such an old card, with such a new game.

EXCUSES , tell someone who cares about EXCUSES.

The last time was Nov. 2005 with 360 though yes, for a closed system the umm "ahead" is fleeting but just think what those who waited another year and at 200 bones more got for their money with teh pos3 and don't start with me on Wii. :P

EXCUSES , tell someone who cares about EXCUSES.

percuvius2

It seems like you can't accept sound reasoning. It won't run as well, because The Witcher 2 for consoles was stripped down in comparison. You can't even produce a rebuttal for shrinking the areas, by utilizing more "gates", A.K.A loading screens.

As you might expect, from a nuts-and-bolts technical perspective, there are some easy wins for the PC: for a start, texture quality and filtering is generally in another league altogether compared to the Xbox 360 game. This is not exactly unexpected. Special cases aside, the standard for multi-platform development these days tends to be a case of targeting artwork for console 720p and then simply offering the option of higher resolution rendering on PC. Not so with The Witcher 2, where the developers are clearly providing superior assets aimed at looking great at 1680x1050 and beyond.

DigitalFoundry

So, it utilizes higher quality assets.

PC also scores easy wins in terms of shadow quality and the number of them being rendered dynamically. Effects work doesn't just benefit from higher-precision buffers, but also from physically higher resolution: performance-sapping alpha effects such as smoke, fog and particles are clearly running at a lower res on the Xbox 360, with intersecting geometry often showing some noticeable jaggies.

DigitalFoundry

So, higher amount of shadows, and shadows rendered dynamically. Whereas the 360 runs off of lower quality alpha effects. Again, gotta skimp on certain aspects, eh?

In other areas we also see a generally higher quality of presentation on the PC game: both versions employ post-process anti-aliasing, and the effect is patently cleaner on the original release - the Xbox 360 game looks to be utilising console-quality FXAA or something very similar. Texture and geometry pop-in and draw distance also show clear advantages on PC, as you would expect.

DigitalFoundry

Lower quality AA.

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However, that isn't to say The Witcher 2 on 360 does not have it's merits.

None of this should diminish the scale of the achievement though. The Witcher 2 on Xbox 360 possesses a combination of artistic and technological accomplishment we're accustomed to seeing in AAA games from the best developers in the business, backed by mammoth budgets. The reality is that CD Projekt RED hasn't converted the game to run comfortably on 360 - it has actually managed to improve it. The Enhanced Editiondoes many things: it incorporates all of the DLC released thus far seamlessly into the narrative, spoiling us with a nice new intro and adding new locations and characters that account for around four hours of gameplay. Crucially, it also sees the original PC gamepad support revised into a much more natural, intuitive and easy-to-use interface.

DigitalFoundry

They put some good work into the 360 version, but technically, the PC version is using much more "performance sapping" effects and assets, right from the get-go.

Lighting was also "improved" in order to give a more natural look.

Now, this doesn't even take into account the use of more loading screens, after all, you have to render far less if you're breaking up the larger areas with loading screens. This is something The Witcher 2 did in spades on the 360. Now, the original PC version had 4 load screens Link. That's in comparison to 700 in the original.

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Now, it looks like the PC uses higher quality assets (higher resolution textures), higher quality alpha effects (such as smoke resolution), plus an overall, higher quality AA effect.

They are not comparable.

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Any more excuses, or did I just make you my b*tch?;)

Consoles are just now getting to the point where we can have Arcade Accurate Games on them.

Yes, when PSX launched. Also...PS2 graphics were ahead of PC ones in 2000, same (altough to a smaller degree) with Xbox in 2001. This gen was actually the first one where consoles didn't surpass PC graphically at launch

AdrianWerner

[QUOTE="04dcarraher"]

[QUOTE="percuvius2"]

Are you illiterate? I said try to run The Witcher 2 in the same settings on a 7800 GTX. So go ahead and try to run it. Like I said the 360 GPU was ahead of graphic card GPU's at its launch window, Call of Duty 2 ran much better than it did on the PC at launch.

percuvius2

You cant run TW2 at same settings 360 because the pc version was design for modern hardware,and that the 360 version in many ways was downgraded to work. But yet you ignore the fact that 8600gt can play TW2 at 1280x720 with a mix of low and medium settings. And that a 8600gt is slower then 7800GTX which means if you had a 7800gtx in this day it would be able to do a slightly better job. Now that is so wrong about the call of duty's You could play Cod 2 with a 6800GT at 1024x768 on high settings , lets not forget that also with Cod 4 a 7800GTX can run that at 1280x720 oe 1280x1024 all with high settings while the 360 versions ran both games at 1024x600 with a slew of settings.

You typed "lol" two messages in a row, what are you a 13 year old chick who thinks she's posting on facebook? Go try and run The Witcher 2 on ANY PC card that was out at 360 launch at the same graphical level. I'm not interested in your EXCUSES only facts and the FACTS are that none can.