Video & PC Game Discussion

MikeEnRegalia wrote:  a few examples: in one or two years BTX will begin to replace ATX. So if you then decide to upgrade your motherboard - you'll need a new computer case (and power supply). If you today upgrade your system and still use an IDE harddisk, you will eventually want to upgrade to a SATA disk - or else your old harddisk will become a performance bottleneck. If you currently own a really good AGP graphics board and plan to upgrade your mainboard in a year or so - forget about it, because you WILL need a new graphics board for PCIe. USB is backward compatible, that's true. But eventually you will want to upgrade to USB2 if you use a memory stick, because it's at least 10x faster. ...

Yes as i said before most standards SATA, PCIe,USB2 and BTX is implemented in the MOTHERBOARD so when you buy a new MOTHERBOARD all these things comes naturally.

I was not aware of BTX becoming a new standard for motherboards? It is quite an old standard and have been used for DELL for years but as you say changing from ATX to BTX will require new case and PS but new motherboard standards happen very rarely.

It's a fairly new standard ... the successor of ATX. It features a different layout which optimizes air flow.

Yes but as i said Motherboards standards almost never change...ATX is really old.

Also SATA disk does not run faster than IDE  disks on games really but most motherboards supports both standards so when space restrictions calls for it you will propably buy a SATA disc since they cost the same.

Currently SATA is not faster than IDE, that's correct. But it won't stay that way ... that particular issue is not a big problem though as you correctly point out.

Also many got a good AGP card and wants to buy a new motherboard but still want to wait 5-6 months or so before buying a new graphics card and since all new graphics card today are PCI-e they would ofcourse buy a motherboard with PCI-e but there are adapters that can put in the PCI-e slot and also some motherboards run both AGP and PCI-e

No. converters seriously degrade performance, so you really have to decide which one to use. I currently have a good combo (Athlon 64 3000 + GeForce 6800 AGP), and when I upgrade the mainboard it will be PCIe, and thus also a new graphics board.

Certainly the adapter is ONLY a temporary installment that can be removed when you can afford to buy a PCIe Graphics Card. The adapter is only inserted into the PCIe slot and can be removed at any time. And i have not seen any benchmarch results that indicates a notable performance loss from using a standard AGPX8  port.

So in reality you really only need to buy a new Motherboard, processor and memory at the same time. The rest (Optic drives,HDD,Human interfaces,Soundcards,Graphics cards) You can really buy afterwards as standards for these products rarely changes so fast and if they do you propably can get a adapter or something for it.

In two years from now, you will also want a new case, new hard disk (because then SATA III will be standard, and a lot faster than IDE), new optic drives (with DHCP so you can watch Blu Ray / HD DVD discs on the computer) and graphics card (with DHCP).

DVD-Roms was relased in 1998 yet it took atleast 4-5 years before it became a standard on new computers. And it is only now that you see most games can be found in a dvd format back in 98 there where VERY few games that had advantage of the DVD format and those where mostly movie games like forexample Phantasmagoria that would go over 8 cd's

So although HD-DVD/BLURAY will perhaps be relased properly in a 2 years time it will take much longer before it comes standard and until you find games that  REALLY needs these standards.

All in all new stuff and formats is released all the time...soon PCIe2 is on the way but it WILL take some time before you actualy can use it for anything them or before they are "reasonably" priced.

Look at the new trend with Dual-Core processors currently now games and OS is not optimalized for such systems and most of them ist to expansive anyway so investing in a Dual Core system now would be pointless.

stonebeard wrote: Lindsay Lohan wrote: Consoles in general are built to cheaply to be profitable so console games are often more expansive than PC-games and you also have to live with knowing that the graphics you see on the first PS3 game forexample is going to be just as good as a PS3 game relased 5 years after. This is not true. The graphics for launch games for most all next-gen games (when compared to the previous generation) are demonstrably better. After a few years go by and the developers really disect the console and get everything out of it that they can, the games released thereafter are incredibly better than the launch games, both in graphics and design, simply because the developers know the ins and outs and what the console is made of and can juice it for all it's got. When I see not-prerendered pics and footage for MGS4 on the PS3, presumably a launch title or soon after, I get excited because it has the best graphics I have ever seen in a game. It makes Half-Life 2 look like Tetris. And I know that that game is using far less than 50% of the PS3's total power.

Hah it takes a maximum year of 1 year before the graphics for an console system seems dated...i mean ps2 games today looks like the kind of games you could get for pc 4 years ago.

Comparing a dated game like Half-life 2 with a new PS3 game aint remotly fair, besides if you want the good graphics you look to Unreal Engine 3 the most advanced graphics engine EVER!

I notice a lot of this conversation is about graphics, so is that the most important thing for all of you in gaming? For me its playabilaty. Lindsay you constantly site that PC games leave consol games behind after 1 or 2 years but that is something that has only happend in the last 5 years, befor then I prefered PS1 graphics to PC. And to make full use of the PC's better graphics now you have to make regular updates to its internal systems and the cost for these PC and keeping them at the top gaming abilaty is HUGE.

Consols are cost effective, easier to use and a lot closerto PC abilaty than you seem preperd to admit.