Thursday, February 7th 2008
Epic Games' Mark Rein Confirms Gamers Moving Away from PC in Favor of Console
Epic Games is well known throughout the gaming community. Most well known for their Unreal Tournament series and the Unreal engine series, Epic Games has every reason to be at the peak of their game for the PC gaming crowd. However, they are beginning to doubt their fan base. While Gears of War for the Xbox360 was an instant success for the Xbox360, the PC version of Unreal Tournament failed to take off. In an interview, Mark Rein confirms that gaming itself has begun to move away from the PC, and towards consoles. Even inside Epic Games, a sizable chunk of employees play their games on the Xbox360. Outside Epic Games, a paltry 14% of gamers game on their computer. The reason for this, despite the superior technology the PC offers, is the sheer cost of owning and maintaining a gaming habit on the PC. While an Xbox360 is $400USD including games and extra controllers, a PC is upwards of $1000USD for a game-worthy setup, not including games, and only supporting one player at a time.
Source:
DailyTech
120 Comments on Epic Games' Mark Rein Confirms Gamers Moving Away from PC in Favor of Console
These are the cards designed to max out the games in their current generation
Mid range is $200-$400 - where cards like the 8800GT/S hang around. These are cards that will run any res you choose, but not with max graphics.
low end is anything upto $200 - we call it low end, becaue cards in this range cant run modern games reliably on medium. think of a 7300GS, 8400GT, ATI 1050 etc.
When talking these prices - its all about the latest generation. "last gen high end" often ends up around 'this gen mid range".
Three generation old high end often ends up near the low-mid of current stuff, so saying 'my 1950xtx is high end' is irrelevant 3 years after it came out - NOT 3 years since you bought it.
sub 100 = budget buy
100-200 = lower midrange
200-350 = upper midrange
350-500 = lower highend
500-1000 = upper highend
1000+ = your crazy
The reason its not so broken down is that each generation, theres always a great value card or two that beat others in its range - a $300 card 'upper mid range' could come out faster than a $400 'lower high end'
I keep it generalised, because you have to base it on performance/experience rather than JUST on price.
Sure a 8800gt is on the lower end of high end but it is quite far from midrange. :banghead:
Nvidia for example.
Low
8600GT and lower.
Mid
8600GTS/8800GS/8800GT
High 8800GTS (g92) 8800GTX/ultra/9800GX2 etc
WE alter that based on price, but we're really only guesstimating, as prices are varying quite a lot - people pay over $500 for a card easy these days, yet when they came out everyone was shitting bricks at buying a card over $300.As i said, and has been missed - you got last gen highend. Its priced at current mid range prices, and while its performance per $ is quite good, that doesnt make it THIS gens high end.
wouldnt it be nice if it was still worth 300 though
First 8 being Generation of card, Second number being the series and the final two denoting any final significance in performance. More importantly than this though is benchmarks.
I do know what you are saying about older high end. But even a 1900xt, even though its close to obsolete, and it can probably be beat by a 8600 It was made to be highend. Its a highend card even if its obsolete, and it will run better than a 8200. Because an 8200 is lowend and a 1900 is not. (Which is what you said :o)
Right now a 3870x2 can be had for under $500. Thats highend, but it is 30% more effective than a 3870 but only on certain resolutions and settings you may or may not use. thats a $300 premium
Oh btw. the 2900 still is this gens highend, as it beats the 3870 in most tests, there is NOT a new generation of videocards yet, no new cores, just reiterations of the same hardware.
Performance aside ( i DID say some generations are faster than others, thus hte reason pricing is crap) - its last gen, so retailers lower the price!
the 3xk cards have HDMI video w/ audio and DX 10.1, while useless to most people they are a newer, more feature laden card, so to retailers/noobsumers, that makes them worth more. Just means the 2900pro is cheap, which is good for the smart people :)
Also the 3870s are also $220 thats current gen
cant you be happy your midrange card is good?
You're arguing a technical view, i'm talking marketing/retail pricing.
Example: 8600GTS cards in some places are still selling for around $250. Why would anyone spend $250 on a $100 card? I call it "GeForce tax". An ability to brag about having a nvidia GPU. For some people it doesn’t matter how much a card costs or how good it performs, they just want a "GeForce", just like the one their neighbor/co-worker/buddy/family-member has. Both nVidia and retailers take advantage of this.
I mean, I've actually seen people recommending other people that they upgrade their "crappy" Radeon x1950xt to an 8500GT, because in the minds of many a "GeForce" card, no matter how cut-down is still better than 10 best ATI cards, put together!
Ignorance is mofo!
nVidia = Apple of GPU realm, and I don't mean that in the good way.