Back then, I still had a 3:4 CRT monitor that I ran at 1025*768 or whatever. I can assure you, that my Radeon X1950XT did not run CoD4 anything near as well as it ran on the 360. I should know, I had that card and I tried it. I considered the game unplayable on my PC at the time, but very playable on the 360. I wasn't bothered though. I was all about BF2 back in them days.
Odd, my X1900GT0 that was unlocked to an X1950XT played CoD4 just fine on my 1280x1024 monitor I had at the time, it looked better than my Xbox360 version too.
Putting everything else that you have listed in your budget gaming rig to one side for a moment, and focusing on the graphics card. The 7790 is about the same level of graphics card as is in the Xbox One. However, obviously the same thinking that was behind the force/failware, Windows 8, it also behind the XBox One. The clear and obvious choice for console gamers' (who aren't retards) this time around, will be the PS4. Cheaper, none of the draconian DRM or the Orwellian prying potential, and notably more powerful a machine. The GPU driving the PS4 is an equivalent of the HD7870. Considerably more powerful than the HD7790, and that isn't taking into consideration the 8Gb of GDDR5 VRAM, compared with the 1GB of GDDR5 on that 7790. And then we have the fact that developers are always able/prone to getting much more punch out of the consoles per horsepower unit than they can out of the PC.
Yes, and no. I wasn't trying to beat the PS4, just get close to it. The computer isn't as powerful as the PS4. However, the argument was that you can make a
decent gaming rig for $400, and I did just that. It will handle every modern game with ease.
Comparing the amount of GDDR in the PS4 to just the graphics card is wrong. The GDDR5 in the PS4 is used for system memory as well, of which the PC I built has 8GB of, so the total amount of RAM in the PC is 9GB. And at the medium settings that the 7790 will be used at, 1GB will be enough.
Therefore, you have failed miserably in your attempt to beat the up n coming $400 consoles with your $400 rig, which in my opinion, as a fussy gamer with cash to burn on good performing hardware is already totally obsolete. The consoles however will be good for 8 years.
Considering I wasn't trying to beat the PS4, I didn't fail at all. I can't fail at something I'm not doing.
And you bring up a good point. The console will be good for 8 years, it will also remain exactly the same for 8 years. Which means the games in 8 years will look pretty much the same in 8 years as they do today. However, the PC I picked will be able to have small amount of money put into it over the years to actually improve on it.
And lets talk about all the extra things the PC is capable of. I find it hilarious that console manufacturers are always trying to add functions into their consoles that have been part of PCs for ages. Besides that, lets see one of the consoles run Office. Lets see one that can even print to a wide range of printers.
Oh and then there is backwards compatibility. My PC can play pretty much any game from the past 15 years. Will the PS4 or Xbone be able to play any old games? No. Here is something ironic, my PC can play PSX and PS2 and (likely)PS3 games!