Mark these words, computer graphics processors in the not too distant horizon are poised to make a big leap in technology, much more than we've grown used to seeing over the last several years. Oh yes, good days are ahead for PC gamers. Perhaps the leap will be enough to put some distance between PC and console games so that it'll actually worthwhile again to purchase the PC version instead for those who own both.
The Epic Games Store is giving away two Styx games this week.
Today, Bungie premiered its “Developer Insights | Runner Shells” video of their PvPvE survival extraction FPS Marathon.
The Outerhaven writes: Dynasty Warriors: Origins Visions of Four Heroes lets you try four different What If paths from the main game.
Best days of PC gaming indeed: Starcraft 2 is on its way, and Blizzard may be on the brink of announcing Diablo 3
The major problem is the piracy... not (graphics) processors!!
PC clock speeds haven't improved in about 3-4 years. Yes we have more cores, but _I_ don't see a marked improvement from a few years ago. The most recently released graphics cards just eat up more power for very little gain, and _still_ can't run even crysis on über-max settings. Unless something groundbreaking like nano-technology or something is invented, I can't see computers getting much faster. And let's face it: even with 2x as many polygons, would crysis have looked that much better? Not really, I don't even think the character models can be improved much further (they are awesome). But it would have taken maybe 1.5x as much processing power.
This is nothing new, PC hardware and its upgradability means it will improve on the current crop of consoles in their present life cycle until they release a new model. Its been the same each generation but you have to spend huge ammounts of money on a PC to get the same performance you do out of the current next gen consoles such as the 360 and PS3.
For the price of a decent graphics card you can buy either one of the next-gen consoles and a few games and enjoy playing it in the comfort of your living room on your large screen TV sat of the sofa. Is it any wonder PC gamers like me have slowly spent more money on console versions of multiplatform games? I've spent years building and upgrading PC's and shudder to think what I've spent on PC components.
PC architeture will continue to evolve but we'll still get the same unoptimised rubbish that requires numerous patches and tweaks to run at an acceptable frame rate. To release a game on the console format you have to go through verification processes with Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo but on the PC format there is no such quality control. Piracy is killing the PC format so its great to have the hardware - if you can afford it but how many more developers this year will drop the PC format in favour of making console only titles?
What a coincidence this blog post is..
I've been saying these things on N4G for the past few days.
@thor: Uhh... Invent nano-technology?
Maybe you shouldn't talk about stuff you don't know. Nano technology has been around for a long time. And has been advancing at a strong pace.
The transistors on a CPU are a mere 45nm..nm stands for NANOMETERS. That is nano-technology.
And if you actually kept up with recent news, you would know there has actually been quite a few breakthroughs in computer related technology.
Recent GPU and CPU technology has merely been in a rut these past couple years. But while in that rut, they have been hard at work creating MUCH better technology.
In July Nvidia will be bringing out a graphics chip with over 1 BILLION transistors on it. Currently the most transistors on a GPU chip is 754 Million, 8800GT is a card that uses that chip.
That upcoming chip is just a taste of things to come.
Both CPU and GPU companies are going threw some major advancements. Just you wait and see.
@Revvin: Actually that's FALSE. For the price it takes to buy a 360 or PS3, you could buy a TOP OF THE LINE graphics card. Which can handle games at much higher settings then the consoles. You just didn't know enough about the parts you can buy to keep you from spending so much money.