magerette
Hedgewitch
- Joined
- October 18, 2006
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In a change of focus from the proposed games of 2008 making the rounds right now, YouGamers takes a look at the hardware end of the gaming industry in this 6 page guide. The article covers Trends in CPU's, Video Cards & RAM, DX10, Operating Systems & Buying a New PC, and gives their own recommendations.
From the Trends:CPU section:
From the Trends:CPU section:
From the Closing Comments:Every game box still lists "magical MHz numbers", with most games currently asking for a 2 to 3GHz Pentium 4; the reality is that just about any CPU you can still buy from the stores is adequate to run games at an acceptable frame rate. The whole "MHz number" is increasingly obsolete, as it's useless when comparing old Pentium 4s and Pentium Ds to current Intel Core 2, AMD Athlon 64 X2 and AMD Phenom CPUs. So in the gaming world of today, a good guideline is that if it has two cores, it is fast enough for gaming - even the cheapest dual core CPUs are "fast enough" for almost all games today....
As games started to really take advantage of DX9 and complex shaders and the resolution most commonly used for gaming went up, the situation flipped around, and games are being limited by the performance of the graphics card. Yes, by going for that 3.0GHz mega-expensive quad core CPU you may see higher performance and better frame rates, but that assumes you combine it with something like a pair of GeForce 8800 GTXs. With a more mainstream video card, almost every single game out there is limited by the video card, while the CPU spends time idling.
More information.The PC hardware market is always changing, and that means this article can only be based on what the situation is today. In the near future, the recommended hardware will definitely change, and by late spring the recommendations are most likely going to be obsolete. In general, names and models change, but the price you pay for a good gaming system remains mostly the same - you just get more for the same price....
...Ah, the age old question - "when to buy?" - it always seems that if you wait just a bit longer, something cheaper, faster and better is going to come out. This is the cheapest option - you never buy anything while waiting for the next best thing, but it also means you rapidly run out of new games to play as your old system isn't getting any faster while you wait. Right now (in January 2008), if you seek a high end system, it may be worth waiting for the "Wolfdale" chips to arrive as they are just a couple of weeks away, but beyond that, there is little in the horizon that is "worth the wait", so to speak.
My personal rule on this age old issue has been that I never upgrade anything that is under 12 months old, but when I do, I go for the fastest reasonably priced product available, discounting the Extremely Expensive Ultra Specials that offer 10% more for twice the price - and that has served me pretty well over the past six years.
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2006
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- 7,834