Stores like Gamestop, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, etc., all still sell PC games. I'm not sure where you are getting the idea that PC games are somehow harder to find.
I will repeat, The advantage of PC's is also their downfall.
The value of PC's for overall current gen gaming is immense/huge! But, people are responsible for finding such games. They need to search and look and such. Steam helps, but Steam is Steam, once again, a closed system. You go to steam, you find pc games. You go to GameStop or where ever and you find console games.
The easier it is for people to find games, that will be more popular.
Hence, Steam is very popular for PC Gamers. While purely closed systems are even more popular for most people.
Things can change, but it hasn't and I don't see it changing near term still.
Stores like Gamestop, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, etc., all still sell PC games. I'm not sure where you are getting the idea that PC games are somehow harder to find.
E350 Brazos on a mini-ITX motherboard - $70
HD7850 - $165
500 GB 2.5" HD - $50
2x4 GB RAM - $40
Bluray - $50
Case + PSU - $50
Wireless keyboard and mouse - $20
Wireless Xbox360 controller - $55
Total - $500
It's a moot point anyway. I fully expect that the Windows App store in windows 8 will start becoming the primary mode of distribution for PC games. Official app stores in the general will become the primary sales channel for every platform in the near future.Stores like Gamestop, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, etc., all still sell PC games. I'm not sure where you are getting the idea that PC games are somehow harder to find.
And this is why Microsoft should make Win8 able to play XBox720 games.
What I find rather alarming about the GFX mfr chart is that Intel's gains seem to be coming entirely out of AMD's hide.
Yes, yes i am.
Especially since target public is not your poor broke ass - Geek interested and agenda pushing self - or your friends.
It's the dumbass chav and the clueless jock (Hi Stereotypes!) - who actually listens to marketing.
Who heres about games first on TV or major newspapers.
Never mind the fact the controller issues will be abundant - and the game selection won't be the same and that there will be updates and issues and everything known to windows appearing out of nowhere.
Why would controller issues be abundant? Why would there be any controller issues at all? Game selection would be greater. How is that a problem? Problems with updates are rare overall and are easily fixable as are all PC related problems. At the worst, you'll have to replace components, which are readily available for purchase. So, if the warranty has ran out, you can still repair the PC easily and cheaply without any hassles finding parts. What do you do if your console develops problems and the warranty has ran out?
Your inviting User Errors into the home - by a SFF PC.
PCs and laptops are already in the home. Everyone I know has a laptop, most of them have consoles, a few of them have PCs and a few have iPads for their kids. They may not know the ins-and-outs of Windows but they're not unfamiliar with it either and the kids have no problems using it. Making the PC smaller wouldn't bring any new problems to the home.
Secondly Valve - is trying to create a NEW ECO SYSTEM.
It's not pushing selfbuilt SFF PCs - it's letting others do that.
Wether selfbuilt or made like the "Piston".
You think Valve has the pockets for mainstream ad-branding - with a ECO system nonetheless?
Valve will be bringing out a Steambox running linux, prehaps you should google it. And do I think they have the money for mainstream ad-branding? Certainly. Valve has a total equity of $2.5 billion.
Target audience for a Console - doesn't know or care about Steam dude.
Wake up - only geeks and hardcore gamers do.
But if they did know, then they would be interested in it.
Missing Windows license again. that adds another $100. Plus $50 for case and PSU seems optimistic unless you want some ultra crappy PSU and ultra bad quality case. where i live the cheapest min-itx case is more than $50, without PSU and the cheapest psu is also $50. So thats another $50. And $20 for wirless mouse and keyboard...maybe $40 but it will still be ultra crappy. especially cheap mice are a PITA.
Changing my mouse made a visible effect (graph on stats sites) for me in BC2. However FPS with a gamepad sucks too.
What I find rather alarming about the GFX mfr chart is that Intel's gains seem to be coming entirely out of AMD's hide.
There are Gamestops and Walmarts near me that do not carry PC games at all anymore.
It's a moot point anyway. I fully expect that the Windows App store in windows 8 will start becoming the primary mode of distribution for PC games. Official app stores in the general will become the primary sales channel for every platform in the near future.
There are Gamestops and Walmarts near me that do not carry PC games at all anymore.
Same here, I actually see old games more and maybe a WoW or SWTOR. Diablo 2 and Warcraft and Starcraft boxes. And a random new game every now and then. In Total, about 10 games. Same in most stores. We don't have a Target store. There's a Best Buy but not sure how the PC games section is, the store is quite far from me.
In other words, the vast majority of people I know.
Never mind the fact the controller issues will be abundant - and the game selection won't be the same and that there will be updates and issues and everything known to windows appearing out of nowhere.
Why would controller issues be abundant? Why would there be any controller issues at all? Game selection would be greater. How is that a problem? Problems with updates are rare overall and are easily fixable as are all PC related problems. At the worst, you'll have to replace components, which are readily available for purchase. So, if the warranty has ran out, you can still repair the PC easily and cheaply without any hassles finding parts. What do you do if your console develops problems and the warranty has ran out?
PCs and laptops are already in the home. Everyone I know has a laptop, most of them have consoles, a few of them have PCs and a few have iPads for their kids. They may not know the ins-and-outs of Windows but they're not unfamiliar with it either and the kids have no problems using it. Making the PC smaller wouldn't bring any new problems to the home.
Valve will be bringing out a Steambox running linux, prehaps you should google it. And do I think they have the money for mainstream ad-branding? Certainly. Valve has a total equity of $2.5 billion.
But if they did know, then they would be interested in it.
But they don't and they won't all of a sudden.
You deflate your own argument... *beep*.
Make the bet with me.
Make the bet that piston will sell 50% of xbox next or a ps4 in Year 1.
Come on.
It's a moot point anyway. I fully expect that the Windows App store in windows 8 will start becoming the primary mode of distribution for PC games. Official app stores in the general will become the primary sales channel for every platform in the near future.
There is a extremely detailed and interesting article about Xbox 720 GPU up:
http://www.vgleaks.com/durango-gpu/1/
And an interpolation on top of that:
http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/147577-xbox-720-gpu-detailed-merely-a-last-gen-radeon
They confirm a number of other rumors and add a few more. I'd say it looks more like a custom Radeon 8750 rather than a 7770
Some highlights:
* 768 shader cores (12CUs)
* higher L1 associativity (64-way up from 16) and ~2x more L2 cache per CU (512K total) than Southern Islands.
* 32MB dedicated ESRAM (for latency rather than extra bandwidth)
* 8GB of RAM and 68GB/s of memory bandwidth.
8 GB is WAY too much for ultra-expensive GDDR5 and with DDR3 such amount can only be achieved with 4 memory channels at 2133 mhz! I wouldn't be surprised if in later generations they upgrade it to same-speed DDR4 for cost and power reductions.
Overall it's not as bad as I was afraid, but still not great. I hoped for at least Radeon 7850 TDP level GPU (110W) but I guess that would have made it as bulky and hot and expensive as the first Xbox 360-s and MS didn't want that.
Overall it's not as bad as I was afraid, but still not great. I hoped for at least Radeon 7850 TDP level GPU (110W) but I guess that would have made it as bulky and hot and expensive as the first Xbox 360-s and MS didn't want that.
Specs are about 1/3 of what a 7970 has, slightly better than a 7770.
The main thing I'm seeing in the diagrams though is that it shares system DDR3 RAM (ie, the chip described is a UMA part).