XBOX or Upgrade?

Xbox 360 Graphics wise is equal to or better than most current Wedium/High end PCs.


FPS single player is equal to a PC, but Multiplayer needs some work with only 8 people in most games.


Sports/Racing/platform/Action or better on an Xbox 360 hands down.


RTS, MMO are currently non-existant on the Xbox 360 if you like those games.


The Xbox 360 has a nice easy to use interface and it's potential is barley being tapped right now. Though youd better like some of the launch games as it looks to be a few months before new titles start trickling in.

I have to disagree on a couple of those points. FPS games will never be equal between a console and a PC. The PC control is just to far superior.


Racing/platform/action games are no better on a console (though they tend to have more of those types of games), even the 360, if you have a gamepad or racing wheel for the PC. Racing games especially, are better on PC IMO. You get arcade racers like the NFS series, but you also get true, hardcore sims that consoles couldn't dream of running, games like GT Legends. The graphics and physics engines in that game would bring a 360 to it's knees.


The good thing about consoles, and I'm an avid gamer, consoles in general, is that they are a no fuss, enclosed system. You drop the game in and play, no control tweaking or finding the best resolution/image quality sweet spot, and they still look really good, just not as good as a above average-high end PC.


A $700 PC will look better than the 360 now, and definantly in another 6-8 months. And if you do your shopping at newegg.com or other, similarly reputable stores online, you can put together a high end PC for $700-$800 max and a well above average, still faster & more capable than the Xbox 360 system for about $500.

I guess none of us can really answer the question for you. My experience is that I had almost the exact same computer that you had and instead of upgrading I bought a 360. I played with it for about a week and decided that console gaming is just not my cup of tea. I have to give up way to much of what I enjoy about the PC platform. The 360 has visuals as nice as a high end PC, but the game experience is about a lot more than just visuals.


I would respectfully disagree with Pestario as to the quality of games on 360 verses PC.

Sports games are always ported across all of the consoles and PC. This year is the only exception as the some 360 sports games have the engine that PC will only have next season.

As for racing, the 360 will have the Gotham series and Force which are great games. However, all other major racing games that show up across all consoles also comes to PC. The big difference is that PC supports force feedback wheels. This is a huge part of good racing simulation and the 360 has not announced any official support for force feedback. Also the PC is the only place for true racing sims such as R-factor, GTR, GTL and so on.


EDIT: I guess I was posting at the same time as the above two posters. It looks like we all feel the same way.

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X-Box 360 graphics-wise is not better or equal to a high-end PC. No way. And FPS on a PC blows the doors off the 360. Framerate and control are better.


But the real problem I see is there is barely anything available for the 360 to play. The sports games are watered down (wait for next gen of those I think they'll be great). COD2 is better on the PC (believe me, once you play 20 vs 20 on the battle field 8 people will NOT cut it for you). The only title i find interesting is Kameo. For FPS scares F.E.A.R. > Condemned


I would update the PC, then a year from now see if the 360 has a better line-up (or the PS3 or revolution).


- Cryo

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I'm curious what kind of PC you're talking about that will perform better than an Xbox 360 for $700. You'll spend that much just on a graphics card to match what the 360 can do.


I agree with the rest of your post however, that FPSs, RTSs and MMORPGs are best played on a PC right now. You just need that mouse and keyboard for the first two, and there are no MMORPGs for consoles just yet.


However, if you like action games, sports games or fighters, it's generally accepted that a console is the way to go. As for racing sims, I can't really say, but I believe that the GT series is considered among the best, no? And they do sell steering wheels for consoles also. As for arcadey racers, it doesn't get much better than the Burnout series.

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This isn't a bad assumption...but it does kind of depend on the game, and the 2.0Ghz processor is going to limit you a bit. The 1 gig of ram I can deal with, but the 2Ghz processor..maybe not. 3.0 Ghz Intel processor minimum, and whatever an equivelent AMD product might be (a 2.0Ghz A64 perhaps)?


If you assume the 360 is outputting at 1280x720, and pick a 4:3 res for your PC like 1024x768 (or 1280x960), then yes...a $300 videocard can probably equal graphically what the 360 can do.


So we're talking about setting most games to 2x AA or 4xAA max, and maybe 4xAF. I run that with my 6800GT (All my games I run 1024x768 with 2-4xaa and 8xAF if I can afford to and not loose too many frames). Fear I drop that down to 0AA and 4xAF, still pleasing to the eye.


Also remember that some 360 games aren't running 1280x720...they're running lower resolution and being upsampled to 720p. I think its been stated that PGR3 only runs at 1000x480 or something...maybe thats 1000x720....either way, it IS a bit like comparing apples and oranges.


Its all optimization.....COD2 runs better on the 360 but its got some lower resolution textures according to screenshots I've seen comparing the PC and XBOX versions. Then again I think NFSMW runs better on a PC with 'similar stats' than it does on 360....Quake4 certainly runs better on a PC than the 360 with similar stats...