SLI Consoles

[TylerDurden]

This is a rant.

IMO :

Someone told me that Consoles and PC's are becoming ever so close to each other.....

Ahem...

This was said to me, after i had said that consoles are a waste of money, and PC's are the way to go....

Well..

lets imagine a world where Consoles are neck and neck with PC's. ...

what would you call them ? PC CONSOLES ?

what's the point ?

I think its a bunch of stuff.

Even if a console was as good as a SLI PC, people would laff and upgrade. Leaving console gamers to wait for the next best thing. Seeing how consoles are like E-machines, and can not be upgraded. On board sound, video, blah blah blah.

So how is the xbox going to eat your money next year?

I can almost bet that Microsoft will team up with Nvidia, and introduce SLI consoles, in which you can have two of the same xbox, but with more power.....



in a few years 4 way SLI video cards will be a everyday thing, meaning that someone could buy 4 low end cards, turning their system into a beast. and not have to upgrade for a long time. While a console gamer has bought two or more consoles during that time. Maybe.


my point is this..

Consoles are a waste of money, i'm sad i ever bought a xbox, and there is no way that consoles will ever be anything close to a PC.

This isn't no fucking star wars, and darth x box wont be saying "now iam the master" to obe PC won. Because games can not be made on consoles, and consoles can not design consoles.

ps..

if one were to upgrade their 360, the only thing they could do is replace the ram, with better ram. Not MORE ram, BETTER ram. This isn't easy to do, and really has no point. If you were to put more ram in your console, no games would use it, making it pointless.


the reason i made this thread was pretty much because this :

i was at gamestop, and this guy that works there, had the nerve to try and tell me that consoles are better then PC's, and that the games on PC's don't come close to consoles.

This is coming from a guy who has a fucking DDR4 pin on his shirt.

he also went on to say how consoles have taken over the gaming world, and that no one really even plays PC games anymore ? what a fgt.

i told him to ring up my copy of Orange box, and stop talking.

ahem ....

[jow]

Well. I mean, he's right. Console games amount for the overwhelming majority of software sales. Does that make PC gaming dead? Nay fucking way. the MMORPG phenomenon, casual gaming and the success of digital distribution platforms like Steam make PC gaming relevant and important.

Is PC gaming an console gaming on a narrowing path that drive the two ever closer with each innovation on either side? Yes.

Will one "die" and the other "live"? Probably not. The suggestion is that at some point we will have more consolidation in our media devices. I suppose that means that the format of a "PC" will survive, but most likely in a more technically uniform manner, like consoles. Most likely doing far more tasks than a console does right now - like a PC.

Look no further than Steam, Xbox Live, X-Fire and Games for Windows for evidence of the trends at work, here.

[TylerDurden]

i just want to know if SLI consoles sound cool or not lol

sega sorta did that. sorta.

[jow]

I guess I missed the point in there somehow.

[WHEATLEY007]

Tyler - your whole argument is a bit stoopid really. Its pretty incoherent to be honest. You start of with an imaginary Consoles are equal to PCs world, make a pointless, one sided argument that brings nothing to the argument that’s been pointlessly going on since time began, or at least since I was last in a school play-ground, and top it off with a moan about some moron Saturday staffer at a games shop.

Will people be posting this stuff when I’m old and infirm, in a hospital bed, with my family paying their last respects to me before I take the long sleep?

I hope not.

Sorry mate, its not you - its the argument.

[TylerDurden]

thats bull shit, wheat.


If you think SLI consoles are so FUCKING lame, then why don't you help me out. <--lol

Today when i came to TMH, i wanted people to have posted their thoughts on hardware. If hooking two consoles together, like some video cards, or some old school sega gear is no where in sight, then what ?

maybe, being able to upgrade your console with better hardware ?? Upgradable consoles ?

i just don't see it, however buying a second console doesn't seem that crazy.
you'll do it in about 3 years anyway, son. Why not now, and have the power of two instead of one ?

ps.
iam in no way saying a xbox360 can be hooked to another one, and create SLI. However, WHAT IF .... .... ...

[DarkPenfold]

I have to agree that the basic argument is bunk.

The PC market bought into the SLI/CrossFire concept in the first place because of the nature of the audience. The most hardcore - and therefore vocal - of PC gamers are motivated by having a beefy rig, and dual vid cards were first marketed as the Next Big Thing in Graphics. However, I've yet to see a decent in-game case where buying two completely identical cards and running them in tandem produces twice the performance.
But at the end of the day, the hardcore PC gamer expects to update their graphics card every 2 years or so, and the rest of the system either incrementally or in one go every 3-4 years. Console owners typically just want to buy a box that sets up in minutes (no faffing with drivers) and will play games well for the next 5 years.

The whole idea behind console gaming is that you have a standard platform across your entire market. As a console manufacturer, when you start to fragment that market into Haves and Have-Nots based on hardware add-ons like a dual console setup (or, say, Sega 32X or MegaCD), you stand to exploit the Haves and make the Have-Nots feel sidelined, alienating both camps.
If the only difference is that the dual-console setup has better performance, for literally twice the price of a regular machine, your market penetration will be virtually nil; on the other hand, if you develop a game that requires its buyers to have the additional kit (like the Nintendo 64 RAM Pak, only ten times the cost - there's a reason that only DK64 needed the add-on*), you'll be unlikely to make back the tens of millions of dollars it costs to produce a title nowadays.

My final summary - market fragmentation is a bad thing. As an example of this, IMHO Microsoft's worst 360-flavoured mistake was making the hard-drive optional; the cheapest model should've had a 10gb drive at least.
Games like Mass Effect would benefit greatly if the dev teams could rely on a gamer owning a hard drive, as the Unreal Engine's LOD textures & models really harm the storytelling in certain places - you can be halfway through a conversation and still be seeing background textures pop into existence. But at the same time, if you make the hard drive mandatory then you'll exclude the large number of people who just bought a Core unit, potentially crippling your sales base.

(* Yeah, I know Pefect Dark used it too - but PD was playable without it; DK64 wouldn't run at all without the extra memory.)

[WHEATLEY007]

Point well put.

'SLI' consoles are not completely unheard of though. The SNES had 2 graph chips if I remember corretly - one for the super cool Mode 7 effects.

Did'nt the Jaguar have two cpu's nicknamed tom & jerry ?

Not truw SLI, but thats as close as you'll get.

Also, SLI is IMO a waste of time. There always seems to be a card about that can give the average SLI set up a run for its money. IMO if you've got SLI, you are either minted (or dad is) or you dont have other things to spend your money on....... girlfreind, socialising, car, home, investments, education etc.
Just cos you can see an extra few fps in Crysis cos you spent 4x £300 on 4way SLI, dont mean that your gonna be better at the game, gonna enjoy it more than me, and it'll no way help you get laid.
- But thats just my opinion. - and I'm older than you so you have to listen to me.

[blackguy32]

(* Yeah, I know Pefect Dark used it too - but PD was playable without it; DK64 wouldn't run at all without the extra memory.)

It might as well not have been. If I remember correctly, over half of the game was cut and the remaining half was butchered heavily since I believe they cut down on the screen size. Grr.... that was a game that tried to do too much with what little hardware they had.

[jow]

and it'll no way help you get laid.

Wrong, if one of you guys rocks some 4 way SLI, I'll suck yo' dick.