done with PC gaming

[TheJackal]

well, i was playing FEAR MP demo, and my computer shut off and i heard some sparks/electrical noise, and i smelled something burning. i instantly thought it was my psu, but i looked around smelling different components, and it turned out it was my 6600GT. i took it out, examined it, and could definately smell that that was the source of the problem. i put one of my other lower end PCIe graphics cards in there, and everything worked fine, given it was ATi even. so, i put the 6600GT back in there to hopefully get it running and maybe it just shutdown from excesive heat, but when i booted, the video card bios was all garbled, so was my XP load screen, and then, it flashed a message about blah blah on a blue screen and it flashed so fast, all i could see was the word driver. so, i took it out, put in my other PCIe graphics card, and i decided that i officially quit pc gaming. i deleted every single game on there, all demos, everything. i also deleted all my OC'g apps and everything. i decided, that i am truely done. i was planning on buying FEAR, but i learned it came out like weeks ago, and just decided that i haven't been keeping up much on games/gpus. hell, i am not sure if the x1800? is even out yet. the cause of my card failing would my guess would be my psu or heat. i had it running at something like 560/11?? and i guess that was too much, but i have had it a hell of a lot higher, and i had it running at that for weeks and it would play bf2 for an hour fine until i got bored and just quit. i also had my rear 120mm fan hooked up to my antec's low speed fan molex connector thing, so i guess that didn't clear enough air out of it to keep it cool. i am not sure why i lost interest in gaming. it used to take over my school life, but now i am focused on college and my career path in life. if i ever decide to game again, i would just have to RMA my card and with it's life time warranty, get another one, but i somehow don't see me doing that.

maybe when ps3 or xbox 360 come out, i'll buy those instead, it'll be cheaper than a 7800GTX and most likely look better. but, for now, i'm completely done with pc gaming.

thank you for reading this, have a nice day. :)

[Asian Dub Foundation]

sucks that ur video card crapped

[Syncade]

ewww, consoles....

[magnetik]

what powersupply do you have and what burnt on the card? pics?

[TheJackal]

what powersupply do you have and what burnt on the card? pics?

antec true power, and there is nothing burnt on the card either. i can post pics, but it'll just like any other 6600GT

[magnetik]

antec true power, and there is nothing burnt on the card either. i can post pics, but it'll just like any other 6600GT

I thought the 6600GT smelled burnt? :confused:

[Viper87227]

If your done with PC gaming... RMA the card and sell it.

[Evil Juggalo]

can i have the rest of your comp then?

-Evil Juggalo

[akinsey]

ewww, consoles....
yah, what ^ he said! :p

isn't that a little extreme?

[Netrat33]

YOU'LL COME BACK...THEY ALWAYS DO!!!!!



Seriously, take a break :) I did for a long time. (Like...maybe quake3 - Farcry type of pause) Didn't know what was going on with videocards or games. Came back and now having fun. I went to consoles and had fun gaming there off and on. But PC gaming took a break.

[TheJackal]

haha yeah, i thought about selling my pc, but nah, i doubt it. i just discovered using two monitors so that's what i'm doing on my laptop, i have my sony 17in. flat panel monitor hooked up to my thinkpad's vga port, and it's fucking awesome how you can have say windows media player on the sony and this browser on this display. truely amazing. :)

as for taking a break, yeah, maybe i do just need a break, i don't know, maybe i'm just growing up.

regarding the burnt spot, i'll take a pic in a lil bit, and edit this post. the front, there is nothing wrong with it so i won't post it, the back i will.

http://img489.imageshack.us/img489/6458/pic32jpg63zb.jpg
http://img489.imageshack.us/img489/3723/pic33jpg77jb.jpg
http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/2197/pic34jpg80vn.jpg

damn! i actually just noticed that the little transistor was blackened, on both sides to, you can't really tell in the photos unless you look hard. /cell phone

[winston856]

That's real unfortunate.

But you do know that overclocking is an 'at your own risk' kind of thing, cards aren't made to be overclocked with the HSF's that come with them (with some exceptions) so when one blows up, it's foolish to get all mad at it because you're asking it to run at speeds it wasn't built to run on.


But yeah, take a break for a while, if you're getting bored with PC games there's no reason to go on playing them. Unless something comes out that really catches your eye.

I'd just RMA that thing and get another one to use for now, then you'll have it there when you decide to come back to computer gaming :)

[Nuzzles]

haha yeah, i thought about selling my pc, but nah, i doubt it. i just discovered using two monitors so that's what i'm doing on my laptop, i have my sony 17in. flat panel monitor hooked up to my thinkpad's vga port, and it's fucking awesome how you can have say windows media player on the sony and this browser on this display. truely amazing. :)



Yeah, dual monitors absolutely kick ass. You should get into shit loads of anime to take up all your spare space on your hardrive you should have now. ;)

Also, with all the money your put into gaming, maybe you could get a nice digital camera. Then when you eventually come back to gaming, you can take some nice pics of your new rig. :D :p

[TheJackal]

That's real unfortunate.

But you do know that overclocking is an 'at your own risk' kind of thing, cards aren't made to be overclocked with the HSF's that come with them (with some exceptions) so when one blows up, it's foolish to get all mad at it because you're asking it to run at speeds it wasn't built to run on.


But yeah, take a break for a while, if you're getting bored with PC games there's no reason to go on playing them. Unless something comes out that really catches your eye.

I'd just RMA that thing and get another one to use for now, then you'll have it there when you decide to come back to computer gaming :)

true, it was at my own risk, but i am not sure why it happened then, it had been doing fine at those speeds for weeks and during gaming, it ran fine. i will however wait on RMAing it, like right now, i have no interest to game, and even though i can (i put a x300 in there) i just wouldn't be able to enjoy all the eye candy, etc. with that card. maybe if i do find a game that catches my eye, it might be time to upgrade to a 7800GT or higher :)

nice post btw thanks

[TheJackal]

Yeah, dual monitors absolutely kick ass. You should get into shit loads of anime to take up all your spare space on your hardrive you should have now. ;)

Also, with all the money your put into gaming, maybe you could get a nice digital camera. Then when you eventually come back to gaming, you can take some nice pics of your new rig. :D :p

lol i mean honestly, i had never thought it would be this convenient, multi tasking productivity increased. :D

everyone, if you haven't already experienced it, try it.
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/1188/untitled331at.th.jpg (http://img150.imageshack.us/my.php?image=untitled331at.jpg)

[Nuzzles]

How'd you get your task bar over to the other one? :O

The things I don't like about dual monitors, is that sometimes they can interfere with games depending on settings you have them at. Although, that doesn't mean anything to you anymore.

And that my main monitor is at 1600x1200 while my secondary is at 1024x768. So sometiems I drag windows that are relatively small on my main to the secondary, and they take up the whole damn screen. XD Other than that, I love it. ^.^

[scottatwittenberg]

he is using ultramon.. that will also automatically resize windows that you drag from the 1600x1200 screen to the 1024x768..

[JRPereira]

I have to agree with your choice to drop PC games for a while. Current games just aren't that good and keeping up with the latest hardware and taking care of every little thing that decides to go wrong is really taxing. Maybe one day hardware manufacturers and PC game devs will hit some high point and simplify and optimize games to run extremely well and look great on lower end hardware, but until then, there's only a few PC games that hold my attention and I keep coming back to consoles and emulators to satisfy my thirst.

Aside from the hassles associated PC gaming, the games just aren't that good anymore - sure we've got some fantastic indie games like kenta cho's shooters, and massively impressive games like supreme commander on the horizon, but there's so little that's interesting and original, or even of genres typically seen on consoles that would be great on the PC with a simple USB controller (platformers, space shooters, platform shooters, rpg's, fighting games, crazy games like katamari, etc.), that it's hard to force yourself to upgrade to play that one game that's hardly worth the $600 to upgrade when you could plunk down $150 for a ps2 that does the gaming and another few hundred for a basic desktop that does all your non-gaming tasks flawlessly (and you wouldn't have to worry about shelling out $400 on the desktop yearly and same goes for the ps2).

Another thing that PC gaming lacks is rentals. I'm not sure how this could be done in a non-invasive non-piracy way that everyone could agree on, but whenever a game comes out with a lackluster demo or one that's only worth the cost and time of a rental to play it through once, PC gaming loses out. With consoles you head over to your local blockbuster or hollywood video and spend a few days with the game. If it sucks, then who cares, you only paid a few bucks. If it was great but with no reply value, then you got your fill and didn't end up stuck with the game.


I don't want to turn this into a PC bashing post though. PC gaming has a lot of advantages that console gaming doesn't - namely patches, expansions, mods, and multiplayer - which really extend the lifetimes of these games. The problem is, that most games are still crap after patches or are actually made worse, with expansions it's either a huge expense that hardly improves the gameplay or a huge expense that ruins gameplay, and not a lot of games include solid mod support - and those who do don't allow a combination of user friendly moddability and down and dirty modding where you can change the basic fundamentals of how the game works.

Multiplayer is another big part of PC gaming that could be heavily improved if co-op gameplay was included in most games. While competition can be fun, being beat to crap by every 12 year old kid lucky enough to have good hand eye coordination, or some other lucky enough to have found some ultimate weapon (or have spent 16 hours a day farming equipment), or a group of people hell bent on making the game a living hell for anyone nearby, is not fun at all. Being with a group of friends and taking out hordes of enemies that pose a big challenge but aren't actual humans pissing on your every move with near-impossible reflexes and strategy, can be really nice. Hell, even if they piss all over you, it's still quite fun (gradius 5's co-op is fantastic even if your buddy uses up all the continues, and the contra games played with a buddy is absolutely divine [have I plugged enough konami classics for one month?]).

[theNoid]

So lets say you buy a Xbox 360 and/or Playstation 3... it frys.

Then what ? Board games ? Jump rope ?

Do you just bail on anything because something goes wrong lol ? I don't get it.

[TheJackal]

I have to agree with your choice to drop PC games for a while. Current games just aren't that good and keeping up with the latest hardware and taking care of every little thing that decides to go wrong is really taxing. Maybe one day hardware manufacturers and PC game devs will hit some high point and simplify and optimize games to run extremely well and look great on lower end hardware, but until then, there's only a few PC games that hold my attention and I keep coming back to consoles and emulators to satisfy my thirst.

Aside from the hassles associated PC gaming, the games just aren't that good anymore - sure we've got some fantastic indie games like kenta cho's shooters, and massively impressive games like supreme commander on the horizon, but there's so little that's interesting and original, or even of genres typically seen on consoles that would be great on the PC with a simple USB controller (platformers, space shooters, platform shooters, rpg's, fighting games, crazy games like katamari, etc.), that it's hard to force yourself to upgrade to play that one game that's hardly worth the $600 to upgrade when you could plunk down $150 for a ps2 that does the gaming and another few hundred for a basic desktop that does all your non-gaming tasks flawlessly (and you wouldn't have to worry about shelling out $400 on the desktop yearly and same goes for the ps2).

Another thing that PC gaming lacks is rentals. I'm not sure how this could be done in a non-invasive non-piracy way that everyone could agree on, but whenever a game comes out with a lackluster demo or one that's only worth the cost and time of a rental to play it through once, PC gaming loses out. With consoles you head over to your local blockbuster or hollywood video and spend a few days with the game. If it sucks, then who cares, you only paid a few bucks. If it was great but with no reply value, then you got your fill and didn't end up stuck with the game.


I don't want to turn this into a PC bashing post though. PC gaming has a lot of advantages that console gaming doesn't - namely patches, expansions, mods, and multiplayer - which really extend the lifetimes of these games. The problem is, that most games are still crap after patches or are actually made worse, with expansions it's either a huge expense that hardly improves the gameplay or a huge expense that ruins gameplay, and not a lot of games include solid mod support - and those who do don't allow a combination of user friendly moddability and down and dirty modding where you can change the basic fundamentals of how the game works.

Multiplayer is another big part of PC gaming that could be heavily improved if co-op gameplay was included in most games. While competition can be fun, being beat to crap by every 12 year old kid lucky enough to have good hand eye coordination, or some other lucky enough to have found some ultimate weapon (or have spent 16 hours a day farming equipment), or a group of people hell bent on making the game a living hell for anyone nearby, is not fun at all. Being with a group of friends and taking out hordes of enemies that pose a big challenge but aren't actual humans pissing on your every move with near-impossible reflexes and strategy, can be really nice. Hell, even if they piss all over you, it's still quite fun (gradius 5's co-op is fantastic even if your buddy uses up all the continues, and the contra games played with a buddy is absolutely divine [have I plugged enough konami classics for one month?]).
yeah that's pretty much sums up what i think also :)

[JRPereira]

So lets say you buy a Xbox 360 and/or Playstation 3... it frys.

Then what ? Board games ? Jump rope ?

Do you just bail on anything because something goes wrong lol ? I don't get it.

What I meant is that PC gaming is a constant struggle to keep everything (especially expensive hardware) up to date, and it just gets worse when something expensive and critical to gaming (say, your video card) fails - you end up shelling out between $200 and $400 to replace it - and then you have to consider if it's just replacement or upgrade - as you know you have to upgrade eventually. What if you want to upgrade and have an AGP board? Well now you have to consider replacing the mobo [i.e. pci-e] so you can replace the video [and what about sli?, cause you know one new card won't be enough later on (and then you have to wonder what games will take advantage of it)]. But what about the processor? Will the new board support it? what about the memory? Should you go ahead and upgrade both processor and memory as well? A simple $200-400 decision starts to get out of control.

If a console dies you just go buy another one. Hell, if you want to upgrade there's not much of a concern there either - especially as the ps3/revolution are apparently backward compatable - I hear that the same goes (more or less) for the xbox360 as well --- AND it's not as expensive either.

[TheJackal]

So lets say you buy a Xbox 360 and/or Playstation 3... it frys.

Then what ? Board games ? Jump rope ?

Do you just bail on anything because something goes wrong lol ? I don't get it.

a fried console? :p haha that's never happened before to me in my years of a snes ps1 ps2 xbox n64 and nes, i doubt it, but hey, things can happen.

i don't bail on anything because something goes wrong, example like when i fucked up my thinkpad's hard drive and the restore cd wouldn't work lol, i had to put all drivers and shit back on there and everything, so it was like i made my own pc. i was super mad at first, but then i calmed down and sovled the problem and am typing on it now. :)

i guess maybe:
a.)i am still mad at it failing
b.)just tired with gaming general
c.)need a rest
d.)am growing up

[Sheldron]

a fried console? :p haha that's never happened before to me in my years of a snes ps1 ps2 xbox n64 and nes, i doubt it, but hey, things can happen.
I've had a PSone, Xbox, and an N64 burn out before. I took the Xbox back and got it replaced (thank God I spent the extra $30 to extend the warrenty from BB), the N64 and PSone though are still sitting in a drawer in my basement (just can't bring myself to throw them out for some reason)

[Ryder]

I take breaks all the time... i start feelin like a real geek and just take a break sometimes and get back into the WORLD hahaha. trust me ur doin the right thing

AND PC gaming IS expensive but its not all that bad if you do it right... even if your making $5 an hour you can have 200 bucks in a week and that right there pays for half of a new top end gfx card

[texuspete00]

Your lucky if your consoles never broke down. I have had 2 ps1's and also 2 ps2's. At least with BFG they bring them to your door. Sony wants like serious bank to fix it up, the warranty is pretty worthless. Sure you can think I've had bad luck, but I'm not the only one that had his PS1 upside down because as it aged it helped it work better, and it just got worse. 2 friend's also had two ps2's, one knocked it off a chair though.

[pistola]

Bye! Good luck to you!

One less "noob" to worry about. (that was a joke by the way, don't get offended.)

Serously though, I understand where your coming from, sort of. Are you pissed at the hardware or the games? I mean you said yourself that the card was under warrenty, just get a new one, and jump back in. No harm done. A dead video card is a pretty crappy way to get out of PC gaming.

[JRPereira]

Are you pissed at the hardware or the games?

This is the million dollar question.

Are the games worth it?

[TheJackal]

Bye! Good luck to you!

One less "noob" to worry about. (that was a joke by the way, don't get offended.)

Serously though, I understand where your coming from, sort of. Are you pissed at the hardware or the games? I mean you said yourself that the card was under warrenty, just get a new one, and jump back in. No harm done. A dead video card is a pretty crappy way to get out of PC gaming.

lol, well, i wasn't a noob in bf2 when i played, let me add that :D

anyway, i am not sure what exactly i am mad at. i am partially mad that the gpu just failed out of no where, even if i overclocked it, it had been fine for weeks before. the games? eh, i might just get bored with them, not really mad, but i am finding that i don't have that much time to play anymore and i honestly, my main theory now, don't see the point. is gaming just to take you out of the real world and escape it to pretend your in another? is it just to enjoy yourself sitting on your ass instead of enjoying the real world? i guess people would say it's to have fun and just compete against AI and people online. maybe i am getting the big picture and in reality am solving my own gaming crisis. :p

as for the card, i'll let it sit in it's anti static bag until i find the need for gaming. if i do, i'll just RMA it and re install the games i like. i mean, like right now, i have my x300 in there, and i know it can play all the games i have, but the graphics will look shitty and i'll get shitty frames per second. well, i haven't re installed any games so far, so maybe this is the end? i have the ability to play, but just won't. like for my consoles, i'm selling my ps2 and all games and shit at the end of the month, haven't touched game cube in litterly months, and xbox, haven't played that in months either. pc gaming pretty much changed my life, you know, the entire computer perspective. they revolutionize our lives, and it's fun to tinker in the BIOS, overclock and push the card/cpu/ram to it's limits, tinker iwth mods on the case and upgrade it and such, but there are downfalls. price is a main killer of it, like if my psu was the problem, i know for a fact that i wouldn't run out and buy a new one. it's just to damned expensive. but money is besides the point ;)

[ne0-reloaded]

at least i know im not alone. pc games just don't really cut it for me. huddled around a desk by urself is so antisocial it seems like. playing a multiplayer pc game with an actual person is extremely hard/wierd at times. im waiting on the new consoles to come out, my 9800 pro is still kickin thank god, i just don't really ever push it anymore.

outside of fps's there really isn't a reason to play pc games. sure there's other genre's, but fps's are the main type of game. it seems like the innovation is gone. sure theres been great fps's to come out, but the same concept and theme seems to be there. plus im not rich so buying a 400 vid card to play maybe one or 2 games is a little 2 much for me. weird enough tho, my new hobby has been reading.....who woulda thought?

[MemoryInAGarden]

Why do you want to abandon PC gaming because of the failure of one piece of hardware? If you enjoy the games available for the PC, just RMA the card and move on. Consoles have their defects (remember the PS2 power cord recall and DVD-ROM issues?) and hardware failures, so you aren't going to be immune to such failures no matter where you go.

[MemoryInAGarden]

at least i know im not alone. pc games just don't really cut it for me. huddled around a desk by urself is so antisocial it seems like. playing a multiplayer pc game with an actual person is extremely hard/wierd at times. im waiting on the new consoles to come out, my 9800 pro is still kickin thank god, i just don't really ever push it anymore.

outside of fps's there really isn't a reason to play pc games. sure there's other genre's, but fps's are the main type of game. it seems like the innovation is gone. sure theres been great fps's to come out, but the same concept and theme seems to be there. plus im not rich so buying a 400 vid card to play maybe one or 2 games is a little 2 much for me. weird enough tho, my new hobby has been reading.....who woulda thought?

I don't understand why you want to make such a blanket statement about PC games being "antisocial." Consoles certainly don't have a mature MMORPG industry like the PC does. Being in a large 40-man raid in World of Warcraft forces you to coordinate and communicate with other people at a bare minimum. This seems quite social to me.

[steviep]

Actually, that's extremely antisocial, MIG... sorry to say. If you're going to even attempt to be social while gaming, the best way to do it is to have either a LANparty (quite difficult in terms of logistics) or do some 4-player console gaming in person - which, incidentally, is the most social methods of gaming. Especially in a party setting playing a party game (think Mario Party, Donkey Konga, DDR, etc). That's like saying MSN is truly social.

[MemoryInAGarden]

Actually, that's extremely antisocial, MIG... sorry to say. If you're going to even attempt to be social while gaming, the best way to do it is to have either a LANparty (quite difficult in terms of logistics) or do some 4-player console gaming in person - which, incidentally, is the most social methods of gaming. Especially in a party setting playing a party game (think Mario Party, Donkey Konga, DDR, etc). That's like saying MSN is truly social.

The "antisocial" that I think of is some Columbine wannabe playing a single player game through repeatedly for hours on end. Then again, maybe us some MMORPGers are weird people that just flock together :p

[rfwinters77]

Wise man say: "He who overclocks his system have no right to bitch when he fries it"


;)

[winston856]

Wise man say: "He who overclocks his system have no right to bitch when he fries it"

QFT!!!

Gotta love those wise men ;)

[kelbear]

Sounds to me like the death of the GPU was your fault for overclocking it, even it had been working for a time. Not really a reason to give up PC gaming.

But there are LOTS of reasons to give up gaming, and you've already listed a few of them. If you ever have incentive to quit games, just do it! You have very little to lose by not playing and so much to gain by quitting gaming. People talk about games and that's nice, but there's other things to talk about as well, maybe you'll find something else you like even more than games. Games themselves are not a bad thing, just pretty unproductive. You only need enough entertainment to get you relaxed enough to go back to bettering yourself.

Next time you feel like leveling up, hit that gym and work on level 2 biceps, and level 4 triceps. Next time you wanna join a clan, join a club. Want to score a frag? Score a 3-pointer. I'm sure your future/current girlfriend/wife will appreciate the change.

When you're finally tired of what you've done with your gaming-less life, come back to games and pick up where you left off. Except now all those cutting edge 60 dollar games cost 10 bucks and run butter smooth. Consoles that go retail at 300+ will be around 100 or less. And you've got a wealth of user reviews to pick out which games turned out to be great and which turned out to be just hype. Then you can work your way up to current day gaming and quit again:)

As for me? I'm not tired of games so I'm not gonna quit:)

[Seelenlos]

you smelled smoke saw sparks saw the burns and you put it back in afterwords?

[deadrody]

When you're finally tired of what you've done with your gaming-less life, come back to games and pick up where you left off. Except now all those cutting edge 60 dollar games cost 10 bucks and run butter smooth. Consoles that go retail at 300+ will be around 100 or less. And you've got a wealth of user reviews to pick out which games turned out to be great and which turned out to be just hype. Then you can work your way up to current day gaming and quit again:)Great advice. I just don't have the time to play games to even keep up with new games, so I'm often playing games that are 1, 2, 3, maybe even 5 years old. Not only are the games cheaper when you buy them, but the hardware required to run them is cheaper, too. Other bonuses include mature drivers and game patches that fix problems with the games - two very common PC game complaints.

[Ruiner]

Then what ? Board games ? Jump rope ?


Back to PnP rpg's, baby. Where's my dice? :p

[Lyquist]

I have also quit playing games. I just got tired of having to play catch up all the time. The last two games I really enjoyed were StarCraft and System Shock 2. System Shock 2 was brilliant. I'll game again when Blizzard releases StarCraft2.

Lyquist

[Draax]

I have also quit playing games. I just got tired of having to play catch up all the time. The last two games I really enjoyed were StarCraft and System Shock 2. System Shock 2 was brilliant. I'll game again when Blizzard releases StarCraft2.

Lyquist

Well you may be waiting a long time. Blizzard is no longer the Blizzard we all came to know and love. Blizzard is now an abomination, whose strings are pulled by the money hungry conglomerate known as Vivendi. The lead guys like Rob Pardo, (this guy was so involved he even did the zug zug the orcs say) have left to join or start up other developing studios.

WoW is a great game, and I am truly addicted, but it does lack the mystique and the little things which made games like Warcraft 2 and Starcraft truly epic.

It is true that Chris Metzen, who oversees the lore of the WarCraft (and a damn good artist) universe is still at Blizzard, but he seems to be following the shoes of George Lucas and straying from the real story. Decisions such as the undead not really being undead but forsaken ? and the four dragons, reall make me think he is just grasping for straws.

[slacker6]

Lot's of interesting comments on this...I haven't gamed on the PC for a while. My video card is a Ti4200 if that tells you anything:) I purchased an X-box about 12 months ago with Live, Halo 2, etc. It displays on a 100" diagonal screen with a projector, sounds great, yada, yado, BUT....

the past couple of weeks I find myself seeing more and better games available for the PC. Age of Empires III
FEAR
Quake 4
World of Warcraft
Battlefield 2
Call of Duty 2

All of which hit the PC before consoles (if they even hit that platform).

The other SHOW-STOPPER for me is controls. I can't control FPS with a gamepad to save my a$$. Until the console controls change for something more intuitive for FPS, the PC will continue to rule this area. Of course I could always order a keyboard/mouse interface for the X-box from Lik-Sang I suppose.

Additionally, it seems one industry trend has begun to reverse itself in favor of the PC. There are two graphic card producers that dominate the enthusiast market, ATI and Nvidia. No more 3Dfx, Diamond, Matrox, Intel and other smaller players that made game coding cumbersome due to the overall number of potential graphis processors. With only two PC graphic card manufacturers compared to three different consoles, each with a different GPU, it actually becomes easier to program graphics for the PC (maybe?). This may be offset by the actual market share of console gamers versus PC gamers but what the hell do I know?

For the OP, take a break like I have... I've got a 9 month old boy that has (and correctly so) reduced my extracurricular activities. You'll probably come back around again to the PC, just as I am now doing:) I've already planned my upgrade purchases!

[Aelfgeft]

Okay, lemme just recap a few details:

1. You overclock your components, and now your video card is toast.

2. You stuck the obviously toasted (physically) video card back into your computer and knowingly powered it up.

3. You're quitting gaming because your card toasted, most likely due to a mixture of your cooling methods, the amount of your overclock, and the maintenance you do to keep your case clean of dust, and HIGHLY UNLIKELY to have anything to do with the game you were playing.

...........

...somehow, that makes about as much sense to me as suing a gun company for the fact that some lunatic with a 70 year old revolver plugged somebody else. But, that's just me.

If my details regarding your wish to give up gaming are wrong, my apologies. TBH, I can sympathize with many people dropping out of the field right now. Mark my words, though...if you were hooked once, within the next 5 years you will be again ;)

[JRPereira]

I think what he was saying is that it's one more (and in this case final) reason to give up the hassle and find something else to deal with.

With shadow of the colossus I have one more reason to fall away from PC gaming. I still play some games on the PC, but my interest is still waning.

[steviep]

SLACKER! lol (BttF reference)
See Revolution controller (http://cube.ign.com/articles/651/651224p1.html)

Interesting impressions from one of the few people who got to try it at TGS:

" "How does it compare to a mouse?"

From what I experienced, it seemed to be more precise than a mouse, but it's
also much faster because it requires only a much smaller movement of the
hand to achieve the desired effect. You just instantly point the controller
at any part of the screen and bam!, that's where you're looking.

There is no lag.

There is no error.

It took a while to get used to the idea of how little effort is required to
play a game with this controller. I kept wanting to lean forward and move
the controller closer to the screen, and it took some practice to just sit
back and just calmly move my hand ever so slightly.

At one point, someone said, "If you were to play a game with this against
someone using a mouse, they'd have no chance against you." I had to admit it
was true.

I've been using a mouse and keyboard for gaming for almost as long as I've
been a gamer. I've logged over 80 hours so far in Battlefield 2 and I have a
level 60 World of WarCraft character. If somebody had tried to tell me
before now that a better controller would come along, I would have laughed
at them.

But it only took me 5 minutes with the Revolution controller to realize that
I don't need to use a mouse ever again.

Let's take a first-person shooter as an example. With a flick of the wrist,
you can completely change your aim point from one corner of the screen to
the other. Changing your aim point that way would require you to move a
mouse all the way across a gamepad and could potentially take up to several
seconds of pushing on a thumbstick with a standard console game controller.

Add to that the fact that the controller can correctly interpret roll
(rotation of the controller clockwise and counterclockwise) and movement
toward the screen or away from it, and you start to get an idea of the
universe of new gameplay possibilities that Revolution games will be able to
explore.

And as far as this thread is concerned... Sure he fried his videocard, but he has the right to be sick of PC gaming. For the moment, I agree with him. There are some fantastic games on the way for the holiday season (Civ4 comes to mind) but I am extremely tired of the PC FPS scene... Same shit, better graphics. I hope something changes my mind soon - other than FEAR. Kelber - AMEN!! :)

[Friendlypirate80]

i use to lovee consoles but now im a pc fan boy and i will tell you why

usally i would go to eb games get a ps2 games play it for 2 days and beat it then it would collect dust on my self 50 bucks wasted IMO for 20 hours of entertainment :-(

repeat 50 times and thats basically my whole console experince

so then i started playing pc games i bought 1 game Unreal tournament for 30 bucks and i have been playing it since the day its been released it has never been boring to me tons of mods great ppl to play with tons of fun !

i think pc gaming is better cuase when you do beat the game you can always download a mod or a hack or a addon that makes it like you playing a new game and dont forget about MMORPGS i have even played WOW im afriad too my friend plays it religiously

so far i have had more fun then any game i have ever played on a console and all i spent was 30 bucks :-P and i got a microphone with my unreal :-P

[Ir0n_SamuraI]

Fear fried my CRT..I feel your pain

[retardedchicken]

Actually, that's extremely antisocial, MIG... sorry to say. If you're going to even attempt to be social while gaming, the best way to do it is to have either a LANparty (quite difficult in terms of logistics) or do some 4-player console gaming in person - which, incidentally, is the most social methods of gaming. Especially in a party setting playing a party game (think Mario Party, Donkey Konga, DDR, etc). That's like saying MSN is truly social.

" tending to form cooperative and interdependent relationships with others of one's kind"
-definition of social from dictionary.com

Now try to tell me you DONT do that in most online games.

[maw]

interesting thread.

i too got totally bored with PC gaming. It's been almost 2 years since i've even touched a FPS game. My wallet is so thankful. My P4 2.4c and ATI 9800PRO still serve me well for what I do nowadays. I've saved hundreds if not thousands of dollars by jumping off the insane upgrade treadmill, and i'm happier for it. I used to spend literally $500-600 every few months on upgrades, just so I could play the latest and greatest, that was just ridiculous! I find I can easily support my other hobbies now, and I get much more satisfaction from them than i ever did gaming.

i tried getting back into it a couple months back (HL2), but quickly got bored again. Like others have stated, there's nothing really new anymore. Sure the graphics are 10x sweeter than before, but the games themselves are basically not much different than it was back in 1998.

[TheJackal]

interesting thread.

i too got totally bored with PC gaming. It's been almost 2 years since i've even touched a FPS game. My wallet is so thankful. My P4 2.4c and ATI 9800PRO still serve me well for what I do nowadays. I've saved hundreds if not thousands of dollars by jumping off the insane upgrade treadmill, and i'm happier for it. I used to spend literally $500-600 every few months on upgrades, just so I could play the latest and greatest, that was just ridiculous! I find I can easily support my other hobbies now, and I get much more satisfaction from them than i ever did gaming.

i tried getting back into it a couple months back (HL2), but quickly got bored again. Like others have stated, there's nothing really new anymore. Sure the graphics are 10x sweeter than before, but the games themselves are basically not much different than it was back in 1998.

yeah, i'm looking at other things to do rather than sit on my ass playing a game. i've put some more money into my aquarium, first time in months, my music collection is seemingly growing, my grades are going UP since i've quit. overall, my outlook on life and everything in the future is going up, basis is on grades which will help me in college.

[TheJackal]

Okay, lemme just recap a few details:

1. You overclock your components, and now your video card is toast.

2. You stuck the obviously toasted (physically) video card back into your computer and knowingly powered it up.

3. You're quitting gaming because your card toasted, most likely due to a mixture of your cooling methods, the amount of your overclock, and the maintenance you do to keep your case clean of dust, and HIGHLY UNLIKELY to have anything to do with the game you were playing.

...........

...somehow, that makes about as much sense to me as suing a gun company for the fact that some lunatic with a 70 year old revolver plugged somebody else. But, that's just me.

If my details regarding your wish to give up gaming are wrong, my apologies. TBH, I can sympathize with many people dropping out of the field right now. Mark my words, though...if you were hooked once, within the next 5 years you will be again ;)

1. yes, i did overclock. i have pushed that card even higher before though. it had been running fine at that for WEEKS and all of a sudden, it dies.
2. actually, i didn't see the burn marks until someone in this thread told me to post pics. :p i thought maybe it was just heat that caused it to crash, but it wasn't
3. i don't really see where you are going. yes, it could be my fault, but my case is clean and all, barely any dust, as it is farely new (months) i have invested a quite a bit of money into it and now i regret it. :(

benefits of quiting gaming:
grades are higher
more sleep
focused on future life
more money in pocket
less power consumed :p

[TheJackal]

I think what he was saying is that it's one more (and in this case final) reason to give up the hassle and find something else to deal with.

With shadow of the colossus I have one more reason to fall away from PC gaming. I still play some games on the PC, but my interest is still waning.

QFT, that card going did add another reason to stop gaming all together. sure, if it lived, it would have stayed in there, games still would have been installed on there, but i just wouldn't play it as often, as i did prior to this all happened.

[slacker6]

SLACKER! lol (BttF reference)
See Revolution controller (http://cube.ign.com/articles/651/651224p1.html)

Interesting impressions from one of the few people who got to try it at TGS:



And as far as this thread is concerned... Sure he fried his videocard, but he has the right to be sick of PC gaming. For the moment, I agree with him. There are some fantastic games on the way for the holiday season (Civ4 comes to mind) but I am extremely tired of the PC FPS scene... Same shit, better graphics. I hope something changes my mind soon - other than FEAR. Kelber - AMEN!! :)


Hmm, how interesting about the Revolution controller.

I really think the OP will be back in a while. Same for me, and yes, I've enjoyed spending more time with the family, work is much easier since I don't stay up till 2am, etc.

Games like AOE III, the aforementioned Civ 4, WOW, etc all only available on the PC. Strategy games and consoles just don't jive. Kind of like fighting games don't jive with the PC.

[retardedchicken]

grades are higher
focused on future life


Association is not causation...my GPA went up since I started really getting into gaming, and for the first time I have actually started looking into what colleges I want to go to and what majors I would want.

[TheJackal]

Association is not causation...my GPA went up since I started really getting into gaming, and for the first time I have actually started looking into what colleges I want to go to and what majors I would want.

opposite for me :confused:

like tomorrow, i'm going to a local college for a career day, so that should be interesting. actually, when i actually started gaming on a pc and upgrading and such, i thought about a career in graphics or something computer related. well, that thought has left my mind. idk lol

school, i'll give the example of this year so far:
all core classes, a or b
honors class, d-f

that was a few weeks ago, and since i have more time to actually do my homework and study for tests, my grades have increased. core classes rose slightly % wise, honors class, i have brought that up to a c, so giving up gaming has given me more time to focus on things that are more important. a thing to think of is that i still have my whole life a head of me, i can always start gaming when i'm older, out of school, and have started my career, but you cannot go back and change your high school grades or college grades, only by working harder. (yes i know you can flunk and retake, but that another thing)

overall, not gaming has given me more time. maybe i only played games to pass time? i am not sure, but not gaming has opened up a new world for me. :)

[Ryder]

as long as u limit urself it shouldnt matter whether u like to play video games or not... dang

[Circuitbreaker8]

Eh, I don't blame you. I'm not done with PC gaming though, I think i'm just over upgrading. Theres really no point anymore...Every game I was looking foward to turned out to be "Meh" ( Quake 4, FEAR, SS2, CoD2-have to see on that one ) so whats the point? Seems like 3dmark is the main thing now :rolleyes: But, if a good game comes out, i'll buy it and enjoy it, but I doubt i'll be upgrading anymore.

As for consoles, 360 looks very promising and has just the games i'm looking for. Project Gotham Racing 3, Perfect Dark Zero, and Kameo...who can say no to any of those? You PC-only gamers shouldn't even have the gamer title.

[TheJackal]

Eh, I don't blame you. I'm not done with PC gaming though, I think i'm just over upgrading. Theres really no point anymore...Every game I was looking foward to turned out to be "Meh" ( Quake 4, FEAR, SS2, CoD2-have to see on that one ) so whats the point? Seems like 3dmark is the main thing now :rolleyes: But, if a good game comes out, i'll buy it and enjoy it, but I doubt i'll be upgrading anymore.

As for consoles, 360 looks very promising and has just the games i'm looking for. Project Gotham Racing 3, Perfect Dark Zero, and Kameo...who can say no to any of those? You PC-only gamers shouldn't even have the gamer title.

good post :cool:

[Ryder]

Well most people pick... Either upgrade their PC or buy the new console... Its hard to do both because they are both expensive... I really do want the new Xbox though it looks great.

The problem with games is not upgrade issues... I have had this PC for near a year now and it is doing fine in all games... People just think they HAVE to have the highest settings... Well you dont, and you dont really have to upgrade all that much.. And Like I said, upgrading your video card or focusing on one component at a time is NOT that expensive at all even if your a kid because a a kid can make 200 bucks a week easy!!

With that said the real problem with upgrading right now is there is all kinds of new sockets coming out soon and it would be stupid to buy a brand new system as of now IMO when M2 is coming out and DDR2 and all that... So even if you have AGP (like me) and want to upgrade to PCIE (like me) right now (like me) it would be stupid cause youd have to buy another mobo later on if you wanted the new sockets...

So i hope pretty soon they start sticking with the same socket for a long time.

[All Killer No Filler]

a fried console? :p haha that's never happened before to me in my years of a snes ps1 ps2 xbox n64 and nes, i doubt it, but hey, things can happen.

I have owned 2 PS1's, 2 PS2's, my XBOX is rarely reading disks on the first try theses days (granted, it is the first one), and my Atari 2600 wont even turn on.

Almost forgot, my first gameboy broke too. That was some stupid, unbeleivably frustrating games fault though.

Back to the thread at hand. I couldnt give up PC gaming if I tried. Games like FEAR are to good, and will never come out for a console. Not to mention the entire RTS genre. When was the last time you played a good RTS game on a console. Regardless of what one person said, I still find it hard to believe that a controller will ever be faster or more precise than a keyboard and mouse for FPS's, I could be wrong though. And while the 360 and PS3 initially look better graphically than current generation graphics cards, in a year or so they will be obsolete again. Not that graphics are the only thing that make a game good though, my point is that PC's evolve MUCH quicker than consoles do. I didnt even own a computer when the PS2 came out. Im on my second one now (there is a trend here somewhere). It seems to me that the cutting edge stuff is always coming out for the PC (FEAR, Half Life 2, Doom 3, COD 2, BF2, blah blah blah). That will probably change in the coming months but the pendulum will likely swing back. And before the "PC fan boy!" accusations start flying, I will own both the 360 and the PS3. Hopefully the day they come out. But I still love having my gaming rig.

[Stormlifter]

Sad times... hope you get over it.

[TBONEU]

I guess I'm like the minority that is growing tired of constantly upgrading my PC every 1 1/2 - 2 years just to make the current one run smooth. Also, it feels like dejvue with most games, nothing really new. I used to love working on my PC but I feel PC gaming has been dying since consoles are getting all the attention since the introduction of the Xbox and Playstation 2 systems.

Now I primarly use my console for gaming which is ok for some games. Maybe if Windows Vista is significant I'll return to PC gaming but maybe on a laptop. Yes, laptops are NOT as upgradeable as a desktop but I don't see myself playing as much as I used too.

Ultimately who cares what system your playing games on as long as it works for you. ;)

[shaggymcp]

Gaming will always have a hold on me, I prob spend to much time gaming, and it would probably be better if I took a break from it, but I don't see that happening. Pretty much every spare moment I have I am on the PC playing online games with other people. I have more of a social life playing online games with people than with friends. Most of my friends are in to other things than I am, so I tend to game by myself, so there fore I tend to put alot of money in to my PC and game consoles to keep up with the latest and greatest, but consoles I have pretty much let die. I used to be the biggest whore when it came to consoles, but I now just can't justify spending $450.00 on a console with games, and then as another poster in this thread said, play a game for like 20 hours and then drop it like a bad habit. so for me its all I do, so PC gaming is def worth it to me.

I know it sux when componets go bad.... I got hit by lighting ( I mean my pc not really me :p ) and I had to replace ( RMA ) my mobo, ram, vid card, and a 250 gig sata hd. I then purchased a new additional HD and a new Antec NEO PWS. it was alot of money and once I got things back up and running it ran better than it did before. But in the end yea it was alot of money spent in shipping and getting replacement parts. so I feel your pain :( & as a good example I am about to purchase another mobo and a PCI EVGA 7800 GT CO wich is a grand total of : $475.97 with shipping ;)