Steam+ Deals Mega Thread (All PC Gaming Deals)

Neuro5i5

Neuro5i5

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This thread will attempt to provide a place to discuss past/present/future PC gaming deals. While mainly focusing on Steam games, any standout sales may also be presented. I will not be updating every Daily/Weekly/etc. sale. The tools to help individuals become a smarter shopper will be provided below.

See this POST for links to store sale pages, threads of interest and other tools to help you become a more informed PC game shopper.
 
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JSweeney said:
Why don't they come to their senses?
They been out riding fences for too long now?
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FickleDecentCapeghostfrog-max-1mb.gif
 
JSweeney said:
Why don't they come to their senses?
They been out riding fences for too long now?
Click to expand...
Riding on a tractor
Lean all in my bladder
Cheated on my baby
You can go and ask her
My life is a movie
Bull riding and boobies
Cowboy hat from Gucci
Wrangler on my booty?

 
welp, i THINK i was able to put an order in for a 6800 on the official site. i got to an order confirmation page, still waiting for an email. i am eagerly waiting for my cancellation.

 
AMD Fanbois a week ago: "LOL 3000 series sold out so fast, paper launch! They totally bungled that!!!"

AMD Fanbois 30 seconds into 6800 launch when cards are sold out:

300px-Surprised_Pikachu_HD.jpg

 
Syntax Error said:
AMD Fanbois a week ago: "LOL 3000 series sold out so fast, paper launch! They totally bungled that!!!"

AMD Fanbois 30 seconds into 6800 launch when cards are sold out:

300px-Surprised_Pikachu_HD.jpg
Click to expand...
Most stores haven't even listed their stock yet. But yes, the top gaming card was expected to sell out despite AMD working hard to provide stock that was multiple times the amount Nvidia has provided months after launch.

 
Nothing- said:
Got me a new vidya game at Walmart for $19.88.
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So. . . that's great and all, but why is there a little girl crying on the cover of your game? Did you do something horrible to her or is this a social commentary on all of the orphans you'll be creating with your turn-based slaughter?

JSweeney said:
Why don't they come to their senses?
They been out riding fences for too long now?
Click to expand...
Oh, you know that they've got their reasons.

 
My impression is that there's no real right/wrong choice.  While I feel like the Nvidia ray tracing tech and DLSS are worth the extra $50 (plus if you own a legit GSync module monitor), you don't have anything to feel bad about with the 6800 XT.  Really, whichever one you can get your claws on first is probably the right choice.

 
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Syntax Error said:
My impression is that there's no real right/wrong choice. While I feel like the Nvidia ray tracing tech and DLSS are worth the extra $50 (plus if you own a legit GSync module monitor), you don't have anything to feel bad about with the 6800 XT. Really, whichever one you can get your claws on first is probably the right choice.
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With the way AMD is going these last few years (both in CPU's and GPU's): I'll guess once their own version of DLSS comes out and especially when their next GPU generation comes (when in Generation 2 of RT they can optimize this more, just like Nvidia did with 3xxx cards) - again, we'll be seeing wonderful things from AMD.

We already are seeing wonderful things from AMD right now (i.e. improvements on rasterization here), but...it'll be even more wonderful.

They've improved again on rasterization quite a bit even just from even their last gen (5xxx series).

I think for AMD, it can only get better for them from here out. TBH, they've been on a roll since Lisa Su arrived and Ryzen launched.

We're going to be at the point again where Intel v. AMD (for CPU's) and Nvidia v. Radeon (for GPU's) - where it's again like it was in the earlier 2000's: "Can't lose, either way."

It's gonna be exciting, as competition and innovation is again going to make the consumer win, no matter what they pick...for whatever reasons. Can't wait to see more price wars and other things of this sort, as the consumer wins here yet again.

 
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I'm sorry, but I cannot help but laugh at the fact that some Shenmue 3 backers paid at least $30 to get a Steam key, had to wait a year to get the key due to EGS exclusivity, and the day it finally releases on Steam, it's discounted down to $17.

 
I know this is the wrong forum for it, but, what the heck, if Neuro's posting his vag pix and we're getting pages of MysterD-style rants about bleeding-edge video-card tech that is so bleedingly-edgy that it bleeds actual blood that include actual rants by MysterD, there's got to be room for some OT stuff here. 

What's the argument for getting a "next-gen" console? I'm really not seeing it. I own a PS4 and an Xbone, which is probably one more console than I need at this point, but what is the real, palpable difference between one of these machines and its successor?

Here's how I see it:

  • The new machines have fast SSDs. Okay. PCs have had them for ages, obviously, but the internal drives of the current consoles aren't THAT slow. Yes, I know YouTube is flooded with videos whose premise is "look, my new PS5 loaded a game before I got home and was even thinking about playing it, whereas my PS4 would actually make me wait two minutes after I decided to play a game to be ready," but do people really care about that sort of thing? 
  • The new machines have fancier graphics. Yep, you can do the sort of ray-tracing and tomfoolery of the sort that you can do with newish Radeon and RTX cards in a PC. Most games still don't seem to make use of this technology, and honestly, how much is it going to enhance your gameplay experience when they do? 
  • Haptic feedback? Folks seem to be orgasming over the new DualSense controller and saying silly things like, "you can feel it when raindrops are falling on your character (BJ Thomas)'s head." Current-gen controllers have haptic feedback or what the old-school crowd used to call "rumble." People used to turn it off because it drained controller batteries like everyone owned stock in Energizer. It's a largely annoying feature that primarily serves to tell the player, "Uh-oh, something serious is happening now." But mostly we don't need to be told that because we have senses other than touch to provide that information to us. 
  • New games? Most of the new games that are coming out are cross-generation experiences, so that's no argument for selling your current system either. This isn't an accident. It would be dumb of Sony and Microsoft to stop supporting their massive current user base to cater only to the early-adopters. 

The new systems cost about as much as the current-gen consoles with only incremental changes in performance and quality, so I don't actually see a point to buying a new PS5 or Xbox Triple X. (It's a different conversation, but why can't Microsoft come up with a consistent and not earth-shatteringly stupid naming convention for its consoles--it's not that bloody difficult!) In my view, the PS4 is good for playing games that Sony isn't releasing on PCs (which used to be a lot) and the Xbone is good for playing stuff I'm too lazy to play sitting at a computer (which is getting to be more the older I get) and as a media center. 

There, that's my 2p. Prove me wrong (but I counted and it was definitely two). 

 
For me, that has always been the only reason to get a console.  Any console I ever got was specifically because I wanted to a play games that were only available on said console.  This was even before I was a PC gamer.  I got a PS2 specifically to play GTA III.  Since then, if I got a Wii or DS or 3DS or Switch or PS3 it was because I wanted to play games I only could play on that console.  That's the same reason I don't have a PS4, because the exclusives are mostly trash and not worth dropping money on.  MS games come to PC so there is no draw there.  I partially rationalized a PS3 because it was also a blu-ray player, but as far as like upgrading from a PS4 to a PS5 just because?  I don't really see much of the point.  I'm considering a PS4 if I can find one at a bargain basement price just to run through a few exclusives (Days Gone, LOU2, Until Dawn), but I've been severely disappointed by this generation of consoles.

That said, I get that for some people that's their gaming box and it's like a PC - is there really a reason to upgrade a PC if it's playing games fine?  No, but some people still end up paying $2000 every time the latest GPU and CPU tech comes out because they want the shiny new thing. 

  • New games? Most of the new games that are coming out are cross-generation experiences, so that's no argument for selling your current system either. This isn't an accident. It would be dumb of Sony and Microsoft to stop supporting their massive current user base to cater only to the early-adopters. 
 
warreni said:
The new machines have fancier graphics. Yep, you can do the sort of ray-tracing and tomfoolery of the sort that you can do with newish Radeon and RTX cards in a PC. Most games still don't seem to make use of this technology, and honestly, how much is it going to enhance your gameplay experience when they do?
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Ray tracing was a novelty in large part because you needed a PC with an RTX 2000 series card to take advantage of it and most people weren't all that impressed with the 2000 cards. Plus ray tracing dragged down their performance for not much gain.

Now that you're going to have a bajillion consoles utilizing ray tracing, I expect to see it a lot more often because it's no longer something for niche enthusiasts. And better hardware means you'll see it used more effectively and/or creatively. Can you live without it? Sure, of course. Does it do much more than make a prettier picture? Probably not (unless a game gets creative with you using mirrored surfaces and stuff). But, when I'm already seeing 250fps in a game, why not have a prettier picture? I'd rather have something look prettier than get another 25 frames at that point. Hell, I'd give up 25-50 frames for the sake of pretty.

None of which is to say anyone needs a next gen console (or a next gen GPU) right now. Of course not. It's the start of the cycle and everyone's still going to cater to last gen customers who make up the majority of the market. But I keep hearing the same two ray tracing comments (no games / what's it even do) and think the new console generation sort of makes them moot. With millions of new ray tracing capable machines, you're going to see a lot more ray tracing in games and more effective/creative use for it.

 
Syntax Error said:
None of which is to say anyone needs a next gen console (or a next gen GPU) right now. Of course not. It's the start of the cycle and everyone's still going to cater to last gen customers who make up the majority of the market. But I keep hearing the same two ray tracing comments (no games / what's it even do) and think the new console generation sort of makes them moot. With millions of new ray tracing capable machines, you're going to see a lot more ray tracing in games and more effective/creative use for it.
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It's an interesting point, and I tend to agree that having a huge base of machines capable of utilizing it will make it more common, but IMO, it's still just ray-tracing, which, as I understand the matter, just basically means you make some slightly-fancier lighting in your games. That's hardly revolutionary in terms of graphics. It's why I come back to the idea of why you'd bother upgrading just for the sake of this. It's not like we're suddenly going to completely photorealistic images. This is. . . a tweak, at best. I'd argue (and I think I have) that what this next-generation really represents is a fairy modest set of enhancements to the current-gen technology, which means that calling it "next-gen" is frankly a bit overblown.

 
I went ahead and upgraded to the PS5 from the PS4.  Been playing The Last of Us and Division 2 and seen some noticeable improvements in both.  TLoU isn't listed as one of the "Boost" games but it certainly seems to run at 60fps even in the "Preferred Graphics" setting.  Division 2's load times are much faster and the game is less cumbersome overall.  The sound from both games going through my 5.1 receiver is more accurate and crisp versus the PS4's output. 

Yes, I am one of the people impressed by the haptics in the controller.  I first thought it was a gimmick and not as eye popping as people have said but after playing a few minutes of Astro's Playroom, I can't wait to see how developers utilize this feature in future game releases.  I like most of the PS exclusives especially God of War and The Last of Us, Demon's Souls, Spider-Man, Ratchet and Clank, etc.  Also, I would have purchased it eventually when the price went down but the out of pocket cost after trading in my PS4 Pro is about the right price point for me.  So there's a short list as to why I do own a Playstation and decided to upgrade from the previous generation.  

Now the Xbox is just, IMHO, sort of insulting.  All of their exclusives are available and run better on PC and are most often cheaper.  I can't be too mad though - it's the main reason why I ditched it and built my own PC. 

 
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@Warren

Have you ever turned on RTX in any of your games, just to look at it or run it for a few minutes? Sure, it might run like a slide-show on my 1060 6GB laptop and all - but it makes old games like Quake 2 with Q2 RTX look tons better. Same w/ games like Metro: Exodus - it just looks amazing, once enabled.

But, yeah - if games are running at insane framerates (b/c one has amazing hardware) and one ain't playing online competitively (i.e. you're doing a single-player game) - yeah, I'd pretty the heck out of that game w/ RT.

 
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I pay so little attention to graphics these days I literally don’t even know what ray tracing is. Is it as cool as blast processing? I feel like probably the answer is no.

In any case, we’ve long since reached the point where every new generation of graphics and performance hardware, be it for consoles or PCs, is more or less an incremental increase. It’s not like back in the late 80s to mid 90s when a year or two could make a huge difference in how a game looked or performed. We reached a point where you could have enough polygons, pixels, and particles on screen at once that adding a few more wouldn’t substantially change the wow factor probably ten or fifteen years ago.

 
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RealCheapLikeAFoxOfficial said:
I partially rationalized a PS3 because it was also a blu-ray player, but as far as like upgrading from a PS4 to a PS5 just because? I don't really see much of the point. I'm considering a PS4 if I can find one at a bargain basement price just to run through a few exclusives (Days Gone, LOU2, Until Dawn), but I've been severely disappointed by this generation of consoles.

That said, I get that for some people that's their gaming box and it's like a PC - is there really a reason to upgrade a PC if it's playing games fine? No, but some people still end up paying $2000 every time the latest GPU and CPU tech comes out because they want the shiny new thing.


  • New games? Most of the new games that are coming out are cross-generation experiences, so that's no argument for selling your current system either. This isn't an accident. It would be dumb of Sony and Microsoft to stop supporting their massive current user base to cater only to the early-adopters.
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I think the biggest jump for consoles will be the 60-120fps support; the SSD to murder load times; and the major increase in performance. This is a big jump, over last gen's stuff.

I think RT will be a big deal on consoles - if they ever have some kind of DLSS or something of that sort.

EDIT:

I think it I do pull the trigger on buying a new PC - it's b/c my desktop's old (i7 950; 16 GB RAM DDR3; regular hard drives galore; W7 x64). My laptop's holding on well (i7 7700HQ; 16 GB RAM DDR4; 256 GB SSD for OS drive; 1TB HDD for 2nd drive; W10 x64) at 1080p - but my old desktop PC...it feels really old now.

I've been trying to customize a desktop PC from IBuyPower and CyberPower with higher end components - i.e. i7 to i9's or AMD R7's to R9's in 3xxx or 5xxx; 3070 or above; 16-32GB of RAM; etc etc - and been mulling over, for about a week or so, which way to go w/ this...especially since they have stuff on sale at those places; having free extra parts in daily deals; etc etc. Likely, I'm looking at $1000-2000 here. So, I dunno. [shrug]

 
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Souffrir said:
I pay so little attention to graphics these days I literally don’t even know what ray tracing is. Is it as cool as blast processing? I feel like probably the answer is no.

In any case, we’ve long since reached the point where every new generation of graphics and performance hardware, be it for consoles or PCs, is more or less an incremental increase. It’s not like back in the late 80s to mid 90s when a year or two could make a huge difference in how a game looked or performed. We reached a point where you could have enough polygons, pixels, and particles on screen at once that adding a few more wouldn’t substantially change the wow factor probably ten or fifteen years ago.
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RT is the biggest change in lighting.

RT tracks a path of light dynamically so that everything is reflected much more realistically and can simulate actual lighting, reflections, refractions and whatnot. It's done w/ every single object basically - which means, you can have an insane amount of lights realistically simulated...which can slam your system and its performance.

If you have lots of objects and things in the game-world to do this stuff with - yeah, it can look amazing.

See videos like there:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNSpiret-9g

Or this on WD: Legion:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63EkU8H1kAw

Or especially this with Q2 RTX:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mei_rN-_bg

 
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warreni said:
I know this is the wrong forum for it, but, what the heck, if Neuro's posting his vag pix and we're getting pages of MysterD-style rants about bleeding-edge video-card tech that is so bleedingly-edgy that it bleeds actual blood that include actual rants by MysterD, there's got to be room for some OT stuff here.

What's the argument for getting a "next-gen" console? I'm really not seeing it. I own a PS4 and an Xbone, which is probably one more console than I need at this point, but what is the real, palpable difference between one of these machines and its successor?

Here's how I see it:

  • The new machines have fast SSDs. Okay. PCs have had them for ages, obviously, but the internal drives of the current consoles aren't THAT slow. Yes, I know YouTube is flooded with videos whose premise is "look, my new PS5 loaded a game before I got home and was even thinking about playing it, whereas my PS4 would actually make me wait two minutes after I decided to play a game to be ready," but do people really care about that sort of thing?
  • The new machines have fancier graphics. Yep, you can do the sort of ray-tracing and tomfoolery of the sort that you can do with newish Radeon and RTX cards in a PC. Most games still don't seem to make use of this technology, and honestly, how much is it going to enhance your gameplay experience when they do?
  • Haptic feedback? Folks seem to be orgasming over the new DualSense controller and saying silly things like, "you can feel it when raindrops are falling on your character (BJ Thomas)'s head." Current-gen controllers have haptic feedback or what the old-school crowd used to call "rumble." People used to turn it off because it drained controller batteries like everyone owned stock in Energizer. It's a largely annoying feature that primarily serves to tell the player, "Uh-oh, something serious is happening now." But mostly we don't need to be told that because we have senses other than touch to provide that information to us.
  • New games? Most of the new games that are coming out are cross-generation experiences, so that's no argument for selling your current system either. This isn't an accident. It would be dumb of Sony and Microsoft to stop supporting their massive current user base to cater only to the early-adopters.

The new systems cost about as much as the current-gen consoles with only incremental changes in performance and quality, so I don't actually see a point to buying a new PS5 or Xbox Triple X. (It's a different conversation, but why can't Microsoft come up with a consistent and not earth-shatteringly stupid naming convention for its consoles--it's not that bloody difficult!) In my view, the PS4 is good for playing games that Sony isn't releasing on PCs (which used to be a lot) and the Xbone is good for playing stuff I'm too lazy to play sitting at a computer (which is getting to be more the older I get) and as a media center.

There, that's my 2p. Prove me wrong (but I counted and it was definitely two).
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Couch gaming with a controller, man. Sometimes I just want to sit on the couch and play destiny on my 4K HDR television for five hours. I get that some people do that with their PCs, but I'm not there yet. We all have different setups. My PC is stuck in my home office, with workstation space. Sometimes you just want to veg out on the couch.

For instance, I just installed Borderlands 3 on my PS5 and am going to play it there this week. Because I never played it on PC, been waiting for the right time to buy it with all the DLC, was able to score the Super Deluxe version on Amazon for only $29.99, and now its running on PS5 in 4K60fps or even 120 frames at 1080p. I don't want to rebuy it again on PC. Waiting several months for EGS exclusivity to run out was dumb too.

The bottom line is that there are Sony and Nintendo games that you cannot play on your PC. Ideally, I recommend to someone to build their PC first, then do PC + PS, or else PC + Switch. That gives you the most coverage. It is super weird that lots of adult men don't appreciate the incredibly well-designed Mario and Zelda games. But there is also only so much time in the day for gaming so some people have no use for more than one platform/ecosystem.

People are also sick of jumping through hoops for Intel and Nvidia. Like we're supposed to line up and pray in order to pay them super-premiums for overly expensive PC parts, and then thank them for fucking us in the process.

 
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TL;DR:  It costed $1500 earlier this year to play games on PC at a similar performance to what new consoles are offering today for $500.  Our 2-year old computers are bested by $500 consoles (for games). 

It costs a premium to game with current tech on PC.  Consoles also have their value proposition (of buying one) decrease over time; it peaks on day1. 

 
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warreni said:
which, as I understand the matter, just basically means you make some slightly-fancier lighting in your games. That's hardly revolutionary in terms of graphics.
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Obviously it's not as revolutionary as going from PS1 era abominations in 3D to PS2 or something. The more realistic you get, the less room there is for something new to be outright amazing. But realistic lighting on the fly is one of those areas we haven't conquered yet that can make something look significantly more immersive, especially if the lighting can change as you move through the room and each object absorbs, scatters or reflects light appropriately. The study of light and how it affects our perception has been a focus since the Impressionist era so it's kind of cool to see it coming to this stage now. It's not going to be "revolutionary" in the same terms to someone who has seen graphics advancing since the 1970s though and I don't think it can be framed like that.

Edit: It doesn't help, in my opinion, that its real value is somewhat subtle but the demo examples are usually comical "SUPER REFLECTIONS ON EVERYTHING" images because they need you to really notice how much the tech changes things.

 
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Not super impressed by reflections.  I mean by all means develop the tech or whatever, but I'm not paying a premium to see the same thing already rendered being rendered in a crisp reflection or shadow. 

And consoles are approximating PC tech, but they also play a lot of tricks and take a lot of shortcuts to do it.  So saying that a $500 console can do the same thing as a $1500 PC is really playing semantics. 

 
RealCheapLikeAFoxOfficial said:
Not super impressed by reflections. I mean by all means develop the tech or whatever, but I'm not paying a premium to see the same thing already rendered being rendered in a crisp reflection or shadow.
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Yeah, reflections get all the promo images because it's very noticeable. I think the more subtle scattering and absorption of light is a lot more interesting and useful for immersion; making cloth look more cloth-like, wood look more wooden, etc. But I doubt many people are really buying a new card or console just for ray tracing. I bought a new GPU for the extra frames and ability to crank up other options. The ray tracing is just a part of it. I guess you're paying a "premium" of $50 for a 3080 over a 6800XT but I think the added features in the Nvidia card is well worth that by the time you're already in the hole for six hundred fifty bucks.

 
The no one cares interjection:  For PC nerds, having the extra horsepower for VR and VRR displays (above 120Hz) is needed,  If you're still using 2D displays or 60Hz, then some of these upgrades are not really worth the investment. 

But only crazy people buy $1,000 headsets.

Unrelated, my Index FK is shipping soon.

 
warreni said:
It's an interesting point, and I tend to agree that having a huge base of machines capable of utilizing it will make it more common, but IMO, it's still just ray-tracing, which, as I understand the matter, just basically means you make some slightly-fancier lighting in your games. That's hardly revolutionary in terms of graphics. It's why I come back to the idea of why you'd bother upgrading just for the sake of this. It's not like we're suddenly going to completely photorealistic images. This is. . . a tweak, at best. I'd argue (and I think I have) that what this next-generation really represents is a fairy modest set of enhancements to the current-gen technology, which means that calling it "next-gen" is frankly a bit overblown.
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Well....we still have people here without 4K, without G-sync capable setups, that have never had true HDR or high-bitrate video experiences judging other people for their investments into graphics. I could sit here gaming on a PS3 or a prebuilt Hewlett Packard hand-me-down from 2009 and say the same things.

Right now is a generational leap forward (from both a value and a tech standpoint). I mean some people are still using 500mps speeds SATA SSDs, or even HDDs. Is a 4,000mps NVMe drive not a step forward just because you don't care? Everyone has different perspectives.

 
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BigTime2Play said:
Now the Xbox is just, IMHO, sort of insulting. All of their exclusives are available and run better on PC and are most often cheaper. I can't be too mad though - it's the main reason why I ditched it and built my own PC.
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I'd say that's a fair cop about the games on Xbox. Microsoft is claiming that there will be a lot of next-gen titles available shortly, but it does have a very weak group of showcase items at the moment and I don't think any of them are exclusives--and of course, nothing's truly exclusive if all are ported to PC, which I'm sure they will be henceforth. I still prefer the Xbox--and will readily concede this is a personal preference--because the device works better as a media center. Sony never really put the energy into getting all of the streaming apps available on PS. One could definitely argue that with every TV being a smart TV this isn't terribly important, but Samsung has a pretty weak selection of apps too. . . so I'm happy to use my Xbox to serve that purpose. What I actually think would be nice--although I'm probably the only person who thinks so--is if Microsoft decided to really expand its Play Anywhere initiative, but that seems to have fizzled out. I guess they've written it off as something pointless because everyone gaming on PCs is buying stuff on Steam or Epic.

RealCheapLikeAFoxOfficial said:
That said, I get that for some people that's their gaming box and it's like a PC - is there really a reason to upgrade a PC if it's playing games fine? No, but some people still end up paying $2000 every time the latest GPU and CPU tech comes out because they want the shiny new thing.
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Sure, there are always people who are going to jump at getting the new shiny thing because it's there, but I'd argue that's no more rational than climbing a mountain. . . because it's there.

MysterD said:
@Warren

Have you ever turned on RTX in any of your games, just to look at it or run it for a few minutes? Sure, it might run like a slide-show on my 1060 6GB laptop and all - but it makes old games like Quake 2 with Q2 RTX look tons better. Same w/ games like Metro: Exodus - it just looks amazing, once enabled.

But, yeah - if games are running at insane framerates (b/c one has amazing hardware) and one ain't playing online competitively (i.e. you're doing a single-player game) - yeah, I'd pretty the heck out of that game w/ RT.
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Uh, no. I don't actually own an RTX series card in either my laptop or desktop. Sometime in the next six months, I'm probably going to pony up around $2,000 for an MSI or Acer laptop with 16Gb of RAM, a 1-2Tb SSD and a 2070 series card. . . and most of the space on the drive is probably going to be taken up by photos. Even though I've been a PC gamer since I was 8 years old (C64, yo), I've been playing more and more games on consoles lately. Cyberpunk is probably the next big game I'll sit at my laptop for hours playing, but they're getting to be fewer and farther between. The way my days have been lately I don't even feel as though I have time to PC-game, as weird as that may sound. I can sit and literally spend a few hours just tweaking things in something like Jurassic World: Evolution or faffing about and completing just a tiny portion of an area in a game like BG3--and then I sort-of wonder what the hell happened to the day. I played Miles Morales for about a half-hour last night and quit.

 
Nothing- said:
Couch gaming with a controller, man. Sometimes I just want to sit on the couch and play destiny on my 4K HDR television for five hours. I get that some people do that with their PCs, but I'm not there yet. We all have different setups. My PC is stuck in my home office, with workstation space. Sometimes you just want to veg out on the couch.
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Yeah. . . but I can do that on a current-gen system.

Nothing- said:
Well....we still have people here without 4K, without G-sync capable setups, that have never had true HDR or high-bitrate video experiences judging other people for their investments into graphics. I could sit here gaming on a PS3 or a prebuilt Hewlett Packard hand-me-down from 2009 and say the same things.

Right now is a generational leap forward (from both a value and a tech standpoint). I mean some people are still using 500mps speeds SATA SSDs, or even HDDs. Is a 4,000mps NVMe drive not a step forward just because you don't care? Everyone has different perspectives.
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Sure. I never tried to claim any of this was anything other than my opinions--but I will remain firm in my conviction that you are wrong when you say PS5/XXX represent generational leaps forward. I just don't see it.

 
People watchin DVDs be all like "I don't need them fancy new blue rays!"

Well they aren't new.....but ok. I'll suppose I'll just have to continue enjoying content at 8 times your resolution without your acceptance then...

Ray tracing was new in 2018. Whether you care or not is neither really here nor there in regards to a 2021 tech or upgrading discussion. Ray tracing and DLSS have gone mainstream now. So have NVMe data transfer speeds and loading times.

warreni said:
Yeah. . . but I can do that on a current-gen system.

Sure. I never tried to claim any of this was anything other than my opinions--but I will remain firm in my conviction that you are wrong when you say PS5/XXX represent generational leaps forward. I just don't see it.
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Nothing is a generational leap forward if you want to come at it from a PC perspective. There are new major PC components every year. You could keep shopping things that are 1-2 years old or 3-5 years old, forever.

1440p G-sync displays are from 2015. Do you have one of those yet?

 
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Most consoles take a few years to show significant improvements.  Yes, gone are the days of PS1 -> PS2 -> PS3 level improvements of direct visual comparisons, but the PS4, and PS5, enable large, more complex games (with so many ways to continue to pay!) that was not possible in the early systems without significant abstractions.

There will be novel things only capable on these new machines in a few years.  Early adopters will just get shinier reflections and faster load times; for some, that is enough. 

 
warreni said:
Uh, no. I don't actually own an RTX series card in either my laptop or desktop. Sometime in the next six months, I'm probably going to pony up around $2,000 for an MSI or Acer laptop with 16Gb of RAM, a 1-2Tb SSD and a 2070 series card. . . and most of the space on the drive is probably going to be taken up by photos. Even though I've been a PC gamer since I was 8 years old (C64, yo), I've been playing more and more games on consoles lately. Cyberpunk is probably the next big game I'll sit at my laptop for hours playing, but they're getting to be fewer and farther between. The way my days have been lately I don't even feel as though I have time to PC-game, as weird as that may sound. I can sit and literally spend a few hours just tweaking things in something like Jurassic World: Evolution or faffing about and completing just a tiny portion of an area in a game like BG3--and then I sort-of wonder what the hell happened to the day. I played Miles Morales for about a half-hour last night and quit.
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I don't own RTX either (not yet), but 10xx cards can at least enable RTX now. Yeah, it runs terrible - but videos really won't do it justice entirely until you see it running. It needs to be seen, in person, running in a game to be believed; it looks amazing.

The way it improved something like Quake 2 RTX and Metro: Exodus - yeah, it blew my mind.

Also, we know 3070 laptop cards actually do exist, but ain't out yet - https://www.techradar.com/news/a-mobile-rtx-3070-has-been-spotted-and-expectations-are-already-sky-high

I wonder when they're coming.

 
Nothing- said:
People watchin DVDs be all like "I don't need them fancy new blue rays!"

Well they aren't new.....but ok. I'll suppose I'll just have to continue enjoying content at 8 times your resolution without your acceptance then...

Ray tracing was new in 2018. Whether you care or not isn't really here nor there in regards to a 2021 tech or upgrading discussion. Ray tracing and DLSS have gone mainstream now. So have NVMe data transfer speeds and loading times.

Nothing is a generational leap forward if you want to come at it from a PC perspective. There are new major PC components every year. You could keep shopping things that are 1-2 years old or 3-5 years old, forever.

1440p G-sync displays are from 2015. Do you have one of those yet?
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I mean, according to Steam, only 1% of gamers have 1440p displays. 2.3% are gaming at 4K.

https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Software-Survey-Welcome-to-Steam

65% of us plebs are still gaming at 1080p like cavemen. I am part of the elite 1% gaming at 2560x1080.

I stand by my assertion that all this RT stuff is useless hype for people to justify their 3080 purchase and most gamers don't care nor will they use or see useful RT in action for a good 5-10 years. At least on PC.

 
There are two pretty good reasons to buy a PS5 and one really good one. 

The first reason is if you just really want to play the exclusives.  For some people, Demon's Souls alone is worth buying a PS5.  Exclusives are why I have a Switch and a PS4 but no XBOX.  I had mild interest in the XBOX early on before stuff like Forza started coming to PC, then I had zero reason to want one.  And then it comes down to whether whatever exclusives you want are worth the cost of the new system. 

I wouldn't have bought a PS5 at launch (or wouldn't have kept it at least, considering what they are selling for) if I had a Pro to use with my new TV but I didn't so it meant a couple of neat exclusives to play at launch plus a backlog of PS4 games that will look way better.  I basically upgraded my PS4.  And that is the second good reason to get one - you have a 4K tv but do not have a PS4 Pro.  

The best reason is that it is new and shiny.  When Smeagol sees the beautiful gold ring and craves it and  he strangles Deagol for it, that is how you should feel buying new tech.   Just instead of Smeagol and Deagol it is Warren and a stranger from Craigslist and presumably the police after they find a man strangled in front of a Denny's at one in the  morning.

I'm broke as hell right now but my new television, which I have decided is the love of my life, has convinced me to find a way to get a 3080TI at some point next year when I can afford it and manage to beat the bots to one.   Demon's Souls and the Christmas-decorated streets in Spider-Man are both impressive as hell on my PS5 but now I want a video card that I can use to play PC games in 4K with all of the bells and whistles.  Or more likely, so I can play Terraria and Rimworld at 300 FPS, but whatever.

Having a new tv has even made me start using it for its original intended purpose again.  I am currently watching The Grand Tour and then going to watch The Expanse, I have watched a very small amount of tv for years though so I am open to other suggestions of things I can find on Prime, Netflix or Hulu that are from the last decade or so.  I think Person of Interest is the only series I have watched from beginning to end that is even remotely recent.  

 
Last week one of my best friends declared to me with a straight face  "Anything above 60 frames per second is imperceptible to the human eye".  I laughed.  He became irritated and demanded an explanation.  But in actuality he just wanted to tell his side.  It was then apparently my job to explain to him how people doing competitive e-sports gaming have been buying 240hz 1080p freesync displays and there was actually a new 360hz model this year.  All while he didn't care and refused to listen. 

 
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