(PCGT V) PC gaming is dead, press F to pay respects

[Death's Head]

I have a DS4 but never thought to use it with my PC. I remembered the ball ache of trying to get the DS3 to work with it. Is it hard to set up? Do you need to use the ds4windows software or does it have native windows drivers? (im guessing no)

I use another bit of software and a USB cable. Zero hassle. I'll post it when I turn on my PC later.

[Death's Head]

Cheers man. Whats your steam name btw? Ill add you later on

I'm using InputMapper - https://inputmapper.com/

You just need to run the software and leave it running in the background. Plug your DS4 into your PC via a USB cable (also supports Bluetooth, although my desktop doesn't have this so I can't confirm it works) and that's it. Play your games and the DS4 works. It also tells you what the charge is and charges the controller (assuming you are connected via USB).

My Steam name is MicroNort. I've not actually bought anything through Steam yet (just from CDKeys and HumbeBundle) so I can't add anyone.

[Death's Head]

In general, are the minimum specs shown on the Steam store wrong? I've been playing Shadow of Mordor at 1080p without any problem and just been playing the Doom demo, again at 1080p with no slowdown (so far). Minimum spec for Doom is supposed to be an i5 3.4ghz, I'm running with just a Pentium dual core at 3ghz.....

[Trelliz]

No, PC specs are not a black or white matter, the game doesn't scan your computer and refuse to run if it doesn't meet the requirements. Also some games are just better optimised than others.

[Death's Head]

No, PC specs are not a black or white matter, the game doesn't scan your computer and refuse to run if it doesn't meet the requirements. Also some games are just better optimised than others.

I know that, but I was fully expecting to have to turn settings down. I saw Doom was on offer today and thought it would be pointless as my spec is way down against the minimum spec, but thought I'd try the demo. I was fully expecting to have to upgrade my CPU to play the latest games but so far, looks like this is not the case. I'm now becoming confident that Dead Rising 3 is going to run fine on my PC as the requirements are lower than Doom's.

[Cheeky Devlin]

Doom is very well optimised. But I also think that's because it's more GPU reliant than CPU.

It runs really well on my 7 year old AMD chip, as my almost 2 year old GPU is doing the heavy lifting (Especially with the Vulkan API update). Dead Rising 3 however ran like utter gooseberry fool on the same system. In fact my PC tends to struggle with anything that has a lot of things to keep track of, so open-world stuff especially.

I used to "acquire" a lot of my PC games to assess how well they would run before I would invest. With Steam's current refund policy though that's less of an issue as I can just get a refund if something is unplayable.

[Green Gecko]

PC games tend to vary on whether they are gpu or cpu heavy or both, yes, and some min specs published are just over exaggerated to avoid morons. Some of my parts are ancient and I play relatively recent games. There are also certain graphical effects that will tank your gpu/cpu while other times you'll be getting mad fps. You can usually turn those effects off.

You also might just not realise how slow the game is running. Like 25fps is playable yes if you're used to console games but most PC gamers consider that below par.

My last acrual cpu bottleneck was an athlon X2 playing battlefield bad company in about 2010. They don't come around that often. It tends to be physics and environmental scale related, particle effects, loads of moving stuff, stuff like that.

[jiggles]

Shadow Warrior 2, guys

*nod*

[Death's Head]

There are also certain graphical effects that will tank your gpu/cpu while other times you'll be getting mad fps. You can usually turn those effects off.

My concern is where a quad core CPU is stated as the minimum spec and I only have a dual core. I guess the question is whether 4 cores are actually used or if someone has tested on a specific PC, found it runs OK and put that as the minimum CPU spec, even though number of cores was actually irrelevant.

[Green Gecko]

Quad core tends to help with things like I mentioned, physics intensive stuff. But I've never had a quad core cpu, I have however had multi treading which is similar.

That's the main difference between contemporary cpus and old ones, you used to get 1 simultaneous processing thread and that's it (when amd were best in single core days), nowadays games do simultaneous processing so you do benefit from 2-4 or more threads.

The bottleneck is still the gpu in most cases.

For example, borderlands is a huge huge game. I couldn't get more than about 27fps with a single core cpu, this rose to about 40 or 50 fps (on an old graphics card) when I switched to an X2. But arguably it wasn't well optimised and had problems with amd cpus.

Any Intel i3+ will let you at least run most things with playable frame rates and a good gpu now. There are a few games that are really badly optimised, the ones you hear people complaining about. Such as

GTA IV (around release).
Saints row
Batman Arkham Knight

It's worth checking PC game specific reviews.

Also you should really buy your games direct from steam if available there as now you can get a refund if the game runs bad and played less than 2hrs.

[Death's Head]

Also you should really buy your games direct from steam if available there as now you can get a refund if the game runs bad and played less than 2hrs.

I would, but they can be expensive in comparison. DR3 for example is £25 on Steam but only £12.90 from CD keys. I'll probably risk it for a £12 saving.

[Green Gecko]

That is good.

Steam sale is going to plough through you. Seal your wallet now.

[Death's Head]

This is the 2nd warning I've received on this. I suppose I could apply the logic that the £200 I had set aside for a new CPU probably isn't needed, so I could use that on a certain sale.

However, my other logic of "that is too expensive" is likely to prevail. Going back to Doom, that was about £15 on CDkeys but it has no resale value so for a couple of quid more, I'd rather get the PS4 version. Steam games will need to be less than £5 to tempt me, and of course be things I actually want.

[Green Gecko]

It's exactly those types of games that eat your wallet.

For example, I got every GTA game up to IV and the expansion for £5 a few years ago.

I have not completed a single actual mission in GTAIV.

[Herdanos]

When is this sale?

[Lagamorph]

Yeah it's the bundles that get you, though for long term Steam users the sales aren't as great (or as bad for your wallet) as they used to be.
For a newcomer though still plenty of danger....

When is this sale?

I'd be expecting it to start within the week.

[Trelliz]

Also stuff like the Valve Complete Pack go for about £15-18 and have every game Valve have ever made, from the original Half Life up to CSGO and Portal 2 and everything inbetween.

[Death's Head]

Also stuff like the Valve Complete Pack go for about £15-18 and have every game Valve have ever made, from the original Half Life up to CSGO and Portal 2 and everything inbetween.

Not interested in old gooseberry fool and retro stuff. New stuff for less than £5 or no deal.

[Trelliz]

That pack includes some of the best PC games ever made, but whatever.

[Pedz]

At least he won't be spending much in the sale.