» Mon Feb 28, 2011 1:51 pm I have a friend with a rig far exceeding 2000 dollars and it turns out on a 25" screen graphics look much better, but when you hook that computer up to a monitor or tv the size of the tv I play the xbox on it becomes obvious it wasnt worth the extra money he paid for his graphics card.
So because in your example, the PC looks much better on a 25" screen and not so much better on a bigger screen, then suddenly it isn't worth the money? So if he has a 25" screen, his graphics are always going to look much better. The big screen only comes into play if he actually uses one. Also (unlike consoles) PC hardware doesn't behave the same in all computers.
And the fact that it cost $2000 is irrelevant, since the same results would occur for much less money.
Exactly my point. The extra money spent is generally not relative to the increase in quality.
As I mentioned above, if he has the 25" screen, then using it will always produce much better graphics - where is the extra money not relevant? If I have a car that's really, really fast except when I drive it on snowy roads, I'm going to keep it off snowy roads. Then my car will always be really, really fast.
The best example I can think of is a high-end bicycle frame. A 10 lb. frame (fudging numbers here) will run about 2500 bucks, but getting it down to a 9 lb. frame will cost about 3500 bucks, then getting into the 8.5 lb. area is about 15000 bucks.
Good anology, but bikes parts and computer hardware are a bit different.
Can you "overclock" or alter bike frames? You can with PC hardware - it doesn't cost anything. If you can do such things with bike frames, 1) you (conveniently?) forgot to mention that, and 2) it changes your whole anology. Also, prices between different models of CPU's and GPU's, are pretty modest (like +$50 or less as you progress in quality) with larger gaps occurring only when you reach around the top 3 models available. And the top 3 models are not necessary to achieve graphics far better than a console is capable of.
The thing to remember is, when talking about products (electronics especially) you get what you pay for - this philosophy even ties into the business model of consoles:
You sacrifice hardware power and versatility, for convenience and ease of use, all in a nice neat package for a lower price.
With PC's, the sky's the limit - if you have the money, you can buy and upgrade parts to create the most powerful machine you want, designed to do the things you want.
