Gaming Upgrades - Spendy!
Well, in my previous years, I was an avid gamer. Now that I am 45 years old, I don't play near as many games as I did when I was younger. I also have turned into quite the penny-pincher when it comes to computer hardware. GTX3080 ($999) Wow!
Like most Linux users, I tend to be anywhere between a year to 2 years behind on current hardware. I like to buy things that work, and not wait around for drivers to be made for something that just released.
Anyway... I am currently running a Core i7 - 3770, 16g Ram, and a GTX 780ti ($599 at time of purchase). Now, this was a great system about 7 years ago. This is when I was more into gaming that I am today. There was nothing in my Steam library that this system couldn't play at top settings, and at 60fps.
But now, I have started looking at the costs of what would be required to upgrade my PC, and what kind of things I would want to do. I really want to get a Ryzen 5000 series processor. This would help me with a lot of the work I do on my PC. I would also want to run more ram. 32g should be good. And then I'd want a great video card. GTX 3070 is right in the ballpark.
However, now that I am not gaming near as much as I'd like... I can't really see the need for such a beefy video card. I may be fine with just the APU built into the Ryzen 5000 for most of what I would do...
And then, if I am not going to do that, why do I need 32g of Ram? I don't really have many apps that would overload my system if I only had 8g of Ram.
So, a friend mentioned to me, I should try Google Stadia for gaming. Streaming didn't sound like such a good idea. Latency and all. I remember trying to play Bioshock Infinite on Nvidia's GeForce Now, and it just had too much latency to enjoy the game. Enough to screw up my jumps and aiming... So, my hopes for Stadia weren't that high.
How wrong I was.
Stadia currently demo from Ubisoft called "Immortals Fenyx Rising." So I gave it a whirl. It ran great! I'm sure there is some latency, but not enough for me to notice. The game functioned like I was playing it locally. 1080p, 30fps. Not bad. I guess this game is locked at 30fps... but it still ran great.
Then I noticed another title that I already own in my Steam library. Tomb Raider Definitive Edition. But Stadia is selling it right now for $2.99. I figured I could afford that, and bought it. As soon as my transaction was complete, the game was ready to go. I fired it up, and started playing. This was a smooth 60fps, at 1080p, and I could not tell that I was streaming a game. It felt just like I was playing it locally. For those of you familiar with this game, you will know that there are some "quick time" events at the beginning section. I had no issues with these at all. Everything worked quickly and directly.
So, for me, I am not really going to look into getting a great video card in the future. I may just deal with Stadia for now. It's been out for a year, and they have the next few years planned. Plus, there are absolutely no compatibility issues with Linux, since it's streaming, it just flippin' works.
I figure, for the cost of a basic video card (~$240), I can be a premiere member of Stadia for 2 years.
This may just be the future of gaming, especially for Linux users.
Holy Cripes on Toast!
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