Gaming Upgrades - Spendy!

[Shibblet]

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.

[mastablasta]

i play old games on very old (16+ yo) single core PC with a few upgrades (to GT730 a few years back). they work way better on same machine that they did on PC. i can also run those that were made for win 7 and 8. yay!

anyway Geforce now is supposedly better now and they plan more imrpovements. as i read it should run through chrome now. so yes my thoughts were similar - maybe an APU and streaming will be the future.

bu tthen again i used to spend 70 EUR - max 100 EUR on GPU. and i kind of like older games that usually have more story. still i think it might be time to retire this old PC or give it another functionality (streaming game device?!) while getting something more beefy for every day use.

[Shibblet]

i play old games on very old (16+ yo) single core PC with a few upgrades (to GT730 a few years back). they work way better on same machine that they did on PC. i can also run those that were made for win 7 and 8. yay!

I am a big fan of what Steam / Valve has done for the Linux community. Especially with DirectX9 games. There is rarely any problems with getting them to run under Linux.

anyway Geforce now is supposedly better now and they plan more imrpovements. as i read it should run through chrome now. so yes my thoughts were similar - maybe an APU and streaming will be the future.

Nice... running in a browser is definitely a step-up from the client they made before. I was able to take part in the Beta for GeForce Now, and I told them repeatedly that they needed to make a Linux client. The only problem I have with GeForce Now is the limitations. One hour of gameplay (unless you pay for their service, then it's up to 4), and you can only play the games they support. Right now, it's roughly 33% of my Steam titles.

I'm more impressed with a service called "Shadow" that will set you up with a PC that's a GTX1080, 3.4ghz Processor, 16g of Ram, and 256g SSD for a monthly fee. This will run your entire steam library, as well as give you a Windows 10 Desktop, in case you need to run other programs.

bu tthen again i used to spend 70 EUR - max 100 EUR on GPU. and i kind of like older games that usually have more story. still i think it might be time to retire this old PC or give it another functionality (streaming game device?!) while getting something more beefy for every day use.

Yeah, in the end it call comes down to what you use. And since I've been slipping away slowly as a gamer, I find Stadia to be a great solution. In it's simplest form, it's like owning a console without having to buy one. I can just buy the games they have, and play them, without having to have any new hardware. To me, that's a win-win.

Plus... right now, if you pre-order Cyberpunk 2077, it comes with a coupon you can redeem for the Stadia Premiere Edition. Stadia Controller and 4K Chromecast.
Usually, it's $99.99 for the controller and Chromecast. But right now, you can get it for $59.99, along with Cyberpunk 2077. Sounds like a good deal to me.

[Raging_Cascadoo]

Honestly it's not a bad option considering the cost of current GPU hardware now, especially if you don't game as much anymore.

[Shibblet]

Honestly it's not a bad option considering the cost of current GPU hardware now, especially if you don't game as much anymore.

Even moreso than that.

One of the games that is available, is a game called "Celeste." It's a 2d Platformer with pixel-graphics. Now, this game, in particular, doesn't take a lot of horse-power to run, and can probably run with significantly less cycles than say, Tomb Raider.

On the flipside of this coin... A developer could make a game that goes far above and beyond what current hardware is capable of. Imagine a game that requires 2 GTX3090's. It could run on Stadia very easily, and be streamed instead of turning your little microcomputer into a giant heat-sink.

In reality though... we'll see how that all pans out. From a developer perspective, they'll probably make the game to run great on the XBox One X, or PS5, and then just hand the game over to Stadia with minimal porting, and optimizing.

[Perfect Storm]

Going to take a look at the Stadia thing...

[CatKiller]

In reality though... we'll see how that all pans out. From a developer perspective, they'll probably make the game to run great on the XBox One X, or PS5, and then just hand the game over to Stadia with minimal porting, and optimizing.

Minimal optimisation, sure: game devs are often quite lazy. Not minimal porting, though: Stadia is Debian.

[mastablasta]

Stadia doesn't have any limits?

Maybe they will in the future. these "cloud things" like social networks and similar. and such always bother me a bit. first the service is good during expand phase, then it's the "you have to pay now" phase. one way or the other. and then you end up with a product that is not even close to how it started. look at facebook, google and few others. it's either pay a lot or they jam commercials in it.

[Shibblet]

Stadia doesn't have any limits?

Nah, I'm sure it does at some point... But the core idea is that if they had an exclusive title that required a lot more horsepower than a standard PC could handle... it might hook some gamers.

Maybe they will in the future. these "cloud things" like social networks and similar. and such always bother me a bit. first the service is good during expand phase, then it's the "you have to pay now" phase. one way or the other. and then you end up with a product that is not even close to how it started. look at facebook, google and few others. it's either pay a lot or they jam commercials in it.

I hear you. Ride the train as long as you can, and jump off when it gets too crowded.

Ultimately, I think Stadia has a niche market.

It's not really for competitive gamers, due to some latency.
It's not really for console gamers... Due to the, you know... console.
It's not for avid PC Enthusiasts either. Since they tend to put together PC's exclusively for gaming.

It seems as if it's market is for the casual gamer. Of which I have become. I want to play a game here-and-there... You know, I wanted to play this new Cyber-Punk 2077 game, but didn't feel like upgrading my CPU, Ram, Motherboard, and Videocard to the tune of $1500 - $2000, just to do so.

I also think that Google knows this, and does not need to be ultra-competative within the gaming market to achieve this goal.
My guess is that once they start getting some exclusive titles, there will be PS5 and XBox One X apps for Stadia as well.

[mastablasta]

read in the news - available in a few more EU countries. Can't wait mine to be added. maybe i should give it a go.

yes, but i think that single player games might play well on it. too many "battle royale" titles going out these days.