You do not need to constantly upgrade your computer to play games. As I said earlier, this is a myth.

Not so much any more because a lot of it is still being limited by the consoles. In the past yes you did. In the past games were evolving at an astronomical rate. Every year I was upgrading video cards, processors, ram, ect. It was a pain if you wanted the best performance. Now things have leveled out quite a bit but a lot of people remember how it used to be. Even so a good PC still costs quite a bit. More than I can justify right now.

maybe people are too poor to afford a high end gaming PC

I prefer PC gaming. All the benefits of playing on a console, and then some.

There seems to be a lot of misconceptions are PC gaming in this thread. You don't need to spend a fortune for a computer that can run Skyrim as well as, if not better than, a console. If you already have a monitor, speakers, and other peripherals, you probably would come out at just about the same price of a Xbox. You don't need to upgrade your components every month. Heck, my current computer I bought from Best Buy. Threw in a new graphics card, and it lasted me for two years before I decided to upgrade to a better one, and I could have kept with that old one. Between the price of the original computer and the graphics card, it was only about $400 to have a computer that would run Skyrim on High settings with better framerates than the console.

Not saying that you all should dump your consoles today, but the next time you're upgrading your computer, just save your money for a little bit longer and you can set yourself up with a good rig. Plenty of resources on the net to help you find a good pre-built rig, or at least one requiring minimal upgrades(That you can usually pass off to a techy friend/shop to do for you).


And for those wondering what a fully modded Skyrim running on a supercomputer hooked into an HDTV looks like: A friend with way too much disposable income showed me once. Most beautiful thing I've ever seen. -wipes tear away from eye-

For fact I'm a teen and don't really want a job atm. If I had a stronger enough pc to run skyrim just fine I would get it in a heartbeat.
Next gen of consoles, I will prob get a job and buy me an adequate pc to run most games.

There's your problem. It's expensive and a hassle to constantly maintain a top of the line PC? You don't say!

You don't need to have the "best" computer. "Just good enough" will more than blow consoles out of the water.

This, I can only afford a pc because of benefits due to a very annoying illness.

This is exactly correct. Yeah, you'll need to upgrade if you insist on having the best of the best, but that isn't necessary for almost any game that ever comes out. The only game I can remember that came out in my recent memory that sort of required a top of the line computer was Crysis -and that apparently was only if you wanted to run it with all the bells and whistles.

Then the other type of person who has to upgrade constantly is the guy trying to milk another year or two out of a seven year old computer, adding this or that just to make the minimum specs on some new game.

For most of us, a more middle-of-the-road computer will suffice. As I've said before, my computer cost $1800 three years ago and it'll still run Skyrim on Ultra with no problems at all.

Some people have no knowledge of computers...you can EASILY play Skyrim on Ultra on a computer that costs no more than 700$. Hell, top of the line PCs can be built at around ~$1200, and I mean top of the line. I built my dad's computer for that much and he won't be needing to upgrading that thing for at minimum 4 years. Probably way more years till he upgrades, i7, 16gb ram, some highend graphic card (dont remember, would have to look). If it's sooner that means some massive technology came out. Whoever said you pay upwards to $1,800-$3,000 for a highend computer is smoking crack.

Hell, I hook my computer up through an HDMI switch that goes out to my 55' TV and I have my computer set up to play with my PS3 controller through a wireless bluetooth doggle 30 feet away from my computer. All of that with glorious graphic mods. Want to know how much my computer cost me? $650, 2 years ago. All I've done since then is upgrade 1 series in my graphic card from HD 5770 ($100-120) to a 6850 ($150), and my 5770 I sold to a friend to 60$.

Then again, you really have to be a tech nerd like me to get into it. But it really isn't that hard. I didn't know anything about computers until my junior year of highschool. Now I know too much that family members are always bothering me to fix stuff. I highly suggest anyone whose interested in games to invest in a good computer that you build yourself. You learn so much.

I can understand why others wouldn't be interested though.

Oh, yea? My PC will somehow forget it has a disc drive if I finish uninstalling my old version of Norton 360. So now I'm stuck with a half deleted anti-virus that Norton thinks it's subscription has expired, yet it still tells me it is fully up to date when I check it. Not to mention, I'm pretty sure the sound it makes when I start it up is an unbalanced cooling fan, but it balances itself out after a couple of minutes.

My biggest issue, I guess, would be Steam. I have no idea what it even is, yet it is 100% required to be able to play Skyrim on the PC. You don't need Xbox Live to play Skyrim, but it is beneficial to have, for patches and Dawnguard.

Yup, that's why i'm waiting for the new consoles to be released before i upgrade mine. If it's like last time, i can get a more powerful system soon afterward for the same price And then upgrade the critical parts few years down the line, like i did with my current one.

Steam is essentially a game marketplace and copy protection. You have to validate a game via Steam before it will work. You can put the thing into offline mode if it annoys you, but it does have to validate online to make sure it isn't a stolen copy.