jr15aggie said:

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I've thought about venturing into the PC world at some point... after 20+ years of working, my disposable income is more readily available - despite my kids best efforts to spend it faster than I can make it.

One of the main draws is having an all in one retro game machine, but I'm also very interested in playing more optimized versions of some "recent" games. Arkham Knight comes to mind. I love that game, but they never updated the Xbox 1 / PS4 version... game still runs at 900p and 30 frames. Very messy by today's standards.

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Unfortunately you chose a bad time to enter the PC gaming market. Mid range and low end GPUs are very quickl becoming obsolete for new games. Vram requirements for new games are a big issue now and virtually every mid range card is being maxxed out vram side (new games are hitting 16-20 gb now pretty easily).

The good thing is that since crypto mining died, prices are the process of plummeting since no one is buying GPUs anymore for anything except gaming.

I feel like right now is the best time to build since like 2019 or 2020. Prices aren't that bad.

HossAg said:

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I feel like right now is the best time to build since like 2019 or 2020. Prices aren't that bad.

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Prices are falling but mid range cards are obsolete already, which is the problem.

Maybe it's just me, but I wouldn't be buying anything but a high tier GPU if I was building a PC. I don't think there's a point in not going all out if you're gonna make the jump. You're better off just sticking with a console otherwise. My 3070 ti/5800X3D combo performs insanely well and can be had for pretty reasonable prices.

HossAg said:

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Maybe it's just me, but I wouldn't be buying anything but a high tier GPU if I was building a PC. I don't think there's a point in not going all out if you're gonna make the jump. You're better off just sticking with a console otherwise. My 3070 ti/5800X3D combo performs insanely well and can be had for pretty reasonable prices.

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Games are using 12-16 gb vram already because devs have stopped caring about optimization. I believe the most recent Harry Potter game was hitting 20 on some people's GPUs. This has been a very recent development and it's going to get a lot worse very soon.

HossAg said:

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I feel like right now is the best time to build since like 2019 or 2020. Prices aren't that bad.

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Microcenter had some really great bundle deals on AMD processors this weekend.

It's frustrating that devs use new console gens and features like DLSS as excuses to become lazier with optimization rather than making some truly mind blowing experiences with good frame rates. I feel like game graphics have basically stagnated for the last 5-10 years with the occasional insanely good looking game coming out like RDR2.

So, what games are y'all trying to finish up before Starfield launches?

I finally got around to playing Ori & The Will of the Wisps... really liked the first one and had put off playing the 2nd for too long. 4K @ 120 Hz on the Series X... beautiful 2D/3D hybrid game with very challenging platforming. Was able to finish it in a week.

I just finished Star Wars Jedi Survivor as well. I suppose I need to finish playing the MW2 campaign. I also have Far Cry 6 and Wo-Long... got about halfway into those and sorta lost interest so those might get left behind.

Finished Jedi Survivor. Decided to hold off on Diablo IV with Starfield coming out.

Now just playing Uncharted again while waiting. Maybe fire up Mass Effect. Don't want to fully commit though

Finished Jedi Survivor (except for a couple force tears). Probably go back and complete the story on Titanfall 2 or Arkham or just play a lot of Civ VI.

Just going to grind Diablo 4

Grinding Diablo 4 and working through Tears of the Kingdom.

jeffk said:

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Finished Jedi Survivor (except for a couple force tears). Probably go back and complete the story on Titanfall 2 or Arkham or just play a lot of Civ VI.

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If you've never finished the TF2 story, it's worth it. Has one of the best FPS missions ever (Effect and Cause).

Cool, I'll definitely do that then. Thanks for looking out!

If anybody needs a time filler pre Starfield, I'd recommend Shipbreaker (free on Gamepass).

Pretty cool and addicting space game that could practically be in the same universe as Starfield.

Finally upgraded my rig this weekend to get Starfield ready.

CPU - Ryzen 3600X ---> Ryzen 5800X (didn't go to latest gen because I didn't want to change out mobo)
GPU - Radeon 5700XT ---> Radeon 7900XT
Ram - 16GB ---> 64GB.

Every game runs smooth as butter on highest settings. Also, I refunded Starfield from Steam because:

if you buy one of the new lines of AMD CPUs or GPUs, you get Starfield Premium Edition for free. If you buy the 2nd most recent line of AMD GPUs or CPUs, you get basic edition for free. If you plan on building, take advantage of this now. I bought my parts from Micro Center in Houston.

That's sounds fun, congrats on the upgrades!

To prepare for the console version of Starfield I started playing some games at 30 FPS to un-learn how good 60-120 is.

LOL, sadly, I'm not kidding. But I'm playing similar style games to Starfield and it's honestly not bad. 60 FPS makes a HUGE difference and I was really hoping it would be the norm for all "next gen" games... but I can deal with it for a game like Starfield which, for me, one of the biggest appeals will be slowly taking in all the sights & sounds. Give me saw jaw dropping 4K / HDR visuals for my nice TV and I'll have a good time!

jr15aggie said:

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That's sounds fun, congrats on the upgrades!

To prepare for the console version of Starfield I started playing some games at 30 FPS to un-learn how good 60-120 is.

LOL, sadly, I'm not kidding. But I'm playing similar style games to Starfield and it's honestly not bad. 60 FPS makes a HUGE difference and I was really hoping it would be the norm for all "next gen" games... but I can deal with it for a game like Starfield which, for me, one of the biggest appeals will be slowly taking in all the sights & sounds. Give me saw jaw dropping 4K / HDR visuals for my nice TV and I'll have a good time!

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Thanks! The console has another benefit over PC though - you can play from your couch or bed. 30 FPS is a little painful, but there's something therapeutic about laying on a couch or in bed and playing a video game as opposed to playing while seated on an office chair and playing on PC, especially if you have a remote job or an office job where you're already in said office chair for hours on end.

My wife bought an OLED for our bedroom so if she ever stops hogging it all night, maybe I'll get a chance to try Starfield off Gamepass on it.

I have an MSI NVIDIA 3060 RTX (currently $290 on New Egg) combined with an AMD Ryzen 5 5600X, 32G RAM, multiple SSDs and spinny drives.

My monitor is an "LG 27GN750-B UltraGear Gaming Monitor 27" FHD (1920x1080) IPS Display, 1ms Response, 240HZ Refresh Rate, G-SYNC", so i run my games at 1920x1080 @ 240Hz

I also have 2 x 1TB SSDs. For gaming, I have a SAMSUNG 980 PRO SSD 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe Gen 4 Gaming M.2 Internal Solid State Drive Memory Card (currently $79)

There's now a 990 Pro SSD 1TB for $89 or 2TB for $150

According to the Starfield recommended specs, you should have 125GB of SSD storage available for the game.

I run all my games at the mostly the highest settings without and frame rate issues.

No idea how it would handle 4k.

canadiaggie said:

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Thanks! The console has another benefit over PC though - you can play from your couch or bed. 30 FPS is a little painful, but there's something therapeutic about laying on a couch or in bed and playing a video game as opposed to playing while seated on an office chair and playing on PC, especially if you have a remote job or an office job where you're already in said office chair for hours on end.

My wife bought an OLED for our bedroom so if she ever stops hogging it all night, maybe I'll get a chance to try Starfield off Gamepass on it.

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my pc is playable from the bed or couch.

C@LAg said:

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canadiaggie said:

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Thanks! The console has another benefit over PC though - you can play from your couch or bed. 30 FPS is a little painful, but there's something therapeutic about laying on a couch or in bed and playing a video game as opposed to playing while seated on an office chair and playing on PC, especially if you have a remote job or an office job where you're already in said office chair for hours on end.

My wife bought an OLED for our bedroom so if she ever stops hogging it all night, maybe I'll get a chance to try Starfield off Gamepass on it.

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my pc is playable from the bed or couch.

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I guess it depends on the games. I hate playing strategy games on controller and don't really want the mess that would come with a wired keyboard keypad setup near my bed.

Putting this here because I already mentioned the game above... but I'm completely addicted to Hardspace: Shipbreaker!

What a great game. Controls and aim sensitivity are a bit of a mess on a controller (had to re-map some things), but I think part of that is on purpose because one of the theme's is "I hope I don't F* this up!"

For me, this was a perfect space themed sci-fi game leading into Starfield!

You realize they make wireless keyboards and mice right?

V8Aggie said:

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You realize they make wireless keyboards and mice right?

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Sure. I have bad luck with wireless stuff. Always lose a dongle or something stops working. Still not a great setup for strategy games in my personal experience because I also prefer to be closer to the screen for those.

I'm sure it's a setup that works for many however. I'd consider it for shooters and whatnot but my gaming computer also doubles as my wfh dual monitor setup.

I updated my PC specs above with SSD info as I found out Starfield recommends an SSD, cross posting here:

Quote:

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The Steam page for Starfield(Opens in a new window) lists the system requirements in order to play the game and an additional note states "SSD Required." The game installation takes up 125GB of storage space...

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While Steam states it's required, other reading implies that it's highly recommended to avoid long load times, and potentially chunkyness.

At any rate, I have the following 1TB SSD for gaming, that's been great ($79):
SAMSUNG 980 PRO SSD 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe Gen 4 Gaming M.2 Internal Solid State Drive Memory Card

There's a newer 990 Pro SSD 1TB for $89 and a 2TB for ~$150

I've enjoyed (sort of) watching Starfield youtubers all saying the same thing. Bethesda gave us a longer than expected deep dive and haven't said much of anything since.

Bunch of guys with click bait video titles finding interesting ways to fill up 5-10 minutes of video with info we already had a couple months ago.

Here are 3 videos released a week ago. These are well done and do a good job of world building. Supra Et Ultra (Above and Beyond) is my favorite... guy ends up with riches and comfort but all he really wants is to get back out there. Sort of embodies the spirit of these Bethesda games.

I've actually been a bit surprised at the lack of marketing for this as we enter the last month before release. Feel like Xbox marketed the hell out of Redfall before it bombed and now there is next to nothing on Starfield

wangus12 said:

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I've actually been a bit surprised at the lack of marketing for this as we enter the last month before release. Feel like Xbox marketed the hell out of Redfall before it bombed and now there is next to nothing on Starfield

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Agreed.

The Starfield direct was longer and more detailed than I expected so that was really good. Feels like the only thing missing is a 5-10 min walkthrough video showing a quick mission (running on Series X preferably). Start off in space... land on a planet... do some interesting things... get some loot... go back to your ship... launch back into space... set a course for a new planet... engage... the end.

I know Cyberpunk showed one or two missions pre-launch and it really helped sell the game.

For the image above, I watched this video last night. He'll read the whole thing and add some context to it if you care to get a better grasp on the history of Starfield.

jr15aggie said:

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So, what games are y'all trying to finish up before Starfield launches?

I finally got around to playing Ori & The Will of the Wisps... really liked the first one and had put off playing the 2nd for too long. 4K @ 120 Hz on the Series X... beautiful 2D/3D hybrid game with very challenging platforming. Was able to finish it in a week.

I just finished Star Wars Jedi Survivor as well. I suppose I need to finish playing the MW2 campaign. I also have Far Cry 6 and Wo-Long... got about halfway into those and sorta lost interest so those might get left behind.

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Grounded. Super underrated indy game. I have about 5-10 more hours left.

There was also a Q&A with some of the developers on their discord

Here is a link to a written transcript on reddit

https://www.reddit.com/r/Starfield/comments/15swuqp/discord_server_qa_full_transcript/

Whoop