I'm curious how my PC runs games so much better than my console.
Like that sounds stupid because PCs are superior to consoles obviously graphically and performance wise 99% of the time based on optimization and ports
But my PC is basically as powerful as a current gen system to my knowledge (PS4/X1)
Fallout 4 i have put 25 days of gameplay on Xbox One
It runs at 1080p/30 fps and has very bad frame rate drops to single digits
On my PC i put everything at high, 1080p and get smooth 60 fps 90% of the time and when it drops its not as intrusive as on console (mid 50's)
Dead Island Definitive Edition is literally the exact same situation
1080p/30 console
1080p/60 on my PC but the framerate is pretty damn solid
So basically my question is, if my PC isn't that much better than current gen consoles how am i getting such better performance on these games?
Specs of my PC
- Hard Drive Capacity
1000 gigabytes
- Graphics
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060
Another thing you'll notice,
@76Knockout, is that the consoles can only (sort of) keep up on more current titles, as you've already experienced, but that only works in the present, and moving forward. Microsoft/Sony do everything they can to ensure their consoles don't "age" as quickly as PC hardware relative to the ever-increasing AAA performance demands. The strategy of improving the console hardware itself with major upgraded renditions (ex. PS4 Pro; Xbox One X) is a new wrinkle because there are simply limits to optimization, and that's their strategy for meeting higher resolutions. Naturally, the baseline version of both consoles date to autumn 2013, so both are already quite a bit older than your PC
(summer 2016 hardware), and can't keep up.
Where the consoles will not just get beaten, but will be
obliterated, is on older titles. The further you go back in a console's lifespan the more dominant the PC will become across those AAA games.
Everyone tends to focus on the incredible longevity that the consoles squeeze out of inferior hardware
going forward, and while that's still true, despite that I think this effect is now diminished (due to the fact the consoles no longer operate on custom hardware), I think everyone tends to forget that this advantage is far more incredible for the PC
going backward. Remember: your PC is backwards compatible with PC games
in perpetuity thanks to compatibility mode. Not only that, but its relative performance advantage grows almost exponentially the further you go back.
Compare PC performance versus the consoles in multiplat launch titles back from when the consoles debuted, and also keep in mind that the "max" settings for any particular resolution on PC may be much more rigorous than even at the same resolution/framerate on console (which are often upscales @30fps in the first place). The below list is convenient for this:
PS4 & XB1 Launch Titles
- Battlefield 4
- Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
- Call of Duty: Ghosts
- FIFA 14
- Madden NFL 25
- NBA 2K14
- Need for Speed: Rivals
- Warframe
---------- Other Early Titles -----------
- Crysis 3 (Feb-2013)
- Bioshock: Infinite (Mar-2013)
- Tomb Raider (Mar-2013)
- Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor (Sep-2014)
- Ryse: Son of Rome (Oct-2014, PC release)
- Alien: Isolation (Oct-2014)
- Dragon Age: Inquisition (Nov-2014)
The above isn't totally fair or faithful, since it involves an overclocked i7-6700K + overclocked GTX 1060 6GB, but it gives you an idea of what your GTX 1060 can do on these older titles. The ~$700 GTX 780 Ti was the single most expensive and powerful video card when that game (and the consoles) were released, and is nearly identical to your stock-- not overclocked-- GTX 1060 6GB in terms of raw horsepower. You could probably run it at 4K in decent settings, but here's what it produced above:
- 1080p
- Ultra preset quality
- 4xMSAA
- 90fps-120fps average range
Meanwhile, the baseline Xbox One version of
Battlefield 4?
- 720p (upscales to 1080p)
- Medium-High preset quality
- No AA
- 60fps lock
Looks to me like that OC setup could handle decent settings at 4K. The underlying truth here is that Microsoft and Sony never go back to improve or further optimize past titles. They spin all their magic just to get you there. The console versions never improve. Meanwhile, PC versions often see major graphical overhauls from the modding community, if not the developers themselves, but more importantly the hardware on the market just catches up to the most demanding possible versions of games. So back in 2013 only those guys who bought the monster MSRP $700 GTX 780 Ti would be able to enjoy what any guy in the latter half of 2016 or today would be able to enjoy on a highly affordable MSRP $250 GTX 1060 6GB.
