Is an HD 7870 2GB better than Consoles?

[grich96]

Will an HD 7870 with FX 8320 have better graphics than an Xbox 360 or Playstation 3? Assume this on a 32" 720p HDTV. How would the PC setup compare (most likely) to the new generation of consoles? (Xbox 720 PS 4 Wii U)

 

[munjoo238]

Of course. 7870 is actually one of the best cards out there.

 

[kulmnar]

Will an HD 7870 with FX 8320 have better graphics than an Xbox 360 or Playstation 3? Assume this on a 32" 720p HDTV. How would the PC setup compare (most likely) to the new generation of consoles? (Xbox 720 PS 4 Wii U)

Absolutely an HD7870 is better. The PS3 and Xbox360 are almost 7 years old (think of a 7 year old video card vs a video card that is 1 year old, which 1 is better?). Plus the HD7870 is a top performer that can achieve 60FPS at 1080p in most games (consoles mostly do 30fps).

It seems what you are asking is if you will be able to play good quality games on your TV using your PC. Well, yes, the graphics will be way better than on a console. However, keep in mind that PC games that support a controller will sometimes be horrible ports of console games (think of Dark Souls: Prepare to Die). So, all in all, if you want to play PC games on your couch with a controller, you can, but consoles have a larger variety of games and most games are first developed to run on consoles and then ported to the PC.

As for the new consoles, no one knows for sure, but from what I'm hearing, the PS4 "may" have a quad core 3ghz AMD APU (cpu + integrated video, a 6550D) and a 7660 discrete video card for crossfire setup. If this is true, the HD7870 will completely outperform a 7660 + 6550D combo. Consoles are designed to be cheap and mass produced so that everyone and their illegal immigrant cousin can afford one

Cheap + mass produced = weak hardware

 

[photonboy]

Example:

Crysis:
This game on the PS3 averages under 30FPS with dips to 12FPS at times.

PC (HD7870 etc):
This game can maintain 60FPS if you tweak it properly. The quality will be higher than the PS3 version too.

SKYRIM:
The PS3 only has 256MB for System Memory (what your DDR3 is used for). It's not enough for the game once the SAVE file (which keeps track of all changes) gets larger. Massive stuttering.

The PC version uses up to 1.75GB just for Skyrim.

Steam:
If you aren't aware, go read about the new Steam "Big Picture"; it's for making it easier to launch games from a PC with your game controller so that you can hook up to an HDTV.

*WARNING:
I'm not certain if AMD's cards support proper game audio via HDMI. I can verify that the GTX600 series does. So I can attach an HDMI cable to my GTX680 and HDTV and the video and audio just work via the NVidia sound component. They designed this in anticipation of streaming to their new Shield gaming device.

 

[grich96]

Best answer selected by grich96.