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Configuration and Optimization for PC Gaming

Now, I'm new to PC gaming, so patience may be required as you continue reading. I have been very interested in computers and tech since 1999 when I received my first PC (300mhz Sony Vaio). I never really used them to game though as I've never had powerful enough hardware to play the games I enjoyed. I've been playing games on consoles since Nintendo and always thought them to be a superior solution for gaming. With PCs I'd mostly play with GUI mods, small progz (remember when they were called that before the term Apps came along?!) and little tools to tweak my systems and OS.

I bought a PS4 for Christmas last year to celebrate my promotion. I bought a ton of games for it and have really enjoyed the graphics so far. The ones that really stand out are Killzone Shadow Fall, Wolfenstein, MGS Ground Zeroes, BF4 and Watch Dogs. IMO these games look really good. And despite the outcry over inferior resolutions and frame rates, I feel they play very smoothly (with the exception of Watch Dogs occasionally) and look very good. But, I stumbled upon Linus and began watching his videos, exploring his forums, and researching PC gaming. After a couple of months I decided I WANTZ ALL D GRAFIKZ and began planning. Fast forward to today, and I'm typing this post out on my new build. SSS came and went before I had all of my parts together, but I thought it'd be good to take advantage and bought a few games to install once my build was finished. I tried to research and pick the best looking games available deciding on Metro LL, Far Cry 3, Skyrim, The Arhkam Series, Fallout, Fallout NV and a couple others. Now I've played Fallout, NV, and Metro 2033 on console before so I knew I really liked them and their graphics. Now, after spending a few minutes playing Skyrim with HD mods, Metro LL, and Batman Arkham Origins, I'm feeling a little underwhelmed. The high frame-rates have been great - so smooth (when frames don't drop of course.) But between the occasional frame drops, stutters, and honestly underwhelming graphics, I can't seem to convince myself I'm seeing more eye candy than the games on my PS4. I know optimization has something to do with it, console games are usually vigorously optimized to run well on their consoles. And the same optimization must be done for PC Hardware, which must be extremely difficult given the broad range of platform configurations. But I'm thinking I just haven't taken the right steps to properly configure my system and settings. I know I'm using a TN, which may have something to do with the graphics not looking as eye poppingly nice as I want, but to be honest playing my PS4 on my big stupid TV that only puts out 1080p at 60hz just looks better than what I'm now experiencing. Is it a generational gap in the games themselves? That seems very likely also. But I thought being able to pump up AA and running higher FPS would make it nice. I think I'm answering my own questions as I get through this wall of text, but if it's a generational gap in these games, what are some great "next gen" -are you cringing?- games that could enlighten my stupid console peasant self? Could you help me make sure I have everything set up properly also?

4790k-4.8ghz stable

gtx780-967mhz - 1.2ghz

Thanks to anyone who made it through this somewhat convoluted and surely confused wall of text. I'd love to hear some suggestions.

Edit

Possible solutions I'm considering are swapping for IPS panel, maybe 1440p, and trying Crysis 3

2014 - EVGA 780 SC ACX | 4790K | Asus Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 | Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz 16GB | RM650 | Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 | VGA248QE | Fractal Define r4

2015 - EVGA 980 | 4790K | Asus Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 | Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz 16GB | RM650 | NZXT X41 | Asus ProArt 1080p IPS | Fractal Define r4

2017 - MSI Gaming X 1080 Ti | 6600K | Strix z270e | Trident DDR4 3GHz 16GB | RM650 | NZXT X42 | LG OLED B9 | Dell U3415W | Corsair Crystal 460x

2021 - MSI Gaming X 1080 Ti | 5600X | Strix B550-F | Trident Neo DDR4 3.6GHz 32GB | Dark Power Pro 12 1500W | EK AIO Basic 360 | LG OLED B9 | Dell U3415W | Corsair 5000D Airflow

2023 - Asus TUF 4090 | 5800X3D | Strix B550-F | Viper DDR4 3.6GHz 32GB | RM1000x | h150i 360 Elite LCD | LG OLED B9 | Dell U3415W | Corsair 5000D Airflow

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Now, I'm new to PC gaming, so patience may be required as you continue reading. I have been very interested in computers and tech since 1999 when I received my first PC (300mhz Sony Vaio). I never really used them to game though as I've never had powerful enough hardware to play the games I enjoyed. I've been playing games on consoles since Nintendo and always thought them to be a superior solution for gaming. With PCs I'd mostly play with GUI mods, small progz (remember when they were called that before the term Apps came along?!) and little tools to tweak my systems and OS.

I bought a PS4 for Christmas last year to celebrate my promotion. I bought a ton of games for it and have really enjoyed the graphics so far. The ones that really stand out are Killzone Shadow Fall, Wolfenstein, MGS Ground Zeroes, BF4 and Watch Dogs. IMO these games look really good. And despite the outcry over inferior resolutions and frame rates, I feel they play very smoothly (with the exception of Watch Dogs occasionally) and look very good. But, I stumbled upon Linus and began watching his videos, exploring his forums, and researching PC gaming. After a couple of months I decided I WANTZ ALL D GRAFIKZ and began planning. Fast forward to today, and I'm typing this post out on my new build. SSS came and went before I had all of my parts together, but I thought it'd be good to take advantage and bought a few games to install once my build was finished. I tried to research and pick the best looking games available deciding on Metro LL, Far Cry 3, Skyrim, The Arhkam Series, Fallout, Fallout NV and a couple others. Now I've played Fallout, NV, and Metro 2033 on console before so I knew I really liked them and their graphics. Now, after spending a few minutes playing Skyrim with HD mods, Metro LL, and Batman Arkham Origins, I'm feeling a little underwhelmed. The high frame-rates have been great - so smooth (when frames don't drop of course.) But between the occasional frame drops, stutters, and honestly underwhelming graphics, I can't seem to convince myself I'm seeing more eye candy than the games on my PS4. I know optimization has something to do with it, console games are usually vigorously optimized to run well on their consoles. And the same optimization must be done for PC Hardware, which must be extremely difficult given the broad range of platform configurations. But I'm thinking I just haven't taken the right steps to properly configure my system and settings. I know I'm using a TN, which may have something to do with the graphics not looking as eye poppingly nice as I want, but to be honest playing my PS4 on my big stupid TV that only puts out 1080p at 60hz just looks better than what I'm now experiencing. Is it a generational gap in the games themselves? That seems very likely also. But I thought being able to pump up AA and running higher FPS would make it nice. I think I'm answering my own questions as I get through this wall of text, but if it's a generational gap in these games, what are some great "next gen" -are you cringing?- games that could enlighten my stupid console peasant self? Could you help me make sure I have everything set up properly also?

4790k-4.8ghz stable

gtx780-967mhz - 1.2ghz

Thanks to anyone who made it through this somewhat convoluted and surely confused wall of text. I'd love to hear some suggestions.

Edit

Possible solutions I'm considering are swapping for IPS panel, maybe 1440p, and trying Crysis 3

i'm currently building a gaming pc, some games i will be playing are, skyrim with enb mods (youtube it) gta 4 with ice enhancer (again youtube it) left 4 dead 2 (mod heaven) the witcher 2, battlefield 4 (ultra settings) fallout new vegas (with mods) basically most games even older games are great on pc thanks to mods.

just youtube skyrim enb and gta 4 ice enhancer and you will see. 

edit. and metro last light for sure :)

I7 4790K-----ASUS Z97-A-----GTX 1080-----CORSAIR H105-----CORSAIR VENGEANCE PRO 16GB-----ASUS PG278Q-----LOGITECH G900-----MASTERKEYS PRO L-----Sennheiser GSX 1000

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Every cross-platform game (meaning it's on consoles and PC) will look better on PC.

 

The reason you personally may not be seeing the difference is because you're not a graphics whore (not that there's anything wrong with being a graphics whore - just don't be a dick about your graphics being superior). However, there's clearly distinctive things that are left out in console ports, such as Anti-aliasing, certain lighting effects like ambient occlusion (there are more but I'll stop there) and true 1920x1080 resolution.

 

What you could do is buy an IPS panel like you suggested to yourself and you'll see a better color reproduction. It will not, however, make textures "pop" like what you're thinking. It'll bring out colors and contrast not in a typical TN panel, though.

 

There is no generation gap in the games - I don't know what you're implying there.

 

 

 

Crysis 3 isn't the most glorious and graphical thing on PC. Yes it's very demanding compared to say, Skyrim. But there are community made mods for games like Skyrim to make them look even better than Crysis 3.

 

A game that looks great - maybe as good - as Crysis 3 by itself with no mods is Metro: Last Light, which is the only game that comes to mind right now. The new games coming out soon, like Dragon Age and Witcher will have a better art-style and probably better look overall than Crysis 3 in my opinion. Those two games will be on consoles, yes, but the ultimate experience will be on PC*.

 

*For reasons like I mentioned before in the beginning of my post, as well as having the choice of playing with a mouse and keyboard or a controller if you prefer. 

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Honestly if you want to be impressed, get into modding the crap out of skyrim. It's fun, funny, and you can make the game look absolutely ridiculous compared to it's normal version/console version.

 

Also, if you haven't seen it, check out Star Citizen. When that drops, you will be so happy you made the move.

 

Welcome to PC gaming by the way.

Ketchup is better than mustard.

GUI is better than Command Line Interface.

Dubs are better than subs

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Honestly if you want to be impressed, get into modding the crap out of skyrim. It's fun, funny, and you can make the game look absolutely ridiculous compared to it's normal version/console version.

Also, if you haven't seen it, check out Star Citizen. When that drops, you will be so happy you made the move.

Welcome to PC gaming by the way.

Thanks dude!

2014 - EVGA 780 SC ACX | 4790K | Asus Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 | Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz 16GB | RM650 | Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 | VGA248QE | Fractal Define r4

2015 - EVGA 980 | 4790K | Asus Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 | Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz 16GB | RM650 | NZXT X41 | Asus ProArt 1080p IPS | Fractal Define r4

2017 - MSI Gaming X 1080 Ti | 6600K | Strix z270e | Trident DDR4 3GHz 16GB | RM650 | NZXT X42 | LG OLED B9 | Dell U3415W | Corsair Crystal 460x

2021 - MSI Gaming X 1080 Ti | 5600X | Strix B550-F | Trident Neo DDR4 3.6GHz 32GB | Dark Power Pro 12 1500W | EK AIO Basic 360 | LG OLED B9 | Dell U3415W | Corsair 5000D Airflow

2023 - Asus TUF 4090 | 5800X3D | Strix B550-F | Viper DDR4 3.6GHz 32GB | RM1000x | h150i 360 Elite LCD | LG OLED B9 | Dell U3415W | Corsair 5000D Airflow

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if you came over to pc expecting to see graphics that are worlds better than ps4 then You are going to be disappointed. To the naked eye it's incrementally better. We have reached a point of diminishing returns in graphics to the extent that You may render 300% more complexity but to the naked eye it just looks 10% better while being much harder to render at smooth framerates. Yes the IPS panel and 1440p will help. Game worlds just look more compelling with IPS colour. With regard to optimization it's expected in pc to often have to tweak the settings a bit in order to get the framerate You want. Devs Sometimes leave in ridiculous settings which kill framerates, it is expected as a pc gamer that You tweak it even if You have a high end system. E.g. Ubersampling in witcher 2. You don't have to fret if after maxing everything You see a couple of dips below 60FPS. Most of the time tweaking the settings gives big boosts without noticeable Quality loss. Since it's pc the devs put You in control rather than deciding themselves What to tweak.

Anyway the main appeal of pc is not graphics or framerates. We like the flexibility, we like the variety of games, we like the fact that we can choose controller options. We like mods and user generated content. The fact that it's an open platform which No single entity can control, that applies both on the hardware and software side.. And we like the satisfaction of gaming on something that is our own and put together ourselves.

Remember above all to enjoy the games rather than getting too caught up in masterrace stuff

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Snip

I appreciate your well rounded response. Indeed, building was immensely fun and satisfying. Escaping the console proprietary ecosystem is awesome. A cheaper and wider variety of games and user content is a huge plus. And just having a beefy system for content creation and whatever tasks I need to accomplish, that's huge too.

I was expecting a huge difference as far as graphics. But getting some time to play Borderlands 2 and Metro LL, I can really see and appreciate the smaller differences and smoother frame rates. Although I did spend hours trying to make Skyrim look good with ENB and all of his recommended mods, installing, patching, sorting, editing inis and clearing master files. I wasn't too impressed, maybe I didn't do it right. The whole process was so involved and seemed messy, so I'm afraid the modding aspect won't be as useful for me.

2014 - EVGA 780 SC ACX | 4790K | Asus Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 | Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz 16GB | RM650 | Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 | VGA248QE | Fractal Define r4

2015 - EVGA 980 | 4790K | Asus Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 | Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz 16GB | RM650 | NZXT X41 | Asus ProArt 1080p IPS | Fractal Define r4

2017 - MSI Gaming X 1080 Ti | 6600K | Strix z270e | Trident DDR4 3GHz 16GB | RM650 | NZXT X42 | LG OLED B9 | Dell U3415W | Corsair Crystal 460x

2021 - MSI Gaming X 1080 Ti | 5600X | Strix B550-F | Trident Neo DDR4 3.6GHz 32GB | Dark Power Pro 12 1500W | EK AIO Basic 360 | LG OLED B9 | Dell U3415W | Corsair 5000D Airflow

2023 - Asus TUF 4090 | 5800X3D | Strix B550-F | Viper DDR4 3.6GHz 32GB | RM1000x | h150i 360 Elite LCD | LG OLED B9 | Dell U3415W | Corsair 5000D Airflow

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I'm actually starting to really enjoy this. The Witcher 2 is awesome if a bit more complicated than I'm accustomed. I just started the Arkham series, and even the first one looks and plays great maxed out. All hail GabeN

2014 - EVGA 780 SC ACX | 4790K | Asus Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 | Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz 16GB | RM650 | Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 | VGA248QE | Fractal Define r4

2015 - EVGA 980 | 4790K | Asus Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 | Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz 16GB | RM650 | NZXT X41 | Asus ProArt 1080p IPS | Fractal Define r4

2017 - MSI Gaming X 1080 Ti | 6600K | Strix z270e | Trident DDR4 3GHz 16GB | RM650 | NZXT X42 | LG OLED B9 | Dell U3415W | Corsair Crystal 460x

2021 - MSI Gaming X 1080 Ti | 5600X | Strix B550-F | Trident Neo DDR4 3.6GHz 32GB | Dark Power Pro 12 1500W | EK AIO Basic 360 | LG OLED B9 | Dell U3415W | Corsair 5000D Airflow

2023 - Asus TUF 4090 | 5800X3D | Strix B550-F | Viper DDR4 3.6GHz 32GB | RM1000x | h150i 360 Elite LCD | LG OLED B9 | Dell U3415W | Corsair 5000D Airflow

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