Friday, November 8, 2013

PC Gaming Will Drive the Enthusiast Segment in 2014 and Beyond!

Just read a really interesting article by our buddy John Gillooly from Aussie techies PC Authority where he points out how recent PC game releases are driving many PC gamers to rethink their current builds and consider a thorough system upgrade. And we’re not just talking about a rather minimal VGA card upgrade – these games have fundamentally larger memory footprints. John notes how new gaming titles Watch Dogs and Call of Duty: Ghosts demand a minimum of 6GB of RAM and a 64-bit OS (well… naturally as you need a 64-bit OS to address more than 4GB anyway).

Ghosts

“We suspected this transition might take a while, but this doesn’t seem to be the case. Over recent days the system requirements for both Watch Dogs and Call of Duty: Ghosts on PC have been released, and they should make memory manufacturers pretty happy.

Not only do both titles require a 64-bit edition of Windows, but they also need 6GB of system memory as a minimum. If you are a memory manufacturer this should be a happy day indeed. If you own a gaming laptop with only 4GB of RAM, it probably isn’t so happy a day.”

It’s a great point to make because for most PC users around 4GB is totally sufficient. Know what I mean? You’d need a hell of a lot of tabs open in your browser to breach the 4GB threshold. So even though 64-OSes and processors have been around for many years, it looks like we’ve finally reached a point where PC gaming is going to push 64-bit/4GB+ computing to the realm of normal or even standard.

These games are also demanding up to 50GB of install space, so if you want snappy load times you’re looking at least a 128GB SSD. 256GB for a more comfortable Steam install. So yeah, once again memory vendors will be rubbing their hands.

E3_MP_03_WM

John Peddie Research have a few things to say on the subject too – and trust me when say these guys have been studying the graphics market since pixels were displayed on the walls of caves. A press release from earlier this year makes the direct connection between game release dates and hardware upgrade cycles:

“The effect that key titles have on hardware sales is phenomenal. Enthusiast PC Gamers embrace content creation and modding, so when titles like Bohemia Interactive's ARMA 3 are in the pipeline; we start to see anticipatory hardware sales. In fact, we are estimating over $800 million of PC builds influenced primarily by this title. A major component of this situation is that many games are placing increasing demands on the CPU. The result is that swapping out the graphics add-in board is not enough this time around and gamers are building (and ordering) overclocked PC's from the ground up."

SNIPER_Z87 board

I guess for myself, this is particularly significant on this of all days. Today we are announcing our latest G1-Killer gaming board, the GIGABYTE G1.Sniper Z87 motherboard, and we’re doing it at one of the biggest gaming events of the year – Blizzcon 2013.

Let’s just say, I have an odd feeling that in 2014 and beyond, PC gaming will be one area of major significance for GIGABYTE as it becomes a much important and influential part of the general PC enthusiast scene.

13 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. (Call of Duty: Ghosts demand a minimum of 6GB of RAM) the only reason why ghost needs 6GB of RAM is because they wanted it to look "next gen"spec wise. In reality it's only need 2-3 I believe, so in short false system requirements

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  3. by having a minimum of 6gb of RAM they are closing off a large portion of the market, and i don't see many people wanting to invest in a new computer for a title such as ghosts

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  4. Ive played this two games and it was awesome. Im really a fan of COD but eventually played Battlefield as well. Theyre all good! More Information on best All Star Seattle Fishing

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  6. I find battlefield 4 quite good to play rather than COD. Hope you have a good graphics card for these games so you'll enjoy it. McLean Virginia Maid Service and House Cleaning

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  7. This motherboard was awesome!!! i want this for my video card! Best Cold Laser Dallas

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  8. Looks to me that 7GIGABYTE G1.Sniper Z8 would be a great board for anyone one a budget but wanting to get in to or build a Decent PC 3D Gaming RIG. Surely it can support COD and Battlefield 4. Best Beetlesmith Valley Auto Renton Auto Body Shop

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  9. IGABYTE G1.Sniper Z87 motherboard is great, i wonder if it's affordable?
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