Cheap Gaming PC? Under £30 to you

[maguire]

not a gamer, never have been.
after a day sorting out meraki issues the last thing i want to do is look at a pc screen at home.
i have a lovely wife to nag me, diy to do and get drunk

but you've still read this thread and taken the time to reply.

 

[dogmeat]

I'm lost. I'm no gamer, but surely, 60FPS (or 60 million FPS for that matter) is on the graphics card in the server in the datacenter. Your interface to it is running on some kind of remote display tunneling technology. Unless your local computer has a similarly specced graphics card and the connection is low-latency, high bandwidth, you're only going to see a facsimile of the 60fps 4K glory.

In which case, I don't see the advantage of having (read paying for) a high-spec graphics card that you can't see properly.

Maybe I'm missing something. As I said, gaming not my thing, so it's quite possible. It seems to me the advantage is primarily in the network performance between your hosted instance in the datacenter, and the game server. You're not already dead, which is what I understand is the problem with many games, you've already been shot before you even see the enemy on your local Xbox/PS/PC due to some players having vastly superior network performance vs others.

Ask the company, not me: Shadow - High-performance gaming for all

My gaming PC is about three years old. Rather than follow the well-worn route of speccing out a new build, I took a punt on the Shadow service.

1. It does what I want.
2. I don't have to pay for upgrades.
3. I can still buy a PC if I change my mind.

The info is there, try or try not.

 

[dogmeat]

well, without even trying too hard I've just specced a machine on Amazon that in pretty much all cases apart from the graphics card exceeds the spec on this. (I had to pick a 1070 8gb gfx card to keep the price down.)

total? £715. that's with 16gb of ram and a 480gb ssd as well. 10 games on a 256? you'll be lucky. the install on GTA V (admittedly an extreme case, but games aren't going to get smaller in the future) run to over 80gb. so no lag and a better spec for kit you'll actually own? plus what if the spec they list doesn't meet the requirements of a future release? have they said what will happen then? I can either see them saying 'meh, there's not enough demand' or 'oh sure, it'll be an extra £10 a month please.' I know what my choice will be.

and like I say, that £715 is what I got after five minutes or so...I bet you could easily dig out better prices than that after trawling round the usual supsects for an afternoon...

Already covered in my reply to @Roadster280, but I really do appreciate you going to all that trouble to spec me a PC I never asked for and don't want. Cheers.

 

[maguire]

Already covered in my reply to @Roadster280, but I really do appreciate you going to all that trouble to spec me a PC I never asked for and don't want. Cheers.

oh, it was no trouble. I like to keep abreast of the current prices anyway as I'm considering upgrades in the future.

I don't really know who this is aimed at though - casual gamers are going to be happy enough going down the console route and hardcore gamers will want to spec their own rig. and avoid the issues inherent with this type of setup.

 

[dogmeat]

oh, it was no trouble. I like to keep abreast of the current prices anyway as I'm considering upgrades in the future.

I don't really know who this is aimed at though - casual gamers are going to be happy enough going down the console route and hardcore gamers will want to spec their own rig. and avoid the issues inherent with this type of setup.

It was actually @Sixty who gave me the idea to post the link when he mentioned missing old school PC games. Up until then I'd been using it quite happily for months without random herberts popping out of the woodwork to tell me what a shit time I'm having with it or how ace they are at buying PCs.

 

[maguire]

It was actually @Sixty who gave me the idea to post the link when he mentioned missing old school PC games. Up until then I'd been using it quite happily for months without random herberts popping out of the woodwork to tell me what a shit time I'm having with it or how ace they are at buying PCs.

alright...don't throw your toys out of the pram because people aren't hailing you as the saviour of gaming for this.

 

[dogmeat]

alright...don't throw your toys out of the pram because people aren't hailing you as the saviour of gaming for this.

I DGAF mate. One more signup and I get a branded mouse mat.

Livin' the dream.

And @Ritch is the saviour of gaming, as eny fule no.

 

[Roadster280]

Ask the company, not me: Shadow - High-performance gaming for all

My gaming PC is about three years old. Rather than follow the well-worn route of speccing out a new build, I took a punt on the Shadow service.

1. It does what I want.
2. I don't have to pay for upgrades.
3. I can still buy a PC if I change my mind.

The info is there, try or try not.

I don't really care, I am not a gamer. I was just curious as to what advantage the graphics card confers, when it is in a hosted environment.

I'm a network/telecom guy in the day job, so that's where I see the advantage. Surprised it's not a 10G connection though, they are comparatively inexpensive in datacenters. Much less than 10x 1Gs. If you're connecting over 8Mb DSL, you're going to see a dramatic performance uplift, but the graphics will still be like Pacman. Potentially worse even, because you're tunneling the remote display rather than generating it locally.

 

[JNM]

What beer are you drinking? If you’re paying over £8 a pint you’re getting ripped off mate.

Again the service I’m comparing yours to is by a massive player in the console market. Nvidia also have a program which has similar issues. If you think a small company can outdo both Sony and Nvidia with essentially the same tech I think you need a head check.

 

[dogmeat]

What beer are you drinking? If you’re paying over £8 a pint you’re getting ripped off mate.

Again the service I’m comparing yours to is by a massive player in the console market. Nvidia also have a program which has similar issues. If you think a small company can outdo both Sony and Nvidia with essentially the same tech I think you need a head check.

Cheers. Always good to hear about how it was in the good old days, gramps.

 

[JNM]

Cheers. Always good to hear about how it was in the good old days, gramps.

The hell are you on about? Streaming games is a horrible idea and it always will be until someone finds a way to bounce gigabytes of data per second hundreds of miles on a round trip in under 10ms with compute being done at the server. Honestly Game Pass has it better, download the game and play it natively for a fee.

 

[dogmeat]

The hell are you on about? Streaming games is a horrible idea and it always will be until someone finds a way to bounce gigabytes of data per second hundreds of miles on a round trip in under 10ms with compute being done at the server. Honestly Game Pass has it better, download the game and play it natively for a fee.

Game Pass? Is that like a Bus Pass? Do you get them down the seniors centre?

How about a nice cup of tea?

 

[Victorian_Major]

I take it that the slip into ad homs means you’ve given up finding patsys for your tunk gaming pyramid scheme then?

 

[JNM]

Game Pass? Is that like a Bus Pass? Do you get them down the seniors centre?

How about a nice cup of tea?

Not a fan of tea.

Go peddle your shite wares elsewhere

 

[dogmeat]

I take it that the slip into ad homs means you’ve given up finding patsys for your tunk gaming pyramid scheme then?

Yes, that's exactly right.

Whatever a tunk might be.

 

[maguire]

you didn't answer my question 'what if the spec they list doesn't meet the requirements of a future release?' - what will they do then? upgrade your virtual machine, upgrade and charge you for it, or tell you to lump it?

 

[dogmeat]

Not a fan of tea.

Go peddle your shite wares elsewhere

Steady on, gramps.

you didn't answer my question 'what if the spec they list doesn't meet the requirements of a future release?' - what will they do then? upgrade your virtual machine, upgrade and charge you for it, or tell you to lump it?

Submit a request – Shadow - Support (EN)

They're very helpful.

 

[maguire]

Steady on, gramps.



Submit a request – Shadow - Support (EN)

They're very helpful.

that still doesn't answer the question. suppose the next AAA title to come out exceeds their spec. what do they do? do they match the spec required on your VM, do they charge you extra to match it, or do they tell you to lump it? if it's either of the latter two, I'm either being charged more or I'm stuck with a service I can't use if I want to play 'Call Of Duty XXVII' or whatever it is.

 

[dogmeat]

that still doesn't answer the question. suppose the next AAA title to come out exceeds their spec. what do they do? do they match the spec required on your VM, do they charge you extra to match it, or do they tell you to lump it? if it's either of the latter two, I'm either being charged more or I'm stuck with a service I can't use if I want to play 'Call Of Duty XXVII' or whatever it is.

As I previously suggested, ask the company directly.

 

[maguire]

As I previously suggested, ask the company directly.

you're not a very good shill for them if you can't answer customer concerns.