Task 4

Game platforms: The hardware side of things

 

Hello! In this article I will be talking about the internal and external hardware of platforms that people of today play their games on, which will include consoles, computers and handheld devices. I will be commenting on the pros and cons of each device and their uses in the gaming world.

The internal parts of these devices are what makes it run properly, and I will be talking about each individual component as well as explaining what they do and why they are good or bad.

The console. These are probably the most common and widely used platform for games, and there are hundreds of different types of consoles, with it being narrowed down to a popular few. The second most popular is likely to be gaming on computers or PC’s, these are a lot better in some ways due to being able to run better games or modify games, but have the con of being very expensive for a high-end one. The last is handheld devices, this includes phones, handheld consoles and tablets, which I will also talk about when it comes to benefits and restraints.

The first thing I will be talking about is processor types, which are generally split into two categories; The CPU, or central processing unit – the brain of the computer and the part that carries out instructions of a program and to handle multitasking if necessary.

The other type is the GPU, or graphics processing unit – this is the visual part of a device. They are very similar to a CPU on a basic level, but their architecture is very different. They are designed to handle calculations related to 3D graphics and to make memory-intensive work like texture mapping and rendering of 3D meshes faster and easier on other parts.

For the most part, this is where PC gaming can shine, as people can buy very high end CPU’s and GPU’s and be able to run any game they want, modify it how they want (within reason, anyway!) and to change the graphical settings to suit their needs. If they are using an older PC, they usually have the option to lower the graphics of a game to make it more playable, in the sense where you have solid FPS (frames per second) and a decent looking game. The only downfall of this is that a high end CPU and GPU together can cost well over £500; which is £100 more than most consoles out today, and to bear in mind that this is JUST the processing units, there are a lot of other parts to consider in PC’s that you don’t even need to think about when you buy a console.

Of course there is the offset, you can buy a cheaper PC, run most of your games at low to medium settings and play most of the current generation games comfortably for a little more money than your average next-gen console, but the issue here is that PC’s get out of date very quickly, which rapidly advancing technology on a software and a hardware level, it’s very hard for a computer to stay powerful and up to date for more than 5 years, where some consoles will last well over 10.

Another benefit to this, though, is that it is cheap to upgrade a PC. With a console you are limited by what that console has and that alone. If your PC becomes out of date, you don’t have to pay £1000+ for an entirely new one, or £400 for an entirely new console if a new generation were to come out, you can simply upgrade your graphics card, and maybe your CPU and you’re good to go, especially with the selling of old parts, this is very preferable to some.

This also does mean though, that a lot of people can buy a console and have peace of mind that it will run many games for a long time without issue, because most games are made with consoles in mind, and if it doesn’t run on a console, they won’t sell it on a console!

For handheld devices this whole scenario is a little different. It’s a lot less about how expensive the hardware is, and a lot more about how they can be efficient with the software, so that it looks good and runs well, despite the limitations that have been put in place. With mobile gaming it’s a very similar story, although mobiles and tablets are becoming more powerful on a technological level every year, that it is even to the point where games that came out on older consoles like the PS1, PS2 and early Nintendo DS’s are now being re-released for mobile and tablet platforms.

The next piece of hardware that is notable is RAM and VRAM, or Random Access Memory and Video Random Access Memory. RAM is essentially a form of temporary memory that the computer can use to store temporary files on, such as a game you have open or an internet browser. VRAM is a little different, it handles the amount of polygons and the resolution of textures currently on the screen in a game which takes the load off the CPU and RAM, and is again developed specifically for this task and is more efficient at it.

This is one of the cheapest ways to see a sharp performance boost in computers, as it directly affects how fast the computer appears to process applications. In slightly older consoles, RAM wasn’t as important because it didn’t have to do a whole lot of multitasking, it would play the game and the game alone, but nowadays where consoles have an operating system and other applications to run, and the Xbox One even having the ability to directly multitask with video and game applications. The benefits of having more RAM is that all these processors will happen faster, but the console/PC would be a little more expensive.

On handheld devices and mobiles, RAM is a bit different because it uses a faster version of flash RAM, this means it can handle a lot of tasks faster, and therefore will require less of it in total, with most modern phones having 1-2GB of RAM, almost 15GB behind the high-end gaming pc standard.

LCD and LED screens are types on built-in displays, this is usually in tablets, mobile phones and handheld devices, very few consoles include a display and require you to have a TV in order to play. Every handheld console, however, has a display included and most notably the Nintendo 3DS includes dual-screen technology to give a 3D vision effect without using 3D glasses. The same with PCs, unless it’s a laptop with a screen included, they will need a separate monitor in order to display anything. A monitor is near enough a definite requirement in order to navigate the operating system of any gaming machine.

Storage on these platforms is relatively the same on all fronts. There are 3 different types of storage devices: HDD (Hard Disk Drive), SSD (Solid State Drive) and Flash Drives. For the large majority of consoles, it is a HDD that is used, which is the best deal for amount of storage you get compared to how much the disk costs, with most early Xboxes coming with 80-120GB and the PS3 coming with 120 and 500GB models. A PC can be upgraded with an SSD which is able to move data around at a faster rate, and for this reason a lot of people run the operating system on this drive due to being able to boot faster and load things more efficiently. Flash drives are a little bit different, they are a very fast storage type, but are very expensive per amount of storage you get, with a 32GB flash drive costing up to £15, which equates to about 40p per GB, whereas a 1TB HDD costs about £40, equating to about 4p per GB, a 1000% decrease in price.