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this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2023
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But are they worse than a $500 off the shelf computer?
Consoles are initially sold at a loss or no profit to incentivise people to buy games on their platform, where the real profit is made. However, at this point in time, yes, you can buy pre-built gaming PCs for around $500 that will run circles around an XBOX Series X or PlayStation 5. You can even buy a $300 office computer then pop an A580 or something in it and make it a fully-equipped gaming PC. Even more so if you use your own hardware and build it yourself.
If you're just looking for something that works out of the box when you buy it, there are tonnes of people on Facebook Marketplace selling custom-built gaming PCs for around that price range that will still outperform lastest-generation consoles.
Don't forget, when comparing performance, consoles generally use a mixture of medium/high settings to guarantee a steady 60 FPS whereas PC testing is traditionally done on Ultra/High presets.
I will say that PCs do require a bit more technical knowledge and maybe some tinkering to get the best performance though. If all you do is game and you know nothing about how to do anything else on the computer, I would recommend the console ten out of ten times.
I can also buy and sell console games 2nd hand though which isn't possible on PC anymore.
That said, PC piracy probably wins overall if you're looking the absolute cheapest option. But that's kind of a different set of arguments.
That's true, I miss secondhand PC games too.
PCs have other benefits too, such as free online access that would require a subscription on consoles. Unrelated to gaming, a PC can be used for other things too. The only non-gaming use for a console is as a home media player. A PC can do that and much more. A gaming PC also makes an excellent productivity machine, whereas you can't exactly edit spreadsheets and presentations on most consoles (except the Steam Deck).
I gamed on PC for many years and basically only moved to a console when I had kids a few a years back.
Both have benefits. For me, I like the not being distracted by other stuff on the console. Like if I sit down to game, on PC I'd often just end up on YouTube, twitch, check reddit, emails, whatever. I like that my console I just use for gaming.
I still play on my PC from time to time and there's obviously games that are only on PC, but my preference is console for the current phase of life and that's fine for me.
Your graphics card might be cheaper than a whole console, but you still spent more money on a computer initially, so you would have to compare the cost of two consoles to one new computer and an upgrade.
And it likely is better performance now on PC versus console now for only a bit more money, but PC's haven't caught up on price for equivalent performance and likely never will.
And I say this as someone whose last console that was bought for its performance was a PS3.