Playstation 4 vs 650$ gaming PC

zeMOo · May 22, 2013

I am planing to buy a new gaming system. 650$ is my budget.

I am not sure what to buy for this money.

Should I wait for the Playstation 4 release or build a new computer this summer?

What do you think, please post your opinnion

X79 · May 22, 2013

PC is superior my friend. There's no way around it. Ultimately it depends on you and what you like to play.

Consoles are good if you want a more carefree take to games.

This is because consoles are pretty fixed in their pricing, compared to

PCs that can range from 500$ to over 2k. The fact of the matter is that

PCs require more "attention". If you get a PS4, you only need to look

at games and find where it says "PS4" and you know you'll be able to play it.

With a PC you'll have to know your own specs, to know whether the game that

requires a GTX 460 will run on your system or not. But on PCs you have more

upgradeability. Thus you're also able to get SUPERIOR graphical performance

compared to ANY console. This is simply fact. This is again due to consoles being

fixed in their hardware.

However PCs also more frequently run into issues of all sorts.

Everything from overheating to drivers failing, to hardware not being up to par.

But I tell you, once you get a working gaming rig which is solid, you'll

pretty much piss on the performance of any console around.

If you save up a little more, to even like 1.5k$ you can get a beastly gaming PC

that'll blow the PS4 out of the water. But the choice is yours.

In the end, you have more options with a PC. Because your PC can also be used for

browsing, work and other things. So I think you should get a PC.

mactronix · May 22, 2013

A decent gaming system is also a fully working PC and can do much much more than any console can. For that reason alone I vote PC.

Mactronix

unreal9400 · May 22, 2013

Console- locked / no upgrade path
PC- freedom / able to upgrade to better hardware e.g ( GPU )
Wait for Haswell if you can.

Dysfunction@HH · May 22, 2013

If your just gaming it would be hard to beat a playstation 4 for that price and all though the hardware is static developers get more and more out of the system as they learn better ways of programming it. In my opinion upgrading a PC isnt all its made out to be, you could end up spending 2k then 2-3 years down the line find that the latest cards/cpus/memory are not compatible to components in your system and you end up spending a load more just to keep up with the latest game sys requirements. Saying that it depends on what kind of games your playing you cant beat a pc for strategy/role play and MMO's.

zeMOo · May 22, 2013

I love to play games like Hitman, Splinter Cell, and some Sport games Fifa, PES, Tennis. Also love GTA games and Sleeping Dogs. I dont play strategic games and that.

X79 · May 22, 2013

Dysfunction@HH :

Yet it'll still be inferior to a good PC. If you care about raw performance and graphics, then PC is THE WAY son.
Realistically, most people don't spend 2k on a PC. Besides, so what if you need to upgrade every few years?
That's the price of getting awesome performance and staying on top of things. Besides, if you don't always
crave new titles, a PC with 1 good GPU, can least many many years. I'd rather want to keep up with system
requirements for games, because it's an advancement of gaming, than playing dumbed-down versions of
games. Check out Star Citizen for a game that'll have epic PC graphics.

guanyu210379 · May 22, 2013

I can not vote for any.
I played games on both console and PC world.
From my experience, you can not replace console with PC or PC with console. This is valid as long as you do not need anything else beside gaming.
If you include things like office work, video editing, internet browsing, movie watching, etc., not a single console can beat a PC.

What I played on console:
- fighting games
- sportgames (soccer, racing, etc.)
- games with lots of jumping around
- titles which I can only find on console such as Final Fantasy, etc.

What I played on PC:
- ego shooter
- real time strategy
- simulation (civilization, sim city, etc.)

I am playing now only on PC since I do not have that much time anymore to play on both worlds.

Marcopolo123 · May 22, 2013

lets wait and see how much a ps4 actually will cost.
but the specs of the ps4 realy impresses me!

thdarkshadow · May 22, 2013

You asked this in the wrong forum buddy. Everyone here, except a few, will be saying consoles are horrible and if you own one just throw it away as they can't do anything right.
Since you are considering a ps4 I would suggest waiting till there is more info on it. Also the ps4 will last longer than a PC. A PC is maybe 3 years and if you stretch it really tight you might get 5. The last gen of consoles are about 8 years old and still going strong as far as development goes. It just depends if you care about graphics or console features like, for Xbox, Xbox live.

Marcopolo123 · May 22, 2013

A 650$ pc will last you as long as a ps4/x-box one.
Condition is that you turn down the settings to a lower level or the level of the console.
But pirating on pc is easier, and enjoying better graphics/higher resolution by upgrading is also possible.

zeMOo · May 22, 2013

Yeah I think piracy is the main thing. I live in Bosnia and Herzegovina and I can download whatever i want and can play all games and download all movies. I wil pay 50$ for a game on PS4, but on the other side i will have all games i want for free on PC. So I think i will go with a PC as the better solution. If I dont like my PC for 3 years I can buy PS4 and play it for a cheaper price than now. Thanks everyone for your answers. Good luck

mactronix · May 22, 2013

Marcopolo123 :

Guys we don't condone piracy on these forums, please keep that in mind in future. Moderation take a dim view of people discussing such things.

Mactronix

jryder · May 22, 2013

It's really hard to say how the next generation of console games will compare to PC games. PC hardware is more powerful, but that isn't the end of the question. Console game-makers somehow manage to squeeze astounding performance out of dedicated console hardware. For example, just look at Halo 4. It is almost unbelievable that it runs on 8 year old hardware with only 500MB of RAM.

It's possible that the new console games will outperform PC games on mid-level machines -- at least at first. But your PC is modular, so you can regularly upgrade it. Eventually, the PC will win out. Also, PC games tend to be cheaper than console games, and there have been concerning rumors that publishers are trying to destroy the used game market for the upcoming consoles.

I really love games, so I will play both console and PC games. Consoles are generally better for hanging out with friends on the weekend or relaxing after a long day of work. You can sit down on the couch, open a beer, and engage in carnage. I think the PC is better for games like SC2 that are generally more intense and less social.

mactronix · May 22, 2013

jryder :

Well put nice post

Most of us know or think we do that PC graphics are superior and as long as you take the performance achievable in a vacuum without considering price then its true that PC graphics will be better.
The consoles are now on the same footing as PC's however. We don't really know what they are capable of with the new X86 hardware. One of the reasons I did not mention performance etc in my first post.

If we take your point about Halo and how well it performs, again most of us know that the reason is down to optimization. Now we can look at these consoles with AMD's jaguar style cores and GPU then think we know roughly how they will perform. Wrong. What we don't know and what makes me think that these consoles could well level the playing field is the optimization factor.
We know what sort of horse power a PC needs to play a given title. So how much of that hardware would you still need if it was optimized to the same extent as a console game ?
That's the kicker here for me, relativity capable PC hardware from not too long ago optimized to the hilt.
Well personally I wouldn't like to take bets on which one could play a given game the smoothest and with the best graphical quality between a PS4 or a PC that cost the same money.

Mactronix

Marcopolo123 · May 22, 2013

I read that the ps4 will have a gpu equivalent to a hd 7870 ! Awsome
http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/games/1298257/ps4-price-release-date-controller-specs-news.
I am realy excited how well the upcoming games look

Console is more confortable (sitting/lying on the sofa, only a controller in the hand) dont have to think about settings/ solving problems.

g-unit1111 · May 22, 2013

jryder :

They won't compare and never will. PCs are always going to be graphically superior to console hardware no matter what fanboy gushing websites you read. PCs have been light years ahead of consoles in terms of graphics going all the way back to the days of the 3DFX Voodoo2. Is there a chance for consoles to catch up to PCs? Maybe, but the biggest differences hardware wise is that console hardware is maybe a step above laptop hardware. It still won't catch up to PCs no matter how hard the vendors try.

There's been a lot of foolish nonsense about console hardware vs. PC hardware lately, but the truth is, the PCs will always win in terms of graphic power. Yeah I know the PS4 is going to use an 8 core AMD chip, but really it's a slight step above an i7-3620M. With slightly better graphics. Console vendors have to meet a certain price point otherwise they won't sell. If you look at this article, there's TONS of consoles that met their fate because of expensive hardware they couldn't sell (Sega's Saturn and Dreamcast, Atari's Jaguar, and the Turbografix 16 are absolutely PERFECT examples of what I'm talking about) : http://www.tomshardware.com/picturestory/611-console-handheld-fail.html

If there's a market for a $1,000 GPU, someone is going to pay for it. And if you want the best, be prepared to fork it over.

jryder · May 23, 2013

g-unit1111 :

jryder :

They won't compare and never will. PCs are always going to be graphically superior to console hardware no matter what fanboy gushing websites you read. PCs have been light years ahead of consoles in terms of graphics going all the way back to the days of the 3DFX Voodoo2. Is there a chance for consoles to catch up to PCs? Maybe, but the biggest differences hardware wise is that console hardware is maybe a step above laptop hardware. It still won't catch up to PCs no matter how hard the vendors try.

There's been a lot of foolish nonsense about console hardware vs. PC hardware lately, but the truth is, the PCs will always win in terms of graphic power. Yeah I know the PS4 is going to use an 8 core AMD chip, but really it's a slight step above an i7-3620M. With slightly better graphics. Console vendors have to meet a certain price point otherwise they won't sell. If you look at this article, there's TONS of consoles that met their fate because of expensive hardware they couldn't sell (Sega's Saturn and Dreamcast, Atari's Jaguar, and the Turbografix 16 are absolutely PERFECT examples of what I'm talking about) : http://www.tomshardware.com/picturestory/611-console-handheld-fail.html

If there's a market for a $1,000 GPU, someone is going to pay for it. And if you want the best, be prepared to fork it over.

Well, sure. $399 consoles shouldn't outperform high end PCs with $1,000 graphics cards. But the original poster is considering a $650 (total cost) PC vs a PS4. I think it's entirely possible that a $399 PS4 will significantly outperform a $650 PC. The PS4 will be super optimized for gaming. It is rumored to have a GPU similar to a 7850 or 7870. But it also has 8 GB of DDR5 RAM that is shared by the 8 core CPU and the GPU. Sony will probably have to sell the unit at a loss in order to promote widespread adoption, while planning to make profits later from game royalties and decreasing manufacturing costs. The PS4 should be a monster in terms of price to performance.

thesuperguy · May 23, 2013

Keep in mind that what will most likely happen is that these newer consoles will begin to look very appealing for the price versus a PC but as the years pass, while the console hardware stays the same, the PC hardware available will be improving and it will cost much less to reach or even surpass the consoles in terms of power.

Marcopolo123 · May 23, 2013

So buy now a ps4 and in 2-3years build a gaming pc

mactronix · May 23, 2013

thesuperguy :

PC parts used to come down in price considerably, these days not so much. The price of the older tech used to be ratcheted up slightly when a new product was released to make it less appealing compared to the slightly more expensive new product. Then drop down a few months later after the main sales drive had died off.
These days the older products keep to the high price until they go EOL and then you get a few good deals.
By this time they are usually obsolete and have better performing hardware at close to the price point they go on sale for.
The last real price drop deal I got was in April 2011.

Mactronix

g-unit1111 · May 23, 2013

jryder :

No they won't. Even a single 7870 or GTX 660 will put out far better graphics than a $400 console will. The console graphics again are a step above laptop hardware - they have to be made for low power requirements and to sell at a certain price point. If console manufacturers don't meet those goals, their systems won't sell, and there's a long, long list of failed consoles that tried to push the limits of the hardware at the time (Panasonic 3D0, Apple/Bandai Pippin are good examples), but failed because there wasn't consumer and developer backing of these systems.

mactronix · May 23, 2013

g-unit1111 :

I take your point but would ask you to consider the following.
As you know the hardware that will be in the new consoles will be basically very well optimized PC hardware.
What is different now as opposed to then is that the hardware we have now is in general not being pushed by games developers like it was for the last round of consoles.
I play most games with Metro Last light being the most recent game to have been tested on my PC. Now I'm not claiming to be able to play everything with all the bells and whistles enabled, but I can play it perfectly well at decent settings that give me a decent experience and allow me to appreciate what a stunningly graphical treat the game is.
I'm using hardware from 2010 not top draw stuff either.
So on that basis I can quite believe that newer hardware will be well able to more than hold its own when running software specifically coded and optimized to run on it.

Mactronix

Playstation 4 vs 650$ gaming PC

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