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My PC vs Console

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  • Video Games
  • Consoles
  • Playstation 4
Last response: in Video Games
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my PC or PS4?

Total: 5 votes

  • PC
  • 100 %
  • PS4
  • 0 %
October 1, 2014 9:00:04 PM

I recently built a PC (and I love it) but now that I've introduced myself to PC gaming and don't have enough money to spend on both PC and console (PS4) formats, I need some advice.

First of, here's my PC specs:
AMD Athlon II X4 760k (not overclocked)(doing 3.6/3.8 Ghz)
ASRock Extreme 4+ mobo
Zotac Geforce GTX 570
8 GB (2x4) Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR3 1600 RAM
500 GB Samsung HDD (around 100 mbs read/write)
scored 1103 in NovaBench

Now I'd like to ask in the best, non flame-war-over-gaming-format-supremacy-starter way of whether my PC or PS4 performs best in:
1. graphics
2. frame rate
3. online speeds (this is more of a Steam vs Sony server thing)
4. streaming and upload quality/frame rate (PS4 generic vs Action! game recorder+Sony Vegas Pro 11)

The games I'll be playing are pushing-the-limit kind of games, like The Division, AC Unity, and The Crew (no platformer, indie, blahblah stuff--I've already determined that those are going on the PC).

More about : console

October 1, 2014 9:26:00 PM

1. pc
2. pc
3.honestly don't know
4. pc
October 1, 2014 9:30:37 PM

BTW If you posted a gameplay video with the 860k on youtube you could get in a decent amount of views since there are none out yet.

Plus I'd like to see how it performs myself ;) 
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October 2, 2014 4:33:28 AM

I'm with RazerZ here. Your PC > PS4 in all counts.
Sony vs Steam . . . . may depend on country, day, weather conditions and your choice of underwear? I don't know. Steam can be laggy and slow at times, so can Sony.
October 2, 2014 5:09:41 AM

As RazerZ already mentioned, pretty much PC, all the way.
As per internet speeds, there are actually a couple different factors... I honestly think there isn't a correct answer here.
I might get a bit technical, sorry for that :p 

- You need to first take into account the game's netcode; was it ported from a console? or was it developed exactly for PC? although the structure of digital data communications remains basicly the same, consoles might transfer the actual data in a different format or be restricted to particular standards (e.g. If you saw what connections CoD Ghosts opened up from your PC, you'd see the target host names, or more simply the "servers" it tried to contact, contain the string xbox. It could be just a string, but it could also be a sign of something much worse...).
- You then need to know how your data gets used at the server's endpoint. Is it treated as ready, on-the-fly available data? or does it have to be translated/reworked/rewritten in some way? The latter option would introduce processing overhead, which in turn introduces lags in communications. Most of the times games use UDP connections, as they can't be bogged down by all the extra fancy things TCP has for error checking and don't need to be 100% accurate communications, but data checking algorithms may be put in place anyway to avoid illegal operations or just to make the data readable to the server, if needed.
- You also need to take into account your current connection, and that means both speeds, means, and technologies used, not to mention updsides and downsides of the different setups. Two different ISPs may provide you with a d10/u10 bandwidth, but one might lock you out behind a NAT and might use copper wire, while the other might give you a public IP and might use optic fiber. In this case, the latter would be by far the best for online gaming, but would also leave you heavily unprotected to external attacks compared to the former...
- Ultimately, you need to know the game's netplay structure. Most of the times games use a host-based connection, with a single server just acting as a matchmaking middleman and nothing more; They're cost-effective (since they basicly cost nothing), they're mostly used in instance-based games, but they require the game to have a large community to work, as the host gets chosen among the players once the instance is made up.
If a player hosted from Russia with a 1Mbps upload connection of that kind, for example, the game would be unplayable starting by 4 players and up (at best) and for anyone outside Russia...
If you, however, get a dedicated server structure for a game, it really all depends on whether the server is accessible or not, on your connection being free (not having anything else occupying bandwidth except the game) and on your distance from the closest node, as dedicated servers are usually put up on a regional basis (e.g. Titanfall has dedicated servers, and has a node per each region, like Eastern Europe, Western Europe, USA, etc...).

With all of the above, Sony only has a tiny little teensy weensy part, unless the game is published directly by them. The choices of a structure or another remain in the hands of the game's publishers and developers. For all you could barely even know or imagine, a game could run flawlessly on PC and "so-laggy-it-hurts" on consoles, but another game could be the complete opposite...

Hope I was clear enough and that I didn't spew too much nonsense :D 
October 2, 2014 4:10:29 PM

Thanks for the responses from everybody! I'll go down the line here:
Razerz, I am running a 760k not an 860k, however I still agree that there is no decent footage out there for either model. I'd love to do a video on it, especially since it's such a good CPU for the price! (My youtube is my username for Tomshardware)

Vynavill, thanks for the detailed response XD but yeah my internet connection is a cat5e ethernet to a motom with max 30mbps, so not a problem there. I think most of the games I play are PC oriented with the exception of a few Ubisoft/EA/big-company titles, so I should be fine with that.

Again, thank you for all the responses!
October 2, 2014 4:12:48 PM

Ah must have misread... if I can get my hands on an 860k I would definitely do some gameplay videos. The A6 I currently have is just terrible for demanding games.
October 2, 2014 4:49:20 PM

RazerZ said:
Ah must have misread... if I can get my hands on an 860k I would definitely do some gameplay videos. The A6 I currently have is just terrible for demanding games.


October 2, 2014 4:50:40 PM

Well I definitely would recommend an 860k but you can't pass on the 760k at $84 + prime on Amazon :)  if you've got a budget it was the best I could find.
October 2, 2014 4:52:47 PM

Yea I'm considering either an 860k new ($84 on amazon), or if I can sell a few things on craigslist, I would get a used i5/i7/Xeon or fx 8320/50 and matching motherboard.
!