I miss the days when $500 could build a "console killer"

What console sells for 400 bucks?

The consoles are "cheap" because the controllers, games, and subscription services are expensive.

It's far, far, far cheaper to game on a PC in the long run. You can buy a pc capable of playing many games for as little as $300 (gmtek or similar micro pc sporting high performance amd cpu). If you want better graphics, you plug a gpu into that for $260 or so (Radeon 9060).

Steam is crazy cheap. Multiple sales a year, and if you don't like a game you can get a full refund. Free AAA games every week as well from GOG, Epic, and rarely but surely, also Steam.

some $2k beats a console and you get more games, cheaper price, and can do whatever you want with it

so if you're already getting a computer, it just makes sense

The real reason I'm better than the console plebs is that I still play multiplayer on twenty-year-old games.

Yeah, but I can use my PC for other things as well (I’m only using my PC for gaming)

$400 plus a subscription for the privilege of playing online + some amount of money for a computer anyway

No one but the once in a blue moon whales are spending 15,000 on a rig. The average rig I build for people is under 1,000 and the setups I see online are usually near there too.

Where are you living where you can get a good console for $400?

Good, but nowadays the difference for flagship spec is more $800/$3000.

My console from 2020 runs games about the same as PC hardware from 2018. If you built a 2018 spec PC today it would beat the Xbox Series X and PS5, but unlike the consoles, PC components have reduced in price.

Which means the difference with available hardware and matched SSD size would be $650/$900

My gaming PC is also a digital audio workstation, a photo editing platform, a video editing platform, a home theatre PC, and a platform for spreadsheets and financial planning.

guys, it's rage bait, you don't have to defend a strawman

I was into the PCMR sub back when you could build a machine that ran better than the current console generation for the same price as the two main consoles. And it's not like consoles perform so above and beyond a PC that there's little difference today; the PC hardware just exploded in price so it costs so much more to make something that runs as good or better than a PS5, which is sold at a loss.

Let's compare a 6 year price without games.

PC gaming

800 gaming PC 200 mid cycle update to GPU 3-5 years in

PS5

500 non-gaming PC because your ps5 isn't a useful alternative 500 ps5 650 ps5 pro 4 years in 720 for PlayStation online basic at 10 per month

1000 vs 2370

Laughing at console gamers spending more than the cost of a basic computer on the privilege of using it online via your own internet which you also pay for

Than*

I've never been happy with the performance of my gaming PC for the cost, always seems like it should perform better, but the real reason I don't buy consoles is because I want to be able to upgrade my hardware but still play my old games.

For $800 I think you can get a laptop that is more powerful than consoles, with similar GPU power, but you also get all the benefits of PC gaming. You can't even mod most console games, which is reason enough to never buy a console. It's just a way inferior way to game.

Honestly, the strongest advantage of PC, if you don't mind a little tinkering, is modding. I've modded on console before, and it's usually a pretty difficult process, and limited, compared to PC. The thing I find a little silly, is I did build the super expensive PC, and most of what I play would totally run on a console if they were open platforms.

But seriously, Celeste: Strawberry Jam was probably my favourite game of last year. I'm looking so forward to the release of the Fusion Collab, likely in the next year.

I've been playing Archipelago runs with friends over the past couple months with Hollow Knight and Nine Sols, and they've been a blast.

Emulation is also wild, tons of games I've enjoyed in the past, playable again with incredible mod support, I'm looking very forward to playing Kaze's Return to Yoshi's Island when it releases, and had a blast with the Majora's Mask Recomp earlier this year.

And steam sales are ridiculous, a lot of these games are much cheaper much more regularly on PC.

If I'd spent say, 500$ on this PC, it would be very easy to save that amount in the price of games, and how many fewer games you'd need to fill your time with all these options, in just a couple years, assuming you play regularly.

Divide PC by 10 and add 300 dollars to console.

Are we still on this exhausted argument? What's next Apple or Samsung? People need to chill, just do you, enjoy your gaming experience on whatever you like

I'm certain you can build a $15K USD computer, I bet Linus Tech Tips does it regularly, but idk who tf is doing that when an nVidia 3090Ti is only $1080 and is ranked #23 on PassMark.

I understand this is a joke, but 15k? Wtf. I think you meant server, not PC

That's a lot of words to say you are jealous

Me cycling between Minecraft and Isaac on my 10 Year Old PC that was outdated when I bought it and my baby games on the switch: 😎 (My take is, PC gaming as shit because confusing and expensive parts and console gaming is shit because companys ripping consumers off)