PC vs PS4

MatthewC1991 · 22 Jul 2013 at 20:04

Hi i bought a PC about 8 months ago, the spec is as follows

Case - CoolerMaster HAF 912
Mobo - Asus P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 Motherboard
CPU - i5 2500k @4.5Ghz
Ram - 8gb Samsung Green @ 2133Hz
GPU - Asus OC GTX 670 SLI
SSD - M4 Crucial 128gb
HDD - 1Tb Barracuda
CPU Fan - Noctua DH-14
PSU - Seasonic X-Series 850w Gold 80 Plus

My friend is convinced his new PS4 will play games to the same detail as my PC and for £350 i dont see how this is possible?
Can someone explain to me if this is false or true?

Rroff · 22 Jul 2013 at 20:06

Pretty much all console gamers will say that as they often have a very low level of knowledge of PC hardware and read it in a magazine somewhere...

Sliver · 22 Jul 2013 at 20:08

MatthewC1991 said:
My friend is convinced his new PS4 will play games to the same detail as my PC and for £350 i dont see how this is possible?

It's not possible. Pc's like yours, can produce higher detailed textures at higher frame rates than the PS4.

nemtizz · 22 Jul 2013 at 20:14

False. Though for £350 is it possible to get the type of performance of a PS4 from a PC? Optimization is huge.

JonJ678 · 22 Jul 2013 at 20:18

Well. If you're playing a game written for the PS4 and then "ported" to the PC by someone who wasn't really paying attention and had no budget for his efforts, then the PS4 may beat it.

Nuclear Fusion · 22 Jul 2013 at 20:39

I think a lot of console players also forget the fact that:

1- A PC can be used for more than just gaming, if you have a console you still need to buy a PC anyway.

2- The games on PC tend to cost a fair bit less for equivalent titles (around £10 less than console equivalent on new releases). Plus Steam summer sales=win.

3- The consoles are going to cost around £40 a year for online play. PC is free!

4- PC is backwards compatible with basically every game. I'm not sure about the consoles, but I don't think they can play the physical copies of your existing PS3/360 games.

When you actually add it all up taking into account the amount spent on online subscription over the most likely ~7 year lifespan, the fact your old games are no longer usable (not so sure on this one), the fact you'd most likely be spending £500 or so on a computer anyway so adding the £350 console cost gets you a nice amount for a gaming PC, plus the amount you save on games over the lifespan of that platform, you can see that consoles aren't really very good value anyway.

And that's before we get into PC superiority, the ability to upgrade whenever you want, ability to use mouse and keyboard or controller if I should so choose, multi monitor support, ability to mod games, the fact that a gaming computer will generally be faster than an average PC for everything- not just gaming and of course, the superior graphical quality in game!

Yeah, I've had a few debates with friends about PC vs console too so you can see I've been thinking about this

Skynet5 · 22 Jul 2013 at 20:46

PS4 is like 2 tflops. 670sli will push 6 Tflops.

Game engines will be optimised to hell after a while, and so games will be more efficient in the ps4 Eco system. But no where , no where near that of a PC.

It is true that a ps4 release ported to PC may perform better on the PS4, but they would have to truly mess up the port to such an extent. I cannot see this happening on all but the crappiest of titles. So who cares?

Kaynar · 22 Jul 2013 at 20:52

Firstly, I see PS4 games for funny prices on amazon, like £60+. PC games may cost £20-35, or more only if we are talking about typical COD and FIFA recycling. Say that you buy 10 games a year (thats how many I buy on PC approx), you will pay £200-300 more for games in ONE year ONLY. Some of these games u will play maybe 10 hours? GG.

Second, as alrdy said above, if you have a PS4 you ALSO need a PC (cheap one) for what the PS4 cannot do. Proper web surfing, running other programs, MS word/excel etc.

Considering that you need £500 for a fast everyday PC, I would say that you actually only pay £200 for a good GPU and put an extra £150 on better CPU and RAM and there u go, your everyday fast PC is better than a PS4 by investing £350 today into your current PC.

What happens when you play on a resolution higher than 1080p on PS4? Thats a taboo for console gamers, even the new PS4 and Xbox will be on their knees from day 1 at 1440p and 4k res.

What happens in 2 years when you can buy 2x faster PC GPU than today, but PS4 will still be the same? Oh well there will be some optimisation but PS3 and Xbox360 were already outdated in graphics 2-3 years after they were out.

Lastly, and most importantly, for me the console "loses" from the fact that you are restricted to controller. Some games are just not good when played with controller and TONS of assisted control. Its like there was no joystick/controller compatibility for PC and you had to play FIFA and Need for Speed with the arrows (not impossible, but sucks).