PS4 or PC?

Hey guys, maybe you can help me out!

I'm at a point where in a couple of months I'll have enough cash to buy either a new console or a new PC (or upgrade it, if it's viable anymore). I've pretty much given up on the Xbox One unless something radical changes, so I'm looking at either PS4 or PC.

Last gen, I had an Xbox 360, which I was very happy with, and three years ago I bought a new PC for about €900 (about $1200, but since everything is cheaper in the U.S., it's probably more like $900 or less). I've been much less satisfied with the PC. I built if from scratch, it wasn't a shitty build, but it nevertheless struggled to give me performance better or even equal to that of the Xbox. Which I was pretty disappointed with. Some games ran better than others, but a lot of the time I had to settle for 720p and medium settings (or less) to run a game smoothly. I don't know if this is common or not these days.

I didn't really have more money to spend on it at the time. I might have a bit more to spend in the fall, but I'd rather buy a PS4 if it plays games smoothly (30fps is fine with me, as long as it's stable) than spend twice the money on a PC which is not all that much better. How much would a new rig cost me at this point? I haven't really kept up with the hardware news since I bought. Or should I just settle for a PS4?

I don't play dozens of games a year. I really only have time and interest to play about ten games a year or less (although I may buy more, especially with Steam sales). I guess I could still run the indie games on my current PC if I bought a PS4.

I'm very surprised to hear that you built a PC for €1200 (I'm in europe too) and it didn't surpass the power of a 360. That does not sound right at all. I bought mine about that time too, three years ago and it cost about the same if not a little less and the only game I've had trouble running better than a console is Watchdogs, because it's a bad PC port.

If you don't mind the whole fps/p things and you're happy to play on a console, the next question is will you be happy paying more for your games and dlc on console than on PC?

If you want the console experience then go for PS4, if you just want the best graphics and got the money then go PC. personally I will get a PS4 when KH3 comes out.

That's a question you can only answer for yourself. Look at both platforms' release schedules and decide on which games you'd want to play most on and where. PC is as such a platform you can only get the most out of if you really drop some sizable amount of bucks on it. I wouldn't kid myself if I were you, what is now considered an average computer today, if you want to have a stable experience, is one and a half or two grands at least, but like I said make your decision based on the games you want to play, you already said you have some amount of money coming in, in the future so put your money where you think you'll spend your time the most.

As a side note: 30 fps on a console and on a PC is from what I've seen, definitely doesn't feel the same. Games just don't run on 30 fps on computers as stable as they do on consoles.

It was €900 (or about $1200) and those €300 probably make a big difference. I guess? I just didn't have the cash back then to put that extra money on the gpu/cpu.

That is not common. My rig from 2011 still plays everything at max settings, except for very poorly optimized games, like Watch Dogs. What are your PC specs, if I may ask?

As for my recommendation, get a PS4.

It doesn't sound like you're enjoying the PC experience so far, and there's nothing wrong with that. It's not for everyone, even if us PC gamers have a tendency to act like it's the only way / best way to play games. There's definitely more of a initial money sink, an occasional investment in upgrading, and you have to do a bit more research to get into it. Some of us love the involvement and the rewards it brings. Some of us are just as satisfied playing games optimized for a controlled, console experience. Don't feel like you're missing out on anything by not being a 'hardcore PC gamer.'

Also, if you get a PS4, not only is it possibly a cheaper investment (depending on if your rig can be cheaply upgraded) but you'll still have your old PC to play other PC games. One of the greatest parts of PC gaming, once you get away from the 'best graphics ever' crowd, is that it has a massive backlog of games that can be played on almost any modern rig. You don't need the latest and greatest to enjoy amazing games like Diablo II, Age of Empires, WarCraft 3, or even WoW or League of Legends. There's also a ton of indie games that aren't computing or graphics intensive that you can likely play on your current rig.

So, that's my advice. If I may add one more tip, especially if you really are someone that plays less than a dozen games per year: Learn to be a patient gamer. Console games can often be bought at a significant discount a few months after release, both new and used. You'll also have the benefit of hindsight, as in people who bought it at release will tell you if the game was worth all the hype or not. That's not to say that you should never buy a game on release, but make sure it's from a series or style that you really like, so that you don't feel like you wasted money or are forced to play a game that you don't necessarily enjoy.

Good luck.

@ihmishylje:

You got ripped off. An i5 and 560ti is way better than an xbox360 and they could be had new for less than £700. In fact the PC my brother is using right now has an i5 and 560ti and plays most games just fine.

Yeah, that's kinda what I was afraid of. I don't think I'll be able to spend two thousand bucks on a PC. That's a lot of money for me. I can get a console for a quarter of that, and even if the games cost a bit more, that extra money will buy a lot of games. I guess most of the games I'm interested in will be available on all platforms, so that's not really a deciding factor.

Right now I'm reading through all the "pc gaming problems" threads on this forum, and I'm reminded of just how little I care for all the tweaks and headaches that come with that. Maybe I'm just a dirty console peasant.

@ihmishylje: Ah my misunderstanding. I read it backwards.

Still though, a €900 PC from three years ago shouldn't have trouble outperforming an xbox or a ps3 at all and should still stand up relatively close to the current gen consoles at least for this first year of their cycle. Maybe you had to buy a monitor with that €900 too, so that would explain it?

@viking_funeral: Yeah, that's kinda the feeling I'm getting. And yeah, you make good points. Thanks for the advice! :)

And thanks to everybody else too!

@jesus_phish: Actually, I checked the receipt and it was €800, not €900, so that might explain a little bit. No, I didn't buy a monitor. I did have to buy windows and all that jazz. Also, I could've probably shaved off a bit from that if I had shopped around more. But Finland is generally very expensive when it comes to tech (and everything else).

which does 60 fps? 1080p? better graphics? graphical settings? user created content/mods? which has free online? which lets you use you favorite controller? which lets you remap buttons? which has more games? which has games that are the more inexpensive?

or get ps4 because it has a touch surface on its controller holy shit. move aside WiiU because the king of next gen, PS4, has arrived

Do you know what your specs were? A PC that expensive from a few years ago should still be running most games at 1080p, high settings. I'm beginning to suspect that you got ripped off or something was wrong with the PC.

In any case, I love PC gaming! I really do think it's the better way to play games. But, well, it requires a bit of dedication and work. Not tons, but if you're not ready to maintain a PC and you don't know much about them, then PC gaming may not be for you unless you're willing to learn. A PS4 is going to be cheaper and require less effort from you. Just decide if all the advantages of PC gaming is worth learning about them, troubleshooting if things are underperforming, etc.

i see the pros of both,but i would say ps4.i mean ps4 games look pretty good and if you are not very big on graphics it wont make much of a difference.its way cheaper.you can just play games and not think about if it will run or any of the other things you have to think about when buying a game for pc.you dont have to upgrade your pc to get best performance and yes i know you dont have to upgrade,but if you are getting a pc chances are you really care about graphics and fps,so you will want to upgrade.the main reason i pick consoles over pc and would pick a ps4 is the exclusives.i mean most of the games that pc has you can play on consoles,even more so now because of the indie stuff being brought over alot more.just looking in the past there are alot of great games you could only play on ps3 and nowhere else including pc,and the odd chance they eventually came you would have to wait for a long time to play them.if you really like jrpgs its a no brainer because most jrpgs are only on either the nintendo console or sony console out at the time.the point is that you get most of the games everyone else gets while getting alot of games only consoles play or specifically sony consoles.with the ps3 you got most of the games pc had,but there were some games that consoles couldnt get because they couldnt run them like civilization games and planetside 2.with ps4 that number of games that you couldnt get on consoles will decrease even more than it already was because of the push for indie games and the consoles getting stronger.so basically imo it comes down to what you want more fps and graphics or the most games.ive always chose the consoles for the games.TLDR PS4

The future looks reeaally good for the PS4...but it's still a ways off before its library builds up. The PC has a million games ready to play.

Sounds like you bought a overpriced pre-built pc with a shitty graphics card. Since you didn't name your gpu i'm pretty sure that's what you did.

You could get a hd5770 and beat a xbox 360, and that was like 120$-110$ 3 years ago. I built my pc back then for like 700$ all together.

If you don't feel like researching components or buidling it yourself, just got a ps4. It's better than last gen and doesn't require much work to get gaming right away.

I do both...of course that's apparently not an option for you. Unless you want to spend $800+ I typically don't recommend PC gaming.

There's definitely something wrong with your PC I think; if it was 5 years old I'd expect it to need to play new games on medium, but not 3 years. Should still be able to outperform 360's and ps3's by a long shot, I mean your PC is 4 years newer than them. It should be closer to a PS4/Xbone than a ps3/360.

I think either you got a really poor deal, or your system is really badly unoptimised. I'd also imagine that just upgrading individual parts on your current PC should be able to let you play the newest games on higher settings.

You definitely did something wrong building your PC if you spent $900 3 years ago and it failed to outperform a 360. I built my brother's PC two years ago for $650 and it crushes last gen games at 1080.

If I were to choose one for this year I would pick a PC. The games would look and run better and none of the PS4 exclusives are coming till next year.

You should post your current PC part list and we can suggest upgrades.

I'd go PC, what you can save on the price of PC games more than makes up for the difference in hardware cost.

PC is a open platform with mods etc sure it has better graphics and more FPS but at the end of the day it comes down to the games you want to play.

IMO look at what games are releasing and then make your decision. PC is great but if you want to play bloodborn or destiny then you are out of luck.

Personally I'd go with PC because i have more control over it and i can mess around with mods. if i were to buy a PS4/Xbone i'd wait atleast a year or so till the game library for both of them are a little full.

I got my PC through a family member at a ridiculously low price (dude wanted to do some family multiplayer), so I'm a little jaded and biased.

However, I love my PC. My 770x handles everything. Tomb Raider, BF4 etc were all fantastic, and showed really next gen graphics. However, through Steam (and family sharing) I have access to a huge amount of games, including independent smaller developers. Stuff is usually cheaper, with downloads speeds generally faster.

As an added bonus; it's a PC! You have a games console and a fully powering powerful piece of kit that you can expand into video/photo editing.

I could not rate the benefits of owning a powering PC.

The number of notable console exclusives is a bummer if you want to go the PC route though. Listing just the PS4 ones: Infamous SS, Destiny, Bloodborne, MGSV, KH3, FF15, Uncharted 4 and whatever Santa Monica is working on.

From everything you have said, I would definitely say PS4. If spending that much on a PC didn't get you good performance, even three years ago, you didn't buy correctly or PC gaming just isn't for you. Personally, I'd say go where your finds are.

PS4 is a fantastic console, but that is all it is, a console. With a PC you get everything else. Also, from reading your replies, an i5 and a 560ti should be able to handle anything out right now, except maybe watch dogs due to how bad the port is. Also a 560ti is years ahead of the 360 in terms of power. Typed this on my phone, sorry if there are random errors!

First, it does seem a little odd that for 1200 you didn't get very good performance. I spent around 1400-1500 a couple years ago and then upgraded a few months ago for another 100-150, and I can max out just about every game on 1080. Still, when people say something like: "When you get a good PC, you get everything else too," I would just stop listening. This generally means that you can play games along with everything else a PC does like search the internet, word processing, and well, I think you know what I mean. Your PC can probably already do all that. It just doesn't sound like you get good gaming performance.

For that reason, I would get a PS4. Unless you plan on playing a lot of MMOs or RTS games, it seems to be the logical choice. There are some indie games out there that are only for PC, but you can probably play those on the one you have. You'll get all the multiplatform games along with the exclusives to go with it. It's also cheaper. You can build a PC for the same cost, (kinda) but PCs bought this way are sometimes difficult to upgrade and will only allow you to "play" the game and not max it out on ultra settings at 1080p or higher, like some people would have you believe. I'm not hating on PCs. Like I said, I have a great PC, but I still primarily play on console. It's just less of a hassle most of the time.

Did that include monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers, Windows, etc.? I feel like there's always miscommunication in these types of threads as people shout out numbers and make comparisons that aren't actually valid. Not to mention that in this case we're converting currencies.

Performance also varies wildly game to game. I built my PC a year ago for ~$1,200 for the base components, and if I want 1080/60 on Black Flag I have to turn settings down to "normal," which is medium.

I think most people don't include those items in costs for two reasons - first, the cost is trivial. I can get a serviceable mouse and keyboard for $40 altogether, and a legit copy of Windows from an MSDN reseller for $10. Monitors are also typically left out because most people probably already have one of these plus speakers from a previous computer, or they can use a TV instead of a monitor. I did this myself for a long time until I went with a 1440p monitor. No one ever adds the cost of an HDTV to a console purchase.

Don't listen to anyone who says you need a $1500 PC, a machine which can play almost everything maxed at 1080p 60FPS tops out at $900 or so.

You should be able to upgrade your PC to make it gaming-capable for pretty cheap. If you built your rig you probably picked up a very weak GPU.

WTF?! Family sharing? Why didn't I know about this sooner? My brother and I could have saved a lot of money.

I used to be a console gamer, but now I have so many good heavily discounted PC games to play that my consoles aren't used at all. Buying new consoles seems like a waste of money to me.

Do people include their TV and home theater systems in the price of consoles when comparing them?

I spent $2400 on my Xbox One. Only about $600 on my PS4 though!

Speaking as someone who built a new PC and bought a PS4 within the last six months, I want to say go with the PS4 if you like a) like games to fucking work (occasional bugs/Battlefield 4-esque debacles aside), and/or b) like indie games. My PC definitely kicks the PS4's ass in terms of raw power buuuut dealing with bugs/crashes/driver issues gives me a goddamn headache. Even working past that crap, there's something to be said for starting a game and having it just work from the get-go, which has been my experience thus far on PS4.

All that said, you have much better flexibility with a PC. Maybe build a PC now, then save up for PS4 later? There will be more exclusives worth checking out down the road...

I'm getting a PS4 before I get a new rig mainly because of money. Currently I can't afford the upkeep on a PC, and I'd like to keep games off my laptop right now for productivity or whatever.

build a PS4

No wonder they're being outsold so hard; Microsoft can't even stay competitive with the pricing.

PC will prolly set you back considerably more than a PS4 if you want to get solid components but if you can afford it, I'd go PC. The library you build there should be compatible with any future upgrades you make and everything should run better on a good PC than it would on the PS4.

If you can't build out a great PC, you'd prolly be better off with a PS4 for now and save up for a nice PC sometime down the line. PC components will only get cheaper and more powerful and prolly around 4 or 5 years into the PS4's lifecycle, you'll be able to build a PC that outperforms the console on the cheap =]

This is all under the assumption that you have decent displays for both options. If you need to shell out for a nice TV, fuck it, build a bangin PC.

@oursin_360: @kidavenger: @believer258:

It was a bit under €800 and not €900 as I originally stated. That included Windows, but no peripherals, or monitor. i3-2120 and AMD HD 6770, 8 gigs of DR3 dual channel ram, dh67gd motherboard. No, they're not impressive specs, but I was nevertheless disappointed in their performance. I could've probably shaved off a bit from the cost, but didn't have the interest to shop around. And yes, it would have been cheaper in the U.S.

@tyrrael: Yeah. And I don't care about 60fps. I mean yeah, it looks nice, but also kind of weird. I don't really play a lot of games that require tons of speed and precision on the part of the gamer. I don't have a hard on for 1080p either. I'd be perfectly happy with 720p/30fps, if that meant it looked nice and ran without a hitch (or any tweaks and shit). I also find PCs to be a big hassle even outside games, even though I don't exactly feel useless around them.

PS4. I can't think of a single exclusively PC game that would make me think I need to get a PC specifically for gaming; if I'm spending that much on a computer, it's got to be an Apple. PS4 has Sony exclusives and more and more is turning into a PC anyway with its F2P, indie games and what not. The PC doesn't get Rockstar games as soon as console gamers (and in some cases not at all, or fairly broken) and they won't ever have Naughty Dog games. It's just a waste of money IMO.

@nodima: I don't think a gaming PC is a waste of money, that's why I'm asking the question here. I'm increasingly siding with the PS4 though. I don't think I'd ever spend €1500 or €2000 on a PC, I'd rather spend that money on something else entirely. I don't really understand it, though. Are PC gamers generally affluent people, or is it just that they have no other hobbies or interests in life beyond gaming? I mean, sure, if I was made of money I might spend that much on a PC. I dunno.

Money would be the biggest factor here, for me if money wasn't an issue I would build a kick ass PC. But given that it is for me, PS4 was the way to go since it's powerful and has a lot of indie games coming to it. So if money isn't an issue for you PC to me is the best option since most small and large games find their way on both, for the most part, and with steam sales you can potentially save a lot of money too.
But if money is an issue, then I say the PS4 is the best option money wise, since no PC for $400 dollars will have games run as smooth and look as good.

You don't need to spend $1500 to $2000. You can spend $600 and get something similar to a PS4, at least component wise. For example, I spent $1500 on a custom built PC about 3 years ago. The reason I went and spent that much money was because I wanted to be able to play everything at Max settings for multiple years, I can still max everything today. It looks easily better than my Xbox One and my PS4. It will probably look better for a long time as well. Building a PC is all about what YOU want to spend and what YOU want to put into it. Everyone has to realize that building a $600 PC will run just about everything, but not at max settings.

The thing is, I feel like there's something misleading in this logic. Sure, a $600 PC might RUN everything, but it'll look like shit or run like shit. With similar graphics, it'll probably play better on a console. Just because the PC components are equal to or better than those of a console, doesn't mean it'll run as well. There's a lot of optimization that goes into console games that just isn't there (or possible) with PC games, so you get a lot of "lost" power. And then, if you want the games to play significantly better, you have to spend a lot more money, like you did. Again, I'd be happy with 720p and a solid 30fps in most games, if it meant they looked at least slightly better than on the PS4. But that would probably run me close to a grand, if not more. And would probably also require more power, and thus my utility bill would be even bigger than it already is.

I'll get right on that.

People telling you to buy a budjet PC are dumb. Just look at the feature gamespot did on budget PCs. Those things ran watch dogs like garbage. Watch dogs is a game in the first wave of current gen that can also run on last gen. Laughable. You build a machine like that and it's outdated before you even turn it on. If you want to go PC you're looking at 1500$ for something decent that won't be outdated in 2 years.

But for me, the deal breaker for PC as your primary/only gaming device is that PC often gets shafted in the developement of games in the first half of a console generation. Some games will get delayed on PC, some won't ever come out on the platform, some will run like garbage because new consoles get all the attention. Finally, most PC exclusives are made with old ass specs in mind so more people can actually buy them. You should be able to run those on whatever old ass PC you already have. PS4 exclusives like Bloodborn on the other hand...

@ihmishylje: You're right about everything except your last line. You can get 720p with a solid 30fps out of less than a thousand dollars spent, but it does take more effort in looking for everything. I would still definitely recommend getting a PS4 for you, however. Most people don't want to run something at a smaller resolution than 1920x1080 with full AA and everything. You seem to know what you are talking about, but just don't want to deal with the hassles of PC gaming, which I completely understand. Go with the PS4! You really can't go wrong either way though unless you are a really big MMO player!

@pyrodactyl Watch dogs is the absolute worst example you can find. That game is so poorly optimized for anything, let alone PC. That game barely runs on my high end PC.

@pyrodactyl: Yup, these are some of the concerns I have.

Go for the ps4 if money is an issue up front, then buy pc parts later when they drop in price. Even right now the super high end pc parts don't matter if you monitor is 1080p or less.

So far it looks like I'm going for a PS4 and maybe later in the console cycle, if I have more money, I'll invest in a proper PC rig. Thanks to everybody for posting their opinions and advice!