The debate of gamers over the PC and Console gaming is going on since the 1980s and the debate is not going to end anytime soon. As in one hand, we have a multipurpose machine which allows unprecedented customization and upgradation with given time, money and expertise. On the other hand, a cheaper ready-made system with zero power for upgrade and customization, to meet only one purpose- high-end gaming. So, if you are confused while choosing one of these, read this article completely and then choose wisely.
Though there is a scary sometimes dirty fight and argument going on among the gamers of each side, do not listen to a single person or community before deciding or making up your mind. Also keep in mind, what is your budget? What games do you want to play? How much patience you have for the DIY upgradation? What kind of performance do you want? For how long (in years) you want to keep playing games? etc.
PC gaming vs Console gaming: pros and cons
We are mainly about to discuss the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC Gaming. There are also Android mobile gaming and Nintendo Switch gaming options available widely, but we are not covering those in this article.
Talking about the factors
Price
Pc gaming is the most expensive for sure. If you want to get a cheap Pre-built PC, it may cost you around Rs. 25000 ($350), but it will come up with hardware specifications which are quite backdated for present-day games. If you want a pre-built High-end PC or a high-end gaming laptop then, you might have to spend Rs. 60000-75000 ($850-$1200). You can go even higher for a more spectacular and fancier PC. Believe it or not but despite after getting a good quality Pc for gaming, you may need to upgrade the amount of RAM after a couple of years. You may need to change the GPU after every 3-4 years even your GPU is working fine, to keep up with the latest games, otherwise, you may face performance issues.
But, if you are into games only and you do not want anything more from your gaming setup then you can choose PS4 or Xbox One as in the price of a low-end Pc you can buy the latest model of the above said. Remember you may have to buy a good quality TV (size depends on your requirements), to connect it with the Xbox or PS4 if you do not possess a spare TV for that purpose, while in case of a PC, the monitor is an included hardware in the set.
However, investing in PC for gaming is not an unworthy investment at all. As PC is capable of the endless type of works, including gaming. Customization options are also limitless for a PC. Even to minimize the cost for the PC you can choose to go for a DIY (self-build) one. In this case, you need to possess some technical knowledge about the PC or you can take help of any friend. In PC you can also use numerous types of hardware for controlling the games you want to play, which cannot be done in the case of Xbox or PS4. You can use Keyboard-Mouse, Xbox analog controller, PS4 analog controller, USB analog controller, Joystick and even touch controls, while in case of Xbox and PS4 you can only use the supported type of analog controllers made for that model.
Coming to the price factor, while the price of the console tends to stay the same until the next generation models are being released, though you can opt for the summer sale, Christmas sale etc. for a good deal. The Xbox One X costs around $500, after the release of the Xbox one X the price of the older model Xbox one goes a little bit down, but not too much. In the case of PS4, the scenario is also the same. The normal edition costs around $300 while the 4K supported edition costs around $450. While talking about hardware support though it lacks the advantage like pc, Xbox and PS4 both have some fancy hardware support which is exclusive for Xbox and PS4 only. Xbox has the supporting hardware Kinect (a tabletop tool along with a camera, motion sensor, thermal sense, gesture sensing, voice command control and etc.), while PS4 has an almost same type of tool called PlayStation Move (A handheld tool for motion sensor related controls). Though the user has to buy such Hardware separately, and are not the part of the standard product.
Now at this point, it can seem as the PC is a huge investment for those who only meant for gaming, but a PC does offer you many more facilities about gaming which are not possible for the console counterparts. In PC you can play every game available for PC, you can buy games at a cheaper price, while for the console the games tend to be a little bit costlier. Though buying the digital copy of the game can also save you some bucks. You can also download and play the pirated copy of the games, which are available on some torrent sites ( Just mentioning for knowledge not endorsing it because pirating is illegal and may contain viruses). While using a pirated copy of the games is not possible at all for the consoles. Even by using Emulator software you can play the exclusive games made for Xbox and PlayStation.
While on other hand buying a console can be cheaper than a gaming PC but buying the games for the console is way costlier than pc. In the console, you cannot use pirated discs or use any pirated games. Though by rooting the device and preinstalling some cracked pirated games can make you enable playing pirated games on the console, but the procedure is risky it will also make your device ineligible for any warranty claims. There are many free to play games are also available for consoles too.
In PC you will rarely find any exclusive game, while in Xbox or PlayStation there are tons of exclusive games available.
While Selecting the Games
From big budget titles to mid-tier developments, indie fare to classic games, without any doubt or quarrel Pc has the unparallel line of selection when it comes to games. Whether you are about to buy latest Assassin’s Creed or Battlefield title or FIFA, or you are trying Steam or trying to run DOSBox to relive a childhood classic games, it is relatively easy to access a huge variety of titles on the PC. The number should have been unlimited but unfortunately, the library can go back max up to 30 years as before that Video games were not in existence.
While talking about Xbox and PS4 they cannot go back that far. At max, you can play PS3 games on PS4 with the help of an app called PlayStation Now, and some Xbox 360 games in Xbox one because of its backward compatibility. But normally the system is made to keep your choices limited to the last couple of years.
But then also the console manufacturers have a huge boost due to the exclusive titles which are made for the console only, some for a specific console only Games like Forza, Halo, Gears of War, Red Dead Redemption etc. are exclusive for Xbox only while titles like Infamous, Killzone, Marvel’s Spiderman, Uncharted, God of War etc. are exclusive for PS4 only.
As Xbox is a product of Microsoft and Pc gaming is mainly depended on the Microsoft Windows OS, Microsoft has focused on equanimity in recent years, so Xbox exclusive games are falling in numbers.
If you are motivated to play some specific games which you watched your friend playing, you should know about the game first. If it is a console exclusive game then the choice for your gaming setup; making you choose what kind of console you need for that game. Remember, many enthusiast gamers tend to have multiple gaming platforms, like owing a Gaming PC, Xbox one both or owning an Xbox One and PS4 and like that. Some people even have PC, Xbox One and PS4 all of them in their costly collection. But if you do not want to spend a fortune just for the sake of entertainment then you should go for a specific product according to your requirements.
The Big factors – Graphics and Performance
If you are a game enthusiast or even if you are a casual mobile gamer then also you may have heard these two terms from the mouth of gamers; Graphics and FPS. FPS is frame per second which is a way to measure the performance of any game.
Now the Xbox One X and PS4 Pro brought the 4k quality gaming to the gamers. The graphics in 4k quality games are really astonishing, but to get the optimum performance out of it the user must possess a 4k resolution supported TV.
But the PC users have had these option for years already though it never been promoted like this before. Yes, almost all the gaming pc of the present day, even most of the gaming PC of the last couple of years have the ability to broadcast the 4k gaming, if a 4k monitor is provided. Most of modern graphics card (GPU) are able to play 4k videos and games.
Except that, if talking about the Graphics in whole then PC can be put in front line as PC offers Graphics customization in a much more expressive way, and the user can choose the preferred settings for him. While console games have a preset graphics setting for optimum performance, and changes cannot be done in there.
As the amount of RAM, VRAM, and the quality of CPU, GPU; everything is unchangeable for a dedicated gaming console (XBOX, PS4) so the games come in an optimized way which offers a good performance, and for the sake of performance some time it has to face the cut in graphics.
So, it can be said clearly that, a decent gaming pc is better in case of graphics for any game. A powerful ultra-modern pc can blow a traditional console away.
But while almost all the game gives you an optimized graphical performance in case of Console without any change or upgrade, this is not the same for the pc. As every year the required hardware for a games best performance in pc got changed as the parts in the market upgrades. So, after every couple of years (like 3-4 years), the user needs to change Graphics of the computer, may be needed to upgrade the CPU and also upgrade the RAM for the best performance. But, it is also true that the best graphics of any game can be seen in a PC only, not on a console.
While talking about the FPS (performance), it depends on the PC’s hardware specifications. If the specification meets the games requirements then there is nothing to worry as the game will give you very good FPS. In case of a single player game 60 FPS is considered good, though the more the merrier. But in an online multiplayer game, 100-120 fps is considered as good FPS. In pc, by upgrading it you can get more FPS also. But if the pc does not have the proper cooling system within it, it will get hotter after a couple of hours and then the FPS drop can be noticed. If the hardware specification does not meet the requirement of the game then also fluctuation in FPS can be noticed which will affect the performance and gaming experience for sure.
But, in the case of the console, no need to worry about the performance as all the game made for that console will give the same performance output with the same fps which is 60 fps. The console does not have any need to meet the hardware specification as the game has been made and optimized to play on the console. So, the FPS issue is not a big deal for the consoles. In online multiplayer games, unlike PC players, all the players get the same FPS in game, which gives them 0% advantage above others, while in PC the high-end PC users get an upper hand over the low-end pc users.
Platform for Multiplayer gaming
Both consoles and PCs allow you to play multiplayer games, but the functionality isn’t exactly the same on the two types of system. For example, if couch co-op is your thing, you can pretty much take out a gaming PC from the count. Yes, it’s theoretically possible to connect multiple controllers and find a game that lets two (or more) people play together, but it’s more trouble than it’s worth. While local co-ops may not be as common as they once were, it’s nice to know that you can still play Borderlands, Gears of War, Halo for example, with your friends on the consoles.
On the other hand, PCs have a distinct advantage in online multiplayer. In terms of service and the number of players both. In order to play PS4 or Xbox One games online, players have to subscribe to Sony’s or Microsoft’s premium online services: PlayStation Plus or Xbox Live Gold, respectively. It may cost you around $60-$80 per year — or even more if you pay monthly.
Most of the popular multiplayer games for PC are free to play, and the number of players worldwide for those games are really much much more than the multiplayer players of all kind of consoles united (except FIFA).
If multiplayer and competitive gaming is your thing then PC can be a bigger platform for that, but Console also does offer a great opportunity especially Xbox one.
Conclusion with other factors
In the end, the choice between PC and console really does come down to these:
- Consoles are cheaper and easier to use, more user-friendly but more limited in what they can do.
- PCs have a bigger game library and more versatility and customization options, but can be much tougher to handle and much costlier to upgrade.
- A quality PC will last longer than a console because of its build quality, as long as you keep your computer up to date and free of the virus.
- Console do offer more optimum performance while PC let you go beyond the limits.
- PC has a bigger game library, but no exclusive games to show off.
- PC has a more competitive and bigger multiplayer fan base.
Consoles are a worthwhile option if you don’t want to invest a ton of money up front, or if you already know that you don’t want to be your own tech-support guy. But remember, if the console got malfunctioned you may have to throw it up to the dustbin, while in case of computer you can use the parts to make a low-end computer for other purposes.
In second hand selling the PC may give you back quite of a buck while a console has almost zero value in second-hand selling.
If I were to own only one gaming device, I’d be a PC for sure. Living room or bedroom setups of PC is also very fashionable now a day, along with 4K monitor and a fancy desk, it will add a posh look to the room too. The multipurpose utility of the PC makes it one stop shop for all digital needs.
Other Useful Resources
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- How to play those old PSP games on Windows, Android, and other platforms
- Hack PUBG Mobile App Game? Myth or Reality
- How to play JAVA old games on Android smartphone
- How to install/play PUBG Mobile on PC (Free): Windows, Mac or Linux
Wrong on so many levels. Consoles are made every 7 years to trap people into buying the games = $$$. Limit the supply of consoles to keep people addicted “must be good always sold out” 6 to 12 months after release a base gaming pc will cost less and destroy a console. Take the current PS 5 and X box great value at launch a base ryzen with a 5700xt card beats it in every way.