..."But PC's are so expensive"

djjinx2

djjinx2

Member
Why is it we see this spoken alot, usually when someone mentions GPUs?

There are so many slightly older GPU's out there and even boards with built in graphics that can play (most of) the latest games fairly well.

PC gaming isn't expensive unless your buying the top GPUs, which aren't needed for 120fps gaming at say 2K res with upscaling same an PS5 and Series X.

I recently bought a mini PC with AMD 7840 for £160 ( 32GB, 1TB) and even that surprised me playing Forza MotorSport, Gears 5 and CoD Warzone.

With the price increases we are seeing with games AND subscriptions PC gaming seems more than ever a huge pull over Consoles. Or maybe I'm gearing up for Xbox going PC only 😂
 
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No lies detected. Now, if only someone could release an OS dedicated to gaming that works right ootb for use in the living room, turning the thing on with a controller and all that stuff, that'd be great. Valve and Microsoft, hurry! Yes, i know bazzite exists.
 
PC components are expensive and there the cost of the OS system, Joypad Ect that aren't always packed in. My brand new PC didn't even come with Wi-Fi/Bluetooth or even a mouse and keyboard

That's always been the big difference for me with a console, everything you need to start gaming straight away is in the box right down to the TV lead
 
djjinx2 said:
Why is it we see this spoken alot, usually when someone mentions GPUs?

There are so many slightly older GPU's out there and even boards with built in graphics that can play (most of) the latest games fairly well.

PC gaming isn't expensive unless your buying the top GPUs, which aren't needed for 120fps gaming at say 2K res with upscaling same an PS5 and Series X.

I recently bought a mini PC with AMD 7840 for £160 ( 32GB, 1TB) and even that surprised me playing Forza MotorSport, Gears 5 and CoD Warzone.

With the price increases we are seeing with games AND subscriptions PC gaming seems more than ever a huge pull over Consoles. Or maybe I'm gearing up for Xbox going PC only 😂
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I bought a shitty second hand laptop recently for £150 that plays a fair few recent games at low settings. While that's kinda cool, what's not cool is paying more for a top end graphics card than I used to pay to build an entire rig. That of course is if you can even get access to said graphics card.

The saving grace is older machines perform better than they used to. With DLSS my 7 year old machine is still running games at med-high at upscaled 4K. But I'm seriously not looking forward to buying new parts in the next year.
 
5080 is a mid gpu using only fraction of what's available on that chip... and it's 1000+ $... here around 1400$.
so yeah, it's not so cheap and you get ripped off
 
Personally if we really thinking about at least roughly "console quality" of gaming, bit over 700usd is needed.
Thats how games look and run on it, in most cases its native or dlss quality 1080p:


If u can fork up 50$ more then go with much stronger r7 5700 cpu, 8c16t on zen3, nuff said, whole rig will still be under 800usd ;)

 
PC gaming = Expensive and harder to set up in short-term, much cheaper in long-term

Console gaming = Cheaper and plug n Play setup in short term, more expensive in long term especially if you buy a lot of games.

I mean playing 20% a of a consoles price for a single game is not something I can swallow so I pick PC gaming.


Edit: plus paying for online. Nah dawg, I'm good.
 
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PeteBull said:
Personally if we really thinking about at least roughly "console quality" of gaming, bit over 700usd is needed.
Thats how games look and run on it, in most cases its native or dlss quality 1080p:


If u can fork up 50$ more then go with much stronger r7 5700 cpu, 8c16t on zen3, nuff said, whole rig will still be under 800usd ;)

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nonsense.
you don't play on pc to barely meet what console is doing.
You play on pc to either make games look way better or run way better... and I don't need any of these upgrades this gen over console.
 
Team Andromeda said:
I'm not sure but since COVID PC parts aren't as cheap as they used to be IMO
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That is true, at the same time if you look at the earnings report dedicated GPU segment at Nvidia is down 11% YoY, either because of the supply (as I mentioned), or maybe because the market has finally hit the peak of that it can support.
 
rofif said:
nonsense.
you don't play on pc to barely meet what console is doing.
You play on pc to either make games look way better or run way better... and I don't need any of these upgrades this gen over console.
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That config will put u above series S but on pair or tiny bit below base ps5.
We know from steamsurvey most pc players arent bleeding edge enthusiasts tho, they play on those kind of cpu and gpu's :)

march 2025 steamsurvey, aka most recent:

most popular gpu- 3060, so same as in that pc rig, at 5,1%
2nd most popular gpu, 4060(18% more perf on avg but 4gigs of vram less) at 4,77%
3rd most popular gpu- laptop 4060(10% less performance under 3060, and 8gigs of vram) at 4,48%
4th most popular gpu 1650 (that only has about 50% of 3060 performence and measly 4gigs of vram)at 3,54%

1st gpu visibly stronger from ps5pr0 is only at 11th place, at 2,49% of all gpus, and its barely a mid-high end, far from actual top - 4070 non super, non ti, basic 4070 that launched 2 years ago at 600usd msrp.
I rest my case here, most pc players are playing on rigs around series s/base ps5 or even below that lvl :)
 
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Jalal said:
PC gaming = Expensive and harder to set up in short-term, much cheaper in long-term

Console gaming = Cheaper and plug n Play setup in short term, more expensive in long term especially if you buy a lot of games.

I mean playing 20% a of a consoles price for a single game is not something I can swallow so I pick PC gaming.


Edit: plus paying for online. Nah dawg, I'm good.
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Consoles exist just like apple and other convenient brands do, to make more money.
 
Cyberpunkd said:
I'm curious how much the price increase can be attributed to demand being flat but supply going down, as Nvidia sees much larger profits in the AI chips segment.
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Team Andromeda said:
I'm not sure but since COVID PC parts aren't as cheap as they used to be IMO
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This is a huge part of it. Demand went way up and supply way down during COVID. Things have since reversed and demand has gone down now, but like Cyberpunkd Cyberpunkd correctly identified, Nvidia's cash cow has shifted and a lot more components are being allocated elsewhere, fucking up supply for enthusiasts PC parts.

Another thing COVID did was show what people are willing to pay. Those prices are not coming back down. Just like the price increases we're about to see during the US/China dick off, are not going to come back down.
 
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PC prices are high, sure, but PCs are much more than just gaming machines. There's so many other reasons to not game on PC, much more valid ones than pricing.
 
I'm not really tech enthusiast, so for me consoles are just much more comfortable choice.

I have been console all my gaming like and I don't think that's going to change.
 
You can get pretty fucking decent performance out of a 1200 eur/USD PC that will outperform PS5 Pro and play pretty much any game at high settings.

Does it cost more than a PS5 Pro? Yes. Can you do more with it? Also yes.

But as with any hobby, if you are chasing the very best performance, you will have to pay for it. That's what the 9950X3D and RTX 5090 are for.
 
PC enthusiasts are so out of touch that it's crazy. I can recall an incident way back from the PS3/360 era.

In a conversation within our friend group, I mentioned how the PS3 price of $600 dollarydoos was insane and that I was going to wait few years to get one.

My friend's response was that I should just build a good PC for 2-3$k. I literally laughed out loud in his face and said "if $600 is too expensive to play games I want, why the fuck would I pay thousands of dollars to play games I'm not even interested in?

Long story short, I waited a few years and got the PS3 semi-slim and bought the short list of games I wanted for $10-20 each (RE5 Gold for $20 had so much value).
 
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mrMUR_96 said:
PC parts are objectively overpriced and have been for a good few years now, combine that with crappy shader and streaming stutter :/
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I'm a PC gamer for 34 years out of my 36 and I dread the moment when it will be finally time to upgrade my current 4080.

Current PC market is insane price-wise, where even branded case fans can cost you up to $30-50 each.
 
ShaiKhulud1989 said:
I'm a PC gamer for 34 years out of my 36 and I dread the moment when it will be finally time to upgrade my current 4080.

Current PC market is insane price-wise, where even branded case fans can cost you up to $30-50 each.
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I still have a gtx 1070 lmao, been using my PS5 instead as I refuse to be mugged off by current pricing. I paid £300 for my 1070 years ago when it was new, that doesn't even buy a x60ti these days.
 
This is why Steam Deck exists. $400 or less for a great PC gaming system. No, it doesn't run everything, but it does play 100,000s of games regardless.

And chances are you haven't played all of them yet.
 
ShaiKhulud1989 said:
I'm a PC gamer for 34 years out of my 36 and I dread the moment when it will be finally time to upgrade my current 4080.

Current PC market is insane price-wise, where even branded case fans can cost you up to $30-50 each.
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So don't buy the overpriced fans. You can get 3-4 quality fans with RGB included in a $50-60 case. Expensive options like iCue exist, but they are for suckers with too much money.

The system OP posted use 8 Zen 4 cores that turbos to 5.1Ghz, and 780M graphics. It basically the same specs as AMD's Z1 Extreme, and Z2 that are in the fancier more expensive handheld PCs. So it's more powerful than a Steam Deck and can target 1080p. You don't need a PC that's more powerful than a PS5 as long as you can still play current games. Most gaming is on eSports titles which will run fine. So a 780m system connected to a 1080p monitor running Fortnite, Minecraft, or Roblox is just fine.

And since that system is all AMD, you should be able to restore the latest SteamOS recovery image over it and it will just work including TPM control and all the fun stuff. Yes it's not doing 4K, but neither on the PS5 or XSX where you're lucky to get 1440p upscaled to 4K. And all of those are AMD GPUs so you're stuck with the same FSR on all of them.

After all of the people complaining about the Switch 2 pricing. PC is where you have choice. Except it's not "we have a product for the poors called the Switch 1". You can have a less powerful PC and still have a great experience playing all the same games that are part of your library. Or if funding isn't an issue for you, you can max out a build for and try for 4K 120Hz.

IMO the anti cheat with eSports is what's holding things back on PC. With Microsoft changing things to remove that from Ring 0 access, Proton might be able to start supporting it. Or Microsoft pushes a gaming optimized interface you can switch to in Windows. Either of those would remove the major current barrior which is the games most people play don't work under SteamOS, or Windows doesn't have a TV friendly interface.
 
rofif said:
5080 is a mid gpu using only fraction of what's available on that chip... and it's 1000+ $... here around 1400$.
so yeah, it's not so cheap and you get ripped off
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The 5080 is terrible value right now. The 9070 XT gets you about 85% of the performance for around €800. Although with the way GPU prices are dropping in Europe it will be close to €700 soon.
 
djjinx2 said:
Why is it we see this spoken alot, usually when someone mentions GPUs?

There are so many slightly older GPU's out there and even boards with built in graphics that can play (most of) the latest games fairly well.

PC gaming isn't expensive unless your buying the top GPUs, which aren't needed for 120fps gaming at say 2K res with upscaling same an PS5 and Series X.

I recently bought a mini PC with AMD 7840 for £160 ( 32GB, 1TB) and even that surprised me playing Forza MotorSport, Gears 5 and CoD Warzone.

With the price increases we are seeing with games AND subscriptions PC gaming seems more than ever a huge pull over Consoles. Or maybe I'm gearing up for Xbox going PC only 😂
Click to expand...
So how much we talking here out the door for say, 25% more performance than PS5 Pro which is at least what would be required to overcome the uniform hardware advantage.

Total cost out the door? I'm just trying to find out what you consider expensive. I'm betting it's over a grand and you are saying that is not expensive but giving console gamers a hard time for buying the next Nintendo console....

What I hear is "fuck the industry, get cheap or free games and just spend all that money on hardware."

Nah. I'll support new games. Besides, PC gamers only play older F2P lobby games, and I prefer to game with people who enjoy slate releases and keep up with the gaming industry. I was/am a wow junkie since launch so I know my audience. For every asmongold, there is a girlfriend or discord based pc gamer who only plays wow and doesn't know spyro from a hole in the ground. Many PC gamers don't keep up with gaming. I don't enjoy older f2p anything, so why the fuck would I swap back?
 
Zacfoldor said:
So how much we talking here out the door for say, 25% more performance than PS5 Pro which is at least what would be required to overcome the uniform hardware advantage.

Total cost out the door? I'm just trying to find out what you consider expensive. I'm betting it's over a grand and you are saying that is not expensive but giving console gamers a hard time for buying the next Nintendo console....

What I hear is "fuck the industry, get cheap or free games and just spend all that money on hardware."

Nah. I'll support new games. Besides, PC gamers only play older F2P lobby games, and I prefer to game with people who enjoy slate releases and keep up with the gaming industry. I was/am a wow junkie since launch so I know my audience. For every asmongold, there is a girlfriend or discord based pc gamer who only plays wow and doesn't know spyro from a hole in the ground. Many PC gamers don't keep up with gaming. I don't enjoy older f2p anything, so why the fuck would I swap back?
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Your generalizations of PC gamers is just absurd, but it doesn't matter. What a majority of PC gamers play is irrelevant. The vast majority of console games are on PC so your "I'll support new games" stance isn't really a valid argument against PC gaming. Nor is your take on who keeps up with gaming as the average console gamer isn't as invested in the industry as the people on this forum. The same forum that has a significant populace of PC gamers who know a lot more about this industry than you.
 
I don't give a damn how expensive PC gaming is. You have to pay the cost to be the boss. I have never been a console gamer and most likely never will. I am a PC gamer for life.
 
Where do i begin with this OP.

My mind is so overloaded with what i want to say so no, i give up. Only thing i will say is OP is probably way too young to remember how the GPU market was a few years ago.
 
PC building before the pandemic was the dream, beyond Nvidia already price gouging their GPUs. Now everything is just a tad more expensive. Still, PC is the best alternative long term, there is no way around it.
 
Zacfoldor said:
So how much we talking here out the door for say, 25% more performance than PS5 Pro which is at least what would be required to overcome the uniform hardware advantage.
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25% more performance then the PS5 is around 3070 territory, which easily beats the PS5 in 99% of games. It would probably be 100% if it wasn't for the limited VRAM. The gap between console and PC hardware is not that big in the far majority of games.
 
Zacfoldor said:
So how much we talking here out the door for say, 25% more performance than PS5 Pro which is at least what would be required to overcome the uniform hardware advantage.

Total cost out the door? I'm just trying to find out what you consider expensive. I'm betting it's over a grand and you are saying that is not expensive but giving console gamers a hard time for buying the next Nintendo console....

What I hear is "fuck the industry, get cheap or free games and just spend all that money on hardware."

Nah. I'll support new games. Besides, PC gamers only play older F2P lobby games, and I prefer to game with people who enjoy slate releases and keep up with the gaming industry. I was/am a wow junkie since launch so I know my audience. For every asmongold, there is a girlfriend or discord based pc gamer who only plays wow and doesn't know spyro from a hole in the ground. Many PC gamers don't keep up with gaming. I don't enjoy older f2p anything, so why the fuck would I swap back?
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Why does everything have to be based on the latest silly money cards? There are cards around for cheap that will play everything out right now, as well as the PC backlog of forever, emulate older systems really well and be a good all rounder for around £500 total.
Screenshot-20250411-145622-com-sec-android-app-sbrowser-SBrowser-Main-Activity.jpg



And what is the waffle about games about? You saying PC gamers don't buy games? FFS..
 
ShaiKhulud1989 said:
I'm a PC gamer for 34 years out of my 36 and I dread the moment when it will be finally time to upgrade my current 4080.

Current PC market is insane price-wise, where even branded case fans can cost you up to $30-50 each.
Click to expand...
Not really. Its fairly affordable but not if you're going TOTL and aesthetics with boutique parts. You can easily pick up fans for good quality under $15 from Arctic or Thermalright (B series). Instead or spending hundreds on rainbow spewing magnetic Lian-Li fans and exotic AiO's people can use those on actual components.

The GPU market is screwed though if you want something more recent.
 
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Danjin44 said:
I'm not really tech enthusiast, so for me consoles are just much more comfortable choice.

I have been console all my gaming like and I don't think that's going to change.
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But there are some amazing JRPGs that you can only play on PC, and this list grows exponentially if you don't count modern consoles. For example, I think you'd really enjoy Crystal Project and Xanadu Next. It's also currently the only place you can play the original Trails in the Sky arc without going all the way back to running it on a PSP, at least until the remake releases later this year. If you enjoyed the gameplay of Unicorn Overlord, you'd probably enjoy Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga.

And the best part is that these games all run on potato PCs or a low budget laptop. Or Steam Deck, for that console-like experience.
 
DLSS, reflex, and being able to use VRR on a cheap screen (and being able to use VRR in all games without relying on games to add support) makes PC gaming better than PS5 for me
 
I'm a PC gamer and PC gaming is very expensive. I play with my kid too and the sharing on Steam isn't near as good as consoles so now I have to buy 2 games every time. PC gaming is for my niche stuff.
 
Jalal said:
PC gaming = Expensive and harder to set up in short-term, much cheaper in long-term

Console gaming = Cheaper and plug n Play setup in short term, more expensive in long term especially if you buy a lot of games.

I mean playing 20% a of a consoles price for a single game is not something I can swallow so I pick PC gaming.


Edit: plus paying for online. Nah dawg, I'm good.
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Game prices are about the same on console and PC

And for most people, "paying for online" isn't really a thing, more like "paying for a subscription games service where online is included". I hardly ever play online, but I sub because of the game catalogue
 
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