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

If you only game, then PC isn't the cheapest option.

But if you make money using a PC - It can be a net positive purchase in the long run - and gaming at max settings can be just a cherry on the top.
 
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This is retarded. You're tossing out the biggest advantage PCs potentially have over consoles.

PC gaming is expensive. It's extremely overpriced at this point. Just accept that, and move on to an argument you can actually win about the platform.
And what is the "biggest advantage" in your opinion?

In my it's infinite backwards compatibility. I can fire up a DOS game from the 80s if I want. So how is a $400 mini PC that can run modern stuff at 1080p 30-40fps expensive and not have not have an advantage over consoles?

The epeen measuring is hilarious. Games are still run on lower end hardware and what the majority of players are using.
 
Sweden:
MSI RTX 5090 Gaming Trio
35000SEK
~3,500 USD

🤕
Here in Poland, it's 3340 usd ! ACTUALLY CHEAPER lol
jY2z1YT.png
 
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.
I can't own every system and not just for money but also time, I can't keep up every release that comes out.

So I made choice to go with Switch and PS5 since I will 90% games I want.
 
Today I had a scare that my graphic card broke during my move, because when I was taking it out of the computer I chipped the bottom part of the power plug, a little plastic hook that keeps it in place. It snapped off, I knew there was no way it wouldn't work anymore but still SCARY I spent 900 Euros on a 4070ti when it was new.
 
And what is the "biggest advantage" in your opinion?

In my it's infinite backwards compatibility. I can fire up a DOS game from the 80s if I want. So how is a $400 mini PC that can run modern stuff at 1080p 30-40fps expensive and not have not have an advantage over consoles?

The epeen measuring is hilarious. Games are still run on lower end hardware and what the majority of players are using.

Who the fuck wants to build a PC just to play games at 30fps? And that's with the bells and whistles turned down on most modern games, if you're actually targeting a $400 price point.

The notion that you can fire up old games like it's nothing is also not particularly well-founded. Some games work, but an awful lot don't, or have major issues that either require significant tweaking or just can't be fixed. It's a minefield.


There are definitely benefits to PC gaming, but these are... none of them.
 
I am a simp for PCMR so I am going to keep moving the goal post in my favor! /s

I buy my hardware off the back of a cargo ship -75% $USD
I pirate my games. - Free-99

Beat that console simps!

People who simp are nothing new just another meme cancer since time immemorial.

 
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.
There is no one reason why someone would choose to play on PC. Beyond your assertion, there are people that want to mod their games, want access to the largest game library available, want to play multiplayer without having to pay a subscription fee, etc... It doesn't help your argument to present a falsehood as evidence to a claim.
 
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This will always be true depending on what you want.
Premium > Budget

Very recently I just purchased some high end routing and switching devices as my network was suffering under my Home Automation Wifi load. I had a NETGEAR Nighthawk combo wifi/wired switch/router. I cannot tell you how much better life is with a more premium setup by separating my Router OPNSense, Ubiquity Wifi, and and Ubiquity Switch. Each one of these devices can process and handle their own load. Sure it's not a PC, but a premium experience will always be worth the extra money. That's the difference between a $150 setup and a $500 one. Plus, Home Assistant allows me to run an Ubiquity Server to locate and name all my devices and management is super snappy. OPN Sense is also pretty quick as I bought a Mini-PC to live in my home's "MDF" closet. Which is basically a closet in my basement.
 
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I meant using the Euro, Netherlands.
Still can't be cheaper than the US, can it?

Quick check, cheapest 5090 in Sweden on popular Inet is the TUF from what I can see, goes for 27999SEK, which is 2522 Euro, which is 2,852 USD. Not sure how good it is, maybe it's alright. Insanely expensive either way. A decade ago I built a whole beastly PC for less, including a gsync screen which was rare then.

Things are crazy. The PC hardware market is more or less broken as far as I'm concerned. And while you can lower settings to go cheaper I don't think you should have to. And devs are pushing requirements up. Can't play Indiana Jones with maxed RT in 4K on a 4080 Super without lowering settings to save VRAM.
 
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Who the fuck wants to build a PC just to play games at 30fps? And that's with the bells and whistles turned down on most modern games, if you're actually targeting a $400 price point.

The notion that you can fire up old games like it's nothing is also not particularly well-founded. Some games work, but an awful lot don't, or have major issues that either require significant tweaking or just can't be fixed. It's a minefield.


There are definitely benefits to PC gaming, but these are... none of them.
You didn't ask my question "What are your "benefits to PC gaming"?

Do all old games work out of the box? No, but many times there are simple tweaks that can be listed on https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/, other games might require additional tweaks. But the thing is you can at least try. With a console you're just hosed unless there's a re-release for you to buy. And SteamOS surprisingly run many without issue that Windows 10/11 have issues with.

Finally, who the fuck spends $500-700 to play at 30-40, oh... right.... all console players. Show me a $400 PC build I can buy off the shelf right now that will give me 60fps in games like Alan Wake 2 and Monster Hunter Wilds.
 
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If you only game, then PC isn't the cheapest option.

But if you make money using a PC - It can be a net positive purchase in the long run - and gaming at max settings can be just a cherry on the top.
I say w/e premium u pay for pc rig of similar quality, u easily get paid back in much cheaper games(multiple store fronts so competition is there, especially if some1 goes digital only, which many ppl do nowadays) and free online, those are huge savings.
8years of playstation+ durning ps5 gen(im assuming ps6 comes out holidays 2028, since by then 3nm manufacturing process will be avaiable and cheap enough for sony to be able to use it, and thats a prerequisite for ps6 being visibly stronger from ps5pr0 and still having console form factor aka below 250W tdp), and lets be generous here, lets take 2020 prices, so 8years of 60usd/year and guess what, we got 480usd right there that we saving coz of free online.

TLDR:
If u are going digital only current consoles are terrible deal, if u are still smart and use physical media/resell ur games, then yeh its relatively cheapish option still.
 
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You save on the games no matter what.

Whether you want a desktop, a laptop, or a handheld they're all pretty cheap if youre buying prebuilt and the hardware is a year old.
 
PC gaming (if you want to game at or close to 4K) is expensive. Anyone who says otherwise is a fucking retard. No idea why that is such a bad thing to admit. Gaming on the whole is going up in price, from consoles to PC parts and games.
 
A lot of people play video games on computers, it's interesting they were initially made to print documents, adobe photoshop and sending emails.

Pc gaming:

Angry Office GIF


Console gamers:

Season 2 Relax GIF by Friends
Computers were not initially made to "print documents, adobe photoshop and sending emails", they were made to perform complex mathematical calculations for scientific and military purposes. One should also keep in mind that some of the earliest non scientific and military focused software were video games (space wars and tennis for two). The first "for the home" computers were made to run whatever software someone could think up.

PC gaming (if you want to game at or close to 4K) is expensive. Anyone who says otherwise is a fucking retard. No idea why that is such a bad thing to admit. Gaming on the whole is going up in price, from consoles to PC parts and games.
True, but this argument specifically relates to those wanting to game at or close to 4k. OP wasn't making that argument.
 
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Computers were not initially made to "print documents, adobe photoshop and sending emails", they were made to perform complex mathematical calculations for scientific and military purposes. One should also keep in mind that some of the earliest non scientific and military focused software were video games (space wars and tennis for two). The first "for the home" computers were made to run whatever software someone could think up.


True, but this argument specifically relates to those wanting to game at or close to 4k. OP wasn't making that argument.
Yea, a lot of responses in here are coming from a place of r/murduredbywords and X/bluesky responses/focus as though taking a moment to actually articulate a point is going to murder them. This isn't TikTok for fuck sake.
 
LTT is doing another switch series of videos where he has two of his staff switch to an ARC B580 from a RTX 3090 and RTX 4090. The initial results were very surprising.




They were able to run some of the games at 4K, and others at 1440p. The extra $1,250 isn't that big of a leap.
 
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LTT is doing another switch series of videos where he has two of his staff switch to an ARC B580 from a RTX 3090 and RTX 4090. The initial results were very surprising.




They were able to run some of the games at 4K, and others at 1440p. The extra $1,250 isn't that big of a leap.



Hopefully Intel can up their game a little.
I'm tempted to upgrade an old PC I have purely because the 770 is so cheap
 
Still can't be cheaper than the US, can it?

Quick check, cheapest 5090 in Sweden on popular Inet is the TUF from what I can see, goes for 27999SEK, which is 2522 Euro, which is 2,852 USD. Not sure how good it is, maybe it's alright. Insanely expensive either way. A decade ago I built a whole beastly PC for less, including a gsync screen which was rare then.

Things are crazy. The PC hardware market is more or less broken as far as I'm concerned. And while you can lower settings to go cheaper I don't think you should have to. And devs are pushing requirements up. Can't play Indiana Jones with maxed RT in 4K on a 4080 Super without lowering settings to save VRAM.
The 5090 is a halo product though. Mainstream GPU prices, while more expensive than it was 10 years ago (not unexpected), are not exactly out of line with consoles for example. A 9070 XT is about the Price of a PS5 Pro while offering 50% more performance, 8 years ago a 1070 was about the price of a PS4 Pro, while offering about 50% more performance. Or a 7800 XT is about the price of a regular PS5, while offering the same amount of VRAM and 80% more performance, vs a 1060 which offered 100% more performance vs a regular PS4 but only had 3/4 the amount of VRAM. It's only the very high end where prices have gotten a bit insane and pulled away from what 98% of the PC market actually uses. Even the sub console value proposition hadn't changed overly much, 60% of the price of a PS4 got you a 1050ti back in 2017, 60% today gets you a RX 7600.

As for actual performance for some games, RT is extremely heavy yes, but other than the handful of PT titles, a 9070 XT will be able to power most games at 4K with little problem.

That being said, there is an argument to be made that gaming across the board, consoles and PC, has gotten more expensive and out paced inflation. Especially at the very high end on PC.
 
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Hopefully Intel can up their game a little.
I'm tempted to upgrade an old PC I have purely because the 770 is so cheap

How old? Because ARC requires resizeable bar support otherwise the performance goes to shit.

And what are you seeing the A770 cards at? The B580 trades blow for blow with the A770 with a $250 MSRP. The B580 can beat the A770 in some benchmarks and tests due to adjustments to the architecture.
 
My PC is expensive to maintain but gaming isn't its primary use. It's nice being able to play games on it, but my Nvidia GPU runs local LLM's more often than it runs games and the cuda cores do a good job of it. I would have a hard time justifying what I spend on it just for gaming. At the same time I wouldn't buy a cheap as crap gaming PC, either. If you're going to do it do it right.
 
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
That's your fault for not getting a MOBO with wifi and BT. Lmao, wtf
 
PC gaming can be expensive if someone goes after high end specs or is someone who is always upgrading parts. But you can get a good performing system for a more modest price.

Games are cheaper on Steam/GOG and no online fees either.

Also most importantly, when comparing PCs to consoles about costs, it assumes someone is buying a PC just for gaming. Not true at all as most people will use the PC for other things too. But a gaming console is 100% just for gaming.

It's like saying surfing the net or doing Netflix is cheaper on console than PC. Well, that's true if someone buying a $1000 PC just for that. But they dont.
 
PC parts haven't been the same since the beginning of COVID. We used to be in a way better place

One more thing to add is, you can always can find games cheaper on PC which is a plus.
 
I have been saying this. You don't need to play games in 4k. You don't need a 4090 $2k gpu....

You can upgrade your existing pc and keep some of your parts.
If you play in 1080p you don't need anything more than a XX60 series card.
You don't need to turn on ray tracing (although if you can and its smooth go for it)
You dont need to have everything maxed. (although with my 3060ti I haven't had to lower settings in 3 years now. )

You don't need some fancy am5 or X3d cpu.

I recently upgraded my cpu and ram because I was having issues with the bsods randomly for 4 years now and finally bit the bullet. It was tough as the computer worked fine otherwise.
In doing so my fps rose to well above what is needed. All I paid was $265.

I have a 27" 1080p monitor 144hz (although I would be equally fine with 60-75hz, this one was just on sale and has a good picture).

I upgraded my 3600 ryzen to a 5700x , just got it for $140 (it was 160 the other day but the price was in flux) off Amazon.

Grabbed 32gb of ddr4 3600 rip-jaws. $50 - to replace my 16gb ram chips
Grabbed a 1tb crutial m2 ssd - $50 (to transfer my samsung 970 500gb evo over so I can have a larger system drive)
Grabbed a Id cooling 224 xts - tower cooler black. $25

Kept my case, asus prime b550 mobo, geforce 3060ti, mobo, fans, old hard drives (2x 2tb hdd, 1 sata hd and a samsung evo m2). Kept 6 case fans, a 700w eVga psu, my logitech mechanical kb and hero mouse, speakers and headphones.


It raised my fps in cyberpunk with ultra ray tracing and ultra everything else (path tracing off, DLSS Balanced) to 88-90 fps from 45-60 fps from old cpu.

A few small changes really boosted everything.

PC gaming is only expensive if you let it and listen to people who are brainwashed on fomo and power trips from youtubers.
I seen someone on reddit the other day in a pc sub saying they are going to build their first pc and they had 5k saved. I was like why? they had a $600 case.
I was thinking, this person is probably young. Shouldn't they be buying a car or their own place so they can go mack on chicks? Instead they were buying expensive pc parts...lol What is that generation coming to?

Bottom line...
Buy what you can afford. Upgrade over time. Be reasonable.
 
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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
Why do you need a 5080? 4k monitors are expensive and frankly over priced and not needed for small screens. Without 4k a xx80 series card is not needed.
Shit I have been gaming on pc since the 4 color CGA era, and never had I spent more than $450 for a gpu my 3060ti.

Although i will say prices for all gpus have gone up. A 1060 was $200 now a xx60 card is 300-400ish. Gross.
 
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 ;)


People just gloss over this, but its the truth. This is really all you need to have fun on pc. shit 90% of pc games on steam will run on something half this price.
 
Bottom line...
Buy what you can afford. Upgrade over time. Be reasonable.
A lot of people are bad with money. Whether it's intentional and they know it, or they just dont look for deals who knows. But either way, some people will blow money. If they can afford it, go ahead. If they cant, they got issues.

It's like buying jeans.

I buy mine at Costco. Brand name Buffalo or Calvin Klein for $25 each. I got money and can afford to buy similar jeans at a department store for $100.

My sis in laws cousin (and her hubby) are broke, have meh jobs and even had to move back to their parents house because they cant afford a place on their own. They live in the basement for free since the parents are nice about it. How the fuck why and how they spend money on expensive clothes is the weirdest thing. My sis in law even says they've always been bad with money and just buy what they feel like.

It makes no sense, since you'd think it should be the reverse where I should be the guy free wheeling my wallet since I can afford it, and they are the coupon cutting savers hoping to save money to move back out one day. They even hate living there, since you hear stories about the parents nagging them. So there's incentive to save and get out. Nope. Just keep on buying those $80 shirts and $300 jackets. And even though broke after 1 kid, lets have another one at like age 40!

It's one of those situations you can tell the only way they'll get a place of their own is to just milk it as long as possible, hope the parents die one day and they just give them the house, while the rest of the sons and daughters are doing well and dont need any inheritance money if they sold the house.

That's life I guess. It shows spending habits arent always correlated to how much money someone makes. It's just a separate thing linked to their personality, not their bank account.
 
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Why do you need a 5080? 4k monitors are expensive and frankly over priced and not needed for small screens. Without 4k a xx80 series card is not needed.
Shit I have been gaming on pc since the 4 color CGA era, and never had I spent more than $450 for a gpu my 3060ti.

Although i will say prices for all gpus have gone up. A 1060 was $200 now a xx60 card is 300-400ish. Gross.
I've been using 4k since 2017. Since 2021 on oled.
With all the upscaling techniques, not using 4k is a mistake.
If a play on pc, I want to push it
 
with my 3060ti I haven't had to lower settings in 3 years now
I had to lower settings with a 4080 Super when playing Indiana Jones, it went over the 16GB VRAM ceiling and caused the framerate to drop into 10-15fps.
It'll be interesting to see how DOOM runs if they do the same thing and add a late RT patch. Needs to run fast and smooth.
 
Why is it we see this spoken alot, usually when someone mentions GPUs?
It's because Sony and MS consoles have lost several of their competitive advantages over the past few years, including the overwhelming majority of exclusive games being ported to PC, so one of the few things left for fanboys of these two brands to justify buying these consoles is "a PC is too expensive", which is a lie.
 
I wanna do that too. Having a portable emulation box would be awesome.
That's literally already out there for a fair price, the 7840HS plays everything you can throw at it pretty much

Prices do fluctuate but sales are often, that's around the price you should buy at.

Screenshot-20250412-094056-com-tippingcanoe-hukd-Deal-Thread-Activity.jpg
 
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That's literally already out there for a fair price, the 7840HS plays everything you can throw at it pretty much
Here yt vid where we can see some popular games, what settings/how they look and how they run on it, that way ppl can judge for themselfs if they are ok with that performance/quality:
 
It's because Sony and MS consoles have lost several of their competitive advantages over the past few years, including the overwhelming majority of exclusive games being ported to PC, so one of the few things left for fanboys of these two brands to justify buying these consoles is "a PC is too expensive", which is a lie.
How good is the experience on modern games compared to console if you're going for a cheaper PC?

No path-tracing etc of course but can you pull off similar none path-traced visuals at the same resolutions and without any added frame drops?

I haven't checked recent releases but awhile back in DF videos it seemed like you often couldn't fully match the console visual settings without having much more expensive hardware. And Sony's games are often power hungry. As are UE5 games and that's what Microsoft seem to focus on now besides id and Bethesda.
 
Because PCs are expensive. If you want to play without to make too much sacrifice, it just costs more than consoles. And I know it, I have a good PC to play AAA games in 4K. If you want a good PC you need to spend AT LEAST something like 1300€ overall. The good thing is that, generally, you can upgrade just the GPU, or RAM or the motherboard / CPU... so if you already have good components, you don't have to change everything. But still, PC gaming is expensive.

You can't buy your games physically, it means that you "lose" your money. You can't resell anything. I don't like it either, and no, the games are not affordable on Steam at the release date. The price is basically the same on all systems (Monster Hunter Wilds? 69,99€, FFVII Rebirth? 69,99€....). You get good prices when the games are old.

But of course, a PC can make a lot of things, so I'm still happy about my PC.
 
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