Are the "PC Master Race" days over?

[Pemalite]

Paperboy_J said:

I always thought the title was silly. I mean sure your PC is more powerful than my console, but it's not like all that power was free. You paid 1000 dollars for it so of course it's more power, it better be.  You paid more money for more power.  What's so "masterful" about that?

When high-end PCs cost the same amount as home consoles, THEN call yourself the master race.

By that same argument... When the Xbox Series X and Playstation 5 can cost the same amount as the Series S... Then they don't have the power/price advantage.

All that extra power didn't end up being free.

SvennoJ said:

Thing is, I got older, my eyes are deteriorating, I don't care about the best graphics, best audio and mod support anymore. 1440p is about the best I can make out, I see some benefits of it over 1080p but the difference between 1440p and 4K is lost on me. Audio is important for me in movies, in games I usually have the sound very low unless using headphones and the 3D audio from ps5 is more than good enough. Mod support is nice, but usually is a big hurdle when games still get regular updates and just add more things that need to be updated.

The 1060 is still more than capable to give me a fluid experience in 1080p. I could run Halo Infite at 'only' 48fps, and FS2020 at 20 to 40 fps, plenty for me. I actually notice judder and hickups more the higher the frame rate gets. 30fps is still looks perfectly fine to me, as long as it's a stable 30 fps. Horizon FW in quality mode was stable and stunning. I mostly played it in 1080p SDR on a 92" screen as the HDR implementation triggered migraines a few times :/

So nope, don't care for the best anymore. Convenience is now my nr 1 priority and nothing is more convenient than turning a console on, press X to start / continue the game that's in the drive and play. I usually never even notice the UI / OS.

I moved away from desktops to have less clutter, hence the gaming laptop. The spot where I use it has no room for a desktop and monitor, and thus also not interested in hanging peripherals on my laptop.

If you have a freesync or gsync monitor with compatible hardware, you don't need to maintain 60fps.

I was happy playing Halo Infinite with max settings at "only" 120fps because my display can adjust down and match it.

As for Audio... Audio has technically been "good enough" for decades... The PC had hardware accelerated 3D positional Audio 20+ years ago, it's not a new technology.
Unfortunately Creative got litigious and shutdown the amazing Aureal A3D and Microsoft pushed for a software solution natively in Windows... But even that was "good enough" for most individuals... Hence why most people run with integrated audio (Consoles included) these days rather than an expansion card.

But yes, personal preference does take priority, I commend you for recognizing you have different needs/wants and desires than other people and basing your purchase decisions upon that, it's what the free market is all about.

SvennoJ said:

@pokoko That's another reason I prefer consoles. Just a little extra barrier to simply looking up the answer or follow a guide :/ Yet alt-tab is what kept FS2020 engaging so I could follow along on google maps and watch videos of the places I was flying over. But on consoles, when I play something like TLG I'm glad it has a shit browser so I'm less tempted to look up what to do next :)

I forget that single monitors tends to be the norm rather than the exception for mainstream PC's...

SvennoJ said:

Anyway, if you do want the best graphics, the highest fps, mod support, you indeed need to go PC. Better online networks is debatable, FH5 online was a mess, FS2020 keeps losing Azure text to voice and cuts out altogether often. As for more vibrant and engaging communities, I don't notice any difference between the online communities for Elite Dangerous, FS2020 or Gran Turismo.

Better online network is not debatable.
You are only focusing on the games individual servers... There is so much more than that.

The Xbox Series X and Playstation 5 cannot use my full internet speed due to limitations in their ethernet and wifi capabilities... Which is fine, 945Mbps wired is nothing to complain about I guess.
The Series X however only has 802.11ac wifi rather than the PS5's Wifi 6.

But because the PC doesn't rely on a single vendor for it's content delivery network. (I.E. Akami for Xbox), providers can then build their own CDN servers next to a network for higher throughput and lower latency... My provider Internode does this for example... It also allows them to reduce costs as they don't need to buy data at a further distance, it's all cached locally.

But where the PC differentiates even more is that a platform like Steam will use multiple CDN's simultaneously for higher throughput... I.E. Akami, Level3, Edgecast, Stackpath and more all at the same time for maximum throughput... This just doesn't happen on propriety and controlled ecosystems.

The PC's online communities are pretty extensive and vibrant... I fired up an old game called "Freelancer" and installed the mod "Discovery Freelancer" and found an entire online community... On a game that is 20! years old. It's nuts.

Last edited by Pemalite - on 25 June 2022