Is PC gaming economically comparable to console?

[SvennoJ]

Wman1996 said:

Coming from a guy who has never had a Gaming PC (my brothers have, but I haven't heard a lot from them about it)
-Digital games can be as cheap, often cheaper than console storefronts. Plus, there are even more free games.
-You don't need a subscription for online multiplayer.
That is some of the cheaper side. The actual hardware itself is more expensive. I know PC is an open platform, but what $750 PC is comparable in specs to a PS5 Pro? What $550 PC is comparable in specs to a PS5? Even if PS6 is around $1000, it will likely outperform PCs of a similar price point. It's not just consoles going up in price, some PC components have been for a while as well.

Looking at pre-build gaming PCs, 5 years into the generation.

PS5 now costs CAD 580, PS5 Pro CAD 960

Cheapest pre-buit atm

Acer Desktop PC - Black (Intel Pentium N6005/512GB SSD/8GB RAM/Windows 11) CAD 599, I don't think that keeps up with PS5... 

Acer Nitro N50 Gaming PC - Black/Red (Intel Core i5-14400F/16GB RAM/512GB SSD/GeForce RTX 3050/Win11) CAD 899 (CAD 400 off atm, reg 1,299)
CyberPowerPC Gamer Master Gaming PC (AMD Ryzen 5 5500/16GB RAM/1TB SSD/AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT) CAD 1,160
ASUS TUF Gaming T500 Gaming PC - Solar Eclipse Grey (Intel Core i5-13420H/16GB RAM/1TB SSD/RTX 3050) CAD 1,199
MSI Codx R2 Gaming PC (Intel Core i5-14400F/32GB RAM/2TB SSD/GeForce RTX 5060) CAD 1,399
HP OMEN 16L Gaming Desktop PC (AMD Ryzen 7 8700F/32GB RAM/2TB SSD/GeForce RTX 4060/Windows 11) CAD 1,499

So yeah you have to build it yourself to get similar for PS5 Pro prices or find a refurbished gaming PC.
Although that first one on sale atm should be able to keep up with PS5 but you probably want more storage and RAM.
PS5 Pro is rumored to be equivalent to a RTX 4060, although few games actually make use of the Pro's extra GPU power. 2tb SSD is nice though!


That's the thing with consoles vs PC. PC components still drop faster in price or rather get replaced with better ones while the console stays at the same configuration and is now actually going up in price :/

And yep, at the launch of PS6 that will be the cheapest configuration. Plus PC always needs a little more overhead with the OS and split memory.