I was talking with some friends about gaming, and then among the dreaded discussion about whether or not the Wii U is next gen, a friend made this point:

"Well, for those who consider the Wii U last gen because of PS4 specs, then those same future owners of a PS4, will buy later in the year a console that is last gen compared to the pc rig I already have back home." While it sounded like a valid point by judging specs - the only metric people use to rule out Wii U from any next gen party - I wonder if such a thing is even possible.

So:

Can someone own today a PC that blows next gen consoles out of the water in such orders of magnitude that those consoles are instantly rendered last gen even before going on sale ?

no. because PC's dont have gens

generations =/= specs
This discussion is tiring

Yes, except those GPUs cost 1000 dollars.

Technically yes, 3x Titan's, 32GB DDR3 and Intel I7 rigs blow next-gen consoles away.

1 x Titan farts on anything the PS4/Nextbox will be able to do.

@OP

Not really the point though...

Threads like this are the same thing as worrying because your next door neighbour might earn more money than you.

People have short sighted interpretations of what "next gen" means. There's chronological next gen, which the Wii-U obviously is for example, then there's graphical next gen which the Wii-U certainly isn't but of course it's only talking in terms of "consoles that plug into a power socket"

That's it, current top end graphics cards easily make the PS4/Nextbox look bad.

Remember gaming in the 90s? Nobody made a fuss because there were already arcade boards out more powerful than the Saturn/PS1 before they even released, (by about 3-4 years even!!!).

Sega Model 1 for example came out in 1994, that was a tiny bit more powerful than a Saturn, but basically the same specs. Saturn wasn't out till what 96-97?

Sega Model 3 was already out by the time the Saturn was released which was a multitude times more powerful.

...All about perception and expectations and silly labels.

Again...so what though.

1500 $ PCs will never compete with 400$ consoles. It's like saying that the beer your friend makes in his bathroom could have a big impact on belgian beer market.

Other market = Not threat

It really is tiring.

In no time we will see ethomaz chime in how consoles need less reasources to compete will all kinds of crazy APU + GPU data.

Then CGI will chime in with a politically correct answer that mentions that while he has an ubber awesome PC that will smoke next gen consoles, he is very much looking forward to next gen consoles as well.

Lastly, there will be VKing who will insist that 8GB GDDR5 ram will make all the difference on the console side which will give consoles the edge for many years to come. 

I agree and feel a bit sick because I agree.

Not really. There are very expensive PC options out there that have much more power than new consoles, but most people don't have them and it's not like games are designed to use their powers to do much. You don't get an amazingly better game experience by using an extreme high-end PC.

Wii U will play like a "typical" mid-range PC while the XI and PS4 will play like a "typical" high-end PC for some time. But what's more important is the games will be customized for them and exploit their talents. Most developers will design games to exploit these systems. It's doubtful that many PC games will make the new consoles feel "last gen" for a good many years. Maybe the Wii U in 2 or 3, depending on what it's really capable of pulling of visually.