Well, that depends on the PC. I have to make a lot of compromises with my Steam Deck or my old laptop.

My desktop PC is faster than a PS5 or an Xbox Series X, but even there I have to compromise for some games.

Compromising on graphics is very relative to the PC you have. I have a fairly recent good gaming PC I build myself, but my PS5 outperforms it.

Nod32 is technically superior, it was also written in Assembly which is extremely low-level and efficient.

Norton is a resource hog by comparison.

I think Windows Defender is sufficient for most users these days, especially if you are running Ad-Block.

At least for the next few years, no PC is going to be able to compete with the value of a Series X or PS5 in regards to price and performance. Now I get that its a gaming laptop, but what I got 2 years ago (for what I think was good value) cost 900 bucks and has a 1650 in it (roughly 1/4 of the graphics capability of a Series X). I'm sure you could do better than this nowadays with a desktop for sure, but even then I doubt a $600 desktop is doing 4k consistently at this time.

In saying that, hasn't the PC industry been seeing a bit of a revival during COVID?

Yea, sorry, no. As much as I love my consoles, PC gaming, especially if you have a very capable rig runs laps around consoles all day. Maybe it's my age, but since I've jumped to PC a few years ago, I hardly game on consoles anymore. I still jump on the PS5 for the occasional souls stuff, Bloodborne/Demon Souls, but if the game is available on PC, that's where I'm playing it. Built me a 12th gen PC late last year, (i7-12700k/3080ti) and have given my son my older PC (i7-7700k/2080ti). Even he's playing the PC more than the PS5/switch. I once upon a time loved my consoles, but hard to beat the graphical fidelity and value a good PC brings to the table even at a cost premium.

In the 7 years since this thread was created PC has become even better as a platform really. All Xbox games, a rapidly increasing amount of Playstation ones, more and more big Japanese games like Persona 5, handheld PC gaming getting much better for those who like or prefer playing games that way and still almost all multiplats. The main issue the past couple years has been absurdly high GPU prices but that's been getting better the past few months so with the worst of that seemingly over 2023 could end up being a good year to get a new PC or upgrade one assuming things don't get worse again. Consoles still have their place since a capable PC is quite expensive but it makes sense the highest quality option costs the most.

I'm waiting till after Starfield is out before I upgrade a new PC. Maybe even longer if another high demand game is coming around then. I am not entirely sold on the game (the combat looks awfuly boring and I hate how many planets there are plus never a fan of No Man's Sky), but this is Bethesda with the creation engine so it will probably have an insane modding community behind it. I really don't want to buy something only to find out it can't run the way I want it to. 

If money isn't an Issue, PC gaming will always be superior. Which is why I nowadays almost exclusively play on PC and on my shiny Steam Deck on the go. At the moment I only fire up my switch for my daily portion of Ring Fit Adventure, lol.

It used to be different. When I was younger and had about zero disposable income, I played on PlayStation and was happy for what I got. Now I have more money than I can spend so there really isn't any reason at all to get a PlayStation or Xbox. Especially since exclusive titles seem to become a thing of the past.

By that same argument the Series X and Playstation 5 cannot compete with the Series S in terms of value in regards to price/performance.
"value" is a highly subjective argument... And it can and will vary from person to person.

I personally find value in running my games at 1440P (4k super sampled however)+144hz+Everything set to max than the dynamic resolution+30/60fps+Medium/High Settings consoles tend to use... It's just a cleaner, more consistent experience.

But I also am not ashamed to throw the very small and light series s into a backpack when deploying around the country... And I still find value with my Series X, Playstation 5 and Switch connected to my home theater system.

I'm lucky enough to have every platform though for the last several generations.

Absolutely. It's part of my maintenance routine.

dunno at that point in time you paid 1200 for a ps5