Are you a console or PC gamer?

[Domin0]

I normally play games on PC if given the choice, though in saying that I have to admit I just don't play games as much as I used to. I also own a switch for the occasional nintendo game that I'd want to play (currently been playing through FE Engage, and its been fun for the most part!).

 

[DAPpower]

I used to play on PC but I wanted a vanilla experience that didn't have any mods or cheats (this usually ruins the game for me) so console was the only way to go.

I have a PS5 now and it took me a while to understand how to connect it to my desktop DAC, since the PS5 only supports UAC1 audio and not the more current UAC2 codec. I finally learned that I could get a small and cheap UAC1 USB DAC which I could use as a passthrough device (hooked from the PS5 via USB) that would then connect via coaxial to my desktop DAC.

 

[SilverEars]

Given how bad the PC ports are these days, it's easier to be a console gamer.

 

[oqvist]

console games are buggy too due to release in "early access" I don´t notice much difference. The issue is internet you can always patch...

 

[whitedragem]

console games are buggy too due to release in "early access" I don´t notice much difference. The issue is internet you can always patch...

there is a growing issue in the marketplace that PC games are not getting well optimised for 'out the gate' (in part possibly due to high end video cards having a lot more raw grunt than console graphics parts), but the market share of PC gaming is too small, by sales, vs consoles to 'get the love' as LEAD PLATFORM.

PCs for decades have been the lead platform for obvious reasons,.. but not so now.

Playstation 5 is the lead platform for next gen. (X box series S on the Microsoft side of the coin)..
PS5 is certainly getting more optimised titles than PC...

And just like Hogwarts Legacy has shown.. (and Kingdom Come Deliverance and 'others'),.. a lot of people complaining that Ultra settings doesn't work well on their 'mid tier graphics card' that "runs every other title in ULTRA so you guys are useless programmers" (as the whingers like to say)... the Ultra settings get knocked back quickly after software launch, and 'seldom restored' to 'day one' capability down the track when more graphics cards can run the game at Ultra.

as a day one Hogwarts Legacy buyer (PS5 and PC), the PC version has been nicely cut down now due to too many gamers saying that Ultra Raytracing performance is too taxing (etc).. so now Fog and BVH with Raytracing has been deprecated. (thanks 8GB VRAM Nvidia users'!)

Just like I could run Crysis on a midrange card (8800GTS 320MB) at Ultra settings on release (albeit 1290x720 at >30fps).. I liked haivng the power to configure as I liked... (when everyone said the game didn't run well)

Hogwarts was the same.. I could run the game at Ultra everything (including Raytracing) and even hit 1440 resolution stable and without frame drops below my target (and i even tuned the graphics card down in clock speed -power sipping, ranging from 140Watts to 200Watts consumption.. with an average power draw equal or less than the Playstation 5 console... (total system useage compared)..

For a few weeks I even had a 'better experience than the console.. (fair given using a graphics card 4x the cost of a Playstation 5)..

And watching the partner play on the console... it was simply a better experience.
sure the RT was 'high' and a few draw distances were lower, shadows possible too (range in effect anyway)..

but after a few weeks - (march 9th patch) PC game became unplayable.
that patch is required to install (thanks Steam)..
so 'haven't touched game since'.

whereas the console, using the same controller as I did on the PC, the controller was vastly better,.. nuanced haptics,.. resistive triggers, and point source of some sounds from the controller speakers.. (As well as house colours in lighting effects etc).

The sheer hours lost tweaking that game on PC, and combined with a nice 'shader compilation wait' on game start.. and having to enroll for beta drivers (vanguard program).. the PC has simply been a huge waste of time.. of little true entertainment valu

The console just works and I can resume my game in another room on another console.. without doing anything.. the exosystem is simply set up that way.

the console experience is so dramatically cheaper, more engaging, and proves itself useful for the purpose (entertainment).

VS the PC version?
PC gaming is an oxymoronic proposition.
great for keyboard and mouse competitive shooters (high refresh rates),.. but beyond a few use cases (super high end VR and simulator rigs),.. console gaming is where 'fun' is at.
Nintendo>Sony>PC>Quest/Android/iOS/older 'handhelds'>PC

I have been a PC tech since the early nineties, and used most platforms since the early eighties.
I have had esoteric consoles like 3D0, Jaguar, Supergraphx and Neo Geo (cartridge) (And 'many others')...

The Playstation 5 is such an incredible piece of hardware (vastly more capable that an XBOX series X!!), but has typical Sony software jank and a horrible digital store.
PCs will have a hard time doing what second wave Playstation 5 software will do..
PCs will have
a resolution advantage
a framerate advantage
full access to a suite of controllers (no licensing required)
'more raytracing'.

but will be an inferior playback eperience, whether it be attempting to have surround sound or deliver nice HDR... being at the mercy of a Microsoft operating system means it is all going to be deprecated randomly and issues will be high..
-this is intentional as MS need to move gamers onto console where they get annual subscription for network access, licensed peripheral sales, and money from each game sold (not that much sells in a 'gamespass' environment).

Switch and Playstation consoles are where software goes to sell..
is where devs are actively making software for..
and is where the love goes for 'optimisation'.

PC gaming today is the worst it has ever been.. and I sed to have to configure EMS/XMS memory, and load mouse drivers etc via autoexec batch files.. (/and config.sys et al)

Microsoft getting into gaming was fun for about five minutes and then 'business'.. and PC is now a dead gaming platform!
anyone who buys an XBOX is voting against PC gaming..
PC gaming might continue to be 'a thing' if Playstation smashes Xbox consoles out of the market. (literally that is our Obi Won Kenobi "only hope")

opinionated puff piece - sure... but I can back up these 'claims' with long rants.. (this isn't the thread!)

 

[oqvist]

Actually console titles is made on pcs first and they are getting more and more functionality and closer to pc in layout.

Sure there is always the advantage of optimizing for a single configurations but there is nothing the ps 5 or series x change. This is mostly a boomer complaint where things always feg worse and in the good old times things where perfect I feel.

There is plenty of example of poor console ports as well. This is also nothing new

 

[whitedragem]

Actually console titles is made on pcs first and they are getting more and more functionality and closer to pc in layout.

Sure there is always the advantage of optimizing for a single configurations but there is nothing the ps 5 or series x change. This is mostly a boomer complaint where things always feg worse and in the good old times things where perfect I feel.

There is plenty of example of poor console ports as well. This is also nothing new

I think you are taking a completely unresearched 'assumption' regarding playstation console hardware.

It was designed from the ground up to do VR
They pulled from the 'standard' RDNA2 part everything that wasn't needed for console gaming (consoles don't develop software OR render Hollywood CG), and then had the remaining die space utilise an aspect that became the greatest leveraging strength of RDNA3 (the early z cull that netted a 50% benchmarkable performance boost simply by dropping useless data that would not get rendered to the final frame before it had to steal all the bandwidth and processing along the way..- eg the other side of that wall/the trees on the other side of that hill just get culled from the graphics pipeline early),.. this is good for about a 40% boost in typical 'unoptimised titles' and so the 10 teraflop playstation will typically yield about 15% more framerate (in overdraw heavy situation typical of multiplatform and 'not second wave' software) than the 12teraflop 'full RDNA2' graphics chip inthe Xbox Series X.

but it isn't just an early Z cull..

They went to their industry partner, Epic, and asked for input that they might want for 'future graphics engines'.. (Unreal 5 anyone?)
So we wind up with some funky chip that has cache that holds data that can feed to/fro graphics and CPU in a way that might make interactive physics 'a thing'...
(when Ageia made PhysX they had a lot of literature explaining why a dedicated physics processor was necessary.. sadly Nvidia bought them, and deprecated any reason to use them parts.. (basically used parts of the library easily done solely on the GPU, and also why Nvidia drivers might be 'a little more CPU heavy'), but certainly not what the PS5 APU can do, which might prove the first time the world sees a widespread utilisation of just such tech= MORE INTERACTIVE PHYSICS (that actually keeps on keeping on)).

The input from Epic, combined with the direct injection fast data storage (that less than a couple of percent of PC rigs will have implemented over the next 'few years') means that the console can be optimised for to do things that are not possible in the PC space yet.. (well they are but noone is going to write a game for less than 1%market share of the smallest gaming market (/next to xbox, is 'PC gaming').

I won't even start on 'Tempest audio' cause too many noobs think that is something akin to a renderer like DTS or Dolby.. (it is more akin to Aureal A3D2 with proper hardware wavetracing and occlusion.. think 'raytracing' but 'for audio'.. )

as head-fiers, the PS5 sound tech should be something of interest.. but.. lets just pretend that PCs are 'better' cause they cost more and can run highly unoptimised API to deliver abyssimal performance from overkill hardware.

At several times the cost.. sure PC gaming is a niche that can promise the world and frustrate and dissapoint and prove how horrible commercial markets can destroy 'fun'.

The fact Sony have a strategy, have a tonne of active developers (over 100 million PS4s in the market means 'games sell on Playstation'), and the competitors' biggest strategy is to lie/deceive and depricate the worlds largest productivity platform to try and make back the ~100billion it has lost over the last decade trying to make Xbox relevant...

We know MS strategy going forward is the Xbox series S version 2 (will be built super cheap and is due 'soon').
MS will simply flood market with a cheap console (the Nintendo Wii strategy- every kid wants a console for Christmas, and parents can budget easily for a 'cheap part')
PCs under Microsofts regime, simply don't offer games improved over the Xbox experience. I don't have an NDA to stop me from saying this,.. but have you ever wondered WHY PC games are basically only 'higher resolution and higher refresh rate' gaming experiences.. (it is 'no accident')

massive market collusion going on..
friends don't let friends buy Microsoft.


of course, saying that.. gaming should be about 'fun' and I wholeheartedly encourage users to buy into the exosystem their friends are playing in.

I have run so many dual graphics cards/ top tier sound cards/ watercooled overclocked 'overkill' PC rigs that giving up PC gaming wsn't something I thought would 'ever happen'.
Then I bought Forza Horizon 3 (for Xbox to get a license for PC as it was 'the only way)
I saw the writing on the wall.
MS has so many ways to cripple PC experience, and 'when big games come out' they most certainly do... they know more gamers will 'buy Xbox' and so 'this is 'a thing'.
Sadly with the 'Wintel consortium' being a thing, and Nvidia wanting to push AI, and intel knowing it can win an 'AI' math war against Nvidia, will have their sights set on breaking into graphics market HARD.
So far we have magically seen many Intel moments where both AMD and Nvidia are scrambling to deal with random windows issues, and the lowly intel video chips just seem to miss the 'troubles'.
This will become more of a thing as Intel start to bring better parts to market..
Nvidia will lose a GPU war to intel if 'AI' is their direction.
AMD don't have a problem as they build console APUs (GPUs) and have a much much larger market, and a lot more devs writing 'to the metal code' for their video card parts.

PC gaming is in a really bad place.. it is unlikely to bounce out of this.
A few percent of gamers with more money than sense cannot float a 'whole industry'.

Microsoft have 'forced OS updates', forced driver updates, and 'direct X' updates and will use all three to keep a 'gaming PC' an unhappy expereince vs a console.
Consoles have the lionshare of games and are the best platforms to sell a lot of software.. (and yes, both Nintendo and Sony have a couple of SKUs and are therefor generally highly optimised for, and have a lot less issues with software, even new software, straight out the gate.

PC gaming is too expensive for what it delivers (inconsistent and buggy).
Developers lose a lot of time trying to sort out 'PC niggles' (mostly enforced on purpose by a 'very evil' platform holder.

I stopped PC gaming after a 'forced firmware update' removed a lot of my CPU speed cause the new intel 'budget' CPU couldn't outperform my couple of year old 'high end desktop' platform CPU. (as it shouldn't based on pricepoints paid).

It is 'business as usuall for the wintel consortium, and that sucks for everyone who isn't a shareholder.. (although shareholders on either of those companies have bigger issues to deal with..)

for gaming.. over two hundred million switch and playstation consoles actively in the market and having software bought for them is an attractive proposition of software development.. (and seriously just look at any PC dev get roasted by 'whingers' who buy budget SSD drives (eat CPU to compress/decompress data) and game and don't understand why they have issues.. (but in the benchmark suite it is just as fast as the pro drive)..

most consumers don't have the time to be educate.
most who can educate get slammed by those who simply don't know any better.
quoting the masses when the masses are seriously misled is not helpful for anyone.
So, going against the grain: PC gaming is a nightmare and generally 'not fun'.
Console gaming is cheap , fun, reliable and therefore might prove themselves as 'entertainment platforms'. (xbox not included wink.gif)

 

[whitedragem]

Last year I was doing a few youtube videos, at least 'one' daily..
given I wasn't comfortable with being in front of the camera,.. I did a couple of 'off brand' videos...
warming up one morning, this was the result..

It isn't tight, and from memory I made a few errors (calling a cisc chip a risc chip etc).
I feel an hour in I loose direction a bit and probably float into PC video card territory but a lot of what might be discussed might be relevant to anyone considering 'console gaming'

I ask only for kindness in your considerations of this video- it isn't scripted and is a 3am 'cannot sleep, have to film' moment.

remember the sole purpose was for me to make friends with the camera, and 'feel relaxed'
whilst I am not into 'toxic masculinity', this is probably effeminate and more about 'telling stories' and discussing freely... (like many of my headfi posts if post size is anything to judge by...

 

[oqvist]

You dont have to educate me. You do sound bitter and like you have a stake in this? I actually sit on a more technologically advanced gpu then is on the ps 5 and its not the last generation. Same gen ad ps 5. It do cost like a ps 5 though so you can debate if its fair but you seem to try and mark ps 5 for having an edge in technologue which is just false.

Every game I run on my pc look better then the ps 5 version and runs at much higher framerates. My ps 5 is just for exclusives and I am quite happy how it perform for what it is.

Its a bad match for demanding simulations in particular though due to the limitations of hardware performance, controller support, modability.

 

[Whitigir]

I have a Ps5 and I also just built a gaming PC with 4090.

The PS5 is a lot cheaper and friendlier to game with but it is on a different tier than PC. It depends on which games you are playing. Those like RPG and so on, Consoles like PS5 is great to be with, it has amazing graphics and speed.

However, when it comes to live actions games. There is a huge different between PC and Console. This is where PC is a leader, and not for a little more $$ but a lot more.

In live actions, you want the fastest speed possible, the lowest latency, the refresh rate….etc.. it makes using 4K/120HZ ways inferior to 1440@240Hz for example Call Of Duty. If I play on PS5, I normally got defeated before I can even see the enemies. So my play style changes to a much more chilling styles as in hiding and waiting. Now, on my PC, I can spot the enemies as fast and sometimes faster than PS5. So it is more my style aka roaming around and go beserk.

The latency issues and refresh rate also play a huge differences, with PS5 HDMI and TV, my eyes are strained and got tired easier, where as on my PC, I can go on for hours. Yeah, it is that much differences.

Also, my PC were built to be top of the specs, so over clocking were also done to the utmost. There is also differences between slow stock speed VS my OC Speed as well.

So, between consoles and PC ? I will choose PC all day long. The differences between them comes down to Mouse and KB or controller. Nowadays, most games will support both, and cross platforms.

Then again, it comes down to your play styles, the genres of your games, and your budgets. Consoles has a larger gaming shares and subscriptions which is where they get the money from and lower the console prices, while on PC, there is usually no subscriptions, but limited games, and so building a PC is a much more expensive approach up front

 

[whirlwind]

I play shooter games for the most part....I prefer the pc easily for this.

 

[SilverEars]

It's common to hear about worse pc ports no matter what spec now a days. Console versions has been much more reliable these days. You hear about stutters on pc a lot. When Elden Ring came out, the most stable version was PS5. PC players would complain about stutters. Facts are facts.

 

[Paco ignacio]

I was a console person till i played Metal Gear Solid V on 2k and 60 fps on PC; never bought a console again. I prefer to play on PC by miles, and that stutter crap (and anything else) it's easily fixable.

 

[Whitigir]

I was a console person till i played Metal Gear Solid V on 2k and 60 fps on PC; never bought a console again. I prefer to play on PC by miles, and that stutter crap (and anything else) it's easily fixable.

New one coming out isn’t it ? And wait til you can do 200+ FPS with 240Hz refresh monitor

 

[Paco ignacio]

New one coming out isn’t it ? And wait til you can do 200+ FPS with 240Hz refresh monitor

I did already on a friend's pc and it's amazing, but i rarely play fps.