Console vs PC: which do you usually prefer?

[skyfire]

On 1/10/2020 at 4:53 AM, Crazycrab said:

 

Let's do a rough add up:

 

A Gaming PC for gaming and work with all the hardware and software necessary for a streaming set up, about $1000 minimum.

 

A Console and a reasonable (but not gaming) laptop, $350 + $250 = $600.  If you want to stream using the desktop app or web browser istead of the console app you'll need a capture device, $600 + $100 = $700.

 

Your still MILES away from the truth.

 

None of that is really relevant anyway, your talking about someone who games professionally as a full time job.  Whether it be a Twitch Streamer, YouTuber, Reviewer, Journalist or whatever. I would expect someone in the position to by default to have a decent PC and most if not all the consoles to maximise the range of their content and support their income.  The rest of us are talking about the other 99% percent of the world that game and maybe stream a little as a hobby. Most people who's job doesn't directy involve gaming don't need a PC for browsing the web, checking their email of producing documents. A reasonably priced laptop or tablet and a smartphone are more than sufficient.

 

Gaming on a PC is more expensive than a console and I don't even mean that in a derogatory way.  There are advantages to a PC, I'm simply stating that cost is not one of them.

Actually if you see it from the streamers perspective. I am not miles away from truth. There is a reason the streamers make use of PC and also save a lot on the device maintenance and expenses in lifetime ownership. 

[Crazycrab]

9 hours ago, skyfire said:

Actually if you see it from the streamers perspective. I am not miles away from truth. There is a reason the streamers make use of PC...

 

Yes, there a plenty of reasons.  Custom overlays on Twitch, access to better audio and visual equipment, customisable software, better facilities for monitoring chat, (like multi-screen setups) and capture cards for streaming Console content but none of this cheaper!  Like I was saying before I would expect some who streams professionally to have this kind of equipment because it's the "tools of the trade". It's about producing the best quality content for their Twitch and/or YouTube channels, their not saving money!

 

10 hours ago, skyfire said:

...also save a lot on the device maintenance and expenses in lifetime ownership. 

 

Once again this is not the case.  We have already established an appropriate PC setup for a streamer is more expensive to buy but it's also more expensive to maintain and upgrade.  Putting the possibility of stuff breaking down aside (which is possible either way) Let do some add ups for 2 scenarios in this generation. One with a PC and the other with PlayStation Consoles and I'm going to make it a little more detailed this time so I can hopefully get through to you.

 

PC:

Let's start again with our initial upfront budget of around $1000, at the time of the PS4 release in November 2013 on that budget you'd have been able to rock a Haswell Quad Core i5 and a GTX 760, maybe GTX 770.  Would this still be enough horsepower for a streamer today? Absolutely not, they would have to upgrade at least once. Not only would the 700 series cards be struggling with games after 4 or 5 years, but the non-hyperthreaded Core i5 would be an especially big headache for a streamer because over the last several years games which use 4 threads have become commonplace.  That means the streaming software would have no threads of it's own to do it's work, I know of this issue because I remember Jim Sterling attempting to stream a few years ago (I think it was Black Ops 4) but couldn't because the game was hogging all 4 cores of his i5.

 

So lets say this streamer decides to upgrade for the same budget of $1000 in the summer of 2017 (half way through this gen), this time we need to make sure to have more than 4 CPU threads available.  So this time assuming that they re-used some parts from their old system to save some money they could maybe stretch to a GTX 1070 and a Kaby Lake i7.  So over the course of the latest console generation this has in PC hardware alone cost $2000.  Don't forget that's not even considering the cost of monitor(s), desk, chair, streaming/editing software, headset, microphones and a bunch of other things.

 

PS4:

We start with the initial cost of $400 for the console, $250 for the laptop and $200 for the additional equipment like a capture device, camera, microphone and so on.  That comes to $850 that's all you'd ever really need aside from a TV. let's assume, however they do a mid gen refresh when the PS4 Pro comes out. That's another $400 for the console, another $150 for a 4K compatible capture device, so $550.  That comes to a total of $1400, even if we put on the cost of another new laptop which be optional at this stage it's STILL significantly less.

 

I don't know where this delusion that PC gaming is cheaper comes from, whether is confirmation bias causing you be selective in your use of the facts, they feel the need to downplay consoles to makes them feel better about their own PC builds or they don't know any better.  I've been on other threads where PC fanboys have tried to convince people that PC's save money and it drives me nuts because a gamer on both PC and Console and tech fan I know it's an outright lie! One guy on this forum even posted that a $500 novatech PC that had no dedicated GPU in it claiming it could do 4K at 120fps... yeah, maybe on Microsoft Paint!  I'm sorry to go on a tangent but I'm so sick of these damn lies, especially now that I know it's about to get even worse when assholes start posting all over that place that you could build a "PS5" equivalent PC for $400 or whatever and some people will actually believe it and waste their money on crap build.

[Shagger]

1 hour ago, Crazycrab said:

 

Yes, there a plenty of reasons.  Custom overlays on Twitch, access to better audio and visual equipment, customisable software, better facilities for monitoring chat, (like multi-screen setups) and capture cards for streaming Console content but none of this cheaper!  Like I was saying before I would expect some who streams professionally to have this kind of equipment because it's the "tools of the trade". It's about producing the best quality content for their Twitch and/or YouTube channels, their not saving money!

 

 

Once again this is not the case.  We have already established an appropriate PC setup for a streamer is more expensive to buy but it's also more expensive to maintain and upgrade.  Putting the possibility of stuff breaking down aside (which is possible either way) Let do some add ups for 2 scenarios in this generation. One with a PC and the other with PlayStation Consoles and I'm going to make it a little more detailed this time so I can hopefully get through to you.

 

PC:

Let's start again with our initial upfront budget of around $1000, at the time of the PS4 release in November 2013 on that budget you'd have been able to rock a Haswell Quad Core i5 and a GTX 760, maybe GTX 770.  Would this still be enough horsepower for a streamer today? Absolutely not, they would have to upgrade at least once. Not only would the 700 series cards be struggling with games after 4 or 5 years, but the non-hyperthreaded Core i5 would be an especially big headache for a streamer because over the last several years games which use 4 threads have become commonplace.  That means the streaming software would have no threads of it's own to do it's work, I know of this issue because I remember Jim Sterling attempting to stream a few years ago (I think it was Black Ops 4) but couldn't because the game was hogging all 4 cores of his i5.

 

So lets say this streamer decides to upgrade for the same budget of $1000 in the summer of 2017 (half way through this gen), this time we need to make sure to have more than 4 CPU threads available.  So this time assuming that they re-used some parts from their old system to save some money they could maybe stretch to a GTX 1070 and a Kaby Lake i7.  So over the course of the latest console generation this has in PC hardware alone cost $2000.  Don't forget that's not even considering the cost of monitor(s), desk, chair, streaming/editing software, headset, microphones and a bunch of other things.

 

PS4:

We start with the initial cost of $400 for the console, $250 for the laptop and $200 for the additional equipment like a capture device, camera, microphone and so on.  That comes to $850 that's all you'd ever really need aside from a TV. let's assume, however they do a mid gen refresh when the PS4 Pro comes out. That's another $400 for the console, another $150 for a 4K compatible capture device, so $550.  That comes to a total of $1400, even if we put on the cost of another new laptop which be optional at this stage it's STILL significantly less.

 

I don't know where this delusion that PC gaming is cheaper comes from, whether is confirmation bias causing you be selective in your use of the facts, they feel the need to downplay consoles to makes them feel better about their own PC builds or they don't know any better.  I've been on other threads where PC fanboys have tried to convince people that PC's save money and it drives me nuts because a gamer on both PC and Console and tech fan I know it's an outright lie! One guy on this forum even posted that a $500 novatech PC that had no dedicated GPU in it claiming it could do 4K at 120fps... yeah, maybe on Microsoft Paint!  I'm sorry to go on a tangent but I'm so sick of these damn lies, especially now that I know it's about to get even worse when assholes start posting all over that place that you could build a "PS5" equivalent PC for $400 or whatever and some people will actually believe it and waste their money on crap build.

 

Well said.

The PC "master-of-puppets-is-the-only-master-I-would-ever-listen-to" race are deluded. Seriously @skyfire, I'm on the verge of questioning whether you have even the first clue about what you're talking about.