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Does it make sense for me to get a next gen console or should I update my PC?

DarkestHour

Banned
pcpartpicker with similar specs as ngen

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor ($292.14 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($89.95 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte X570 AORUS PRO WIFI ATX AM4 Motherboard ($249.99 @ Walmart)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($139.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Crucial P1 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($109.99 @ B&H)
Storage: Crucial P1 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($109.99 @ B&H)
Storage: Seagate Desktop HDD 4 TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive ($81.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Desktop HDD 4 TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive ($81.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER 8 GB Video Card ($699.99 @ Best Buy)
Case: Fractal Design Meshify S2 ATX Mid Tower Case ($159.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS 750 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($134.99 @ B&H)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($109.99 @ B&H)
Sound Card: Asus Xonar SE 24-bit 192 kHz Sound Card ($39.99 @ B&H)
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus PCE-AC68 PCIe x1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Adapter ($89.99 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: be quiet! SilentWings 3 PWM 50.5 CFM 120 mm Fan ($23.66 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: be quiet! SilentWings 3 PWM 50.5 CFM 120 mm Fan ($23.66 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: be quiet! SilentWings 3 PWM 50.5 CFM 120 mm Fan ($23.66 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: be quiet! SilentWings 3 PWM 50.5 CFM 120 mm Fan ($23.66 @ Amazon)
Keyboard: Corsair K95 RGB PLATINUM Wired Gaming Keyboard ($129.99 @ Best Buy)
Mouse: Logitech G502 LIGHTSPEED Wireless Optical Mouse ($129.99 @ Best Buy)
Total: $2745.58
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-04-17 08:45 EDT-0400


+ capture card

$500 cheaper without the extra 4tb, shitty psu, 1x nvme etc. But new PC of similar performance, at 4K with rdna2.0 GPU ai r cheap.

And don't come with the "I only need to upgrade the GPU!" .. you invested years ago to be ready 2020.

To make PC cheaper than consoles

- gaming restricted to 2h per day, else consumption will eat the cost.

- don't buy games, get them from captain sparrow and friends

- don't surpass the 400w

- wait til ryzen 4000, ampere and hope for a better power efficiency

- invest in a solar panel portable and feed the PC with free.juice ;)

Stopn justifying. PC is more expensive. You are not going to buy he newest cod for $5 or $10.

Nobody is arguing PC is more expense, we're arguing why you feel the need to buy top tier components and extra things that aren't needed.
 

Patrick S.

Banned
Skip Xbox and get a PC...if you like PS exclusives get a PS5, if you don’t stick with the PC only.

Well, the PC is already there (sans the GPU now :)) The only exclusive I really really care for is Gran Turismo, and perhaps a new WipeOut or something like Bloodborne 2 :)
 
I don't want my PC games to look worse than the console versions :) Isn't a 2070 Super stronger than what we know about the PS5's GPU specs?

What am I missing here? Isn't ps5 GPU on par with 2080?

Also ray tracing in current form is system intensive. Add to that optimization on consoles and I doubt 2070 will come anywhere close to ps5 games.

But of course this is prediction based on specs. Games are yet to be shown.
 

Patrick S.

Banned
What am I missing here? Isn't ps5 GPU on par with 2080?

Also ray tracing in current form is system intensive. Add to that optimization on consoles and I doubt 2070 will come anywhere close to ps5 games.

But of course this is prediction based on specs. Games are yet to be shown.

I confess I'm a bit clueless about what GPU is best comparable to the PS5's, but my impression was that the 2080 non-TI is more or less the performance level of PS5, and that the 2070 Super was basically a tweaked 2080.
 

MurfHey

Member
I mean if I was in your shoes I would just buy a PS5 when you can then update your pc after. Your PC is a decent enough rig. WIth Xbox games now on PC if you have a decent enough PC you should never need a Xbox console again.

This is what I would do:

Play Xbox games only - Keep/Update PC.
Play Xbox + PlayStation - Buy PS5 and Keep PC as it is now.
Play Xbox + PlayStation better quality - Buy PS5 and Upgrade PC.

This is just my take. I was a hardcore PC gamer for years. Took a job in IT and decided something about sitting at a PC after work was not my thing any more and went full Console this year. Bought PS4/Xbox one/ Switch. I will most likely continue this trend next gen. But if I still had my PC (sold it) I would definitely be going the PC + PlayStation + Switch route.

Just my opinion - it means nothing. Have a great day!
 

anthraticus

Banned
Always depends on the games you want to play.

If you're just gonna play mainstream/AAA popamole, might as well just get a console then.
 

CLW

Member
IMHO, there is zero reason to go XSX. Everyone one of their "exclusives" launches the same day on PC. I'd upgrade my PC if I werent into Sony/Nintendo exclusives.
 
I'm not sure that cpu will last you the whole gen, especially if you want to play 30 fps console games at 60 fps. Anyway, I think you should hold off until the 30xx cards are out and either get one of those or a console.
 
Last edited:

diffusionx

Gold Member
I confess I'm a bit clueless about what GPU is best comparable to the PS5's, but my impression was that the 2080 non-TI is more or less the performance level of PS5, and that the 2070 Super was basically a tweaked 2080.

I think that this is the sort of thing we just have to wait and find out for.

Nvidia will be releasing a new round of GPUs soon. The rumors are upwards of 50% better than last gen.
 

Moogle11

Banned
Sony or Nintendo console if you really need those exclusives--I do as they're among my favorites and a huge chunk of what I buy and play.

PC if not, and if you can afford a decent upgrade) as you'll get the Xbox games, and even some Sony games (see Horizon Zero Dawn coming to PC soon--though years later), PC exclusives and multiple store fronts to hunt for the best price on multiplatform games and get the benefits of being able to build a more powerful machine than next gen consoles, the modding scene etc.
 

Æterno

Neo Member
Slightly off topic. Looking @ your memory speed 2133Mhz, go into your bios and check the XMP settings. 2133Mhz is the default DDR4 speed and you memory can probably run faster.
 

Ascend

Member
Normally I say that PC is always better. But in your case, the best thing I can recommend you is to wait for now...

A console really seems like the better choice at this point in time, but this has some caveats. Let's start with why I think right now, the consoles look better.
You have to upgrade your whole system to guarantee that it will keep up with the upcoming console generation. The consoles will not really cost that much compared to upgrading your PC now. I would be surprised if they cost more than $599, and even then, I'm expecting them to cost at most $499. At this point you are not going to get a PC nearly as powerful for that price. Unless you are a die-hard PC gamer that loves his keyboard and his strategy games or PC exclusive games, the Xbox Series X looks like a great alternative to a PC. This place basically hates the Xbox, so you won't get many recommendations for the Xbox. It's always PC or PlayStation, but unless you really want the PlayStation exclusives, the Xbox is a great choice here. As a comparison, to get a PC today that can guarantee equivalent to the Xbox Series X performance you have to get at least this;

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor ($294.14 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus TUF GAMING X570-PLUS (WI-FI) ATX AM4 Motherboard ($189.99 @ Best Buy)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($76.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: Sabrent Rocket 4.0 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($199.98 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER 8 GB BLACK GAMING Video Card ($669.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Gold 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply ($104.99 @ B&H)
Total: $1536.07
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-04-17 15:09 EDT-0400


All that additional money you have to spend for upgrading your PC, you can spend it on a console and the games for the consoles instead, even if the games are more expensive. Or you simply subscribe to GamePass in case of the Xbox, and you can play whatever. My recommendation can easily switch to getting the PS5 instead depending on the prices of the consoles. So that's the thing. We don't know the console prices, and my expectations can be completely off. If you choose to go for PC, the best thing is to wait until the consoles are out and then upgrade your PC. Prices must inevitably come down by that time. AMD will release their RDNA2 graphics cards which will likely bring down the price of all graphics cards, including nVidia's RTX cards. And AMD is not sitting still on the CPUs either. It's not a great time to upgrade right now. And if you want the console, you have to wait for them to be released anyway, and most likely there will be supply issues too... So... Just wait a few months and re-evaluate down the line.
 
Last edited:

Arkam

Member
With those specs OP, id get the consoles and wait on the PC upgrade until you can get something that will outshine them at a reasonable price. Other than the lack of RT that 1080 will serve you well for at least through 2021.
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
Right now I don't have a lot of spare money to spend
Then wait until the consoles come out so you can base your decision on actual real information.

If you don't need to spend money, or if you don't have to spend money - then don't spend it. Your future finances will thank you.
 

Moogle11

Banned
Normally I say that PC is always better. But in your case, the best thing I can recommend you is to wait for now...

A console really seems like the better choice at this point in time, but this has some caveats. Let's start with why I think right now, the consoles look better.
You have to upgrade your whole system to guarantee that it will keep up with the upcoming console generation. The consoles will not really cost that much compared to upgrading your PC now. I would be surprised if they cost more than $599, and even then, I'm expecting them to cost at most $499. At this point you are not going to get a PC nearly as powerful for that price. Unless you are a die-hard PC gamer that loves his keyboard and his strategy games or PC exclusive games, the Xbox Series X looks like a great alternative to a PC. This place basically hates the Xbox, so you won't get many recommendations for the Xbox. It's always PC or PlayStation, but unless you really want the PlayStation exclusives, the Xbox is a great choice here. As a comparison, to get a PC today that can guarantee equivalent to the Xbox Series X performance you have to get at least this;

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor ($294.14 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus TUF GAMING X570-PLUS (WI-FI) ATX AM4 Motherboard ($189.99 @ Best Buy)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($76.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: Sabrent Rocket 4.0 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($199.98 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER 8 GB BLACK GAMING Video Card ($669.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Gold 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply ($104.99 @ B&H)
Total: $1536.07
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-04-17 15:09 EDT-0400


All that additional money you have to spend for upgrading your PC, you can spend it on a console and the games for the consoles instead, even if the games are more expensive. Or you simply subscribe to GamePass in case of the Xbox, and you can play whatever. My recommendation can easily switch to getting the PS5 instead depending on the prices of the consoles. So that's the thing. We don't know the console prices, and my expectations can be completely off. If you choose to go for PC, the best thing is to wait until the consoles are out and then upgrade your PC. Prices must inevitably come down by that time. AMD will release their RDNA2 graphics cards which will likely brin4790g down the price of all graphics cards, including nVidia's RTX cards. And AMD is not sitting still on the CPUs either. It's not a great time to upgrade right now. And if you want the console, you have to wait for them to be released anyway, and most likely there will be supply issues too... So... Just wait a few months and re-evaluate down the line.

Yeah, all that is why I'm waffling so much on whether to bother upgrading my PC. It's just a Microcenter prebuilt with a GTX970, Intel 4790k processor and 16gb of Ram. It's been good for me and running things like Gears 4 and 5 on mostly ultra settings and stable 60 FPS in 1080p. But its struggled a bit with a few more recent games and obviously will be useless if I want to go 4K once I upgrade my TV and receiver.

I also hate keyboard mouse controls and gaming at a desk/monitor so I'm nearly 100% gaming on TV with an Xbox One Elite Controller. I also just didn't get into any PC exclusives really (a few indie games aside) as things like RTS, competitive shooters, Mobas, 4x games, sim games etc. just didn't end up being for me at all (got this gaming PC in 2016 and it was my first).

So as much as I like the option of having more power, modding (though I've done little), I really haven't used my current PC for gaming enough to justify the cost of a new CPU, new memory, probably an SSD (it has one, but small so it's just the boot drive), probably better cooling (crappy fan curently), and probably a new power supply for all those upgrades.

Given that I'll probably just stick with my Switch and grab a PS5 (though likely not at launch). Sony and Nintendo first party games are a huge chunk of what I play so even if I upgrade a PC I need those consoles for the exclusives. MS hasn't had much I've enjoyed this gen (really just Halo 5, Gears 4 and 5, FH3--never got around to 4 and Quantum Break). That may change with their acquisitions, but I haven't liked many prior games from those they've bought so far besides Hellblade and a few Obsidian RPGs. I can probably live without those, or will be able to play them via Xcloud or whatever as MS continues their push to get their content to gamers through a variety of ways otehr than their console.

PC just doesn't seem to offer anything I really need these days since I'm not super fussed about graphics (obviously still being on 1080p in 2020), don't like many PC exclusives and hate keyboard/mouse controls.
 

Journey

Banned
You'll get a MUCH better bang for you buck getting a next gen console at launch. You'll have better tech than you have now for a fraction of what it would cost to upgrade your PC for the standards of the time, plus games will be taking full advantage of most features, unlike a PC.

This is what I recommend for any gamer

Buy a console at launch and enjoy a significant boost depending on where you are on your GPU/CPU/Ram

Upgrade your PC a year or so down the road once the console tech is outdated.

Profit.
 
Nobody is arguing PC is more expense, we're arguing why you feel the need to buy top tier components and extra things that aren't needed.

I mainly use PC, but after multiple builds over the years, I dont see anything outside of star citizen that brings anything unique to the pc in terms of visuals that requires high end hardware, but even then, SC is more optimized than the majority of complete AAA games. Youre opinion of SCs business model aside.

The days of PC focused titles are over. Escape from Tarkov is probably the only other thing I can think of, but thats still in beta.


Unless youre really into AAA shooters like BF and COD and 4k/120 is a must, theres not really anything pushing the PC platform that hard.
 
I'll be going for PC + Switch. Only PlayStation-exclusive I'll miss will be Team ICO's next game.

Just put together a bice mini-itx at pcpartpicker. Now I'll wait for Nvidia's 3000 gpus and ryzen's 400p series launch, which should lower prices for older components.

PC will get your all the best versions, all Microsoft exclusives and uncensored games. No online costs, either. Plus VR. Feels good.
 

kruis

Exposing the sinister cartel of retailers who allow companies to pay for advertising space.
You'll get a MUCH better bang for you buck getting a next gen console at launch. You'll have better tech than you have now for a fraction of what it would cost to upgrade your PC for the standards of the time, plus games will be taking full advantage of most features, unlike a PC.

This is what I recommend for any gamer

Buy a console at launch and enjoy a significant boost depending on where you are on your GPU/CPU/Ram

Upgrade your PC a year or so down the road once the console tech is outdated.

Profit.

Yep. That's the best advice. PS5 first, PC upgrade later down the line when it's clear how power hungry PC ports of next gen games will be.
 
The only problem I see is that the 6700k is only a 4 core cpu. Maybe 4 core wasn't a problem when we had just 8 weak jaguar cores but now we'll have 8 powerful ryzen cores. I'm not sure there won't be issues in heavily multithreaded games.
 

TheAssist

Member
Yeah, sure. I just hope I don't shoot myself in the foot in case the new 3xxx cards turn out to cost 100-150 Euro more :/
Seeing how RDNA 2 will probably be decent I'd say thats the first time in years prices maybe dropping due to some amount of competition.
I think this is the first time I feel like consoles actually have amazing bang for their buck. HDD was one of the main reasons they were always hold back, since everything feels slow and sluggish compared to fast SSD's in PC.

One of the big advantages I see right now is being able to use the SSD's to their full potential. Even the xbox series X SSD is very fast. On PC you still have to expect most people playing on HDD's (yes most users have SSD's but use it for the operating system and other applications. With games being 50-100 GB most people dump them on the cheaper HDD).
I'll wait for new PC hardware and look how the price to performance ratio is. I definitively need and Upgrade, I just bought a 4K Monitor and my 1070 isnt doing it anymore for that resolution. If the PS5 actually has some decent exclusives early on I might buy that before upgrading the PC though. Dont need the xbox since everything is gonna be on PC anyway.

I dont think right now is a good time to upgrade, new stuff is way too close but prices for the old things are still way too high. Most hardware is gone up in price the past few months, at least here in germany. A 2070 Super is hard to get below 500 Euros, which is insane.
 

D.Final

Banned
Right now my PC has the following specs:

i7 6700k @ 4.2 GHz
16 GB DDR4 at 2133 MHz
GTX 1080
SSD + a few HDDs

So what I'm asking myself is, what will my experience in the next gen be if I don't upgrade at least my GPU for the next year or so? Based on what we know about the next gen consoles, how do you think how PC games will scale down to run on non-RTX GPUs? The 1080 is no slouch, but it doesn't have ray tracing off course.

Right now I don't have a lot of spare money to spend, and my potential upgrade option would be to sell my GTX 1080 for around EUR 300, and throw in another EUR 250 on top of that and buy a (maybe used) RTX 2070 Super. Would this make sense, or would a next gen console perform better than that configuration? Do I even need a super, or would a regular 2070 be sufficient for PS5/XSX-like performance? I game at 1080p. I do have a 4k TV that I would hook a console up to, but resolution is not that important for me. PC or console is also not super important for me, I'm fine with both.

At first sight, it probably makes more sense to upgrade my PC, but I'd be super frustrated if the next GPU gen comes out, and suddenly a 2070 or 2070 Super is shit because devs won't optimise PC versions well and it turns out I'll need to update once again to keep up with improving console optimization :/ Is the ray-tracing stuff in games that have it an ON/OFF switch, or does that usually have different quality sliders, so that one can lower that it for weaker GPUs?

The nice thing with a console would be that I spend (more) money once, and won't need to worry about upgrading for at least a couple of years until the console makers launch more powerful SKUs. But then there's the possibiliy that the new SKUs will basically make the base consoles obsolete, as has happened with Xbox One and the One X. Like, maybe the PS5 and XSX will be mostly be 4k/30 FPS and the next SKUs would be 4k/60 FPS, and suddenly I'd need to spend another couple hundred bucks on another console if I wanted to play at 60 FPS... I really hope graphics modes vs framerate modes will be more of a thing in the next gen, because right now devs are always using the increased power of the Pro and X to up the resolution, while performance gets worse. That's a nice advantage PCs have; I can decide if I want higher framerates or nicer graphics.

If you wish to play the exclusive games without waiting from the release, you need the console for that exclusive
 
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