Go to PC Picker and put something together at $200-$300 and it will be better than any last-gen console. The PS3 has the equivalent of 2005's Geforce 7800 which has long been surpassed by many low-tier GPUs.
Here was a recent deal for Radeon 6670 at $30; that will run circles around the last gen consoles. Before you say "well, that's sale price and unfair," sales like these are so common and constant that you can pick up something like this almost year-round. In a span of a couple of weeks, you will encounter enough parts on sale to put together an impressive little machine.
Here's one build for less than $300 but using only MSRP prices. Depending on your specific build and constant sales that pop up on parts, much better is doable. The biggest cost is really just the Windows license which may soon become a non-issue if SteamOS really takes off. Keep in mind that the $80~ or so for such a license is a fixed cost that will last years and much less than the console lifespan-long costs of XBL and PSN.
You made a stupid, broad claim and it was refuted. So now you're saying that in posts that highlight the advantages of PC gaming over console gaming, it MUST be explicitly pointed out to you that not "every single [PC] game runs flawlessly at 60fps and 1080p" ... when no one even implied such a thing? WHY? So the discussion can be "fair?" We're not babies here.
It's a moot point; 1080p/60fps is dependent on one's hardware and the game itself, hence the reason it doesn't need to be said each and every time. And again, WHY? That's not even the focal point of this argument and you're misdirecting discussion to a claim nobody has made (nor denied by not explicitly stating). You're deflecting the actual arguing points in this thread and baiting others into a non-argument with the use of a sweeping statement that is meant to portray PC gamers as deceiving individuals who overstate PC gaming performance.
The discussion we're having here is: can a gaming PC be built for about the same cost as a console and can it match or exceed the graphical performance of similar games on consoles? Yes. Performance-wise, PCs are a better value in 2014 and the value gap will continue to widen over this year and the following one to the point that there will be no doubt and Gamespot's article will become unnecessary and an unequivocal "duh." This thread will soon be pointless. For the first time ever, the price/performance gap between PCs and newly released consoles has practically vanished. This is what the thread is all about. The defensive folk are just arguing personal preferences irrelevant to facts.
