PC vs console gaming, the war of PC master race against couch gamers, and many other definitions the internet community made over the years. But, all memes and wars aside, which one is the best for you? 

The PC vs Console gaming choice is your call

When you make any decision or pick which is the best in any conversation or debate related to tech, you make the decision based on your needs. You are the one paying, and you will decide which is the best for your use case, knowing that there is a lot of flexibility in this age.

Our comparison will show no absolute winner. You’ll decide the winner by yourself, according to the aspects we will compare each device according to, and they are:

• Budget
• Performance
• Upgrading
• Usability
• Cost of ownership
• Available Games

Budget is probably the decider in PC vs console gaming debate

Budget is money, and money is the main decision-maker when it comes to any purchase. Let’s start with consoles, and we will find that the lowest priced console from the current generation is Xbox Series S, which costs around 950 AED during holiday seasons.

Moving over to the higher-end models, which are Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5, we find those costing around 1700-1900 AED, depending on the season and the bundle itself. If you’re lucky, you can get a bundle with two controllers to save more money.

For consoles, that’s pretty much it. You buy it, connect it to the TV or monitor, and boom. You’re ready to go; nothing will stop you.

For gaming PCs, it’s different. If you want a similarly performing PC to Xbox Series S, you’re going to pay at least triple the budget for a system that can give you better performance by a margin of 25%, for example, with the newest hardware available in the market as well.

This price can skyrocket to 10K-15K AED if you are willing to play with a higher frame rate compared to PS5 or Xbox Series X, making the comparison of gaming PC vs console seem ridiculous, and even on 4K or 8K resolutions.

To make this short, if you’re into casual gaming and you are on a budget, a console would be a better decision per performance, as you won’t get the same performance for the same cost in the PC world.

Performance is dynamic for PC, static for consoles

We will not get into technicalities here, and we will make it as easy as possible. With consoles, you’re stuck with the same performance almost on all titles. The big ones like Cyberpunk or Starfield will mostly run at 30 FPS on higher resolutions, or 60 FPS on 1080p, and it may even run at lower FPS on 1080p when you enable higher quality graphics like ray tracing.

PC is just another world, where everyone strives to have 60 FPS as a minimum, and some would go further to have more than 200 FPS in some cases like esports. Technically, a PC can run up to 4K and 120 FPS with the right hardware, which will cost more, but no console can provide you that resolution with a high frame rate and without upscaling an image from 1080p to 4K.

The quality of these games is something else too, where most video games running on modern-day consoles are running with medium or high graphics, while PC opens the portal to higher settings like Ultra with better quality overall, and the same goes for ray-tracing effects that add a sense of reality into games—the PC does it better with stronger hardware.

Upgrading is barely an option for consoles going to 2024

What is there to upgrade in a console? From the inside, only the SSD. You can’t upgrade the RAM, the GPU, the CPU, or any other piece inside it. You will be stuck with the same performance until the next generation, and you might even suffer from later titles like Cyberpunk with PlayStation 4.

But when it comes to PC, you can literally upgrade every piece to achieve the level of performance you’re seeking. It comes at a cost, but you have the option to do it, and with many budgets on the market.

From the outside, you can upgrade peripherals, that’s true. You can get better controllers and headsets for your PS5 or Xbox or upgrade your monitor, but the same upgrades are available to PC too, and even better in some cases for keyboards and mice too.

PC thrives on usability, unlike consoles that are only for gaming

This one will be a bit short, that’s true. But, what can you do with a console? You can only game, stream, consume web content like Netflix, and chat with others on audio while you play.

Are these bad options from the console? No, not at all. They’re just chill; you don’t want any kind of hassle and you come for a specific scenario, and you’re getting it in the simplest and cheapest form possible.

But a PC can literally do anything. You can go for gaming, video editing, content creation, work, code, stream, design, consume content, and more stuff over time. This might make consoles look weak, but consoles are made to only game.

If you are planning to only game, with no care about anything else, a console would be a good option. However, if you are planning on doing anything else with gaming, the PC is your best option, and maybe you can work on it and make it a source of income; who knows if it’s an investment in the making for you?

Cost of ownership is something else in PC vs console gaming debate

Don’t mix the cost of ownership with budget; they are totally different. When it comes to the budget, the console is a winner. Now, let’s say we have a PC and a console together; which one will cost you more over time?

That’s something a lot of people miss out on. Let’s start with video games, and they are the main reason anyone opts out to consoles or gaming PCs for, and you’ll find it a bit ridiculous.

PlayStation or Xbox stores price the games higher than PC platforms, like Epic or Steam, in Arab regions. Regional pricing is an important factor that Steam and Epic support, with good pricing options for the best games, and it’s better than PlayStation that prices them in terms of USD or EUR.

The same goes for their DLCs, and the worst thing is that the seasonal discounts don’t make it worth waiting for. Steam and Epic would drop big titles to 30% of their release prices, like EA Sports FC 24, that is now 22$ on Steam as we write this article.

That was it for games, and for running them, a PC would cost more in terms of electricity and internet usage in most cases, with many software installed that require upgrading, and with a higher video game size compared to consoles in most cases.

Available video games made the PC vs console gaming war

What a console gamer will really enjoy is having titles like God of War available on his platform, and only his platform. They get amazing video games from first-party developers, and they made a strong competition back in the day.

God of War vs. Gears of War, Killzone vs. Halo, and many other titles. But, let’s be honest here; it’s a bit from the past. All Xbox games are available for Windows now, and they are also available from Game Pass for 10 USD per month instead of buying them.

PlayStation shifted away from the exclusivity of titles, releasing games like God of War, Spiderman, Horizon Zero Dawn, Uncharted, and The Last of Us, which are all available on PC now. Yes, they might be released 2 or 3 years later, but they make it at the end.

PC vs Console gaming remains as a preference

This is the only truth in this “war” we see every day. Gaming is made to be fun, and nothing like PC vs Console gaming would decide who will have fun at the end of the day.

The decision, again, is yours. You pick the best for you and for your usage over time. All we can say is, if you decide to buy a gaming PC, hit us up, and we will tailor the best one according to that need of yours!

 

PC vs Console gaming: Which one to choose?

We are not pushing you to make a decision, but to make it easier, consider the following tips:

• If you want the best performance possible with minimal budget: console.
• If you aim for the best quality and frames, with big budget: PC.
• If you are into chilling on the couch with no hassle: PC.
• If you care about upgrading and using your gaming device for other uses: console.
• If you want to play exclusives on release: consol.e