Console vs. PC Gaming - Pros / Cons?

[msommers]

For anyone with deep pockets, Steiger Dynamics makes custom-to-order living room machines that are decked right out.

For the latest tech and build options (w/o software and extras like keyboard/mouse/TV), these things can be built for a jaw-dropping $16,500USD!

[brucebanner]

Originally posted by msommers
I'm not a serious gamer by any means and my plasma I believe tops out at 1080p resolution. But being able to have a gaming computer and serious media/audio center on the shelf would be nice.

Basically the whole reason for me starting the thread.

Lots of great info in here though.

[beecue]

Originally posted by msommers
[B]

I REALLY want to....The thing is I don't want the living room looking like this...

The problem for me would be that I would then need another device to store all my HDDs because these cases are too small.

I wonder if the steam link works well. I have the nvidia shield but I haven't really tried it out since I don't have a wireless m/k.

Then there is the issue of not being able to play cross-platform. I tried Gears of War 4 on PC last night and it worked pretty well with my friends on Xbox. Not all games are like this and the advantage would be ridiculous for good PC players. I can't even play with the m/k and I noticed a big difference. They are testing the cross play this weekend in public playlists.

The graphics are way better too. I only have a GTX 960 and I was running GOW with over 100fps. The decrease in performance on consoles doesn't really bother me though.

[Gman.45]

I connect to my 4k TV with one of my gaming PCs for a few games, I'll play StarCraft 2 and some driving games on the TV sometimes. THere are several great keyboard/mouse couch units out there now, allows you to couch sit and have a mini desk on your lap. The Roccat Sova, or Corsair Lapdog are both OK, I use the Corsair as a have a KB that fits it - I prefer my Ducky Shine 5, but Corsair's MX Blue switch KBs are pretty decent.

You know, when consoles (Sony/Xbox) decide to make a decent keyboard and mouse combo on a similar lapboard, they could seriously threaten PC gaming in this regard. Yes, I know there are a few uncommon deals like this, but I'm talking about a well built, marketed, and named Keyboard/Mouse for both the PS/# and Xbox/#. I'd probably buy whatever new consoles come out if there was such an animal, and games that supported it.

[Recca168]

Originally posted by schocker
^^^Have you tried the steam controller at all? I heard it can work ok with slower RTS probably something like CIV with the track pad. Haven't tried it myself though.

For those that also want to play on their tv, devices like a steam link or nvidia shield allow you to stream from your gaming pc to your TV. That way you can play on either setup.

Haven't tried it either. Didn't want to spend the $60 on a controller that I'd rarely use. I can't imagine it working that well. Probably wouldn't be as precise as using a mouse.

I tried the streaming feature though. Not really a fan. It definitely lags a bit.

[killramos]

Has anyone on here ever checked out the Razer turret?

Seems like a pretty cool way to do some couch gaming with a PC and a TV.

http://www.razerzone.com/ca-en/gamin...s/razer-turret

If it integrated with xbox one i would give it a shot personally, though i can't play shooters on PC to save my life and actually prefer controllers for some god awful reason.

[eglove]

Originally posted by killramos
Has anyone on here ever checked out the Razer turret?

Seems like a pretty cool way to do some couch gaming with a PC and a TV.

http://www.razerzone.com/ca-en/gamin...s/razer-turret

If it integrated with xbox one i would give it a shot personally, though i can't play shooters on PC to save my life and actually prefer controllers for some god awful reason.

It's terrible, bought one and promptly returned it the same day.

[killramos]

Wow! Fair enough then.

[A790]

Originally posted by eglove


It's terrible, bought one and promptly returned it the same day.

Details?

[eglove]

Originally posted by A790

Details?

Mousepad is so small you have to do "flicks" to get the low dpi mouse to go any where. The mouse would fall off if you were on any sort of incline. (Leaned back on the couch or leaning forward) Keyboard keys felt like they were glued to the board. Almost no travel not a very good tactile feel to them. It was just crammed. Kinda hard to use.

[n1zm0]

Originally posted by Gman.45
You know, when consoles (Sony/Xbox) decide to make a decent keyboard and mouse combo on a similar lapboard, they could seriously threaten PC gaming in this regard. Yes, I know there are a few uncommon deals like this, but I'm talking about a well built, marketed, and named Keyboard/Mouse for both the PS/# and Xbox/#. I'd probably buy whatever new consoles come out if there was such an animal, and games that supported it.

Will never ever happen neither will cross platform (PC to consoles) for most shooter games, adapters like XIM4/TACPro do this though, albeit with much backlash from console controller users. I can say at least for myself using an adapter on the last gen consoles for shooters, it really isn't fair vs the run of the mill console player.


http://gizmodo.com/5593116/were-pc-g...gaming-project

[OTown]

I think its all about how much you want to spend at the end of the day. If you only have a few hundred bucks, then get a console. If you have 600+ get a PC.

Theres a reason why #PCMASTERRACE is a thing.

With a PC you can do it pretty much all (other than the console exclusive games - but you make up for PC exclusive games). You can couch game with a controller, you can surf the internet, you can mod the shit out of games, you can use it as a workstation or photoshopping, you can use it for media player or stream, FPS+RPGS+strat games are amazing on PC... i mean the list goes on. But at the end of the day if you cant afford it then you will be happy with a console either way.

[Gman.45]

Agreed Otown. You can build a 1060 equipped gaming PC for well under $1000 CDN now, that will play pretty much everything in 1080p on either a monitor or TV. You can run multiple sources for output, monitor(s), monitor(s) + a TV, plus there are the various Steam/nVidia doo dads/controllers/screens/units you can use to remotely stream to other sources from your gaming desk too now. It's a great time to get back into PC gaming, or to start up for the first time. There are few things a console can do that a PC can't, and the PC gives you so many other options. I do realize there are a few great games that are console specific, great to enough to warrant the 3 or 4 hundred bucks the console costs. I understand the convenience of consoles as well, a bit less work and time to set up and such, but the PC has really closed that gap in recent years.

I ran a gaming website based in Calgary back in the late 90s up to the dot.com crash, which killed our 15 million dollar IPO. We had 1 million uniques/month, 250,000 registered users/forum members, 50 million hits/month, and were Nucleus's 2nd biggest colocated customer, with only a porn conglomerate of many sites eating more bandwidth than our site (it was a military/simulation gaming website). Anyhow, I bring this up, as I was told back then by our Microsoft gaming rep we spoke to and did our deals with for banner adds, that they had this coded named "xbox" thing, that would be a decent PC in a console case, and that PC gaming would DIE. That was the big line in those days, consoles would kill the PC gaming market. It looked for a period of time that they were correct, but, like many things, the tide changed on that one, and PC gaming is IMO as strong as it has ever been. I also remember when Steam/Valve told us all about their fantastic idea of distributing games via the internet. I laughed, and told them I thought that was crazy, that nobody would spend the same $ and not get a disc, box, manual, etc, and be happy about it. Bad call on that one, as Steam has, for better or worse, been a strong component for keeping PC gaming going strong.

The games are pretty fantastic these days as well. Eve online, still is mind boggling to me, in the detail, scope, and participation. I play mainly WW2 online flight sims, DCS online jet/helo sims as well, but still play CS Go, Starcraft 2, and pretty much everything else that comes along. There are a lot of great new things coming in the near future too, Star Citizen/Sqd 42, many others.

VR has made a huge impact too, even though it's sort of flatlined a bit, the potential for future VR games and tech is bright. When they are able to make higher res lenses and headsets, it'll be a must have IMO. I have several sets, Rifts, Vives, and the Razer open source OSVR. A great new first person VR shooter, "Onward" for the Vive, is a great showcase of what FPS games can and will evolve and adapt into, in short order too. All the flight sims, DCS, Aces High, War Thunder, and so forth, take great advantage of the Rift, which is superior for in cockpit games than the Vive, largely by virtue of its drivers/etc being more mature and easier for developers to work with.

Internet connections have made great leaps too. We had a T1 and later a T3 back in the days of my gaming website, and my at home connex were the best you could buy back then, but sucked compared to what we get now. Pings, d/l rates, consistent solid connections, are pretty common for reasonable prices now. I have the same grandfathered 250 plan Rage 2 has with Shaw, in both my Calgary and Sask homes, and have the Saktel fiber Infinite 260 down 60 up connection, which has no bandwidth cap, and amazingly low ping times to nearly all Canadian and US gaming servers I use across a swath of different games.

Peripherals are fantastic now too. I collect flight sim HOTAS sets, and mechanical keyboards as well. I have 19 HOTAS from various makers/years, from the TM Warthog, to all the custom VKB sticks and pedals, and 5 different rudder pedal custom sets as well. I have several of the original IBM M buckling spring mech keyboards, a couple Unicomps which are the decendents of those, and a good dozen various Corsair, Roccat, Ducky Shines (I use the 5 as my main primary gaming KB, cherry blue, but I have a brown too). Various gaming mice, TrackIR headsets, various audio options such as different types of mics, DACs, headsets, headPHONES - the options are endless, which is a great thing. Again, a great time to be a PC gamer, so many options, and interesting as well as functional new perifs and other gadgets here, and more coming.

Last bit - stores. I've been a loyal MemEx customer since they had just the shop on McLoed near door to the great Indian food restaurant. Even when I spend most of my year at CFB Moose Jaw, I always, always order from MemEx - the same store - and have my picked parts assembled, tested, and shipped from there. They have NEVER, ever let me down, and have been very accomdating and generous over the years. I have built dozens of machines through them, right from my first AMD P200 with the 3dfx 4mb card, all the way up to my recent Broadwell E 6850 with 2 1080/SLI, and pretty much loaded, and my 27" ROG Swifts and my 34" ROG Swift LCDs. Great company, I've only needed to use the warranty once, and they honored it immediately. I'm sure there are other options out there for buying PC gaming equipment, this is just another feature of the great times we're in for PC gamers, there are lots of good, solid companies to deal with.

Last bit - anyone else fondly remember when Future Shop/etc would have 2 or 3 isles of shelves with 3 or 4 rows, FILLED with PC boxed games for sale? I'm talking like 50 feet x 3 rows of 3 shelves deep of stuff for sale. I sort of miss that, now you go into Staples or whatever and the PC gaming sales area is about 5 feet wide by 3 shelves deep, if that. Such has the internet and online fast distribution done for the retail gaming market - again, at the time when Valve/Steam was introducing that, I'd never have thought it would completely supplant retail gaming sales the way it did. StarCraft 2's first initial release in 2010 was the last boxed game I bought

[RickDaTuner]

I think my biggest factor between of/console is power consumtion

I can run a 60" Plasma TV with a PS4, 6 hours day, and see maybe a $15-20 the power bill/month
But running a PC/43" LED Monitor, with a 750w power supply using about 450w-500w of that costs me anywhere between $10-$15 on 4-6hrs/day of use. Wouldn't be uncommon to get $300-$400 power bills, living alone in medium sized townhouse.

4K gaming is great, and PCs can get you there for sub a $1k setup, but the graphics don't really make use of the resolution (IMO anyway), things still look very cartoony, or you get repetative looking textures that dull the whole experience.

But depending on the game I still use either.

[msommers]

If I could get a small-box solution that can run games on a 60" at 4K with high FPS reliably for years, large storage capacity for games and music, play blu rays..I'd definitely move away from the Xbox One and just use the controller.

If this can be done for $1000 out the door I'd probably do it right now. But I very quickly get up to $1,700+ using Parts Picker which to me is a little nuts for gaming, playing music and watching movies/Netflix.

I'm sure it can be done for cheaper but I've never been one to build a PC not using quality hardware, which doesn't equate to cutting-edge tech, imo. For how long my PC has lasted me over the years (built with the help of Beyonders here "Are Desktops Dead?,") it's probably paid for itself by now.

[taemo]

finally have a little more extra time to play games for the next couple of months, anyone have input regarding the following?

1. upgrade my GTX 960 4GB SC to GTX 1060 6GB SC?
going to play Overwatch, BF1, Civ6, South Park on 1440p screen

2. what's the general consensus with mechanical keyboards? do they really help?
I've been using a wireless MS keyboard for over 6 years and never had any issues, battery doesn't want to die either

[A790]

Originally posted by taemo
finally have a little more extra time to play games for the next couple of months, anyone have input regarding the following?

1. upgrade my GTX 960 4GB SC to GTX 1060 6GB SC?
going to play Overwatch, BF1, Civ6, South Park on 1440p screen

2. what's the general consensus with mechanical keyboards? do they really help?
I've been using a wireless MS keyboard for over 6 years and never had any issues, battery doesn't want to die either

The upgrade to the 1060 is significant (http://gpuboss.com/gpus/GeForce-GTX-...Force-GTX-1060).

What's the rest of your system look like? The 1060, assuming it's backed up with the right CPU/RAM combo, should do the job you're asking it to

RE: mechanical keyboards, I switched from a membrane-style keyboard to a Corsair mechanical about six months ago and haven't looked back. I type faster, it's satisfying to use, and comes with cool LED lights (ok, "cool" may not be the right word...)

[taemo]

Originally posted by A790


The upgrade to the 1060 is significant (http://gpuboss.com/gpus/GeForce-GTX-...Force-GTX-1060).

What's the rest of your system look like? The 1060, assuming it's backed up with the right CPU/RAM combo, should do the job you're asking it to

RE: mechanical keyboards, I switched from a membrane-style keyboard to a Corsair mechanical about six months ago and haven't looked back. I type faster, it's satisfying to use, and comes with cool LED lights (ok, "cool" may not be the right word...)

Ahh just what i was worried to hear, have a GTX 1060 and mech keyboard on my amazon shopping cart

Rig is a miniITX i5-4460, 16GB, Win10 Pro

[BigMass]

Originally posted by msommers
If I could get a small-box solution that can run games on a 60" at 4K with high FPS reliably for years, large storage capacity for games and music, play blu rays..I'd definitely move away from the Xbox One and just use the controller.

If this can be done for $1000 out the door I'd probably do it right now. But I very quickly get up to $1,700+ using Parts Picker which to me is a little nuts for gaming, playing music and watching movies/Netflix.

I'm sure it can be done for cheaper but I've never been one to build a PC not using quality hardware, which doesn't equate to cutting-edge tech, imo. For how long my PC has lasted me over the years (built with the help of Beyonders here "Are Desktops Dead?,&quot it's probably paid for itself by now.

https://www.zotac.com/us/product/min...indows-10-home

It's tiny and runs cool and quiet. About the size of a router.

Price is gonna hurt because it's new but it's about the best form factor you can buy with these specs.

They make a watercooled one with a 1080 but I don't even want to know the price on that so I didn't even bother linking to it lol.

[A790]

Originally posted by taemo



Ahh just what i was worried to hear, have a GTX 1060 and mech keyboard on my amazon shopping cart

Rig is a miniITX i5-4460, 16GB, Win10 Pro

Why not 1070?

And congrats- enjoy your new setup!