"These price increases have multiple intertwining causes, some direct and some less so: inflation, pandemic-era supply crunches, the unpredictable trade policies of the Trump administration, and a gradual shift among console makers away from selling hardware at a loss or breaking even in the hopes that game sales will subsidize the hardware. And you never want to rule out good old shareholder-prioritizing corporate greed.
But one major factor, both in the price increases and in the reduction in drastic “slim”-style redesigns, is technical: the death of Moore’s Law and a noticeable slowdown in the rate at which processors and graphics chips can improve."
2060 super for 300, and then another 200 for a decent processor puts you ahead of a ps5 and for a comparable price. Games are cheaper on PC too, as well as a broader selection. https://pcpartpicker.com/list/zYGmJn here is a mid tier build for 850, you could cut the procesor down, install linux for free, and im sure youve got a computer monitor laying around somwhere… the only thing stopping you is inertia.
you’re going to have to really scrunge up for deals in order to get psu, storage, memory, motherboard, and a case for your remaining budget of $0.
This is $150 more expensive and the gpu is half as performant as the reported PS5 pro equivalent.
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Regarding that last point: consoles don’t come with TVs either, so you don’t even have to factor that in the cost of a gaming PC.
Furthermore, many modern TVs are now being designed with gaming in mind, and thus have input lag comparable to a good gaming monitor (like LG OLEDs and most Samsungs), so the whole concept of needing a dedicated monitor just for your PC is somewhat outdated now. If your TV is good enough for console gaming, then chances are it’s good enough for PC gaming too, so long as you did your research before buying and didn’t just buy whatever had a good picture on the showroom floor.
Also there’s the fact that multiplayer tends to be free on PC, so no subscription fees to worry about. The accessories tend to be cheaper as well.
$850 is way more expensive than a PS5 though lol. Linux also means you can’t play the games that top the most played charts on the PS5 every single month of every single year.
If you’re willing to get a base model, sure. The PS5 Pro is a $700 console, and that’s not including the subscription fee for multiplayer (which doesn’t exist on PC unless you’re into MMOs).
Edit: Also every Playstation (and Xbox) game eventually comes to PC, so unless you’re so impatient that you have to play the latest games right fucking now, there’s no reason to own a console. Even Switch games are fully playable on PC, at higher resolutions and framerates as well. I sold my Switch because the games look and run so much better on my gaming rig.
This isn’t true yet (the games thing). Playstation haven’t brought or even suggested that they’ll bring every game to PC. Microsoft are, sure, which is amazing - but Sony very much still want to protect their walled garden of consoles. Playstation, more specifically the 30% cut they get of all game sales, and their online subscription fees, are the only thing keeping Sony afloat. If sony were to go full PC like MS, Playstation and Sony would go down like the Titanic.
As for the “there’s no reason to own a console”, eh I see the point and I agree to an extent but I also disagree. My Series X’s UI is just so much better than any PC UI, not to mention the features. Quick resume for one is an absolute game changer, and it’s not on PC. Everything that you could ever want to do while playing online is just so much easier to do on a console than on a PC. I say this as someone who plays more and more on PC these days, and wishes I could boot my PC into a Xbox OS type UI.