3 ms·

Since we’re talking about Xbox and cost here I have a question for the HN crowd. I’m always amazed that a $500 console can run games better than a $1500 PC. I

by habosa 6y ago

Since we’re talking about Xbox and cost here I have a question for the HN crowd. I’m always amazed that a $500 console can run games better than a $1500 PC. I know these consoles are sold at a loss, but how much? What are the components worth? Also would a console be any good as a PC if you could get a common OS running on it?

tw04 6y ago
They generally can't, as cyberpunk showed. More often than not the console version has lower quality graphics than their PC counterpart is capable of.
- staticman2 6y ago
  There is no PS5/ Xbox One X version of cyberpunk. One will launch end of 2021. Cyberpunk is a bad example.
clubsoda 6y ago
> I’m always amazed that a $500 console can run games better than a $1500 PC. I cannot think of an instance where that statement is true. Perhaps you meant $500 console can perform moderately well compared to a $1500 PC? If a game runs better on a console then its PC counterpart, then it usually the developer not optimizing the game properly. > Also would a console be any good as a PC if you could get a common OS running on it? PS2 OS was based on Linux. It was not impossible to get a Linux disto running. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_for_PlayStation_2?wprov= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_for_PlayStation_2?wprov=...
boardwaalk 6y ago
> I’m always amazed that a $500 console can run games better than a $1500 PC. It'd be amazing if true (because it doesn't make sense), but it's not. "[The PS5] is about equivalent to a mid to high end gaming PC from five years ago" [1] [1] https://youtu.be/HCvE4JGJujk?t=1953 https://youtu.be/HCvE4JGJujk?t=1953
- staticman2 6y ago
  There's no question a new gaming pc equivalent to a ps5 will be much more expensive than a ps5.
- Terretta 6y ago
  Not really. See this for details: https://www.kotaku.com.au/2020/12/ps5-xbox-series-x-cost-of-pc-australia/ https://www.kotaku.com.au/2020/12/ps5-xbox-series-x-cost-of-... Not the section for what you get for the same price, the section for what you’d have to spend to match the specs and performance including 120fps at 4K, ray tracing, and streaming texture loads from nvme and so on.
Terretta 6y ago
Article from Nov 2020: “This Is How Much It Would Cost You To Build A PC To Rival The PS5, Xbox Series X” https://www.kotaku.com.au/2020/12/ps5-xbox-series-x-cost-of-pc-australia/ https://www.kotaku.com.au/2020/12/ps5-xbox-series-x-cost-of-... TL;DR: author finds the parts to build a comparable performance PC in Australian dollars would be $2600 AUD versus $750 AUD for the console.
kyriakos 6y ago
Not really true, one is that games are more optimised for the specific hardware but generally pc game versions are almost always superior than console counterparts
rasz 6y ago
Thats because consoles are software locked out of mining cryptocurrency and ML. GPU equalling PS5 performance is somewhere between 2070 Super and 2080TI, $1-2K right there. Microsoft and Sony make additional money on game licenses so cheap hardware is in their best interest. Just imagine what would happen if someone managed to publish a TensorFlow "game" allowing you to use current gen consoles in distributed machine learning workloads.

by habosa 6y ago

tw04 6y ago

They generally can't, as cyberpunk showed. More often than not the console version has lower quality graphics than their PC counterpart is capable of.

staticman2 6y ago
There is no PS5/ Xbox One X version of cyberpunk. One will launch end of 2021. Cyberpunk is a bad example.

clubsoda 6y ago

> I’m always amazed that a $500 console can run games better than a $1500 PC. I cannot think of an instance where that statement is true. Perhaps you meant $500 console can perform moderately well compared to a $1500 PC? If a game runs better on a console then its PC counterpart, then it usually the developer not optimizing the game properly. > Also would a console be any good as a PC if you could get a common OS running on it? PS2 OS was based on Linux. It was not impossible to get a Linux disto running. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_for_PlayStation_2?wprov= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_for_PlayStation_2?wprov=...

boardwaalk 6y ago

> I’m always amazed that a $500 console can run games better than a $1500 PC. It'd be amazing if true (because it doesn't make sense), but it's not. "[The PS5] is about equivalent to a mid to high end gaming PC from five years ago" [1] [1] https://youtu.be/HCvE4JGJujk?t=1953 https://youtu.be/HCvE4JGJujk?t=1953

staticman2 6y ago
There's no question a new gaming pc equivalent to a ps5 will be much more expensive than a ps5.
Terretta 6y ago
Not really. See this for details: https://www.kotaku.com.au/2020/12/ps5-xbox-series-x-cost-of-pc-australia/ https://www.kotaku.com.au/2020/12/ps5-xbox-series-x-cost-of-... Not the section for what you get for the same price, the section for what you’d have to spend to match the specs and performance including 120fps at 4K, ray tracing, and streaming texture loads from nvme and so on.

Terretta 6y ago

Article from Nov 2020: “This Is How Much It Would Cost You To Build A PC To Rival The PS5, Xbox Series X” https://www.kotaku.com.au/2020/12/ps5-xbox-series-x-cost-of-pc-australia/ https://www.kotaku.com.au/2020/12/ps5-xbox-series-x-cost-of-... TL;DR: author finds the parts to build a comparable performance PC in Australian dollars would be $2600 AUD versus $750 AUD for the console.

kyriakos 6y ago

Not really true, one is that games are more optimised for the specific hardware but generally pc game versions are almost always superior than console counterparts

rasz 6y ago

Thats because consoles are software locked out of mining cryptocurrency and ML. GPU equalling PS5 performance is somewhere between 2070 Super and 2080TI, $1-2K right there. Microsoft and Sony make additional money on game licenses so cheap hardware is in their best interest. Just imagine what would happen if someone managed to publish a TensorFlow "game" allowing you to use current gen consoles in distributed machine learning workloads.