PC Gaming Too Expensive, Switching to Consoles, so long [H]

High end is definitely pricier these days than it used to be. I remember the 1080 TI being priced at around a $1000 cdn yet the 2080 TI is priced at $1600 cdn. That's not a small jump for a card meant to replace the previous gen high end card.
The current top end card used to come in priced at the original msrp of the previous gen top end card, not this time though.
 
It's two sides of a coin. People who are happy with being able to play all the latest games and decent settings and decent performance, and people like me and a lot of others on this forum who won't settle for less than everything turned up (hell, I'm even thinking of grabbing another 2080 TI this week). It's the same argument as anything else. People who upgrade their phones every year, people who upgrade their cars every 3 years, etc. Different strokes.

But people who suffer from this "not good enough" disorder will do the exact same thing on consoles, and the top-end TVs and sound systems they're attached to Because there are upgrades released for consoles every 3 years, and "must have " accessories like PSVR.

He just has no self-control, and is blaming it on PC games, and using it as an excuse to open up his wallet for even more giving into his weakness.
 
But people who suffer from this "not good enough" disorder will do the exact same thing on consoles, and the top-end TVs and sound systems they're attached to Because there are upgrades released for consoles every 3 years, and "must have " accessories like PSVR.

He just has no self-control, and is blaming it on PC games, and using it as an excuse to open up his wallet for even more giving into his weakness.

Absolutely, and I'm guilty of it myself. I buy the top end TV's and make sure that I have the best possible setup to enjoy playing video games, because it's my favorite hobby by far, and I can sustain it financially (wasn't always able to). Anything less isn't worth my time and money, it is what it is. I'm not defending anything other than good games deserving to be played, regardless of the system.

With his last post, I think he's just frustrated and can't justify the cost to play at the level he wants, and that's pretty understandable. With that, I'm also unsure if he's buying into the entire sphere that is console gaming (TV, sound system, etc.).
 
With that, I'm also unsure if he's buying into the entire sphere that is console gaming (TV, sound system, etc.).

When he discovers how high an input lag his old TV has,he will be "forced" to upgrade it. Might as well upgrade the rest of his equipment.

Might as well complain about water being wet. He will find something to optimize no matter where he goes.
 
I love my PC but consoles do have some great games too. I barely have time to think about upgrading my PC with my busy life of work, wife and kids. Console is just perfect to blow a quick 20 minutes here or there.
 
He could spend $270 on a controller like I did :ROFLMAO:.

Mild tangent - how do you like those? GF's brother got one a while back (he didn't get it loaded with all of the features like rubber coating or the programmable buttons), and he seems to enjoy how it feels. I was debating grabbing one but I think for my style nowadays (having switched over to PC for FPS) I don't think I'd get the mileage out of it.
 
But people who suffer from this "not good enough" disorder will do the exact same thing on consoles, and the top-end TVs and sound systems they're attached to Because there are upgrades released for consoles every 3 years, and "must have " accessories like PSVR.

He just has no self-control, and is blaming it on PC games, and using it as an excuse to open up his wallet for even more giving into his weakness.

That's not really true. You can blow as much on a sound system for a console as a PC and PC monitors go well above the cost of high end TVs.


He could spend $270 on a controller like I did :ROFLMAO:.

You can do this on the PC as well. And oh god racing platforms on both consoles and pcs
 
The reason I spent $3,000 is cause I refuse to compromise when it comes to PC gaming. If I'm gaming on PC, I'm trying to max out settings and enjoy PC gaming in all its glory.

It's go big or go home for me.

I spent about $2500 on my last PC build in December-I don't have a 2080Ti or i9 CPU, but its fast enough for anything I throw at it. I'd like to get a 120hz monitor, but had an unexpected Tax bill this year, so that killed off that idea.

My old PC is in the basement enjoying retirement, just being used as a general use PC in my hobby area.
 
The PS4 I bought was the biggest waste of money I have spent!!! Bought it 4-5 years ago & it has been used a handful of times at the very most! The original "fat" 60GB PS3 (that sits next to the PS4) gets/got more use than the PS4 so you don't need the latest & greatest to play & enjoy games even on a console. Same goes for PC hardware. You only need the latest & greatest if you really want to play the latest titles at the maximum settings. Games that you played at a high setting 4 years ago are still going to run at that setting today on the same hardware (maybe even better with better optimised drivers). Even a used GTX970 will play most games at a high setting especially at 1080p - you have a couple of 1070's so they will perform even better! Unless your current games support Ray Tracing, you don't really need a RTX so the 1070's will be just as good as a 2070 give or take a few frames either way. I have just changed my machine from a i7 4770K @ 4.2GHz with 32GB of DDR3 to a i7 8700 @ 4.3GHZ with 32GB of DDR4 & the frame rates I am getting out of the games I play on the same RTX2070 are within 5-10fps of each other. If I had known that the performance increase was going to be so low, I wouldn't have upgraded! That's my error & in no way has put me off PC gaming in the slightest! I am a disabled person that is on a very low income due to the disability but I still manage by upgrading when I really need to upgrade instead of doing so for the sake of it (I upgraded as my wifes laptop died so it was a choice between buying her a new laptop or upgrading my machine & giving her my hand me downs).
 
I've been a PC gamer since early 2000s getting hooked on the original Far Cry when my friend gave me his GeForce ti 4400.

In 2008, I bought my first real gaming PC with Phenom 9500 paired with a GTX 275 for $500 CAD. This quickly turned into Phenom II 965 ($150) with GTX 470s in SLI ($600), a couple years later an FX-8350 ($250) w/ GTX 670s in SLI ($850) all the way to my current system build a few years back 6700K ($450) w/ GTX 1070s in SLI ($1,400).

With each build the cost of the PC seems to go up exponentially. My latest computer set me back around $3,000 CAD total not including my 4k monitor and case.

At the time I got into PC gaming, the cost wasn't too much of a barrier but now with the cost of RTX cards and less bang for the buck I'm thinking I may have to reluctantly go back to being a console gamer...

GTX X70s were always great value as they typically equaled the flagship performance of the previous generation or better but now its not even that and again the cost is making it less and less affordable.

Its a shame cause I really love PC gaming, running games in all their graphical glory, the precision of keyboard and mouse... Until prices come back down to reasonable levels (which may be never) I may have to say good bye to this hobby (unless I win the lotto) which gave me so much joy and dust off my consoles.

I will check back to this site here and there and try to stay up-to-date on the latest hardware and news but I won't be on this site as much... It was a great run and thank you to all who helped me along this journey.

PC Gaming will always have a special place in my heart...

So long AMD, Intel and Nvidia...

Hello, my old friend Playstation T_T

So a couple things... I can TOTALLY understand where you are coming from. PC gaming CAN be expensive if you just always want to get the latest and greatest. However, I think you may have been making some mistakes in your PC gaming history... First I am not too sure if you budgeted correctly with your previous builds. Obviously if you want to run your games in all their "graphical glory" you have to pay to play. That being said, you don't HAVE to get the latest and greatest to play the games you really want and have them look good. If you budget correctly for your needs you will have a PC that will last you a long time, and then you can take advantage of the consistently cheaper price of PC games. While console gaming does offer used games to purchase, PC games have literally dozens and dozens of places that sell game keys and for quite cheap.

Last year when I sold my computer I told myself i'd never build another computer... I had my Xbox One X, PS4 Pro, and Nintendo Switch so I didn't need a PC for gaming... I could just play games on my consoles and buy a laptop to do everything else but game. But guess what... I went through at least 4 or 5 laptops before I tried some gaming laptops before I completely gave up and just built another computer. Every laptop I tried was just disappointing and I was never satisfied. I love console gaming and always have and will never give that up, but there is just something wonderful about gaming on the PC... it's hard to describe. The PC for me has always been about doing literally everything I want in my life... it will accomplish every task I throw at it, and also any game I throw at it. It's great we are in a new golden age of PC gaming because the amount of support and recognition PC gaming has gotten has been great.

In terms of the cost... I always attributed PC gaming as such... I spent a lot of money to full build a new PC every 5 years or so... I go balls-out on the build and then I upgrade fully every 5 years or so... doing that I also historically spend a lot less on PC games than console games. I just find them for cheaper over the course of ownership. Console gaming I stick with for exclusives and multiplayer specifically to Xbox since all my friends are on Xbox Live.

In any case, I think if you are quitting PC gaming because of the cost you're doing something wrong... I mean there are SO many freaking components out there and especially Nvidia videocards that I am sure you could get a winning combination for a fairly good price.
 
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Mild tangent - how do you like those? GF's brother got one a while back (he didn't get it loaded with all of the features like rubber coating or the programmable buttons), and he seems to enjoy how it feels. I was debating grabbing one but I think for my style nowadays (having switched over to PC for FPS) I don't think I'd get the mileage out of it.
It's all in that thread. TL;DR best controller I've ever used, not worth $270. Buy the $199.95 base model and the $15 accessory pack if you want one, instead.
 
Without getting too far into the weeds, you can still play most titles at the same detail level as the PS4/X1 with pretty old hardware. Especially on the CPU front. You can rock CPU/Mobo setups from 10+ years ago.
It's easy to get caught up with pricey video cards and NVMe drives, but you can duplicate a console experience for far, far less. They're usually only pushing 30fps with medium details and upscaled resolutions.
The up-front cost is obviously higher, but you're also buying something that will last longer. Especially in this era of the Xbox One X and PS4 Pro.
PC gaming is still more expensive most of the time, but it's not that crazy if you're simply trying to duplicate the console experience. Where you get caught is when you try and best the console experience.
 
But for the cost of a console or more than a console the PC experience just isn't as good.

if you are talking about the included blu ray drive, i agree. one can not build a similar PC with Bd drive for the console price.
but one can certainly build a $400 PC that gives a PS4/ Xbone a run for its money.
 
if you are talking about the included blu ray drive, i agree. one can not build a similar PC with Bd drive for the console price.
but one can certainly build a $400 PC that gives a PS4/ Xbone a run for its money.

That may be true but you can't build a similar-priced PC for the performance of the Xbox One X.
 
I think a relevant comment here is that I've spent tons of money on PC parts for gaming and I came to the conclusion that I got no more enjoyment than I would have had I spent half as much on gaming PC. I realized that I got the high out of actually upgrading than I did playing games at better settings. Maybe not the same for everyone but this was my experience.
 
I think a relevant comment here is that I've spent tons of money on PC parts for gaming and I came to the conclusion that I got no more enjoyment than I would have had I spent half as much on gaming PC. I realized that I got the high out of actually upgrading than I did playing games at better settings. Maybe not the same for everyone but this was my experience.

Yeah I seem to spend more time tinkering and upgrading than actually playing. So I must enjoy it on some level :)
 
I mean, I play a good number of games at 4K60 on my undervolted Vega 64 which was $300 and change used. I'm still using a 3970X at 4.4Ghz and am 100% GPU bottlenecked st 4K. Nothing about my system is expensive, yet it looks and runs MANY times better than any console. Also...mouse+keyboard. 'Nuf said.
 
With each build the cost of the PC seems to go up exponentially. My latest computer set me back around $3,000 CAD total not including my 4k monitor and case.

I think you might have a caviar taste on a Mcdonalds budget.

PC gaming isn't that expensive as opposed to consoles, especially when buying games. Lower your hardware requirements, you can have a good time at 1080p or 1440p for under 600 dollars if you shop around (way under if you're lucky).
 
I think you might have a caviar taste on a Mcdonalds budget.

PC gaming isn't that expensive as opposed to consoles, especially when buying games. Lower your hardware requirements, you can have a good time at 1080p or 1440p for under 600 dollars if you shop around (way under if you're lucky).

That was the strange thing about OP's post I couldn't understand... nobody needs a 4K monitor. Even I had a 4K monitor with my 1080ti build and with my 2080ti I bought a 1440p monitor and I am a lot happier. Also, OP had done SLI before too and whatnot... so really I think if OP just budgeted better for his/her needs then the problem of increasing costs wouldn't be so much of a deal. You don't NEED the latest and greatest every build to really get some good performance and nice graphics, but I think OP doesn't get that. If you buy the best every time you build a PC and if you do it often enough then sure the prices would be more nowadays, but if you budget properly and only buy what you really need then you would be fine.
 
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The OP knows he doesn’t need a race car to run games but as he said in a later post, “go big or go home.” His bar is to have everything and the cost of a top of the line PC has indeed gone up over the years (although, not as you might think when you adjust for inflation).
A console is in line with the price of low-end PC gaming so the price difference should be huge (at least for the gaming machine). There are displays and sound systems you could blow 1000$s on. Hopefully he won’t fall down that rabbit hole. A nice 4K screen for $500 USD and some decent speakers is all you will need.
 
That was the strange thing about OP's post I couldn't understand... nobody needs a 4K monitor. Even I had a 4K monitor with my 1080ti build and with my 2080ti I bought a 1440p monitor and I am a lot happier. Also, OP had done SLI before too and whatnot... so really I think if OP just budgeted better for his/her needs then the problem of increasing costs wouldn't be so much of a deal. You don't NEED the latest and greatest every build to really get some good performance and nice graphics, but I think OP doesn't get that. If you buy the best every time you build a PC and if you do it often enough then sure the prices would be more nowadays, but if you budget properly and only buy what you really need then you would be fine.

Ya I don't think he's actually going to solve the problem. His problem is wanting to have "the best", however that is defined in his head at the time, and not having the resources to do it. Problem is any hobby can suck up money like that. Maybe you think getting a console fixes it since you can't buy the next best thing all the time. While that is true of the console itself, it certainly isn't true of the overall experience. Even ignoring all the accessories and such for the console itself there are two big, BIG places to spend money: The TV and the sound system. Sure you can just hook your console up to your existing TV but man, a bigger one would be nice, and they support HDR these days. So maybe a nice 65" FALD Vizio TV ($1000). Well, maybe actually a Quantum Dot version for full DCI-P3 coverage ($1300). Actually it would be nice if it had variable refresh rate and 1440 support so maybe the Sony instead ($1700), well how about the 75" Sony ($2800) bigger is better. You know since I'm already looking at all these features, maybe a full out QLED one for lots of backlight zones and better contrast ratios like the Samsung Q90 ($4500). On second though, OLED really is the way to go because it is so fast so let's just get an LG C8 ($7000).

Same deal on the sound side, you can spend all kinds of money getting a nice receiver, amps, speakers, etc... and then something like Atmos comes out and now there even MORE to get and the consoles are supporting it so... and then of course next year there's all new TVs, receivers, etc that claim to be an improvement over what you have now.

If the problem is a need to have "the best" and an inability to moderate spending... well going console isn't likely to help. There's lots of things to spend lots of money on and companies are always working on ways to get you to spend more. The real answer is to get comfortable with having "good enough" and making that "good enough" fit in your budget.
 
You aren't kidding about any hobby being able to suck up money. PC gaming is expensive, but my gun collecting, shooting, gun projects and car projects are vastly more expensive. PC gaming has a ceiling. Your motherboard and many components don't really need to be top end to get the best FPS. You need the best GPU on the market, the CPU with the fastest IPC, and a modest amount of cores, fast RAM and a good display. It's expensive, but a few thousand gets the job done. For firearms, its easy to spend several thousand dollars on a single gun. By the time you through a high quality optic on it or some mods the price goes up tremendously depending on the type of shooting your doing. And while you can really only use one PC at a time to play games, you always want another gun. Cars? You can drop tens of thousands of dollars into any car to make it go faster. Then there is the upkeep on that. If you break something major, you often just have to buy it again or buy something that's stronger or will work better for you.
 
I know your feel. I'm only mildly in to shooting and I have about $2500 in my SIG516 between the gun itself, optics, trigger improvement, ergonomics, etc. It isn't even a particularly expensive gun but I found a way to make it expensive :). Thankfully cars don't hold any interest to me, otherwise I'd probably live in a box to be able to have a nice car :D.
 
Try shooting for a good - high end but not necessarily top end and you can save some money.
I initially put together my rig for about $1500 maybe 5 or so years ago (haswell era) then over time upgraded as I saw fit. A ssd (got it as a gift), 144hz monitor ($300) then eventually a gtx 1080 ($660). And these prices are Canadian.

I'm running my 4670k at a modest overclock at 4ghz, paired with my gtx 1080 and gaming on my 144hz monitor @1080p has been great so far. Everything I enjoy playing runs damn near perfect and will likely be that way for a while.
 
I've been a PC gamer since early 2000s getting hooked on the original Far Cry when my friend gave me his GeForce ti 4400.

In 2008, I bought my first real gaming PC with Phenom 9500 paired with a GTX 275 for $500 CAD. This quickly turned into Phenom II 965 ($150) with GTX 470s in SLI ($600), a couple years later an FX-8350 ($250) w/ GTX 670s in SLI ($850) all the way to my current system build a few years back 6700K ($450) w/ GTX 1070s in SLI ($1,400).

With each build the cost of the PC seems to go up exponentially. My latest computer set me back around $3,000 CAD total not including my 4k monitor and case.

At the time I got into PC gaming, the cost wasn't too much of a barrier but now with the cost of RTX cards and less bang for the buck I'm thinking I may have to reluctantly go back to being a console gamer...

GTX X70s were always great value as they typically equaled the flagship performance of the previous generation or better but now its not even that and again the cost is making it less and less affordable.

Its a shame cause I really love PC gaming, running games in all their graphical glory, the precision of keyboard and mouse... Until prices come back down to reasonable levels (which may be never) I may have to say good bye to this hobby (unless I win the lotto) which gave me so much joy and dust off my consoles.

I will check back to this site here and there and try to stay up-to-date on the latest hardware and news but I won't be on this site as much... It was a great run and thank you to all who helped me along this journey.

PC Gaming will always have a special place in my heart...

So long AMD, Intel and Nvidia...

Hello, my old friend Playstation T_T
This is the stupidest post I've read this year and I've been reading the Star Citizen thread.
 
I rarely game on the PC now a days outside of vacation time but I am writing code all day while taking breaks to play Tetris 99 on my switch. It doesn't have to be a binary option, and the cost of hardware is so far down right now unless you must push 4k or high fps it is a good time to do PC gaming.
 
I rarely game on the PC now a days outside of vacation time but I am writing code all day while taking breaks to play Tetris 99 on my switch. It doesn't have to be a binary option, and the cost of hardware is so far down right now unless you must push 4k or high fps it is a good time to do PC gaming.

This for me but I've been playing the NES classic and the Classic CV style bloodstained mostly on the PC.
 
I too have been considering this option. Just a quick 30m here and there as someone mentioned. We don't own any televisions though so that'd be a big hit to the wallet. I've simply decided to stick with 1080 gaming on a 60hz monitor. Waiting for AMD to come out with their new stuff and update with the previous gen CPU/MoBo. Should get out fairly cheap. Cheaper than a proper television at least.
 
I agree with the OP, Nvidia got to greedy, and top end GPU prices are insanity.
The RX Vega 64 can almost match the 1080 Ti in a lot of games these days and you can still buy it. The RTX 2080 gives you a little better than 1080 Ti performance for the same price.
 
The RX Vega 64 can almost match the 1080 Ti in a lot of games these days and you can still buy it. The RTX 2080 gives you a little better than 1080 Ti performance for the same price.

Don't forget, RTX 2080 Ti reference cards can be had for $1,069 now. I know there were big problems with gouging when they came out, but they've come down recently. While I wouldn't call it a bargain by any stretch of the imagination, its definitely an improvement over the GTX 1080 Ti and so far its held up very well in 4K gaming. I came from GTX 1080 Ti SLI and I've been very impressed. I've often had a better experience with a single 2080 Ti than I did running SLI.
 
I've been a PC gamer since early 2000s getting hooked on the original Far Cry when my friend gave me his GeForce ti 4400.

In 2008, I bought my first real gaming PC with Phenom 9500 paired with a GTX 275 for $500 CAD. This quickly turned into Phenom II 965 ($150) with GTX 470s in SLI ($600), a couple years later an FX-8350 ($250) w/ GTX 670s in SLI ($850) all the way to my current system build a few years back 6700K ($450) w/ GTX 1070s in SLI ($1,400).

With each build the cost of the PC seems to go up exponentially. My latest computer set me back around $3,000 CAD total not including my 4k monitor and case.

At the time I got into PC gaming, the cost wasn't too much of a barrier but now with the cost of RTX cards and less bang for the buck I'm thinking I may have to reluctantly go back to being a console gamer...

GTX X70s were always great value as they typically equaled the flagship performance of the previous generation or better but now its not even that and again the cost is making it less and less affordable.

Its a shame cause I really love PC gaming, running games in all their graphical glory, the precision of keyboard and mouse... Until prices come back down to reasonable levels (which may be never) I may have to say good bye to this hobby (unless I win the lotto) which gave me so much joy and dust off my consoles.

This isn't anything to do with PC gaming or prices, this is about horrible decision making.

So you make a decision to constantly overspend and overbuild, to get meager gains, and then make the decision to go back to objectively (and also in your own stated opinion) worse gaming platform? Let's see...

Imagine you constantly bought every console upgrade and revision for the same time period, which is essentially the same choices you are making with PC gaming. I'm betting your costs would be fairly close. Don't forgot subscription costs for their services and multiplayer, either, nor the vastly limited content as well as free-to-play content. I've been a PC gamer since the late 80's. I've upgraded, and done full builds. I've always known to hit the right price/performance ration when selecting components or when to choose to upgrade. In 30 years, I've likely spent less than you in your <20 years, but maintained gaming performance that will outright shine on nearly any modern game at that time.

Yet, here you are, trying to spend more, for no reason, being that your existing 1070 Ti SLI system is going to perform handsomely in nearly everything out today. Not able to run 4k in full graphics on the most intense of graphical games, and try to use that as an excuse? Well, we all know that's just completely dishonest.

If you stick by your decision, both know that it is only you causing the downsides and that it is not an inherent issue with PC gaming. If you were honest with yourself, you'd take your exact same argument about costs and move to mobile gaming only, instead of console, especially now since mobile graphical gaming along with using controllers and displaying it on a monitor is quite easy.

On second thought, console gaming might be perfect for you.
 
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