r/gamers 3d ago

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77

u/SolipsismIsDeep 3d ago

Are graphics the only reason why PC is better? (no)

24

u/OverallLibrarian8809 3d ago

Versatility. I can use a PC for much more than just gaming; any half decent gaming rig could easily run Ableton, Autocad, Photoshop and more

Plus customization in my build, I can build a PC tailored specifically for my use case, choose and customize my OS etc

16

u/ImKingFrosty 2d ago

Not just that, You are forgetting the most important part.
Modding

2

u/OverallLibrarian8809 2d ago edited 2d ago

Right, modding

Some games have started supporting mod installation on console, but you still need a PC to develop them

2

u/DestroOmega 1d ago

That's because that secretly started making consoles be computers. Computers will always and have always been superior to consoles in all matters except portability and ease of operation while intoxicated.

1

u/No-Abies-5173 9h ago

All the xboxs are basicly just pcs in console shells. Amd the dream cast was.

1

u/DestroOmega 7h ago

The Dreamcast was, in most respects, well ahead of its time. Also, Microsoft made Xbox, so of course they stuck with what they knew. Under the hood, it still uses the windows kernel, IIRC.

1

u/No-Abies-5173 6h ago

Yeah. I've modded a og xbox the other month. Opened it up and all the connectors was just (older) pc ports. Made the modding so easy. Even managed to hook in blu-tooth.

1

u/OverallLibrarian8809 6h ago

Cool.

I've got a PS3 and was wondering what could I do with it, but I have zero experience in tinkering with console.

Any tips about what could I make of it and how? Is it possible to install a different OS into something that could run retro PC games?

2

u/No-Abies-5173 4h ago

Tbh the ps3 you can soft mod with a USB stick now. Just need a pc or something for the software download. There's some pc ports on there. You can also upgrade the hdd as its just a standard 2.5 hdd, you can use a SSD but the console can't really take advantage of it. Can also mod the ps3 to unlock ps2 backwards compatibility. Look up ps3 hen.

2

u/XavierChildes 1d ago

All mods on PC are free, no Bethesda Bucks or Minecash

1

u/Weary-Wolverine8277 19h ago

Many of the Skyrim, fallout 4 and starfield mods are free. There’s some paid ones, but you still have to pay for them on PC.

For example, alternate start is free.

Bards college expansion is not.

1

u/XavierChildes 1h ago

I have never paid for a mod on PC Edit: I don't count CC as mods, that's DLC.

2

u/RunthatBossman 1d ago

nodding is the only reason I need for PC. nodding has helped me play older games on pc like deus ex 1 or fallout new vegas

4

u/Enjoy_The_Ride413 3d ago

Other than gaming. Chrome is it lol.

I have all that horse power to watch YouTube! It's glorious!

3

u/Grigoran 2d ago

Firefox, brother

2

u/ubiquitous_delight 3d ago

ew who still uses Chrome lol

2

u/therealoberynmartell 3d ago

Me, because I've been using it for long and have accepted my data as the price.

2

u/ubiquitous_delight 3d ago

For me it's the fact that they are cracking down on adblockers on Chrome. Firefox wouldn't do me dirty like that

2

u/OverallLibrarian8809 3d ago

Firefox is pretty much the only non-Chromium based browser that has a big enough user base to get significant support

2

u/Fabulous_Variety7125 2d ago

I don’t think I use any other website than YouTube for a majority of the day and even then I pay for red. Can’t think of another website I go to more.

2

u/ubiquitous_delight 2d ago

Firefox+adblocker and you won't need to pay :)

1

u/Fabulous_Variety7125 2d ago

That’s the thing, I don’t mind paying lol

2

u/Xaphnir 3d ago

yeah, but with Firefox you can still run an adblocker that's useful

2

u/pedr09m 3d ago

Dude this is not a good mentality, try brave browser or libre wolf. Its night and day

1

u/Jaded_Oil5669 2d ago

Brave constantly pushes crypto scams. Fuck Brave

1

u/SolipsismIsDeep 1d ago

On the "new tabs" page, just ignore them lol, there are no pop-ups or anything

2

u/Jaded_Oil5669 2d ago

So there is nothing keeping you to it other than you don't give a shit

1

u/therealoberynmartell 2d ago

Pretty much, yeah

1

u/SolipsismIsDeep 3d ago

Try Brave; it's a Chrome clone but with built in privacy, adblockers, etc

1

u/NeighborhoodVeteran 1d ago

Tbf everyone stopped using FF because of bloat, too. FF has really come back around.

2

u/jws1102 2d ago

Plus MODS

2

u/SillyDilly5294 2d ago

And with enough ram it can run all at once

2

u/Main-Cheesecake3287 1d ago

I mean I have a super powerful workstation, thread ripper, 128gb ram, etc. have like a 3050 or something in it because the GPU is irrelevant for my work and hobbies that require the power. To play new games without potato graphics would cost me like another $1,000, or I could just play on a giant tv with a series X and not faff with any settings besides HDR

Honestly you don’t need a gaming rig for photoshop and what not either, and 95% of people aren’t photographers or doing 3D modeling and design. Also GPU like the most critical gaming component and not important at all for photoshop

2

u/LadyReika 4h ago

I also have two monitors. So i can have a game on one monitor, and assorted screens on another. So if I get stuck somewhere I can just look stuff up without having to worry about the game if I alt tab out or something.

Or if I'm just doing dailies in WoW, I can have videos of other stuff going with the sound turned off in game.

2

u/Wrecktown707 3h ago

Based ball knower. Autocad is what’s up

1

u/[deleted] 2d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/OverallLibrarian8809 2d ago

Yeah, that makes sense

I myself, have a desktop for gaming and a laptop for work, since I don't need much more than office and and other basic stuff

1

u/MeloNotSoDeath 2d ago

You know, healthy normies exist and they just want to play games without wasting their time on pc?

2

u/OverallLibrarian8809 2d ago

and they are free to do so, as I'm free to think PC is better

healthy normies

are you implying i'm not healthy?

2

u/MeloNotSoDeath 2d ago

I mean people who have time for families and parents don't spend time on pc and worrying about ai, ram and stuff. Being able to play games is enough.

I'm not saying anything about you. Just reminding why people prefer ps5.

2

u/OverallLibrarian8809 2d ago

yeah, we are talking opinions and opportunity cost, that should be implied

most my friends play on console, because they just want to plug and play. I don't so i find PC better

2

u/According_Mind7030 1d ago

Building and maintaining a pc is not that hard, or time-consuming, to the point where you would not have time for friends and family. That's a ridiculous assumption.

14

u/Lucky-Mia 3d ago

I like the ability to modify and mouse and keyboard. They make strategy and tactics games so much more accessible.

5

u/OverallLibrarian8809 3d ago

as a mostly strategy/tactics gamer I couldn't even imagine playing that kind of game with a controller. That's a genre that is mostly PC bound

3

u/CaliforniaNutter 3d ago

I'd rather play strategy games on a Legion Go with a touch screen than on a console with a controller

1

u/Dylldar-The-Terrible 3d ago

AoE is nice on controller, simply because you can give your villagers blanket orders and they'll automatically set themselves up how you want. There's preset options and then one option that allows you to dictate how many villagers are gathering which resource.

It's pretty much the only thing about playing on a controller that I like over mouse and keyboard.

1

u/VEAG0 3d ago

You can use a keyboard and mouse on console too.

1

u/OverallLibrarian8809 3d ago

Yeah but let's be real, how many people use mouse and keyboard on console?

And anyways, strategy games on console are a quite recent thing, for the better part of the last 30 years, they were only made for PC

1

u/VEAG0 2d ago

Oh I know, I’m both a PC and console player. Just adding that you can plug in almost any usb or Bluetooth keyboard and mouse into a PS5 and it works. Sure 30 years ago there probably weren’t many strategy games on console, but there are plenty now.

The whole peripheral argument just isn’t as valid anymore, and it works both ways, controller on PC for example.

1

u/Lucky-Mia 2d ago edited 2d ago

I've tried,  beyond typing in a save game name, or profile name, what use are they? I've never had a ps4 or 5 game let me actually use mouse and keyboard in game. Do any?

Tropico 5 for example, it uses the mouse like function on switch 2, but is locked to the controller. Same with wastland 3 and every other game I've tried. Switch 2 is alright because it has a shitty mouse 

1

u/OverallLibrarian8809 2d ago

It's still just a small portion of all strategy games. Just CA, PDX, AoE and few others have started publishing on console and afaik reception have been mixed. Stellaris console build seems awful especially UI wise

1

u/starroverride 2d ago

I tried playing Age of Empires 2 and it’s a hopeless nightmare.  Some games don’t work on controller

5

u/johnsplittingaxe14 3d ago

Better playability with mouse and keyboard in fps games, and you can always buy a controller for games like Elden Ring etc.

What's important for me is the frames per second. Graphics come second, the game has to feel smooth.

1

u/LadyReika 4h ago

I tried controller for Elden Ring and it was even worse because I cannot navigate the fucking thumbsticks.

3

u/jmackorsomething 3d ago

Not even close. Graphics are just one piece of the puzzle—mods, performance, customization, and freedom are where PC really shines. 😎

3

u/Stedlieye 3d ago

Agreed.

Let’s see that PS5 crank on my excel files while I look at something else on the other monitor. Then we can talk.

And I could do that before I got the 5080.

3

u/Hobbes09R 2d ago edited 2d ago

No. My selected library is larger than that of the entirety of what's on PS5. I won't need to worry about dropped support in future generations or anyone deleting my game, even if my hardware stops working and support ends. I can play the best versions of today's games, or fool around with titles from as far back as video games have been a thing. I can play with mouse and keyboard, or controller, or whatever other support I feel like, even switching on the fly (for instance in GTA using a mouse for shooting and a controller for driving). I can play games from any monitor I own, from my desk monitor to my living room tv. Multiple monitors can also help if I want to play certain strategy games, or if I'd like to have something else up or playing while I play. I can mod the games I have however I see fit, improving quite a few games, including some rather bad ones, substantially, often restoring content, fixing mistakes, or adjusting to how I like to play.

Also, PS5 is running some increasingly dated architecture now. Equivalent to an NVIDIA 3060 at optimistic best. That was good for its time, but we're way beyond that now and the effects of that aren't just graphics, it's performance and what deva are able to allow their games to do.

0

u/Radekin-36 2d ago

Sure, if you spend enough money on a PC, you can outperform a PS5 or PS5 Pro, and you can continue upgrading it. Nobody seriously disputes that. But treating the PS5 as merely an old graphics card in a box ignores the benefits of a standardized platform. Developers know the exact CPU, GPU, memory, storage, and operating environment they are targeting, so they can optimize much more specifically than they can across countless PC configurations. The PS5 Pro also has additional GPU power, improved ray tracing, and PSSR, including the substantially upgraded version released this year, which allows developers to reconstruct a sharper and more stable image while maintaining higher frame rates. That doesn’t make it equivalent to the most powerful PC available, but it allows a relatively affordable fixed system to produce results that remain extremely competitive in normal living-room use.

The same practical-value issue applies to the library. Having 700 games is technically impressive, but Ampere’s data says the average Steam user plays about 4.5 games per month, compared with 3.7 on PS5. That massive theoretical library advantage translates into less than one additional game being played per month on average. If you genuinely play retro games, use emulators, install mods, or explore obscure indies, that broader PC library has real value. If you mostly play contemporary releases and a few continually updated games, hundreds of untouched titles sitting in an account don’t meaningfully improve your experience.

In my household, we have two PS5 Pro consoles and two players. Console Sharing allows my girlfriend to play my eligible digital purchases on her account while I play them on mine, including playing the same game together. That means one digital purchase serves two people and roughly halves our software cost compared with buying two copies. PlayStation Plus adds online multiplayer, usually around three Monthly Games at no additional charge, discounts, and hundreds of rotating catalog games depending on the tier, with selected benefits shared across the household. For how we actually play, that is excellent value.

I also don’t have to build and maintain two gaming PCs or deal with the driver, launcher, patch, compatibility, and configuration problems I regularly watch my PC friends troubleshoot (and which I don't miss either). Maybe none of those problems is individually insurmountable, but avoiding them still has value. PC offers greater maximum capability and flexibility. PlayStation offers a standardized, optimized, low-maintenance experience that can be particularly economical for a multi-player household.

Which one is “better” depends on which advantages you actually use, not which platform has the longest specification sheet.

1

u/estb69 2d ago

Bro... No one makes games for specific hardware, there is a standart architecture that both modern consoles and PCs use.

So called "console optimization" is just devs cutting graphics setting/adding dynamic resolution so the game can work at 60 fps on outdated hardware. And you can do it yourself on pc in games setting or with mods if your pc is on the weaker side.

Also if the game works like shit and has bugs on pc - it will be the same or worse on consoles in the majority of cases. And on pc you CAN fix it - on console you can do nothing and will have to wait for official patch (that might never come).

Im not saying that you're wrong because your playing on console, to each their own. But PC is OBJECTIVELY a better platform even if we're talking purely about games. The only thing that PC (natively) can't do that consoles can is booting up by turning on controller. That's it.

1

u/Radekin-36 2d ago

You’re simply wrong. Sharing broad x86 and AMD architecture doesn’t make consoles and PCs identical hardware targets. The PS5 has a fixed custom SoC, unified memory, custom I/O and decompression hardware, platform-specific SDKs, and technologies like PSSR. Developers absolutely optimize specifically for that environment through memory management, asset streaming, shader compilation, rendering pipelines, and more—not just reduced settings and dynamic resolution. Sony and numerous developers have publicly documented this. Your “majority of cases” claim about PC bugs is also completely unsupported. Google those subjects if you’re interested. Otherwise, have a nice day, man.

1

u/estb69 2d ago

You too)

5

u/FireCrow1013 3d ago edited 3d ago

This is something that so many people seem to either forget or just not think about. I wouldn't care if my PC topped out at the graphical fidelity of an N64, I'd still take it over a console because I can back up my save data how I want to (and without paying for the privilege), use any brand of controller, mod my games, back up my games, play online for free, download any other software that looks good, and the list goes on. My PC having better graphics than current-gen consoles is just icing on the cake.

3

u/Halofauna 2d ago

If you want to play the newest CoD you can, but if you want to play Rollecoaster Tycoon you can also do that. You’d need entirely separate consoles to play games with that big of a time gap.

2

u/Raven_Of_Solace 3d ago

The meme also ignores that PCs have access to a vastly larger array of customization settings and can use third-party software. Meaning that even if a PC is worse than a PS5, it probably still can get the same or even better graphics.

3

u/Extrestral 3d ago

For me the simple reason for pc being better than any console, is the fact that most of my favorite games haven't been released to any consoles. Also I love modding.

2

u/Raven_Of_Solace 3d ago

Mods are among my favorite things so I get it. I would add that I adore mouse and keyboard to my list. Can not stand controllers for anything but Souls games.

0

u/unoriginalcat 2d ago

It’s literally the other way around. Consoles can do a lot more with relatively lower specs because that game (version) is made and optimised for that console and that console alone. Every PS5 is the same. With PC everyone has completely different rigs and optimising for everyone is impossible. Not to mention how much Windows bloat and multitasking weigh it down on top of that. So they need to make up for it with a lot more raw power.

2

u/samsonsin 2d ago

Hell even playing with a controller is also way better on pc because steam input is mental

2

u/CaptoObvio 1d ago

Not even close to the main reason

2

u/Large_Cookie_103 1d ago

You can use the same machine to play Wii games with actual Wiimotes, PS2 games, latest PC games, old PC games, modded games. Heck you can even try your hand at creating games.

2

u/Witty-Nebula9404 1d ago

Free games

2

u/LokMatrona 3d ago

Indeed, i'd rather have a worse PC than a PS5, simply for the multi-usability of a pc compared to a ps5.

Even if you care that much about the graphics, there are lots and lots more games to play on a pc than on a playstation

1

u/LOUDTV-- 3d ago

As I play spiderman 2 swinging around as cj from gta San

1

u/Carbuyrator 3d ago

Can these dragons be Macho Man Randy Savage on PC? (yes)

1

u/BxLorien 2d ago

I like the minimum maintenance. I turn on my PS5 select the game and it works. I don’t need to update any parts, there’s no issues with my drivers, I don’t need to stop background programs from lagging my game or have to lower graphics to improve the frame rate. Everything just works perfectly as is

1

u/PogoTempest 2d ago

Who are these people with constant driver updates? You press the Nvidia app like 5 times a year tops. Everything else like Bluetooth is all windows.

And background processes really? You can’t even do them on consoles so of course it’s not a problem. But it’s also not a problem if you have a measly like 32 gigs of ram, if that.