I am an ‘IT lover’ who answers inquiries from readers who have questions about IT in general or have concerns about choosing products and services. When estimating a gaming PC, it is more common than you might think to end up exceeding your budget. If your budget is limited, it may be difficult to purchase a PC with the performance you want, so you may turn to console game consoles that are relatively inexpensive. How does the actual performance of console game consoles compare to PCs, and what is the cost-effectiveness? This is a question sent by dopXXXX.
“hello. Lately, I’ve gotten into gaming of late, so I’m thinking about buying a gaming PC. After researching the price quote, there were more things to consider than I thought and the price range was higher, which made me feel burdened. However, I’ve heard that console game consoles are more cost-effective, so I’m thinking about buying a console game console instead. “I’m curious about the performance of console game consoles compared to PCs, and which one would be better to choose if your budget is less than 1 million won.” (Some content edited)
Console game consoles, although lacking in numerical performance compared to PCs, are excellent cost-effectiveness
In fact, it is difficult to compare the performance of PC and console game consoles. This is because the purposes and characteristics of the two devices are different, so it is difficult to estimate actual performance through simple numerical comparison.
Nevertheless, there is a general consensus that ‘console game consoles have this much computer performance.’ In the case of so-called 9th generation console game consoles such as PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series As of the time of the launch of the 9th generation console game console, it can be said to have performance equivalent to that of a mainstream gaming PC priced in the low 1 million won range.
The price of the two game consoles is 600,000 won, so it can be said that the price is clearly set at a cheaper level than a PC with the same specifications. This is because in the case of console game consoles, manufacturers receive a large supply of customized chipsets to produce them, so the prices are inevitably set at a relatively low price. Of course, now, about three years after the release of the 9th generation console game console, mainstream gaming PCs priced in the low 1 million won range surpass consoles in terms of performance, but it is difficult to purchase a gaming PC with actual performance similar to that of a console game console for around 600,000 won. It’s still difficult now.
In addition, even if the performance is similar in terms of numbers, console game consoles often provide superior results in terms of graphics quality and performance than PCs with similar specifications. Unlike PCs, which have different specifications for each user, console game machines are a single piece of hardware, so game developers can utilize the device’s performance with maximum efficiency. In particular, recently released games often have optimization problems on PC, so this advantage of consoles shines even more.
Another big advantage is that each console game console has exclusive games that can only be enjoyed on that device. Additionally, since it is a dedicated device specialized for gaming, it provides many convenience features that are not available on PCs. For example, it is difficult to imagine putting the device into sleep mode and quickly resuming it while the game is paused at any time on a Windows PC. In the case of Xbox, it even provides a feature called ‘Quick Resume’ that allows you to quickly switch between multiple games. Of course, PC also has many advantages that consoles do not have. For example, it is possible to freely install mods or user patches that can freely modify the game, and the fact that the price of the same game is often slightly cheaper than the console version can also be an advantage. However, in terms of cost-effectiveness, it is inevitably inferior to console game consoles, and if the budget is limited, these shortcomings are even more highlighted.
Therefore, if your budget is not limited, it would be better to choose a high-end gaming PC, but if your budget is limited to less than 1 million won, choosing a console game console may be a more reasonable purchase. However, the most important criteria should be whether the game you want to play can be played on the device and how smoothly it can be played, so we recommend that you check this carefully before purchasing.
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IT Donga Reporter Kwon Taek-kyung tk@itdonga.com
