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Going from console gaming to PC gaming.

Eggtastic

Eggtastic

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 9, 2009
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I've been researching this for a bit, and was wondering if the switch would be worth it in the end. I currently own an xbox one, and literally play a few games on it, one being an exclusive (Halo 5). While I like Halo 5, it doesn't wow me, it just casual play to me.

I also own a Macbook Air 2011 11". What I plan to do is sell my xbox one, macbook air, and I have some old consoles I may part with because I kept them for nostalgic reasons, yet I never play them haha (sega genesis, dreamcast, nintendo 64).

When I sell all of this, I plan on just having one main rig for my work and play. Any games I cannot get on steam such as nintendo and sega classics, I will just get emulators and roms (is that doable and are the emulators great to work with, I haven't used them in a few years since college days).

What do you think? I see some of these gaming rigs, and how I can even build a decent one for a great price, and pick up a nice wide curved screen to really make it pop.

Has anyone done anything like this before?

Thanks for the feedback.
 
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When my consoles were getting a bit old I built a combination Mac/PC hack for work/gaming and it was great fun to do. Not remotely cheap, if you want a good one. I had to double up on SSDs and hard drives because of running two operating systems.

Now I've kind of gone back the other way. I got an Xbox One for christmas and it's reminded me just how much nicer it is to play on a console. A lot of stuff that I could have got on the PC and played at max settings, I've bought for the Xbox instead.
 
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Eggtastic said:
I've been researching this for a bit, and was wondering if the switch would be worth it in the end. I currently own an xbox one, and literally play a few games on it, one being an exclusive (Halo 5). While I like Halo 5, it doesn't wow me, it just casual play to me.

I also own a Macbook Air 2011 11". What I plan to do is sell my xbox one, macbook air, and I have some old consoles I may part with because I kept them for nostalgic reasons, yet I never play them haha (sega genesis, dreamcast, nintendo 64).

When I sell all of this, I plan on just having one main rig for my work and play. Any games I cannot get on steam such as nintendo and sega classics, I will just get emulators and roms (is that doable and are the emulators great to work with, I haven't used them in a few years since college days).

What do you think? I see some of these gaming rigs, and how I can even build a decent one for a great price, and pick up a nice wide curved screen to really make it pop.

Has anyone done anything like this before?

Thanks for the feedback.
Click to expand...

The reality is if you really want a decent gaming rig with a graphics card that will actually provide a realistic tangible improvement and continue doing so going forward, your going to have to invest in a meaty system, and one which graphics card will cost a lot more than your Xbox one on its own - if you really do want to see a bump above 1080p and hit 60fps in not only existing games now, but games to come for a while at least.

As you say you are not a big gamer, and mostly play casual games - I would question whether investing on a gaming pc is really the way to go.
 
I bought a 15.6" gaming laptop from mysn.co.uk (but there are resellers for Clevo/Sager models in the USA and wordwide) about a year ago, it's an XMG P505, a rebadged Clevo P650SE. The Clevo models, and all the rebadged variants of them (e.g. Sager, Eurocom), are the best value gaming laptops out there, cheaper than similar Razer and Alienware models.

It has an Nvidia 970M GPU with 3GB VRAM, 2.6Ghz i7 Quad Core processor and 16Gb RAM. I can play almost all PC games on it at 1080p on Ultra settings and still get good framerates. Think it cost about £1500, would probably be less in US$ as you don't have to pay 20% VAT (a sales tax we have in the UK). They also do models with an Nvidia 980M GPU which would be more likely to still be able to play upcoming games at good FPS in the future, though those cost more.

BTW I wasn't a big gamer until I got this machine, but I am now! :)
 
MRU said:
The reality is if you really want a decent gaming rig with a graphics card that will actually provide a realistic tangible improvement and continue doing so going forward, your going to have to invest in a meaty system, and one which graphics card will cost a lot more than your Xbox one on its own - if you really do want to see a bump above 1080p and hit 60fps in not only existing games now, but games to come for a while at least.

As you say you are not a big gamer, and mostly play casual games - I would question whether investing on a gaming pc is really the way to go.
Click to expand...

thanks for the reply. Well this PC build would also serve as my go to for everything (work, games, internet, etc). An all in one type of deal, and my iphone 6+ would be my portable device for any extra needs.
 
You could build a desktop system with a Core i7 CPU and GeForce GTX 970 and be set for quite a few years. Then in the future, you could just upgrade the GPU to the latest and greatest that your budget allows.
 
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Building a good machine for a decent price is certainly possible, but I know next to nothing about running emulators. A good website to use is PCPartPicker, there you can choose all sorts of hardware and the site is pretty good about making sure it's all compatible. If it seems a little overwhelming, let me know, or ask /r/BuildaPCForMe for help.
 
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Emulation is pretty straight forward these days. Most support an Xbox controller straight away and even fairly old hardware can run most stuff at a respectable clip. My 2011 MBP could handle the Dreamcast with little difficulty, and my current powerhouse gaming notebook chews through it without a second thought.
 
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I can't speak to the experience of building my own machine, but I can speak to consolidating consoles all into one box. I made the move years ago from PS3, Wii, and a handful of other retro consoles and got a PC for dedicated gaming on my TV and haven't looked back.

As saturnotaku has said, an i7 and GTX 970 will give the rig a fair life span (that's my current setup, have upgraded the GPU a time or two along the way), and emulation is pretty solid on consoles from old school (arcade, NES, SNES, Genesis, etc.) up to Wii emulation (Mario Kart Wii in full, glorious, 1080p is super sweet!).

As a child of the 80s, I play a lot of Nintendo, Super Nintendo, and older arcade games from the 90s. But with a GTX 970, I can also play the current games with little to no compromise as compared to contemporary consoles. In my opinion, it's great to have everything all in one box.

And if you really want to make it a faux console experience, you can just boot directly into something like Steam Big Picture mode and have all your games right there. Through the magic of a little command line and batch file wizardry, I've got all my old school and current AAA games nicely arranged and all ready to launch that way.
 
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bushidounohana said:
I can't speak to the experience of building my own machine, but I can speak to consolidating consoles all into one box. I made the move years ago from PS3, Wii, and a handful of other retro consoles and got a PC for dedicated gaming on my TV and haven't looked back.

As saturnotaku has said, an i7 and GTX 970 will give the rig a fair life span (that's my current setup, have upgraded the GPU a time or two along the way), and emulation is pretty solid on consoles from old school (arcade, NES, SNES, Genesis, etc.) up to Wii emulation (Mario Kart Wii in full, glorious, 1080p is super sweet!).

As a child of the 80s, I play a lot of Nintendo, Super Nintendo, and older arcade games from the 90s. But with a GTX 970, I can also play the current games with little to no compromise as compared to contemporary consoles. In my opinion, it's great to have everything all in one box.

And if you really want to make it a faux console experience, you can just boot directly into something like Steam Big Picture mode and have all your games right there. Through the magic of a little command line and batch file wizardry, I've got all my old school and current AAA games nicely arranged and all ready to launch that way.
Click to expand...


So, you bought a PC for gaming? Sorry I may have missed something in your post, but you said you didn't build a machine. Also, you run this right into your TV? That is not a bad idea, I may do that and just get a rMB for my portable needs.
 
Eggtastic said:
So, you bought a PC for gaming? Sorry I may have missed something in your post, but you said you didn't build a machine. Also, you run this right into your TV? That is not a bad idea, I may do that and just get a rMB for my portable needs.
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That is correct--I purchased an Alienware X51, which was arguably over-priced but at the time I couldn't find another setup that I liked as much. The case is very console-like, so it was a no-brainer for me to hook it up to the television and roll, fits nicely where my PlayStation 3 used to sit.

When I'm traveling, I always have my MacBook Pro and an HDMI cable. Just add OpenEmu (on OS X) and a bluetooth controller of your choice and you're off and running with retro games!
 
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@Eggtastic I'm in the other side as you, I had a gaming computer at first and then buy the xbox. I have the Xbox on the living room and the computer on the room, and find my self enjoying more AAA games on the xbox than on the PC which now I use only for heavy work stuff and from time to time a quick game on steam indies.

Take care about how developers usually do bad ports and crap optimization or limit PC version in favour of console version, examples: Witcher and Batman are the ones that came to my mind right now.

Other good thing that i found in this change I don't need to install EA or Ubisoft software anymore, I just have all my games on the same device-library, and I can stream it to my room if I want to. Also with GWG and offers you can buy the games pretty cheap like on PC.

Bad points: there is no more "exclusive games" on Xbox and graphics are not going to be as crispy as PC version, but they should be more stable and problem free.

Right now for me the perfect combo for gaming, working and media is console (probably PS4) + iMac with OS X and W10 bootcamp.

It's all about personal preference, but I hope something of this help you, sorry for my english.
 
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What Witcher ? If you mean The Witcher 3, there's no comparison between console and PC versions. The latter's visuals are unmatchable. And, most of the times, this is the rule for any AAA title since the PC h/w is always ahead. Batman was a performance failure due to bad code porting but, given the awful gameplay, it's not a big loss.
 
@Mackilroy Developers limit and downgrade PC Games to not kill the consoles sales. That's a fact, not an opinion. And yes, they still look better on PC, but you are not really using all your hardware potential due to this developers policy.

There was a lot of angry users with Witcher III downgrade comparing the first video gameplays and the final product. And this has happend with a lot of games.



And... @antonis sorry to say it, but yes there is comparison and in this case of Witcher it's not worth the extra cash you pay to run it on a PC. Maybe this has been fixed with patchs or mods, but not at the release.

 
@AirdanMR some games, sure. Lots of games? All games? Nope. A lot of the games I've played in the past either weren't available for consoles at all, were made for PC first, or were ported to PC later and performed better on Windows, with more options.

Besides, even if you are paying more at the outset, you get a better online experience, better controls, and more options for things such as modding.
 
Mackilroy said:
@AirdanMR some games, sure. Lots of games? All games? Nope. A lot of the games I've played in the past either weren't available for consoles at all, were made for PC first, or were ported to PC later and performed better on Windows, with more options.

Besides, even if you are paying more at the outset, you get a better online experience, better controls, and more options for things such as modding.
Click to expand...

But... we are talking about the actual-present situation, that's what concerns OP, not the past... Right now I think you can play allmost everything with a console + mid-range laptop / PC with steam and have a nice gaming experience, unless of course you want to go VR or 4k dual monitors, or 120hz, and things like that, then yes, he should go PC Master.

Maybe @Eggtastic should tell us what kind of games does he like or plan to play.

@oxfordguy tell that to Quantum Break, Recore, Gears of War, Ryse, Killer Instict, Tomb Raider... everything MS announced will be sooner or later on desktop. PS4 has a much better exclusive line-up right now.
 
AirdanMR said:
But... we are talking about the actual-present situation, that's what concerns OP, not the past... Right now I think you can play allmost everything with a console + mid-range laptop / PC with steam and have a nice gaming experience, unless of course you want to go VR or 4k dual monitors, or 120hz, and things like that, then yes, he should go PC Master.

Maybe @Eggtastic should tell us what kind of games does he like or plan to play.

@oxfordguy tell that to Quantum Break, Recore, Gears of War, Ryse, Killer Instict, Tomb Raider... everything MS announced will be sooner or later on desktop. PS4 has a much better exclusive line-up right now.
Click to expand...

Honestly, this is going to sound odd, but I don't play a lot of graphic intense games other than GTA V and COD BO3. Everything else would be older games bought through steam or downloaded through emulators. Now, having access to steam and what not, I may try a few indie games here and there, but nothing crazy which is why I don't need an intense system.

So it may not be worth the hassle of getting a gaming rig with all the accessories, but my main goal was to have an all in one machine for gaming and productivity. Option two is to just stick with the xbox one, get a new 12" rMB, maybe an external screen / dock set up and call it a day. To me, the gaming rigs I have seen look amazing, are more capable, and from what people have told me, could be financially better in the long run vs. consoles.
 
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AirdanMR said:
@Mackilroy Developers limit and downgrade PC Games to not kill the consoles sales. That's a fact, not an opinion. And yes, they still look better on PC, but you are not really using all your hardware potential due to this developers policy.

There was a lot of angry users with Witcher III downgrade comparing the first video gameplays and the final product. And this has happend with a lot of games.



And... @antonis sorry to say it, but yes there is comparison and in this case of Witcher it's not worth the extra cash you pay to run it on a PC. Maybe this has been fixed with patchs or mods, but not at the release.

Click to expand...

The 1st video is really interesting. I had no idea they've actually heavily downgraded the PC version in order to close the gap with the consoles. I see by the comments of this video that some mods have partially restored the 2013/2014 visuals on PC (same case with Skyrim and many others). I might load my Witcher 3 saves and give it another go with those mods while waiting for the 2nd expansion. Regardless, this whole story also shows the huge gap there is between PCs and consoles. Even worse, PS4 and XBO will not get better - they can do that much. PCs, on the other hand, will get a new generation of GPUs soon, that will allow them to move forward for the upcoming titles. And you can always get a new GPU with less money than a new console (if and when a new console will be released). IMHO, PCs are cheaper in the long run.

On a side note, is it me or the XBO in some cases falls behind PC and PS4 on the 2nd video ?
 
@antonis yes! Xbox version is the worst (graphically) but it's more stable than PS4, at least that's what I've read.

@Eggtastic then don't buy a PC Gaming, you are going to be fine console + laptop. There is a lot of quality indies in steam even for OS X.

The problem is current rMB is bs. Don't buy it, at least wait until the new Skylake version is announced. That upcoming m5 or m7 chips is even able to run games like bioshock infinite a decent framerates for low settings, so for indies you should be fine. Maybe a rMBP 13 will be a better choice, with not that much price difference, but that's up to you.
 
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antonis said:
The 1st video is really interesting. I had no idea they've actually heavily downgraded the PC version in order to close the gap with the consoles. I see by the comments of this video that some mods have partially restored the 2013/2014 visuals on PC (same case with Skyrim and many others). I might load my Witcher 3 saves and give it another go with those mods while waiting for the 2nd expansion. Regardless, this whole story also shows the huge gap there is between PCs and consoles. Even worse, PS4 and XBO will not get better - they can do that much. PCs, on the other hand, will get a new generation of GPUs soon, that will allow them to move forward for the upcoming titles. And you can always get a new GPU with less money than a new console (if and when a new console will be released). IMHO, PCs are cheaper in the long run.

On a side note, is it me or the XBO in some cases falls behind PC and PS4 on the 2nd video ?
Click to expand...
I suspect that it's partly the direction that CD Projekt RED chose to go that means the graphics aren't quite so good as the initial trailers. Also, regarding the video he linked which shows seemingly no difference between console and PC (which looks cherrypicked), here's a video showing the PC is clearly superior to the console version.

As far as the Xbox One falling behind, its hardware is a bit worse than the PS4 in terms of GPU power, and both are far behind any modern PC GPU.
 
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@oxfordguy what a coincidence, we were talking later about that, and I just read that Forza 6 is now officially announced for W10, it's going to be free. Future versions will also port to PC.

Xbox has no exclusives anymore.
 
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