PC Gaming or Console Gaming is one of the greatest debates in the gaming community. Which is cheaper, which has better specs etc. In this article we compare both and give our verdict on which we prefer.
Which is better, PC Gaming or Console Gaming?
There are many great questions in life.
What came first the chicken or the egg?
Was the dress blue and black or white and gold?
Will Half Life 3 ever be released?
We have all stayed up late at night pondering these lofty questions, but one far exceeds the others.
Which is better, PC Gaming or Console Gaming?
Each has its own benefits are challenges, so we want to breakdown what we think is the best choice for your gaming needs.
We’ve broken this down into 6 key questions including:
- Which is better for price?
- Which provides the best specs?
- Which is better for upgrading?
- Which has the best variety of accessories and peripherals?
- Which has the better games and exclusives?
- What has the better community for multiplayer, co-op and e-sports?
Which is better for price, PC or Console?
First of all, the big one, with the cost of everything going up, price is now a crucial factor when considering what will best suit your gamer needs.
PC
PC gaming can be one of the best budget friendly and expensive avenues into gaming. It will always depend on how much you want to invest and how much you want to push for that graphic fidelity.
For instance, our Fnatic PC’s can start from as low as £799.99, and this will offer you an excellent gateway to starting your competitive gaming journey, easily being able to play games like League of Legends on a e-sports levels, the Contender PC offers an Intel Core i3-12100F Quad-Core processor with NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 1650 Gaming GPU. The GeForce GTX 1650 GPU provides great performance for playing esports titles at 720p or 1080p resolutions with high frame rates, perfect to begin honing your reflexes.
However, you can invest even more and future proof your PC for competitive play by purchasing a high end gaming PC, which will give you the best chance of competing and winning at the highest levels in E-sports. If you really want to compete this can set you back about £2699.99 if you’re wanting to purchase our Champion PC, but for that investment you get massive overlocking, higher memory for multi-tasking, huge storage and RTX graphics. There is a reason we call them our Championship series, as you are using the same PC’s as a World Champion player!
Equally our Horizon range of PC’s can start as low as £381.99 (or £281.99 without windows) so you can start your gaming PC journey on a budget.
A great way to judge this is by thinking about what games you want to play on your system, if they’re less demanding games and you don’t want to enter the competitive gaming sphere, it would be better to get a more budget friendly Gaming PC, however if you’re looking for more power-hungry games and looking to dip your toes into competitive play, a more expensive gaming PC would be the better option.
We have a handy guide that can determine what would be the best PC for you based on your game choice, which you can find here.
Console
Console gaming unlike PC gaming is a very specific pricing. A standard disk drive PS5 will £449.99 in the UK, (A Digital PS5 retailing at £359.99). These prices are consistent across the board and unlike a lot of PC’s, Consoles usually come with a bundle deal, whether that be an extra controller, a game or a headset you can usually find a game specific bundle.
The PS5 and Xbox One is incredible value. They will play most current games at a consistent 60fps, while offering up to 4k resolution, and each have their own USP’s including exclusives and their online subscription services Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus respectively.
What system provides the best specs that matter, PC or Console?
The Specs, the nitty gritty of what you’re buying, and the main talking point that PC and Consoles gamers loved to compare and argue the most about.
PC
Now this is the hill every PC gamer will die on. No matter what console is coming out there will always be a PC that will perform better (for a price).
There are systems that are available that are at least 10x more powerful than your standard PS5 The Horizon 5 Intel RX 6800XT Gaming PC for example, (one of our most powerful systems) has the below specs:
This would outperform any console on the market, however the more power you gain the more you will be paying for that power.
What specs you want and budget you have will always be a balancing act. The best way to optimise specs while keeping to a budget is to build your own PC. If you’re a little unfamiliar with this we have some great guides that can help you and if you really don’t want to our team of experts can build you best PC for the best price if you get in touch.
Console
The specs provided on most current gen consoles are great for their price. The Xbox X Series and PS5 are incredible value for their capabilities. Meanwhile the Nintendo Switch is a great hybrid as it is both a home and portable console, however the specs are less than favourable.
Xbox Series X
PlayStation 5
Nintendo Switch
Now in terms of upgrading this is where PC gaming excels. A gaming PC can be constantly modified, upgraded, and added to.
The best way to think about a Gaming PC upgrade is that it’s like investing in a house, you want to make sure you have a good foundation, and a well-maintained, upgraded home will ensure you have safety, security and efficiency - and perform well whatever the weather.
Hypothetically you could buy one PC for your entire life and just keep upgrading when you need more RAM, a new graphics card, new processor etc.
As one of the UK’s best suppliers of components we have a wide collection of PC parts that can solve your current needs, to view our range click here.
Console
Upgrading for Consoles compared to Gaming PC’s is considerably more restrictive. Most console manufacturers will release a “Slim” version of their console which may be smaller but less powerful 2-4 years after the initial launch, and after about 3-5 years release their “Pro” version which will be slightly more impressive than the previous model, but nothing
The only other type of upgrading you can find on a base console is buying external hard drives for extra storage for more games.
What has the best variety of accessories and peripherals, PC or Console?
PC
PC Gaming affords you a plethora of accessories that you can add on to enhance your gaming experience. Want to play with a keyboard and mouse? You can do that. You want to play with a Xbox controller? You can do that. Do you want to play with a PlayStation controller? You can do that.
PC Gaming has a bunch of accessories, so you could end up spending just as much money on accessories as you could on the PC.
We always say the essential accessories for a PC are a Headset, Keyboard, Mouse and Mousepad.
We offer a superb starting pack, the MSI BattlePack which includes all 4 Headset, Keyboard, Mouse and Mousepad from as little as £67.19, click here to view.
In addition to this there is a lot of VR and Simulation support for PC gaming. Whether you want to feel the weight and precision you gain from the steering on the tarmac, or the rumble feedback you feel on the pedals when accelerating on games like F1 2022 using a Thrustmaster T80 Ferrari 488 GTB Edition Racing Wheel and Pedal Set.
Equally if you’re looking to experience the sensation of flying through the air in Microsoft’s Flight Simulator using the Logitech Extreme 3D Pro Joystick, your simulation needs will be met.
Console
There are a bunch of accessories you can get for your consoles, most of them coming from the console manufacturer themselves or a trusted third party (E.g. MadCatz, PowerA, Razer, etc.)
Nintendo are one of the most notorious for having a plethora of accessories you can get for their consoles. Think Switch charging docks, Switch pro controllers, Nintendo Labo, Actual RC cars to make your own Mario Kart tracks etc.
Playstation and Xbox accessories are designed more to enhance the console experience you currently receive, and make the console more of an entertainment centre, e.g., TV remotes, Headphones, Charging Docks, Elite Controllers etc.
However, PlayStation has started to venture into VR, and will be releasing their PlayStation VR headset in the next year, with a sleugh of PSVR 2 titles including Horizon Call of the Mountain, Resident Evil 8 VR and No Mans Sky.
Which has the better games and exclusives, PC or Console?
PC
PC exclusives usually revolve around very specific games. Games like League of Legends, DOTA 2 and World of Warcraft are PC exclusive.
Additionally, the PC market has a wider variety of Indie Games that wouldn’t be viable on consoles as publishing games on consoles can be costly to developers. Some of the notable indie games in the last year have been Inscryption, Unpacking, Valheim etc.
For those retro gamers out there PC gaming has fantastic avenues for you to relive classic games dating back as far as the 70’s! With consoles there’s always the worry about backwards compatibility and whether your new console will support your old games when you buy the next one. With PC this is never the issue, once its bought and downloaded, you can keep moving that file to your hearts content.
Finally, a lot of popular games are released on PC first. One factor of PC gaming that people don’t talk about much is Early Access. Some of the most successful games in the last 20 years had their early beginnings on PC. Minecraft, Among Us, Undertale all had their humble beginnings on PC before becoming the gaming darlings that they are. So, if you’re interested in playing the latest titles a gaming PC is ideal for you.
Console
Exclusives are the lifeforce of consoles, the age-old adage “Exclusives sell Hardware” is never more apparent than the constant war between Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo.
Each console has their own iconic mascots and exclusive games. Do you want to drive around with friends in Mario Kart, well you need a Nintendo console, fancy fighting robot dinosaurs in Horizon you need a PlayStation, want to battle besides Master Chief, you need an Xbox Game Pass.
Each console has its target market, but make sure to review what games you want to play before you make your console purchase.
If you’re looking for more child-friendly and games the whole family can get involved? A Nintendo Switch is for you.
Want a more hardcore gaming experience with a huge collection of award-winning exclusives? A PlayStation is for you.
Looking for a more casual approach to gaming that you can pick up and go, while trying out many different games? An Xbox and a subscription to Game Pass is for you.
What has the better community for Multiplayer, Co-op & E-sports, PC or Console?
PC
When it comes to Multiplayer, Co-op and the competitive scene, you won’t find a more thriving player base than the ones on PC.
Name one of the biggest esport games out their right now, Valorant, League of Legends, Rainbow Six Siege, they are all played on PC, with some of the best players in the world.
Let’s be honest, there’s a reason why when it comes to esports tournaments, why they always play games on Gaming PCs: performance.
Equally games that may not get as much love on previous consoles due to them moving on can get a second life on PC as many passionate and loyal fans will stay and support their game either by keeping servers alive themselves and even in some rare cases, mod new content to keep the game fresh after so many years.
Team Fortress 2, the competitive multiplayer shooter, after being out for 15 years still has an average of 100,000 players playing per month. Meanwhile if you played the console versions featured in The Orange Box, you would be hard pressed to find another soul to play competitively against.
So, whether you’re looking for a casual game of Warzone or an intense competitive game of Valorant, PC Gaming will always suit your needs.
Console
Console multiplayer gaming is far from dead though, as of March 2022 PlayStation's 106 million monthly active users while Xbox had 100 million monthly active users. (Nintendo don’t provide stats)
The best thing about competitive multiplayer on console is everyone is on equal footing. There are now hardware disadvantages or advantages when going up against another player, its just you and them.
Additionally, one of the purest gaming joys is that of couch co-op and multiplayer and none do this better than consoles. Take Nintendo for example, Mario Kart may be the quintessential couch multiplayer game that every person, no matter of age or gender can get involved with.
However, the drawback with Console multiplayer is the multiplayer isn’t free, which means you will be forking out additional money every year to keep gaming online.
Final verdict
In conclusion PC Gaming & Console Gaming both has its benefits and challenges. We wish there was a definitive winner in this “war” but whether its gaming on your PC or gaming on your Console, you’re still a gamer and will be experiencing one of the greatest hobbies known around the world. (Except mobile gamers, sorry not sorry)
If we had to give our guidance though, we would say that if the below applies to you, you are at heart a PC gamer:
- A premium experience
- Variety of games (both old and new)
- Enter the gaming competitive scene (e-sports)
- Love the freedom and customization of accessories, upgrades and mods
- Budget friendly
- A burning passion for gaming
However, if the below is more relevant to yourself, we feel console gaming is more your wheelhouse.
- A casual experience
- Ease of use
- Console Exclusives
- Couch Co-Op Multiplayer
- Have a medium size budget
Convinced to become a PC Gamer?
If you’ve been convinced to give PC gaming a chance, make sure to get in touch with ourselves!
Gaming is our passion here at CCL and we want to ensure that everyone who buys from us gets the best experience possible.
Start your gaming journey today by clicking here.
