Yet another "shall I buy a PS4 or upgrade my rig" thread...

I'm a bit nervous posting this because I know how these discussions usually turn out. The thing is, I'm in two minds at the moment and if I can just explain my situation to you, I'm hoping to hear some honest (please god, no fanboyism) opinions.

It's time to sell my PS3, and I'm gonna hang on to my 360 for now. With the money from the sale, I'm torn between buying a PS4 or upgrading my gaming rig that's been in storage for a few months.

We've recently moved into a new place that doesn't really have an area to set up a desktop workstation, without it being an eyesore. So, I've been giving some serious thoughts to building a rig that I'll plug into my LED TV (pff, who needs a Steam machine anyway!). So if I do go the rig upgrade direction, I'm gonna have a go at using a wireless keyboard and mouse - wish me luck - otherwise I'll just be sticking to a 360 controller for Windows.

I'm really just looking for personal opinions about which route I should take. I'm aware of the pros and cons of both right now:

* Not enough games for PS4 yet
* PC will always have superior visuals
* Console optimization
* ...and so on and so forth

Like I say, I'm just looking for some opinions: a PC in the lounge or a PS4? GO!

depends how much you are willing to spend on the rig,

if the answer is a lot,

pc man,

pc

It sounds like you need to get set up a bit more before you do up your PC (because there's no reason doing the PC if its done poorly)

I'd say get the PS4 now and wait on the PC.

Well after playing black flag, kz sf, ghosts, bf4 and nfs rivals for some time on ps4... im back on pc (games from holiday sales) and ps3... I havnt played my ps4 for about a month! So yea id suggest waiting on ps4 till it has another good 5 games or so... whats your current hardware on the pc

PC just because of Star Citizen (when ever the hell it comes out).

If you are undecided don't do either yet, wait for some games to come along then decide what is a must have. But if you absolutely must have one I would get the PS4 for now and get a PC later (it will get cheaper).

No point on buying either consoles currently

@championface: I built my PC specifically for being a gaming multimedia device connected to the TV and I'll tell you, after having it connected to the tv for a few months, it is now tucked in a small corner with a desk and monitor. Here are a few of the things that have come to really annoy me.

-Wireless KB/M aren't the greatest. They frequently disconnect and have major lag issues. Plus having a big fat keyboard sitting out on my coffee table takes up a lot more space than a small controller.

-When I turn the TV off but leave the PC on, the sound out of the HDMI cord will get buggy, and the PC will often require a restart to get it going again.

-WIFI card I originally bought was a piece of shit. Much worse than PS3 even though it came highly recommended. Ended up dropping some cash for one that is much better on paper, which still seems to have more problems playing HD netflix and amazon content.

-PC controller support is not nearly as good as people like to pretend it is. Most games will support a usb 360 controller out of the box, but some have half-assed support while others don't work at all. You cannot complete the first level of the campaign in BF3 because the button required to complete the stage is not even mapped to the controller. The mass effect games have no controller support, among other major examples. Mass effect 1 and 2 and have them modded in with poor to mixed results. Mass effect 3 has none.

I love my PC for the super cheap steam games and the awesome graphics. It is definitely good bang for your buck. But it is extra work to maintain and doesn't just work out of the box as a TV solution like my consoles do.

Have you ever considered keeping the PS3, getting a PS4, and signing up for PS+? You will get about 8 free games right off the bat and 2 free games for you PS3 and 1 for your PS4 ever month. I just signed up and am shocked at how good the value is. It paid for itself almost instantaneously (Bioshock Infinite & DMC). You need it to play online on the PS4 anyway.

I'd say it depends on how much you intend on spending on the PC. If you are talking $1000+, I'd say get a PC first... there will be a slow trickle of exclusive PS4 games for at least a year or two, whereas if you haven't had a decent rig in a while, you can load up on outstanding, cheap games on PC while you wait and save for a new PS4 down the road. Just my 2 cents.

I hate playing games on a PC. That being said, if you don't mind gaming on a PC, then I say "upgrade your PC". The best graphics and performance will always be on a PC.

@championface: Blog it.

buy a pc now .... for a game that will run like crap on his rig, won't release until 2015 ..... and has a high chance of failure?

bad advice.

PS4 for sure. SONY is focused on the gamer. By gamers for gamers is the mantra and by golly SONY is living by it.

Playing a PC with a wireless mouse and keyboard in the living room sounds like a headache to me. As far as im concerned a computer desk/chair is necessary to PC game comfortably and enjoyably.

The PS4 is just far better suited for the living room imo. So if that is your only option, thats definitely the route I would go. Not to mention it buys you some time so you can wait DDR4 and GDDR6 memory to become available and affordable. So you can upgrade the PC at a later date and end up with a better rig for the money.

Although personally I went with an xbox one in the living room where the media features can be put to good use, and will be upgrading my PC at a later date. But I have a computer room in my house, so i dont need to worry about trying to cram my desktop into my living room.

Stupid question but how does my rig compare to the PS4? ( the PS4 specs confuse me )

Intel Core i5 2300 2.8GHz

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti

8GB RAM

It's remarkably similar to a PS4. You have less processor speed, and the ram isn't quite as fast, but the tangible result for your in game experience really boils down to software price and controller preference. I have specs similar to yours, and I'm going with PC for multiplats like Thief. The reason is because I want to have it on a platform with control options, the ability to play in 3D (I'm into that) and the ability to upgrade the hardware over time (I will get a new video card soon.) But if you aren't planning on upgrading, it's sort of a tie based on your specs.

I would imagine it would be roughly on par, perhaps slightly better or worse depending on the game.

^^ thanks guys, good to know!

Upgrade your PC.

Get a PS4 it'll last 10 years, with a relevant library, upgrade your PC next time you have the money. THat way you'll have the best of both worlds and your PC will be be better when you upgrade cause of new parts coming out and cheaper prices.

I have to give bad advice. So many people claim to give good advice but actually suck at it.

I on the other hand present a option that is straight up with minimal risk with a PC that will only have to be upgraded 2-3 times before he Star Citizen actually releases.

So get a nice looking chasis.

And really it boils down to how much would it take to upgrade your PC to workable standards? Are we talking a mere GPU upgrade? CPU? etc etc.

@BeardMaster: Gaming on a PC in the livingroom is no problem. Just use a keyboard with a built-in mousepad for browsing, and a X360 controller for gaming, or other types of controllers for that matter.

Alot of PC games dont support a controller, and for most online games i wouldnt want to use one even if i could.

Frankly if I want to game in the living room, its just alot easier to use a console.

There is, it helps the companies make money and pump out good games for the later adapters to enjoy.

PS4 of course, It'll be your friend for the next 6-7 years.

since youre considering console optimization

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQmTcm5vojY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abGW1bk1nmM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KGLH5gmQc4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3E1rvJAMC78

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjcXKEc7MsE

Tough to answer without your rig's current specs

i had different experiences with those things

my 15 dollar kb + mouse combo has zero lag, i guess you are very unlucky

update your audio drivers and sound bug will disapear

my 6 dollar wifi is great

i have both controller and wireless kb + mouse and 90% of games are much better on kb+mouse even games like batman that are suppoused to be better with controller

i have a compact white wireless kb that looks great

you gpu is not bottlenecked by your cpu

your gpu is some 30% faster than ps4

That is a terrible reason

cpu, more then 2x faster

gpu is roughly 23% faster, but has 50% faster texel rate ( able handle more complex shaders and texture workloads)

Smashes it.

Oh really.....That's good to know

Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha. You sound like a sap.

Not worth upgrading your rig unless you're willing to do it right. Seems to me you'll be better served with a PS4 for now.

Part of my wifi problems probably has to do with the fact that everyone has a router in my apartment complex, thus there are multiple interferences. I would enjoy KB/M for my PC games more if it were more responsive.

Makes me happy! But will eventually get the PS4 for exclusives

it's convenient for the later adapters and everyone overall...... if no one buys the consoles then the console will stop production is that simple.. if no one bought the PS3 and Xbox 360 a lot of the games made we enjoyed would have probably have not been made... early adapters are important to a consoles life. Look at the Vita Vs the 3DS. Which one is getting more support because of a bigger user base?

Upgrade your rig. Ps4 isn't worth it right now. No point in paying 400 to play killzone

At this stage I'd recommend PC over PS4 unless you were very excited about many of the up-and-coming PS4 exclusives.

So basically expect your gpu to handle higher settings with nearly 30% more framerates at 1080.

PC - thousands of games

PS4 - Killzone 4(lol) and Knack(lol)

Pretty hard choice.

TC what is your current pc specs? then you can adjust upgrades to what it needs to make it ready.

Also Console optimization isnt magic they always alter and lower settings to reach a set target, and this time around these consoles are only sporting a weak low clocked 8 core cpu's that only have 6 cores available for games. And gpu's that are mid ranged at best. These consoles are nothing like the PS3/360 or older consoles were they have to develop, learn and wait for the software to fully mature use the console's processing power. Like using the Cell to augment the RSX etc. From the get go with these consoles, all available cores,memory and nearly all the gpu resources are being used with games like KZ:SF.

yes upgrade its time to upgrade that pentium 2 and voodoo card

I can't speak for PS4.

But, I can speak for having a PC in the lounge.

Personally, my set up is that I have a desk that's sitting next to the lounge TV. The PC is dual screening with the monitor on the desk, and the TV. Obviously, I don't constantly have the dual screen enabled, but whenever I want to do something on the big screen, I just enable it: I can then do whatever I want on the big screen such as play games, watch movies etc. through my PC.

The benefit of this is that I don't need a wireless keyboard/mouse etc. because I have a typical work station with a desk sitting next to the TV. I can simply flick over whenever I want to do something related to media on the big screen.

It makes for a really good set up imo. This is only if you can afford the space of having a desk in the lounge room.

Finally found a ps4 yesterday and I love it. The controller was way better than I expected and this is coming from someone who hates the ps3 controller.