Now that the pricing of the PlayStation 4 Pro has been officially revealed, many gamers are faced with the decision of whether to trade in their console for the newer version or make the switch to PC gaming.
The biggest contributing factor to this decision is price, although it can be argued that the wider array of games and multiplayer platforms on PC negates some of the extra cost.
We’ve compared the retail pricing of the PlayStation 4 Pro to the price of a gaming PC with equivalent gaming performance.
PlayStation 4 Pro Performance
The PlayStation 4 Pro is more than twice as powerful as the last generation of gaming consoles, boasting an impressive 4.2 TFLOPs of peak compute.
Although this figure is not fully indicative of gaming power, it does provide a relatively good indicator of overall GPU performance.
The PS4 Pro’s GPU uses AMD’s Polaris 10 architecture, which means that it can be more accurately compared to AMD’s Radeon RX Series graphics cards than any other lineup, as they use the same GPU architecture.
The closest GPU to the PlayStation 4 in terms of performance is the Radeon RX 470, delivering 4.9 TFLOPs of peak compute and 4GB of memory.
The PlayStation 4 Pro has 8GB of shared GDRR5 memory, while the Radeon RX 470 comes in both 4GB and 8GB dedicated memory variations.
Due to the PS4 Pro’s shared memory and the fact that 4GB of VRAM is more than sufficient for modern games, the 4GB model of the Radeon RX 470 seems to be the most accurate “PS4 Pro-equivalent” GPU, as the small memory deficit would only serve to bring its performance more in line with the PS4 Pro.
Equivalent PC build
We’ve assembled the cheapest possible gaming PC while aiming to deliver performance as similar to that of the PlayStation 4 Pro as possible.
An Intel Core i3 6100 Skylake GPU is more than sufficient for modern gaming, and delivers at least the same performance as the PS4 Pro SoC in conjunction with the rest of the system.
Below is the South African pricing for a PlayStation 4 Pro equivalent PC:
|
Component
|
Product
|
Price
|
|---|---|---|
| Processor | Intel Core i3 6300 3.80GHz | R2,609 |
| Motherboard | ASROCK H110M-DGS Micro-ATX | R845 |
| Graphics Card | Sapphire Radeon RX 470 OC 4GB | R3,464 |
| Memory | Corsair Value Select 8GB DDR4 2,133MHz | R629 |
| Storage | Seagate Barracuda 1TB, 3.5-inch SATA6G 7,200RPM | R839 |
| Chassis | BitFenix Comrade Windowed White ATX | R495 |
| Power Supply | Cooler Master B400 Series 400W | R737 |
| Total Price | R9,618 |
Verdict
While PC gaming can sometimes be cheaper than console gaming if you retain parts from previous builds or buy second-hand, the updated Polaris architecture and cheap performance the PlayStation 4 Pro delivers makes it an interesting value proposition.
Despite the slightly more expensive games, the PlayStation 4 Pro is worth its R6,999 price tag, delivering performance similar to that of a R9,618 gaming PC build.
Arguments could be made for either platform over the other, but in terms of pricing, the value-per-rand of the PlayStation 4 Pro means that consoles could remain competitive with the PC market for a while longer.
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So I am one of the fortunate ones that spends my free time when not with my partner on gaming and streaming. I own both a high end PC and a Xbox one. I have gamed on the PC platform for over 7 years and it has been an amazing experience. But with the increasing need of a better graphics card and motherboard to run all the games i enjoy on ultra it as become expensive yet to why i decided on a console too. The console connects to my TV where i can stream and play the most recent games on the best quality, games like Witcher 3/Ryse/Darksouls etc but my PC is used for downloading or should i say pirating and then games like Rome Total war 2 and League of legends or the odd occasion laning with friends, and then there is my laptop, also high end which i use for league of legends and Rome still. But a console is a want for me and I got it, I feel like I am complete in a way. It all depends on the user and also the cash flow.