Sony’s PlayStation 4 Pro boasts impressive performance for its price, packing support for upscaled 4K gaming and native 4K video streaming.
While games and multiplayer services are cheaper on PC, the PlayStation 4 Pro’s price makes it an attractive buy for local gamers.
To see what you get for your money, we compared the specifications and pricing of the PlayStation 4 Pro with an equally-powerful gaming PC.
PS4 Pro
The most important component involved in this comparison is the graphics processor.
The PlayStation 4 Pro shares 8GB of GDDR5 VRAM across its CPU and GPU, and boasts 4.2TFLOPS of processing power.
The specifications of the PlayStation 4 Pro are below.
| PlayStation 4 Pro | |
|---|---|
| Processor | 8-core AMD Jaguar CPU @ 2.13GHz |
| Graphics | 4.2TFLOPS AMD Polaris GPU |
| VRAM | 8GB GDDR5 |
| Memory Bandwidth | 217GB/s |
| Storage | 1TB HDD |
| I/O | 1x HDMI, 3x USB 3.1 Gen 1, 1x S/PDIF, 1x Ethernet |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth, Wi-Fi |
| Price | R6,999 (Dec Special – R5,999) |
PC build
For the comparative PC build, we used Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1060 3GB as the GPU to take on the PlayStation 4 Pro’s chip.
It is nearest to the PS4 Pro’s peak performance range, and is much cheaper than similar AMD Polaris graphics cards – which are popular among crypto miners.
Other components included an array of budget parts and an Intel 7th-gen CPU.
The PlayStation-equivalent PC, along with its South African pricing, is detailed below.
| Component | Price |
|---|---|
| Intel Pentium G4560 | R982 |
| ASUS H110M-K Motherboard | R991 |
| Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR4 | R1,688 |
| Palit GeForce GTX 1060 3GB StormX | R3,399 |
| Seagate BarraCuda 1TB Hard Drive | R795 |
| Raidmax 500W PSU | R471 |
| Raidmax Vortex V4 Chassis | R501 |
| Price | R8,827 |
The cheapest PlayStation 4 Pro-equivalent gaming PC remains more expensive than the console, but not by a substantial margin.
It must be noted that gaming PCs do not require a monthly subscription for online gaming and usually feature cheaper games.
The PlayStation 4, however, offers a more “lounge-friendly” gaming and media solution, thanks to its sleek design and 4K HDR capabilities.
Now read: Showmax launched on PlayStation 4
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