At $299, is the Xbox Series S better than a comparable PC at that price?

It wont take long for it to be at least comparable.

Yeah, probably. Even if you could get a 4tflop GPU for $50, $250 left over for a CPU, case, power supply, and RAM isn't giving you much room. But the extra performance you get from a PS5 for $100 more looks like a better deal.

If I were a Budget gamer I'd be all over the XSS.

As it stands, a spanking new SuperMighty XSX MonsterBox will be mine in the near future. :D

A console without a disc drive is almost completely useless. It could cost $99 and I still wouldn't buy it. I'd just save all my money for a pc or x-series x. The price doesn't matter to me as much as it's feature set.

The Series X is probably the best value console on the market. A comparable PC would very likely cost you $650~ or so.

With the way things are moving to more and more digital, if the next gen (PS6, XStupidName) is digital only then PS5 could very well be the final gen for me.

These digital only consoles will always be vastly inferior to me.

If you want to go with a much better deal and shock value, Xbox Series X is a hell of a better deal for only $500, you get everything including physical disc drive if you the type of gamer that doesn't like digital. XSX in my opinion is a better deal if you want the PC comparable price-wise value. Nevet go cheap on your product, not even for XSS $300.

(But most importantly, never ever go dirty cheap on building a simple gaming PC either)

I've not used the disk drive in my One X for months if not years and for only 1 game that I was given.

There is a growing market that doesn't need disk drive.

@davillain-: The 3060 which will be comparable to the SX is probably not too far whereas something like a sub 3050-card is far away still. Probably like a year as opposed to 6 months or less for a 30 series GPU with ray tracing capabilities.

You can’t build a PC comparable to either console for the price. But I have no interest in building a compromised PC so it doesn’t matter.

A $299 PC will be a potato. The 1660 super is over $200 right now. The Ryzen 7 3700X is $300. B550/X570 motherboards aren’t cheap either.

The value proposition of consoles is nice, but it’s a silly argument against PC. The consoles are sold at a loss once again in order to push software and services. You aren’t buying any PC parts sold at a loss. You also aren’t getting a 36Tflops console with 64GB of RAM, 12/16 CPU cores and 4TBs of ssd storage. You get what you pay for in the end.

@SolidGame_basic:

Is not a 1440p machine is a 1080p machine hyped to be 1440p and 120FPS no amount of CPU power will move that resolution with those frames on a AAA game.

It may actually be better depending on what you can get,if you are aiming for 8 core zen 16 threads don't loss your time,you simply will not be it,but such a low end GPU doesn't require a ryzen 2.

I bought a PC for emulation some months ago is a 4 core i5 3470 3.2ghz no HT,for $135 dollars came with mouse keyboard,8GB of ram and 1TB hdd.

I pair it with a 1650 super to be able to emulate pretty much anything out there,and that card is $160 dollars can run shadow of mordor on 1080p ultra at 90+FPS,the 1650 super i think will have no problems beating that series S,at least until the true next gen may come,they i may be hurt more by memory than anything else since it is a 4GB card.

Now i went used on the PC,if you are chasing something new and you want faster loading you will not match that series S,for that price.

You're not building a comparable PC for $299 ... not even close.

Probably but pc is still significantly better than console. Also, if the ps5 digital is $399, it would be a much better deal than xbox series S

I would say probably yes. I don’t really know the prices of PC components all that well but I find it hard to imagine being able to build an equivalent PC at $299.

I just would not want to play on a $299 PC. But $299 is small enough that after you build your fancy rig, you can still afford to get a convenience companion system for the guest room.

Why does a comparison needs to be made to begin with? Console gaming is aimed at a specific demographic and PC gaming is also aimed at a specific demographic. I can't believe people are still dwelling on this issue.

It entirely depends on what you want to use it for. If you just want to game and don't mind using a controller in most games, then it's a good deal. But, if you want all the workhorse stuff a PC offers plus some gaming, then that's the way to go.

You may want to factor in pricing of Xbox Live if you are going to do online gaming as well. If you factor this in for 3 years, that's an additional, what 180 bucks? You could put that toward better PC components.

EDIT: Also, once the Nvidia 3000 series releases, a 2060 will most likely drop to 250. If you put that in with a 130 dollar CPU, you will have a comparable system at close to 600 bucks that can do everything else a console can't do. 300 bucks to be able to word process, edit, and easily surf the web? The PC would be a better buy in this scenario if you include Xbox Live for 3 years. $600 vs $500

Just the Ryzen 3700X is $289.

XSS will be shit. 4TFLOPS in 2020....

The PS5 (significantly more powerful than XSS) was running the UE5 demo at 1440p/30fps (already shit). WTF is the XSS going to do at 1440p? LOL

If you are going the console route... at least get XSX or PS5 so PC gamers don't have to laugh at you as much.

In terms of raw performance for per dollar, of course any console will beat pc at launch.

But this is system wars, not value wars, or performance per dollar wars. Do you think the guy rocking a tesla model s gives two shits that his neighbor's honda accord cost less?

not possible for pc to compete dollar to dollar with consoles. A CPU alone like a 3600X would cost you nearly $200.

Yes, but you are buying a closed system that requires a subscription to play online. So you're cheaper off than buying a PC, not better off.

Yeah. You can actually build a PC for that much with a Ryzen 3 3200G, but it won't have as good of a GPU. The S is mass produced tho, so they get a better prices.

No. The S can't play Factorio

No. A raspberry pi would be a better value. Just stream it

No. I can't run productivity apps on S

No. S is limited to one display

So I guess the real answer is: It depends on what you want to do. Shocking.

A $300 PC can do so much more than a console ever could. If all you want to do is play games, you'll probably get a console regardless.

Yes, but that's not really relevant and PCs aren't sold at a loss.

Well the consoles don't have desktop caliber CPU's in them, also that 3600x (a 3600 non X would do the trick anyways) won't be that price for long. 4 series approaches.

Of course, but compared to a PC you can't do jack shit with a console, and a PC for that price would no be dedicated for gaming in the first place.

But but but it has a 3.6ghz cpu 100mhz faster than the PS5.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

We can count on you always.

Says the guy who was gaming on a 1060 for the past few months.

A closed system with fixed hardware?

No

Sure. Most things are better than PC.

It depends. They could already have a comparable PC which they only need to upgrade the GPU, or maybe just get a good SSD. I think the XsS will be a complete failure.

I never like these cost comparisons, because its sort of unfair to include the entire cost of a new PC. Someone that is already a PC gamer doesn't need to buy anything other than the GPU most of the time. I think we should compare it to the 3060 or whatever cards come out that cost $300. We also have no idea what a "nice 1440p" machine actually is. All you can compare right now is assumptions, hopes, and dreams.

In your opinion, I love PC better than most things. Funny how opinions work right?

@effinae: I'm pretty sure a 3060 would be way more powerful than what the Series S GPU equivalent is if Nvidia's TFLOPS are directly comparable to AMD's RDNA 2. Same for any $300 GPU from AMD. A RTX 3070 is the same price as the Xbox Series X and stomps it in GPU power so I don't think a GPU the same price as an Xbox Series S will be equal to it in power. Probably a $150 GPU something like a RTX 3050.

I voted yes... no way a $299 PC could match it. And as others have said, a $399 PS5 would even be a much better deal.

@latech84: so funny I don't care about yours.

Agreed. I didn't want to overstate anything since those cards are unannounced.

@BassMan: Not a man of the truth I see. 😂

How am I not telling the truth?

I am telling the truth and it displeases you. Am I mistaken with you gaming on a 1060 the past few months?

Hey Pedro, why don't you worry about cleaning out your own closet you delusional hypocrite shill. Stop muddying up the boards with your nonsense, and point your finger back at yourself.

You are mistaken. I sold my 2080 Ti just over a month ago.

What were you gaming on without the 2080 Ti?😎

A 1060 that I pulled from my secondary rig and a 1070 on my laptop.

@davillain-: Obviously of the 4 announced next gen consoles Xbox Series X is the best overall deal. But the Series S is gonna be very appealing for causal gamers and I bet you see a lot of Sony fans buying the Series S for the ability to have Game Pass. You’ll see a lot of Moms and Grandparents get the Series S for the kids like the original Wii. Just so the kids have something to do at grandmas house. It’s also an affordable alternative for house holds that are not 4k ready.

Consoles are sold at a loss.

You don't have to care about mine, my point still stands it's just your opinion not a fact.

No console will ever be comparable to PC. PC will always be better. Period.