Thinking of getting the Xbox One X

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I can't think of any reason why you care about sharing a Microsoft account across your PC and console, it seems like a pretty bizarre reason to get an Xbox to me.

If you just want the most powerful console on the market, then that's a good reason to get an Xbox One X. It will outperform the other consoles as it has a more powerful GPU. As the sole device to own for gaming, it's an excellent choice. But if you plan to get an equally equipped gaming PC afterwards, I can't see why you would ever use the Xbox One X again, outside of playing its very few exclusive titles, or wanting to play multiplayer specifically with friends who also have bought into that system.

The cost of a PC for gaming is going to depend on what you plan to play on it and how. For 1080p at 30fps, you could spend about $150-450. For 1080p 60fps gaming with the most recent titles, you'll be looking at about $700. For 4K 60fps with the most recent titles, you'd be looking at about $1800.

For something roughly equivalent to the Xbox One X, you'd be looking at somewhere in that $800-1000 range; the Xbox One X mostly targets 1800p to 4K at 30fps, which is close in performance to a GTX 1060. You can expect to pay at the higher end of that range for a small form factor build, with higher prices for the motherboard and case. This example build comes close to the performance of an Xbox One X in terms of graphics, eclipsing it in CPU power - I don't think any current CPUs for desktop are similar to the ancient custom CPU in the Xbox One X.

You certainly won't be able to get an equivalent specced PC at the same cost as a console. The console hardware itself is heavily subsidised by revenue from software sales, and benefits from a huge scale of production. On the other hand, because of that business model, the software costs much more than that for PCs. After buying several games the lower upfront cost of the hardware in a console has been spent on its higher priced software.

Gaming on PC is certainly more complicated than on consoles but not much more so if all you intend to do is run the games - in recent years consoles have come closer to PCs in complexity, requiring regular updates, having different options to tweak performance and particularly for the Xbox brand, becoming more general purpose devices. It is certainly a valid concern, but if you know how to use a smartphone or a modern console then I don't think a PC would be much more difficult a learning curve.

Okay, a few things:

1. Ignore all the hype that any consoles or devices have. Any marketing you hear? Ignore it. In the end, it matters not. Keep in mind that the source of hype is always big corporations that couldnt give less of a crap about you. I always tell people to just ignore all forms of marketing, and that absolutely applies to consoles/PCs/phones/tablets/whatever sorts of tech. Dont believe marketing/hype.

2. There are really only two things, in a practical sense, that ACTUALLY matter when it comes to console use. First, the exclusives. What games does it have that you want, that ARENT on the other consoles? Back in the Genesis Does what Nintendon't days, this question had some real merit, but these days.... not so much, unless you're thinking of Nintendo since they still have a boatload of first-party franchises and their weird gimmicks, but let's ignore them for now. Between the PS4/Xbox though... not so much. The second thing is: What controller do you want to use? I use the PS4 controller because I need a dpad that doesnt blow goat chunks. Also because it doesnt wreck my arm just to hold it. Outside of these two things, the two consoles are, for all intents and purposes, identical. They do the same things and frankly are rather slow and awkward at all of them. There IS one exception though: The PS4 has VR, if you want that. Not very good VR, from what I hear, but the fact that it has it at all is a selling point to some. The Xbox does not have it. Note that ALL THREE types of controllers can work with PCs now. Yes, even Nintendo's. Used to be hard to set that up, but now... no.

3. Ignore the 4k thing. 4K is basically an ultra-high screen resolution that some expensive monitors can produce.... and from a practical standpoint, it's a bloody waste of time. MOST people cannot tell the difference from looking at it (hell, alot of people have enough trouble with normal screens... most peoples' vision really just isnt that good). Screen resolution, just in basic monitors, is already so very high that individual pixels are imperceptible to most. Unless you have perfect vision and are sitting with your face like a foot from the screen... you wont notice the difference. I'll put it this way: Even alot of die-hard "PC master race" sorts of players consider 4K to be a waste of time, unless you're purely after bragging rights (which seems to be the usual motivation... you know how people are with tech. "My machine does THIS thing with IMPRESSIVE NUMBERS and yours doesnt", that sort of reasoning). And from a gameplay standpoint, it's not going to make the slightest difference anyway. However, what it DOES do is put a massive drain on the PC or console trying to utilize it. The Xbox may do 4K, but something tells me it doesnt do it very well, and it's probably very limited (individual games have to support it, and most probably dont).

4. Whether or not the consoles are crap compared to PCs is up to you. Would I personally say they're bad? You betcha. But it's mostly because of the selection.... 99% of the games I do own are not available on consoles, and considering the sheer size of my collection (and the fact that I have no spending limit and just buy stuff when I feel like it, expanding it quickly) this says something about just how much is missing from consoles. Hell, entire genres are outright missing on consoles. This also can have an effect on individual games though. Take Skyrim for instance. On PC, you have an absolutely stupid number of mods available to alter the game however you see fit. From mods that perform fixes, to silly things like putting tophats on crabs, to complete overhauls that transform the entire game into something new.... thousands of possibilities and more being made all the time, it's all there, and it's all free. On console, you have.... nothing. EVER. No mods on consoles, period. This can be such a massive difference that for some players, it's THE reason why they end up going PC. This also applies to things with mod-ish functionality and trading such as Steam's Workshop function. Consoles ENTIRELY lack all of that.

Again though, whether those things matter is entirely up to you. The only way to truly determine that is to look at all the options and decide what you want, and what each possible choice does or doesnt have.


Now as for the idea of a PC being too expensive.... yeah, dont worry about that. Most games, even AAA games, will seriously run on most things. This aint the days of Windows 95 when you had to look at specs all the bloody time and everything had to be perfect. Even when I was using my previous laptop... which was a worthless hunk of junk... I never even once looked at the specs for a game before buying. Not... even... one... time. Considering how much of a bloody disaster that device was, that says alot. That thing was both old AND damaged. Didnt really matter. Games these days offer you about a bazillion options that you can tweak in relation to graphics and sound and whatever, usually all conveniently accessible from the game's main menu screen. Have a weaker machine? Just turn things down. Wanna push it and see what it can handle? Turn it all up! It makes sense, too: developers that sell a game that only works on really high-end systems arent going to make much money. If they wanna sell well, they gotta make sure it runs on as many machines as conceivably possible. Note that MOST of the time, you dont actually have to do any tweaking. Games generally auto-scan your hardware and determine the best options for your specific setup so that they look as good as possible without running like crap.

But also, keep one thing in mind with PCs: You're not JUST paying for games here. These are full-fledged computers with the same total functionality as that laptop you're using. No console or phone or tablet can match that (and I say that as someone that has frequent use of all of those). Consoles in particular are incredibly limited devices. They've gotten a bit better in recent years.... but not by very much. Sure, you can do things like watch Youtube on a console or whatever... but believe me, it wont do it very well. Hell, I for one cant even TOLERATE trying to use the internet in any form on a console. It just isnt freaking happening. It's an infuriating (and very slow) experience.

Lastly: You dont need to know a ton about hardware to use a PC for gaming. Again, this aint the old days. Way back when, you really did need to know your machine pretty well to get things to run. But now? Ye gods, no. Most of the PC gamers I know dont actually know a bloody thing about their PCs, but this doesnt change their experience with them. This goes for the UI as well.

Let me put it this way: When I want to run a game, I do the following steps:

1. Click Steam to open it (Steam being the main vendor of PC games, and the main launcher).
2. Click the "library" tab to open my list of games.
3. Double-click a game.

....That's seriously it. I always tell people this: If you can handle using your computer... PC *or* laptop... for browsing the internet, you can handle it for gaming.

This also goes for installation. Way back when, you'd have to argue with drivers and deal with piles of CDs and blah blah blah. It could take HOURS of frustration sometimes. Now? I buy something from Steam, click "install" exactly once, and it just does ALL of it. Theres zero effort on my part.

And honestly, this goes for non-Steam games too. Most non-steam installations go like this: Find game/program on a site you can buy/download it from. Run the installer. Installer shows you a default location on your harddrive where it will put the program (rarely any need for you to change this). You say "Okay" and it goes and does it. You'll then have an icon on your desktop or in your start menu that you can use to run the game/program. That's seriously it.

Chances are.... none of that sounds too hard for you.

The main thing that's important though is simply to make sure that your machine is protected... same with your laptop. And dont do weird crap. Like, dont poke and prod at files that you dont know the function of. Alot of people have their machines break down ENTIRELY as a result of their own screwball actions and then sit around wondering what went wrong. I say this after having a bazillion times where I am the one that gets to fix their bloody stupid mistakes.


Seriously. PCs, just like laptops (they're really the same thing) are simple to use now. It's no harder than using the internet and related browsers. Just make sure that, if you do buy a PC, that you're buying it from someone that isnt an asshat and wont rip you off or something. I personally had my machine recently built for me at the local Fry's. There are plenty of people at places like that (or wherever) who can make it easy for you to get a machine that A: fits your budget and B: doesnt suck. Just like making any expensive purchase though, do your research in regards to the places you might be buying from. The fact that you're already here asking all these questions is a darned good sign. Most people just dive right in and then wonder later why things went wrong.


Whatever you choose to buy, console or PC or, I dunno, a freaking car... I hope you enjoy it.

For me I play a lot of League of Legends, and I like skyrim and dragon age inquisition..but I certainly find playing LoL at a desk is a lot more comfortable than any other way, because how intensive it can be sometimes. But with most other games I'm just kind f*****g around discovering s**t...seems the Xbox One X can facilitate that well enough. I think that paired with a better laptop than I have would be a more fitting set up.

I guess I kind of like to seperate playing league from sitting in front of a console like set up...so to me it appeals to have a console set up and then a seperate laptop set up for when I want to play league. Maybe it is not the most logical set up but it feels comfortable for me I suppose. And I like the console menus for streaming services like hulu and netflix and with the youtube app, you can see all the youtube videos....just don't use the console internet browser, youtube sucks through that.

Plus though, you can get some of the skyrim mods on the Xbox One X, its not as many you can get with the PC version, but supposedly it provides more than PS3....which for me is cool, I mean I have barely got through the game without mods...so I am sure whichever ones are avalible on Xbox will be satisfying enough. I don't particulary need or want all the mods.

Mostly I don't doubt PCs are over-all better than consoles, but at the same time I really like having my set up with a console and then a seperate laptop. I mean I can get the console and have that taken care of, and then invest in a better laptop to hold up to League of Legends a bit more, the current one is struggling more lately it seems.

You could always get a Steam Link (If you can find one, they stopped selling them recently but you can also install the steam link software on an old computer hooked up to the tv) in addition to a computer.

The Steam Link is plugged into your TV and streams content back from the computer. You can use controllers with it, even ones from consoles, or plug a mouse and keyboard directly into the Steam Link.

The Xbox One X doesn't do 4K well. Its graphics performance is akin to a GTX 1060, which is considered a very good card for 1080p gaming. The console supports about 9 games in total at that resolution at 60 fps. Other games are either subsampling and upscaling to 4K, or running at janky frame rates.

The real reason to get one of these '4K' consoles is to use the extra GPU power to improve performance.

That's assuming the developers of the games you want to play aren't stupid, because you're relying on them to create profiles that properly leverage the hardware. They sometimes don't - certain games run better on the less powerful PS4 Pro, which basically shouldn't happen; it's because the developers are too aggressively aiming for 4K at the cost of performance. That will probably keep happening because of Microsoft's marketing push of their system being for 4K.

Note that whenever I say "PC", what I actually mean is "desktop computer and/or laptop". Generally, around the places I go and with the people I talk about, the word "PC" just means any type of personal computer. So all of what I said applies to laptops.

Hell, even I have a gaming laptop, I just dont use it except for when I'm off travelling. Not even remotely close to as expensive as my desktop rig is (but then, almost no PCs are) but it's still quite enough to run anything.

Anything you can do on a PC, you can do on a laptop. It's just that laptops can present... some difficulties. They seem to always be more expensive than their desktop counterparts, and frankly their keyboards tend to suck (at least to me anyway). And the less said about the touchpad, the better.

I also hear that they can overheat a bit easily? I personally havent experienced that, but I've heard about it. Whether or not it's actually true or not is another matter. It might be something to check out if you decide to look into getting a new laptop. ALWAYS do the research carefully.

Now that all being said, what someone else said above about a PC and an Xbox being redundant also does indeed apply to laptops (again, they're really the same as PCs, just structured differently). If you have both, well... it probably is kinda pointless. You'll have one machine that can do lots of things well, including all games, you'll have another machine that can do a few things badly, with only games that would also appear on the much better laptop. if you were getting a PS4 or a Switch, it'd make alot more sense. Sort of. To be honest even the PS4 becomes a bit redundant, just not nearly as much as the Xbox.

One piece of advice though: Dont buy an entire new laptop just to play one or two games, particularly when your current one technically does run the main game you're playing (I guarantee you you're not going to notice as much of a difference as you probably think you will). It's already a really iffy idea to buy an entire console for one or two games, which I've certainly seen some people do... but buying a dramatically more expensive laptop is muuuuuuch worse. Make sure you have enough real reason beyond just that to get one.




Sounds like the marketing is a load of crap, then. Never surprising at this point.

It definitely seems ridiculous indeed that such games would run better on the PS4 at all, pro version or not. *sigh*

I swear, these companies never fail to disappoint me. Granted I wouldnt have bought their stuff anyway...

How many games have this an option?

Hmm, it might be just an automatic thing? Maybe? Like, scenes that normally the machine struggles with could simply run at a higher framerate with the increased power making it less of a strain. Er.... maybe. Or they could bug out more, who knows.

The real question would be how noticable it would actually be. I mean, there's more power to it, but it surely cant be all that much or the thing would be dramatically more expensive than the normal one.

Does it matter how many games have the option? From what I gather, many do, but I don't see the point of the question. It only matters how the games you want to run work.

Well some pretty good points made here, seems this console has been a bit hyped up. So no real need to rush into buying it especially since my PS3 works just fine, yes it freezes up sometimes...but I've never even had a computer that's never froze up. Besides I've jumped back into Skyrim a bit and have been having a lot of fun with my evil dark elf character, and I still have stuff to do on my orc character.

I think I do like the idea of a console more than hooking up a computer to the t.v, I like the price better that is for sure. But I understand its just a console....not anything very special like the hype kinda had me thinking. I've also heard they may be releasing a new console towards the end of this year, maybe with all the hype that one gets they'll drop the price on the Xbox One X. Not sure how likely that is though.

Hm, your PS3 is freezing up? Shouldnt be doing that.

Yeah, PCs do it, but PCs are also powered by Windows (blegh) most of the time and are high on complexity. And are very easy for users to make mistakes on.

Consoles though... if a console starts locking up even a bit, something is wrong. Too often this means a hardware problem.

It might not be a bad idea to ask about the issue on a support forum, maybe. Just so you know what you're dealing with and if there's anything you can do, or any further problems to expect.

Perhaps I will do that, that said its a refurbished PS3 that I bought like 5 years ago...so I kind of also wonder if it's just getting old but may not be a bad idea to look into it more.