# are video game consoles more powerful than PCs **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [October 3, 2015, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-video-game-consoles-more-powerful-than-pcs/733346 "2015-10-03T07:08:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-video-game-consoles-more-powerful-than-pcs/733346/21 "2015-10-06T16:11:00Z")
There’s more reason to buy physical console games since there’s a resale market for them. There’s no resale market for PC games (since they’re all tied to accounts) so much less reason to sell retail copies. I was reading yesterday that Gamestop’s stock fell 20%+ a few years back just on the pre-launch suggestion that the XBox One would be using digital games instead of resalable discs. ([Cite](https://games.yahoo.com/blogs/plugged-in/gamestop-stock-plummets-following-xbox-one-used-game-204230663.html)) It’s not really about how hard it is to install a game, it’s about what you can do with the physical game later. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-video-game-consoles-more-powerful-than-pcs/733346/22 "2015-10-06T16:51:11Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Jophiel** : > > There’s nothing stopping you from using the TV as a display for your computer aside from you not wanting to hook it up (for various reasons that I’m sure are legitimate for you). Some TVs make this a lot harder than others, though. You’d think that all TVs nowadays _should_ have standard video adapters (how much could that cost the manufacturer, really?), but not all do. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-video-game-consoles-more-powerful-than-pcs/733346/23 "2015-10-06T16:55:32Z")
Really, I’d expect modern video cards to have HDMI outputs. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-video-game-consoles-more-powerful-than-pcs/733346/24 "2015-10-06T17:30:54Z")
Sure, but does the TV have an HDMI input? ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-video-game-consoles-more-powerful-than-pcs/733346/25 "2015-10-06T17:55:30Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Sure, but does the TV have an HDMI input? If not, it’s probably time to spring for a new TV before spending hundreds of dollars on a console/PC 😃 Yes, I admit there’s probably times when your antiquated TV and/or antiquated PC can’t happily mate. Those times are edge cases and will become increasingly so as time marches on. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-video-game-consoles-more-powerful-than-pcs/733346/26 "2015-10-06T22:11:52Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Sure, but that’s a personal choice on your part. It’s like me saying that games are better on my PC because I have a 30" monitor on it and a 14" CRT for my console. There’s nothing stopping you from using the TV as a display for your computer aside from you not wanting to hook it up (for various reasons that I’m sure are legitimate for you). That is true, but my setup is typical of a normal household so most people would have their PC in more of an office type environment and their console in more of a lounge room environment and so the comparison between them is fairly typical. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-video-game-consoles-more-powerful-than-pcs/733346/27 "2015-10-06T23:44:02Z")
Fair enough. Guess it depends on what you primarily intend to use your PC for. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-video-game-consoles-more-powerful-than-pcs/733346/28 "2015-10-06T23:59:47Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Fair enough. Guess it depends on what you primarily intend to use your PC for. This. And I assure you, you haven’t experienced gaming properly until you’ve processed a 2000 x 4000 cell spreadsheet in Excel on a 70" 4K display. W00t! 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-video-game-consoles-more-powerful-than-pcs/733346/29 "2015-10-07T00:01:06Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > This. > > And I assure you, you haven’t experienced gaming properly until you’ve processed a 2000 x 4000 cell spreadsheet in Excel on a 70" 4K display. W00t! 🆒 You know, EVE Online isn’t for everyone. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-video-game-consoles-more-powerful-than-pcs/733346/30 "2015-10-07T01:38:52Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Jophiel** : > > Yes, I admit there’s probably times when your antiquated TV and/or antiquated PC can’t happily mate. Those times are edge cases and will become increasingly so as time marches on. Actually, the TV I was thinking of was bought new in 2013. And yes, I was amazed when I discovered it wasn’t possible to mate it to a computer. ---
**Author:** ![Doughbag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Doughbag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doughbag)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-video-game-consoles-more-powerful-than-pcs/733346/31 "2015-10-07T13:26:50Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Actually, the TV I was thinking of was bought new in 2013. And yes, I was amazed when I discovered it wasn’t possible to mate it to a computer. Well, than you can’t mate to a modern console either, since the Xbox One is HDMI only. However, I doubt, that your TV had no facility to connect to a PC… maybe your PC didn’t have the right outputs. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-video-game-consoles-more-powerful-than-pcs/733346/32 "2015-10-07T14:06:15Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > I was reading yesterday that Gamestop’s stock fell 20%+ a few years back just on the pre-launch suggestion that the XBox One would be using digital games instead of resalable discs. ([Cite](https://games.yahoo.com/blogs/plugged-in/gamestop-stock-plummets-following-xbox-one-used-game-204230663.html)) Not on a suggestion, it dropped due to Microsoft’s actual announcement. And the stock regained all of its value a few weeks later, before Microsoft announced that it would use a traditional used game system for the Xbox One. ---
**Author:** ![Doughbag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Doughbag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doughbag)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-video-game-consoles-more-powerful-than-pcs/733346/33 "2015-10-07T15:27:35Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > There’s more reason to buy physical console games since there’s a resale market for them. There’s no resale market for PC games (since they’re all tied to accounts) so much less reason to sell retail copies. > > I was reading yesterday that Gamestop’s stock fell 20%+ a few years back just on the pre-launch suggestion that the XBox One would be using digital games instead of resalable discs. ([Cite](https://games.yahoo.com/blogs/plugged-in/gamestop-stock-plummets-following-xbox-one-used-game-204230663.html)) > > It’s not really about how hard it is to install a game, it’s about what you can do with the physical game later. They are only tied to accounts if its an online game bought via Steam (or equivalent). Your single person games has a CD/DVD and usually a Product Key. No account needed. Some PC games started to require being connected to the internet, when you start the game or during the game, which is due to various ways of circumventing the copy protection. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-video-game-consoles-more-powerful-than-pcs/733346/34 "2015-10-07T16:04:57Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > Not on a suggestion, it dropped due to Microsoft’s actual announcement. And the stock regained all of its value a few weeks later, before Microsoft announced that it would use a traditional used game system for the Xbox One. Sure, but that was my point. Stores like Gamestop sell physical console media because it has resale value (after buying it back for pennies on the dollar). Virtually all PC games these days are tied to digital accounts. Even the rare retail versions are often a clamshell with a digital key inside. Retail PC games that can be freely resold/reused are rare these days aside from low end stuff in the cardboard sleeves at Target or Office Depot. There’s just no second-hand PC game market. The lack of interest from game stores in selling PC media has more to do with the second hand market than compatibility issues. Single sales aren’t really their business model, it’s sales and then buy back/resales. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-video-game-consoles-more-powerful-than-pcs/733346/35 "2015-10-07T16:09:59Z")
> [@Doughbag](#): > > They are only tied to accounts if its an online game bought via Steam (or equivalent). > Your single person games has a CD/DVD and usually a Product Key. No account needed. It is a very rare new game (of AAA of thereabouts quality) that is sold via physical retail and does not require activation which ties it to an account. Either Steamworks, Uplay, EA/Origin, GFWL (well, when it was being used) or Rockstar Social Club (shudder). Witcher 3 is the stand out exception I can think of. CD Projekt Red and their “No DRM” stance and all. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2015, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-video-game-consoles-more-powerful-than-pcs/733346/36 "2015-10-08T03:13:04Z")
Don’t forget Blizzard, which has their own little private content-management-account system, with all of five games on it (soon to be six). ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2015, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-video-game-consoles-more-powerful-than-pcs/733346/37 "2015-10-08T10:17:35Z")
> [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > Whose dream? Allowing owners to replace graphics cards would negate one of the biggest advantages consoles have: games always work because you don’t have to worry about individual system configurations. Why would you assume that having replaceable graphics cards would make games not work? The base system is still the base system, and all games have to be able to work on it as a minimum. Now, it might be more work for developers (assuming they don’t already use scaling for their PC port), but consumers should be able to play anything. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2015, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-video-game-consoles-more-powerful-than-pcs/733346/38 "2015-10-08T13:10:24Z")
Allowing different pieces of hardware turns the console into a computer. Sony will have to allow individual driver updates. Developers will be unable to design a game for a set, static hardware configuration, which will lead to more zero-day issues similar to the ones on PC releases. The entire platform will become inherently less stable, and stability is one of the best reasons to have a console. No thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Airk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2015, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-video-game-consoles-more-powerful-than-pcs/733346/39 "2015-10-08T14:17:42Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Why would you assume that having replaceable graphics cards would make games not work? The base system is still the base system, and all games have to be able to work on it as a minimum. > > Now, it might be more work for developers (assuming they don’t already use scaling for their PC port), but consumers should be able to play anything. Uh, because now you can’t tell what hardware you’re dealing with, so you need to test across all permutations. Are you only allowing “official, licensed video cards”? If so, people will probably hate you. If not, you’re dooming yourself to a million combinations of hardware. And developers will still essentially have to design for the lowest common denominator. Not very useful. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-video-game-consoles-more-powerful-than-pcs/733346.md?page=1)