The new gaming consoles have been out for some time so why not do a proper comparison to see how they stack up to high-end PC?
Performance
High end PC > XSX/PS5 > XSS
The only clear winner here is high end PC and the only clear loser is the xbox series S.
xbox series X does benefit from the fact that xbox one x was more powerful than PS4 pro and thus games that are enhanced for xbox one x but not PS5 will play better on the series X. Microsoft introduced the ability to boost the framerate of old titles up to 120hz which is nice, unfortunately then the resolution isn't the best.
https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2021/02/17/making-backward-compatible-games-even-better-with-fps-boost/
Unfortunately PC graphic cards (and also the better next gen consoles) are hard to get without overpaying due to severe shortages and scalping.
Initially next-gen titles did perform better on PS5 despite XSX having 17% more TFLOPs, why that happened exactly is still a bit unclear but the biggest factor was probably the fact that it was easier to develop games for the PS5 than the new xbox consoles. PS5 have some hardware advantages but these shouldn't outweigh the TFLOP advantage XSX has
https://vintologi.com/threads/ps5-vs-pc-vs-xbox-sx.704/page-2
Recent comparisons have not really favored the PS5, XSX had significantly better resolution in hitman 3 and the outriders demo (more than it should be) it remains to be seen how these consoles will stack up when it comes to performance and in practice you would probably not even notice the difference overall.
Storage
Here the clear loser is the new xbox consoles, at least in terms of performance. In terms of amount of storage you get out of the box the XSX is the best while the XSS is the worst. Due to Kraken compression you might still get a bigger amount of effective storage on the PS5.
Adding more storage to the XSX is very expensive and the performance you get out of it is very poor, write speed is just 0.47 GiB/s while the samsung 980 pro has 1.5 GiB/s in sustained write speed
https://vintologi.com/threads/samsung-980-pro-review.891/#post-5047
The 0.47 GiB/s figure is from the following short test where the individual doing the test claims it's really fast when it clearly isn't (i manually calculated the transfer speed).
https://youtu.be/PwwgFeuGBbQ?t=161
To compare with PC we are going to make it as unfair as possible so we will look at sustained file copy test (windows 10) well samsung 980 pro still got over 0.9 GiB/s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1ZSNZdHd8E
Recently PS5 added support for third party NVME drives via beta firmware, this allows you to install any gen4 drive pretty much but sony does recommend using a drive with a heatsink that does fit in the slot (such as SN850). These third party NVME drives are of course expensive due to having to meet the official requirement of 5500 MiB/s or more (sequential read speed).
So while currently it's not really cheaper to buy more storage for PS5 the performance you get is much better (2 to 10 times faster)
https://vintologi.com/threads/ps5-vs-pc-vs-xbox-sx.704/page-4#post-5447
https://nascompares.com/2021/08/03/ps5-ssd-storage-upgrades-why-it-is-not-difficult-and-does-make-sense/
Controls
PC > PS5 > xbox
A lot of new games does take good use of the haptic feedback the dualsense controller offer, it remains to be seen to what degree that will get supported on PC.
With PC you can select the controller most suited for the game and you will be able to take full usage of the features of the controller including gyro aiming (if you do not want to use mouse and keyboard but still want real precision).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzbZq4OjEwE
Both the PS5 and PS4 controller support gyro aiming but it didn't get much in terms of support in games, the XSX doesn't support gyro aiming at all.
Motion-based controllers (mouse, gyro aiming, etc) are generally superior to just thumb-sticks when done well.
Game library
PC > PS5 > xbox series x
With emulation PC is able to destroy any single console in terms of allowing you to actually play good games. PS5 could easily do PS3 emulation but sony has so far refused to say anything about it.
In the past microsoft has released all their exclusives to PC while sony only have released select titles, we are however seeing sony release more and more of their IP to PC so in the future you might no longer have to buy a playstation to play their 'exclusives'. I do not think sony will just release everything to PC, instead they might end up maybe releasing 80% to PC too but usually significantly later on PC.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yukjbpquiIM
On PC game censorship is less of an issue since its not controlled by a single company and there is mods.
For some reason sony likes to censor anime games that contain any nudity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGCCUlSUNpU
Best combination
Obviously if you have unlimited money you would go for a PC with a 3090 GPU and then use PS5 for playstation exclusives, this would cover near everything including nintendo games since you can use a PC to emulate older systems (up to ps3, 360, switch).
Performance
High end PC > XSX/PS5 > XSS
The only clear winner here is high end PC and the only clear loser is the xbox series S.
xbox series X does benefit from the fact that xbox one x was more powerful than PS4 pro and thus games that are enhanced for xbox one x but not PS5 will play better on the series X. Microsoft introduced the ability to boost the framerate of old titles up to 120hz which is nice, unfortunately then the resolution isn't the best.
https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2021/02/17/making-backward-compatible-games-even-better-with-fps-boost/
Unfortunately PC graphic cards (and also the better next gen consoles) are hard to get without overpaying due to severe shortages and scalping.
Initially next-gen titles did perform better on PS5 despite XSX having 17% more TFLOPs, why that happened exactly is still a bit unclear but the biggest factor was probably the fact that it was easier to develop games for the PS5 than the new xbox consoles. PS5 have some hardware advantages but these shouldn't outweigh the TFLOP advantage XSX has
https://vintologi.com/threads/ps5-vs-pc-vs-xbox-sx.704/page-2
Recent comparisons have not really favored the PS5, XSX had significantly better resolution in hitman 3 and the outriders demo (more than it should be) it remains to be seen how these consoles will stack up when it comes to performance and in practice you would probably not even notice the difference overall.
Storage
Here the clear loser is the new xbox consoles, at least in terms of performance. In terms of amount of storage you get out of the box the XSX is the best while the XSS is the worst. Due to Kraken compression you might still get a bigger amount of effective storage on the PS5.
Adding more storage to the XSX is very expensive and the performance you get out of it is very poor, write speed is just 0.47 GiB/s while the samsung 980 pro has 1.5 GiB/s in sustained write speed
https://vintologi.com/threads/samsung-980-pro-review.891/#post-5047
The 0.47 GiB/s figure is from the following short test where the individual doing the test claims it's really fast when it clearly isn't (i manually calculated the transfer speed).
https://youtu.be/PwwgFeuGBbQ?t=161
To compare with PC we are going to make it as unfair as possible so we will look at sustained file copy test (windows 10) well samsung 980 pro still got over 0.9 GiB/s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1ZSNZdHd8E
Recently PS5 added support for third party NVME drives via beta firmware, this allows you to install any gen4 drive pretty much but sony does recommend using a drive with a heatsink that does fit in the slot (such as SN850). These third party NVME drives are of course expensive due to having to meet the official requirement of 5500 MiB/s or more (sequential read speed).
So while currently it's not really cheaper to buy more storage for PS5 the performance you get is much better (2 to 10 times faster)
https://vintologi.com/threads/ps5-vs-pc-vs-xbox-sx.704/page-4#post-5447
https://nascompares.com/2021/08/03/ps5-ssd-storage-upgrades-why-it-is-not-difficult-and-does-make-sense/
Controls
PC > PS5 > xbox
A lot of new games does take good use of the haptic feedback the dualsense controller offer, it remains to be seen to what degree that will get supported on PC.
With PC you can select the controller most suited for the game and you will be able to take full usage of the features of the controller including gyro aiming (if you do not want to use mouse and keyboard but still want real precision).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzbZq4OjEwE
Both the PS5 and PS4 controller support gyro aiming but it didn't get much in terms of support in games, the XSX doesn't support gyro aiming at all.
Motion-based controllers (mouse, gyro aiming, etc) are generally superior to just thumb-sticks when done well.
Game library
PC > PS5 > xbox series x
With emulation PC is able to destroy any single console in terms of allowing you to actually play good games. PS5 could easily do PS3 emulation but sony has so far refused to say anything about it.
In the past microsoft has released all their exclusives to PC while sony only have released select titles, we are however seeing sony release more and more of their IP to PC so in the future you might no longer have to buy a playstation to play their 'exclusives'. I do not think sony will just release everything to PC, instead they might end up maybe releasing 80% to PC too but usually significantly later on PC.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yukjbpquiIM
On PC game censorship is less of an issue since its not controlled by a single company and there is mods.
For some reason sony likes to censor anime games that contain any nudity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGCCUlSUNpU
Best combination
Obviously if you have unlimited money you would go for a PC with a 3090 GPU and then use PS5 for playstation exclusives, this would cover near everything including nintendo games since you can use a PC to emulate older systems (up to ps3, 360, switch).
