Although I have been a PC gamer since 2011, I always have a PlayStation by my side. Every time a new PlayStation comes out, I rush to buy it for nostalgic reasons since my dad hooked me up with a PSOne and then a PS2 as a kid. I barely used it, mostly for console exclusives that either never made it to PC or came too late. So far, I’ve probably only played five games on the PS5 in the last six years, and the last one Yōtei’s dream, but I still don’t regret buying it.
This might sound strange coming from someone with an RTX 4090, because in terms of hardware, my PC is miles ahead. And it’s not just about frame rates. With DLSS, ultra-wide support and higher graphics presets, I have better control over my performance. But despite all that, I still feel like the PS5 got something right, and I’m reminded of it every time I fire it up: the game just feels comfortable. This is not the experience I get every time I launch the game on my PC.
PC gaming management is a double-edged sword
You spend more time tweaking settings than enjoying a new game
We all love how much control PC gaming gives us, and to be honest, it’s one of the biggest reasons many of us moved away from consoles in the first place. Being able to customize the settings exactly how you want them is part of the appeal. In fact, I enjoyed this process in my early years as a PC gamer when I was a teenager. But back then we didn’t have ray tracing, zooming or frame generation. I just had to do a custom preset to get the framerates I wanted, and that was it.
Now, upgrading alone is a rabbit hole that can completely change the look and feel of the game depending on the preset you choose. I am like that Tired of deciding between Preset L and M in DLSS 4.5. Then you have framing, ray tracing, Reflex, VRR and many other settings that can take hours of trial and error before the game finally feels “right”. So when a new game comes out, I spend almost a day watching the performance in the background with MSI Afterburner before sitting back and enjoying the story.
PS5 goes through the installation ritual
If anything, I’m only deciding between quality and performance modes
Playing games on the PS5 is very simple and it took me a while to really appreciate it. I’m just waiting for the game to download from the PS Store because I know very well that I can access it without worrying about anything else. Usually the only decision I have to make is whether I want the game to be smoother at 60 FPS with performance mode, or if I prefer visual detail at 30 FPS with quality mode. As a PC gamer, you’d think I’d choose performance mode every time, but that’s not the case.
Almost every time I sat down on my couch to play AAA singleplayer games on my PS5, I chose quality mode. Yes, 30FPS is annoying, but I’d rather enjoy that extra detail when I’m Gaming on my OLED TV. But that’s not my point. Once I’ve configured this setting, there’s really nothing else I need to mess with. Some games, eg Spirit of Yoteiit does support ray tracing, but it’s not something that bothers me on console. I don’t compare performance because I know exactly what I’m getting, and more importantly, I’m not trying to work my way around optimization issues or driver updates.
Yes, my PS5 is not compatible with my computer
But it takes a poorly optimized game to ruin a “high end” experience
At the end of the day, I still play games on my computer almost all the time. Unless there’s a new console-exclusive or console-first release, my PS5 is basically just sitting there gathering dust. That’s why I’ve only played five games in the last six years. I mostly play first person shooters with keyboard and mouse on a high refresh rate OLED monitor, which is where PC gaming shines the most. My RTX 4090 allows me to chase 200+FPS on competitive titles and that’s not something even the PS5 Pro can deliver. Even in singleplayer AAA games, I can get triple digit FPS at 4K after enabling DLSS. raising and framing.
That said, just because my GPU can handle high frame rates roughly doesn’t mean the experience is always smooth and consistent. There are times when I get 100+FPS, but the game still stutters due to poor framerate, shader rendering issues, or bad optimization. This is what frustrates me most about modern PC gaming. You can spend thousands of dollars on an RTX 5090 build and still run into performance issues because the PC version isn’t properly optimized. With the PS5 this is rarely a problem because developers already know the exact hardware they’re optimizing for.
The PS5 is a constant reminder that gameplay should be simple
Maybe I don’t have the time or patience to fiddle with all the new DLSS presets, optimize performance, or fix every little issue I’ve had recently, but nowadays I appreciate simplicity more than ever. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not old enough to consider leaving my computer anytime soon because it gives me the best experience when things fall into place. At the same time, I can’t help but feel that PC gaming has become more complicated than it needs to be in recent years. And every time I open the PS5, I’m constantly reminded of how simple it is to play games.
