Today’s big news from the other side is that a tuned-up PS5 Pro is on the way, and a base spec, Blu-ray-driveless model will set you back £700. Or $700, in Ameridollars.
That’s a lot of cheddar for a living room games box, and while us Windows lot can’t quite claim pointing and laughing privileges – speccing a 4K-capable, DIY build desktop for seven hundred quid is certainly beyond me – the fact is that if you can get some pretty nifty PC kit for less. While still, let’s not forget, being able to play most of the PS5’s best games. It would not surprise me if someone from Sony’s PC division is already trying to entice Astro Bot underneath a cardboard box held up by a stick.
An Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Super
Yes, we all miss when Nvidia’s XX70 graphics cards didn’t cost more than the rest of a PC build combined. But the RTX 4070 Super is still the best-value ‘run anything, at any resolution’ GPU of the current generation, writing the wrongs of the original (and underwhelming) RTX 4070 in the process. Yours for £570 / $600.
One and a bit Steam Deck OLEDs
Can you stop halfway up a North Wales mountain and play a PS5 Pro by the side of the road? Checkmate, Sony. What the Steam Deck OLED lacks in terafloppiness it makes up for in portability, its lovely screen (not at all well-photographed here), and its ability to only cost £569 / $649 for its top spec.
A 4K gaming monitor (and a good one at that)
The notion that quality 4K monitors must induce financial cataclysm is a lie, likely perpetuated by Big 1080p. Get yourself the most pixels for the least money with the MSI MAG 274UPF, a £400 / $370 UHD screen with all the adaptive sync and high refresh rate gubbins you could want from a proper gaming monitor. Good colour and brightness performance, too.
A gaming laptop with the latest DLSS trickey
Since our PlayStation-induced budget won’t stretch to an RTX 4060 lappy, how about this RTX 4050-powered MSI Thin 15 for a single penny less? True to its name, it’s a relatively slim gaming machine, and its support for DLSS 3 frame generation will help it bag a surprisingly high framerate haul. And just like the PS5 Pro, it has… um, vents? No disc drive?
Two 4TB NVMe SSDs, with change for a few extra 1TB ones
The recent launch of the WD Blue SN5000 SSD has made it easier than ever to ram a PC full of high-capacity solid statehood. It’s one of precious few budget-minded drives with a 4TB option, enough to double the PS5 Pro’s capacity in a single stick, and with this costing £240 / $300 you could easily spring for another. And at least one 1TB model on the side. Too many, really.
11 of the PS5 Pro’s own controllers
Show your disdain for Sony’s cynical Dualsense pad price hike (it’s now up to £60 / $75) by contributing to an embarrassing stock shortage. Though the downside of this, obviously, is that you’d also need to budget for buying ten new pairs of hands.
One of those mad “gaming” routers that look like a deceased robot spider
I mean, someone must be paying £644 for these things.
A decade-long RPS supporter subscription
Eh, worth a shot.