It’s quite difficult to believe that the PS5 is almost 5 years old at this point, meaning that it has reached well over half of its lifecycle. Following in the footsteps of the previous generation, Sony has also put out a PS5 Pro, which offers an incremental yet significant upgrade over what came before.
The brand new console also comes with a new prospect of how powerful it actually is when compared to a gaming PC. Moreover, it’s also interesting to see how much it would cost to actually build a PC that matches the performance of our target console using fresh off-the-shelf parts. Please note that the price of these parts is at the time of writing, and might change in the near future.
CPU
Sony has provided a major upgrade over its predecessor in terms of the CPU department, making huge breakthroughs in the single-core performance. The PS5 has a custom chip that’s based on the Zen 2 architecture with 8 core and 16 threads, with increased clock speeds up to 3.5 GHz and 3.8 GHz depending on whether it is in boost mode or not.
To make an equivalent PC build, we are going to be making use of the Ryzen 7 3700X. It’s based on the older generation AM4 socket, but it matches the 8-core 16-thread specification of the PS5. The chip runs at clock speeds of 4.4 GHz, which is significantly higher than the PS5 Pro, so that should equalize out the difference between the two. At a price point of around $143 on Amazon, the Ryzen 7 3700X is a great choice that both fills out our requirements without breaking the bank.
GPU
The GPU is the beating heart of a gaming system, and the PS5 Pro brings several improvements over the predecessor with a much more powerful chip this time around. The PS5 Pro has an APU that shares the same chip as the CPU. Featuring over 16 TFLOPs of compute, the PS5 Pro is almost 60% faster in a graphical sense than the base variant.
To build something that would graphically perform as well as the console, we would be making use of the RX 7800XT. Boasting a total of 16 GB of GDDR6 memory, this card should be more than enough to handle most of our games at around 4K resolution with some aid of AI upscaling on high settings. Calculating the TFLOP output by putting together its clocks speeds and cores, we get a total of around 37 TFLOPs of performance.
It might seem overkill if you just go on account of these numbers, but you also have to consider that a console always has better optimizations on its side which makes it lower numbers a lot more efficient than something on the PC. The RX 7800XT comes at around $599 on Amazon, making it easily the most expensive part of our build.
RAM
The PS5 Pro has 16 GB of GDDR6 memory, which is shared between the CPU and the GPU. Additionally, 2 GB GDDR5 is reserved for system functions and the operating system. But several optimizations makes the memory more efficient on the console, so for the PC – we will have to go with 16 GB kit of high-speed memory. The G-Skill Ripjaws 16 GB kit runs at 3200 MHz, and comes at a price point of $46 on Amazon – making it a great choice for our build. Running the memory in dual channel does limit our future options for upgrades, but should give us better performance than a single stick.
SSD
For the SSD, the PS5 Pro has bumped up the storage from 1 TB to 2 TB, keeping rest of the specs same. The current-gen console architecture uses PCI e 4.0 SSDs which are a lot faster than reading from a hard disk, and these high transfer speeds opens up plenty of new opportunities for developers to create new kinds of experiences.
To match the specs of the PS5 Pro, we will be going with Samsung 990 Pro which comes in a 2TB variant and all the high transfer speeds that one would expect. At a price point of $160 on Amazon with the heatsink, the SSD doesn’t come cheap – but it should be quite performant.
Motherboard
We would also be needing a motherboard that’s compatible with all of our parts, and fitting that criterion is the Gigabyte B550M K. Coming at just around $100 on Amazon, the motherboard supports AM4 socket and Ryzen 3000 series out of the box – so we don’t have to tinker around with flashing BIOS updates. It looks great and performs to our expectations – so it’s a great choice.
Wi-Fi Adapter
However, the Gigabyte Motherboard doesnt’ come with WiFi support out of the box – so we will be needing a separate WiFi adapter to fulfil those purposes. Our choice is the TP -Link WiFi 7 adapter and it comes at around $60 on Amazon.
PSU
We will also be needing a PSU to power all of our components. It’s always advisable to invest in something that has enough juice for the job, and comes from a reputed brand with a decent rating. The Corsair RM750e comes at around $99 via Amazon, is from a reputed brand – making it the obvious choice for our PC.
Case
Furtherore, we will also be needing to get a PC case to house all of our components in. The Cooler Master MasterBox Q300L Micro-ATX Tower is quite sleek in terms of its design, comes with a transparent side panel and ample room for cable management. It comes at just around $40 on Amazon, and gives great value for money while looking all stylish.
Extra Fans
Running all of these components in parallel is going to generate quite a bit of heat, and we wouldn’t be able to cool them off without some extra help from fans. As such, we will also be investing in 2 extra fans from arctic P12 PWM – one will be in placed in rear and another one in front. Each is priced at around $10, so that totals up to $20 on Amazon. It’s a small investment, but it makes us sure that our components are not leaving any performance on the cutting floor because of thermal throttling.
HDMI Cable
The PS5 Pro comes with an HDMI cable right out of the box, so if we are going to be building a PC – we will also have to invest in a cable to connect our display to the rig. Retailing for just around $9 on Amazon, the Monoprice 8K Certified HDMI Cable is a great obvious choice for our purposes.
Keyboard and Mouse
We will also be needing a keyboard and mouse combo for our day-to-day purposes, and because we will also be getting a controller that will serve the majority of our gaming needs – we will not be investing a lot in this department. However, you can still get a decent keyboard mouse combo without spending a fortune – and the Redragon S151 Keyboard and Mouse combo is a testament to that notion. It retails for around $36 on Amazon, and should be a great fit for our needs.
Controller
As previously mentioned, we will also be investing in a PS5 DualSense controller. It’s great with quality ergonomics and detailed tactile feedback, and it will also help in providing a more comparable experience across both platforms. It comes for around $74 on Amazon, and it can go higher depending on the colour or a limited edition variant.
OS: Windows 11 Home (64-bit)
A copy of Windows 11 Home is also required to run our games on the PC, and a license for the operating system will cost us around $140. It’s an expensive software, but one that is needed to get the train going.
Total Amount And Conclusion
Adding up everything that we discussed previously, the total amount comes up to $1526. To put things into comparison, the PS5 Pro retails for $700, so our PC is well over double the cost of PS5 Pro. Of course, that’s not really surprising since Sony also sells the consoles at a loss only to recoup that amount on future software sales and subscriptions.
Our PC should be able to run all current-gen titles at 4K resolution without much hiccups, and it should also serve us pretty well for the foreseeable future. It’ll be great to revisit this topic in a couple of yeras, especially as PC part prices continue to fluctuate over time.