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It's often been said that both next-gen consoles are effectively based on mid-range PC technology, and as our recent tests indicate, matching or even exceeding current Xbox One or PS4 performance with modest PC components doesn't seem to be too difficult. But can we go one better? Can we build a PC that provides a quantifiably better, truly transformative experience? And can we do it at with a competitive budget?We've had some experience in constructing affordable games PCs. Back in June 2012, we put together the Digital Foundry PC - a £300 piece of hardware with around 4x the power of Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. We had a lot of fun with that kit, but across the months, its weaknesses became steadily more apparent. To put it simply, a dual-core CPU wouldn't cut it for 60fps gaming - not even at 720p, though 1080p30 was mostly fine.
The new Digital Foundry PC acknowledges that an improved balance between CPU and GPU power is required, at the same time recognising that gaming development is moving away from fast single-core performance and gravitating more towards many cores operating at lower frequencies. Our new hardware also factors in the leap in GPU performance required to keep pace with the power of the new consoles, but it's also based on keeping to a reasonable budget. Right now, nothing is going to beat the power offered by PlayStation 4 at £350, so we've increased the budget - the aim being to affect a truly transformative gameplay experience.
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