4 reasons this PC has me shutting down my Xbox Series X forever

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Summary

Complicated Windows and driver updates are no longer as big a concern for PC gaming as in the past.
The transition to PC gaming is smooth with apps like the Windows Xbox app and Game Bar.
The high-end graphics of a powerful gaming PC make modern video games look stunning.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been a console and handheld gamer.

I’ve dabbled in PC gaming, especially when I was younger, and have fond memories of playing classic point-and-click adventure games like The Secret of Monkey Island and Sam & Max Hit the Road, far before I was old enough to understand them. I’ve also played a lot of PC strategy games over the years, including SimCity 2000, Age of Empires II, and of course, the all-time classic, RollerCoaster Tycoon.

But in general, PC gaming has always felt like it was out of my reach because I was under the impression that it’s just too time-consuming and complicated. Driver updates? Constant patches? Discord? Tweaking settings to get that perfect frame rate to graphics ratio? These are things I’ve never been interested in doing. As a side note, a lot of this has worked its way into the console gaming world over the past few years. When I play games, I want to turn on my console and immediately get into the experience to make the most of the gaming time I have available. Constant troubleshooting just isn’t it for me.

Then I got my hands on an absolutely insanely powerful gaming PC. To be clear, this rig is well beyond anything I’d consider buying myself (its Asus ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5090 costs well over $4,000), but it’s offered me a taste of the PC gaming good life, and I’m not sure if I can go back to console gaming at this point. The last few weeks have convinced me it might finally be time to build my own gaming PC, something I’ve been saying I’m going to do for years at this point.

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Brand: Asus
CPU: Intel Core Ultra 7 265F
Graphics: ROG Astral Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090
Memory: 64GB (4 x 16GB DDR5 U-DIMM)

The ROG G700 is an absolute pre-built PC gaming beast, complete with an Intel Core Ultra 7 265F and a ROG Astral Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 GPU. This PC is so powerful, it can handle pretty much any game you throw at it, regardless of the settings.

The days of complicated Windows and driver updates aren’t really a thing anymore

Maintaining a healthy update schedule is simpler than I expected

Pocket-lint / Nvidia

Beyond price, one of the most notable roadblocks I’ve encountered with PC gaming is that I’ve always assumed it’s too complicated. Perhaps I was deterred by the 3.5-inch boot disk era of the early 90s or Grand Theft Auto III running at 15fps on my parents’ Pentium III in the early 2000s? I’m not sure. However, thankfully, that’s no longer the case based on my experience over the last few weeks. In fact, I’d describe my time with Asus’ ROG G700 as being very console-like for the most part.

The overall experience actually isn’t that different from installing an Xbox Series X dashboard update or downloading updates for specific games.

Keeping Windows 11 updated is as easy as navigating to Settings > Update & Security, and finally, Windows Update, and I find I only need to double-check for updates every few days. Driver updates for the ROG G700’s motherboard and somewhat obnoxious RGB lights that I’ve surprisingly grown to really like, are available in Asus’ Armoury Crate app and accessible with just a few clicks of the mouse. Even Nvidia’s Control Panel app for updating the powerful ROG Astral Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 is straightforward, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how quickly updates focused on compatibility with new titles are released (the Doom: The Dark Ages driver update was available almost as soon as the game released).

The overall experience actually isn’t that different from installing an Xbox Series X dashboard update or downloading updates for specific games.

Of course, if I decide to eventually pull together my own gaming PC instead of opting for a pre-build, things get decidedly more complicated. I know that PC gaming faithful claim that pulling together a rig is “just like building Lego” and is as easy as selecting compatible components on PCPartPicker, but that really isn’t the case for the average person that’s not immersed in that world.

Back in 2016, I upgraded an older pre-built gaming PC with a new graphics card in order to test first-generation virtual reality headsets like the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. The experience was a complicated, multi-day nightmare that evolved into replacing the motherboard, RAM, and eventually even the power source.

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The Windows Xbox app helped me smoothly transition to PC gaming

It’s simple and familiar

Xbox / Pocket-lint

Then there’s the Xbox app, which I’ve primarily used to download and manage my library of games since I’m an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscriber. I know hardcore PC gamers will scoff at this and tell me I should be using a combination of Steam and Discord, but I’ve spent the past roughly 20 years playing multiplayer games on Xbox Live. Everything from its Party system to messaging and even changing microphone settings, is all second nature to me at this point. I’m a creature of habit and I like to stick with what I know.

Thankfully, the Windows Xbox app and the accompanying Game Bar have made my transition to the world of PC gaming familiar and smooth. I can still invite the same contacts on my Friends list to a Party and easily mute my mic by bringing up the Game Bar with Windows Key and G (the Xbox button on my controller does this too). It was a bit confusing at first, but I quickly got the hang of it. I might consider moving to Discord at some point, but for now, the Xbox app and Game Bar work well for my online gaming needs. I also still use Steam occasionally for some single-player titles.

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Cross-play games are so much more common now

Playing Halo Infinite on a high-end PC has been an absolute blast

Halo Studios

These days, I mostly play single-player games, but I continue to be one of the last people out there who’s still playing Halo Infinite (I recently managed to hit Onyx, the highest competitive rank in the game, and have an ungodly amount of in-game time). When I downloaded the PC version of Halo Infinite, it was initially just for testing purposes. I figured I could jack up all the visual settings to 4K/144Hz (getting 144Hz to display on my monitor over HDMI 2.1 was a journey) and bask in the fidelity provided by the mighty RTX 5090.

Thanks to the Xbox Game Pass app, I can continue that same save file on PC, complete with 4K/120fps and the visual settings set to their maximum, which makes the game look absolutely stunning.

That’s exactly what I did, but after a few matches, I decided that this was how I needed to play the game moving forward. It just looks too good to give up. Looking beyond Halo Infinite, I’ve been thinking about giving Splitgate 2 a try, which thankfully, is cross-play with PC and console too. If I ever dive back into Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, it’ll be great to be able to continue my progress on the single-player and multiplayer side. The same goes for other recent Xbox and PC Game Pass additions, like Avowed and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered.

Being able to pick up where I left off with certain titles has also been great. I started Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 on the ROG Ally X but occasionally booted it up on my Xbox Series X, too. Thanks to the Xbox Game Pass app, I can continue the same save file on PC, complete with 4K/120fps and the visual settings set to the highest possible, which makes the game look absolutely stunning.

I’ve really enjoyed being able to use my trusty Xbox Elite Series 2 controller very easily with my PC. All I needed to do was an initial Bluetooth pairing, and now it works nearly the same as it does with my Xbox Series X. Since I’ve grown up as primarily a console gamer, so across all genres — with real-time strategy games being the only exception — I’m far more comfortable with a gamepad than I am with mouse and keyboard controls.

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The graphics make me feel like I’m in a 90s Sega commercial

Welcome back to the era of “Blast Processing”

Sandfall Interactive

I’ve always cared about visual fidelity to some extent. I was an early 4K/HDR TV adopter back in 2017, and when I got really into Halo Infinite, I picked up a 4K 120Hz/144hz-compatible monitor. That said, I’ve never really cared that much. As long as a game looks decent and runs smoothly, I’m good. Now that I’ve entered the world of high-end PC gaming, though, that’s started to change.

Because this powerful pre-built PC features both Intel’s Core Ultra 7 265F and Asus’ ROG Astral Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090, I don’t really need to even think about the graphics-to-performance ratio balance. I just flip everything to the max and game away. So many titles look incredible running at 144Hz, whether it’s Death Stranding: Director’s Cut, Avowed, or even a game from my Steam library like Elden Ring or Baldur’s Gate III. It’s only been a few weeks, but I already find it difficult to go back to my Xbox Series X. Seriously, I didn’t know that modern video games could look this good.

For example, a few months ago, I picked up Kingdom Come: Deliverance II for the Series X. It’s a great game that looks pretty good on Microsoft’s console, particularly in Performance Mode at 2160p/60fps, but I can’t help but wish I could boot it up on the ROG G700 because I know it would easily hit 4K/80-90fps with the graphics settings turned to high. Hopefully, at some point, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II comes to Xbox Game Pass so that my save file (I have roughly 45 hours in the game) is transferable to the PC version (of course, I could buy the Steam version of Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, but then I’d own two copies of the game and still wouldn’t have access to my save file).

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Will I return to the land of consoles? Probably sometime

I’m putting the finishing touches on this story while I eagerly await the Switch 2 arriving at my door, so I’m not giving up entirely on console gaming. There will always be exclusive titles on Sony’s, Microsoft’s, and Nintendo’s gaming machines that draw me back into their closed-garden ecosystems.

That said, I know that when I get bored of Mario Kart World in a few weeks, I’ll almost certainly be doing the majority of my future gaming on the ROG G700 or a future gaming PC I plan to build myself.

This device was provided to Pocket-lint by Asus.

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