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Writer's pictureJamie Robinson

Our Console Gamer Gets Hands On With a RTX 3090 PC from Aftershock

Updated: May 18, 2022



Our console gamer recently got hands on with an Aftershock Voltron: Level 10 Ultra PC featuring an Intel i9 12000KF, a Gigabyte RTX 3090 Gaming OC 24GB GPU, 64GB of Gigabyte Aorus RGB 6000MHz DDR5 RAM and a 2TB Gen4 Aorus M.2 NVME. Here's his honest opinion and how he feels it compares to playing on console…


Here’s a full list of specs to start:

Case

Gigabyte Aorus C700 Glass ATX Black

Motherboard

Gigabyte Z690 Aorus Ultra (WiFi) DDR5

CPU

Intel Core i9 12900KF - 5.2GHz - 16 Cores 24 Threads

RAM

64GB Gigabyte Aorus RGB 6000MHz DDR5 (4x16GB)

GPU

Gigabyte RTX 3090 Gaming OC 24GB

Cooler

Gigabyte Aorus WaterforceX 360mm ARGB

Primary Storage

2TB Gen4 Aorus M.2 NVME (7000MBs - 6850MBs)

Secondary Storage

8TB Seagate Barracuda 5400RPM 3.5”

Fans

5x Gigabyte Fans (2x ARGB)

WIFI

Next Gen Intel Wifi 6 + Bluetooth 5.1

Power Supply

1000W Corsair 80+ Gold Modular RM1000x

OS

Windows 11

Cost


Primary Display

Gigabyte G27QC-A 27” QHD 165Hz / 1500R Curved

Secondary Display

LGC1 OLED 4K TV



Let me start with an introduction on me, I am of course a gamer, and while I have dabbled with Gaming PC’s in my past I’ve never really owned anything that is necessarily “current tech” my old PC I built in 2012 and while it was OK at the time, it very quickly became pretty obsolete. Since then I have upgraded it slightly here and there but nothing major and got myself a gaming laptop in 2020 which while its very capable as a gaming device. It doesn't exactly excel either which is why I do almost all of my gaming on my various consoles. I have a PS5 and Series X as well as a few other (less capable) consoles. So naturally when the offer to review a beast of a rig with a 3090 presented itself, of course I was interested. Not only to see for myself what all the hype is about, but to see how it compares to the likes of the PS5 and Xbox Series X. Now I know that there's technically a HUGE difference between a “next gen console” and a top of the line PC, but what does that mean in terms of actual performance? And is it a noticeable enough difference to justify an upgrade? I'll be pushing the Voltron as hard as I can to see what it's truly capable of.



First of all, let's talk about aesthetics, and well the Voltron is an absolute beast. It's hands down the most “gamer looking” PC I've ever seen in person. It's super angular and honestly looks like an alien pod of some sort. Maybe it is? Who knows… In terms of size it's pretty damn huge, it's definitely not something you could own if you were short on space that's for sure. It's got all the RGB you could ever want and the ability to turn them on or off or adjust them to different colours and patterns. The build quality of the Voltron is incredible, the cable management, the durability of the case and the airflow is all top drawer. A user benchmark test did show that my CPU was being throttled at around 92% but aside from that everything worked seamlessly together.


Now while this is going to be primarily a review for the Voltron, I do want to also compare it to consoles and weigh up the pros and cons of owning a PC over a console to provide anyone thinking of making the switch as much information as possible…


Before we get in to any comparisons, here are a few of the most popular and/or demanding games with an in depth look at things like FPS and CPU temps: (All in 2560 x 1440)

Warzone

Dying Light 2

Rust

FPS

164

127

148

99% FPS

144

116

114

Render Latency

5.6ms

7.6ms

5ms

CPU Usage

32%

35%

22%

CPU Temp

52 degrees

51 degrees

52 degrees

GPU Usage

89%

100%

67%

GPU Temp

71 degrees

76 degrees

75 degrees

AC Valhalla

Flight Simulator

CyberPunk 2077

FPS

99

62

107

99% FPS

91

56

101

Render Latency

7.1ms

8.8ms

5.6ms

CPU Usage

34%

38%

31%

CPU Temp

52 degrees

53 degrees

52 degrees

GPU Usage

97%

100%

100%

GPU Temp

74 degrees

76 degrees

76 degrees

As you can see, the Voltron managed to keep the CPU and the GPU at a very consistent temperature. The CPU at around 52 degrees and the GPU at around 74 degrees. Both of these temps are right in the range of what you’d want and very rarely fluctuated more than a few degrees even after fairly intensive sessions.


On the note of comparison, you need to be aware of the fact that PC is very different to console, and where as console for the most part is plug and play, PC takes a little knowhow to truly get the best out of your games, you'll have the occasional technical issue that prevents you from booting a game or that causes your system to crash. These are all part and parcel of PC gaming unfortunately. If you don't have the technical knowledge on how to troubleshoot and fix issues then I'd honestly recommend sticking to a much more user friendly console setup. But if you do have the patience and knowledge required, then there is so much to be gained by owning a high end PC.



Another comparison (and probably the last) to console gaming and it's an important one. Its performance! We all know that consoles have come a long way and the PS5 and XSX are both great machines. PC’s, however, have come even further. We also know that the “next-gen” consoles are technically capable of upto 4K 120fps, in reality there's only a very small handful of games that run at this level and you're much more likely to see either 4K60 or 2K60 depending on the games you're running. On the Voltron however, thanks to the power of the RTX 3090 I was able to get some of even the most graphic intensive games to run at 4K120. Games such as Warzone, Apex Legends and Death Stranding.


As a primarily console gamer, there is one thing I noticed about the gaming performance on the Voltron compared to console even more than the boost in frames. This was the overall quality of the image, even at technically lower resolution compared to my PS5 for example there was just so much detail that was missing in the PS5 versions of my games. This was down to the fact I was able to crank the settings all the way up to max, that meant the textures, the detail, the draw distance, the lighting, just every single detail was cranked up to a 13 which made every single scene and every single game look super clean and extremely detailed. In certain scenes this is mildly noticeable and in others it's like night and day compared to the quality of the consoles. Games like Resident Evil Village for example look phenomenal even in 2K resolution compared to the Playstation 5's 4K. Here's a couple of images showing exactly what I mean.


Screenshot Comparisons



As you can see the level of detail in the PC version is in a ballpark of its own. That being said though, as a gaming machine, the Voltron is hands down the best machine I've used to this point. Not without its problems but, it plays games in the best way possible. Its smooth, its extremely detailed and while it is a bit more complicated than console gaming, It is absolutely the best way to experience your favourite games. Now the biggest question is, is it worth the price? Is the difference between console gaming a big enough one to justify an increase of over 10x the price? Personally, I could never justify it as a gaming machine only, not when a next gen console will cost you just $750 compared to the almost $9000 the Voltron will set you back. However if you're specifically looking for an all in one "command centre" to do a combination of top of the line gaming, heavy video editing and content creation for a stream or Youtube channel then the console simply isn't it and you wont get much better than the Voltron.


3DMARK SCORE

Time Spy

19,503


Here's a full list of notable games I tested and the average FPS I was able to achieve with max settings enabled, meaning every game looked the absolute best it possibly can.


1920 x 1080 - Max Settings

Game

FPS

Assassins Creed Valhalla

109

Microsoft Flight Simulator

76

Death Stranding

201

CyberPunk 2077

109

Apex Legends

264

Resident Evil 2 REmake

266

Metro Exodus

137

Destiny 2

300

Grand Theft Auto V

202

Call of Duty Warzone

214

Red Dead Redemption 2

111

Dying Light 2: Stay Human

162

Rust

171


2560 x 1440 - Max Settings

Game

FPS

Assassins Creed Valhalla

99

Microsoft Flight Simulator

62

Death Stranding

164

CyberPunk 2077

107

Apex Legends

211

Resident Evil 2 Remake

209

Metro Exodus

117

Destiny 2

251

Grand Theft Auto V

171

Call of Duty Warzone

164

Red Dead Redemption 2

98

Dying Light 2: Stay Human

127

Rust

148


3840 x 2160 - Max Settings

Game

FPS

Assassins Creed Valhalla

72

Microsoft Flight Simulator

60

Death Stranding

116

CyberPunk 2077

84

Apex Legends

144

Resident Evil 2 REmake

108

Metro Exodus

92

Destiny 2

160

Grand Theft Auto V

102

Call of Duty Warzone

132

Red Dead Redemption 2

70

Dying Light 2: Stay Human

78

Rust

97

As mentioned above, the Voltron, however, is not just a gaming machine. It's also an extremely powerful workstation. Meaning things like video editing, or rendering will be made super easy on this thing. For example, one thing that I personally have had a lot of trouble with in the past is working with the WebM videos my PS5 records in. Converting and editing these video files is something that I have struggled to do reliably in the past. Well, the Voltron makes absolutely short work of it. Converting a 59 minute 4K WebM file to MP4 or similar takes just 11 minutes 2 seconds compared to my usual 80+ minutes on my gaming laptop. The biggest surprise though is the Voltrons ability to simultaneously edit, convert and render videos in lossless quality. A 32 minute 4K WebM video file with various effects and lossless rendering took me just 30:24 minutes. My normal computer struggles big time with this task and would usually take over 2.5 hours. This is down to the boost the RTC 3090 gives compared to most GPU’s. Honestly, this saved time is priceless for anyone looking to edit video and create content for a stream or Youtube channel.


As well as testing what I could myself, I naturally also ran the Voltron through some benchmarking tests. I've already mentioned the 3DMARK score that this thing got, but I also ran it a few times through the UserBenchmark.com tests and here's the results compared to some other decent gaming PC's and laptops



Gaming

Desktop

Workstation

TEST 1

29/04 - 12pm

252%

115%

310%

TEST 2

29/04 - 8pm

248%

112%

307%

Here are the scores of some other computers including my every day gaming laptop which rarely misses a beat for me but struggles when gaming at resolutions over 1080p...

Gaming

Desktop

Workstation

HP Omen Laptop

42%

85%

40%

​MSI H310 Gaming Infinite

88%

94%

80%



Here's a full list of videos I edited with the Voltron and time it took to complete:

Video details

Time Taken

60min 1080p file - 4K upscale + WebM to MP4 conversion

20 minutes

55 seconds

59min 4K file - 8K upscale + WebM to MP4 conversion

63 minutes

14 seconds

59min 4K file - WebM to MP4 conversion

12 minutes

14 seconds

32min 4K file - WebM to MP4 + Lossless rendering + (10 total effects)

​30 minutes

24 seconds

I know it's obvious, but it's worth mentioning anyway, the Voltron obviously performs every day tasks flawlessly. There's no lag or slowing no matter what you're doing, as you would expect from a PC with top of the range tech.


Here are some specs in terms of how the Voltron performs as a workstation and personal computer. One thing I noticed was that while the Voltron does everything else extremely quickly. for some reason start up and boot took way longer than they should have. My gaming laptop for instance took just 34 seconds to do a full restart loop compared the to Voltrons 69 seconds. Data transfer and things like opening files are supercharged compared to every other PC I've used to date.

Task

Time taken

File transfer from internal NVMe to internal HDD - 10GB

Average - 24.99 seconds

Cold Boot

42.54 seconds

Restart

1 minute 9.60 seconds

Shut Down

7.8 seconds

Overall, the Voltron is an absolute beast. As I've said, its the single best PC I've used to date. Its a gaming and working powerhouse, its built well and looks good. PC gaming will always come with some troubleshooting that you don't necessarily get on console. But if you have the patience and a basic knowledge its well and truly worth your perseverance. It will do everything you need it to do and it will do it relatively flawlessly. The only drawback I see is the price, which will simply be out of a lot of peoples reach, however if its not, then definitely check this one out.




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