Why Are PC Games So Loud?

Audio in video games is a massive aspect of their success. Immersion is vital for all video games, regardless of whether you like it or not.

A legendary video game that lacks in its audio department could turn out to be a very disappointing experience and vice versa. Some of the best games of the current time feature special dedicated departments and studios to record their audio files.

As such, before I begin explaining why certain games are so loud, I need to put it out there that audio is critical for a game’s success.

PC Games & Loudness

Now when we’re considering loudness and PC games, there are two thoughts to cater to regarding this question. 

First is its literal sense – are pc games inherently louder than their console counterparts? And secondly, why do pc games make your machine so loud?

Both of these would come under the context of PC games being loud, and I’ll cover each of the scenarios here.

Are PC Games Louder than Console Ones?

The simple answer to this question is no; PC games are just as loud as console games. But let’s dig a little deeper into this.

The audio settings of a video game are set regardless of what platform they’re supposed to be running on. Of course, even though these settings are often tweaked to cater more specifically to the system the game is going to be implemented on – it’s still essentially the same.

More often than not, video games are set at the maximum volume level as the default when they’re launched. These can be changed from the audio bar in the settings section of a game to eventually fit your needs.

The critical thing to consider here is no matter what system you play the game on, a game’s internal volume will almost always be set to the max.

This is usually because of the fact that different users have different comfort zones for audio, and everyone would be able to set these settings according to their liking. This is not exclusive to a single piece of machinery, and as such, all platforms have the same audio settings.

On the other hand, if we’re considering whether PC games are developed and programmed to have a more significant audio mark than consoles, the answer is still primarily the same. 

It doesn’t make sense for a developer to go out of their way to set the audio footprint for a video game separately for PC and consoles. It’s just added effort and more money on their end. 

The video game is ultimately going to be played with its audio settings tweaked to individual liking. Additionally, most users prefer changing the audio settings of their headphones and gaming machines rather than the video game itself when changing volumes.

Besides, a video game will have the same audio impact on a PC as it would on any console. If the volume or overall audio is terrible/too low on a PC, the same experience will be felt on a console. 

It’s also important to note that PCs or Consoles don’t really produce any sound on their own. The audio you receive will be delivered to you by any headphones, speaker, or external audio devices you use. 

In this case, the debate of quality doesn’t even come into play since the final sound you hear is going to be provided to you by the gadget of your liking – which will be the same regardless of the machine you connect it to.

Why Do PC Games Make PCs So Loud?

The second part of this argument that I want to address is why PC games are so loud in the terms that they make your machine loud.

It’s no surprise that with newer games, a more powerful machine is required to ensure smooth gameplay. Current generation games are starting to push the limits of conventional gadgets to the point that they’re struggling to cope.

This trend was seen in the old Playstation 3 when it literally became an airplane when playing higher-end games. The same thing happened with the old, fat Playstation 4 that eventually started having heatsink issues. 

The more graphically impressive a game is, the more it pushes your machine in terms of processing and temperatures. In the case of PCs, as your overall system temperature increases, your fan would struggle to cope while trying to cool down your components.

This would cause your fan to work harder than it usually would have to when you’re playing video games. Since these video games would be pushing your machine to a point higher than you usually would under regular processing, your fan would be working harder to cool the PC down.

This causes the fan to produce extra noise during work, which means that overall, your PC would make much more noise when playing a video game. This indirectly implies that your PC game would cause the loudness you experience!

Noisy Disc Drives

Piling on to all the excessive noise your PC might make while trying to play a demanding video game is its disc drive.

This would be a massive issue on the off chance that you’re playing a game from its physical disc or have any other discs inserted into your PC that are being read.

Although this is a rare scenario since most video games on PCs these days are played from their digital versions, it’s still worth mentioning.

Disc drives traditionally produce excessive sound when reading or writing data. Although the same logic could indeed be used for consoles, this is only applicable for consoles of older models.

I have a Ps5 and can vouch for the fact that its disc drive produces next to zero noise. In the case of an Xbox 360, however, the situation changes.

Nevertheless, in most cases, consoles would produce much less disc drive-based noise as compared to a PC. Considering the overall circumstances, any discs being read by your PC while gaming could indirectly cause a massive upscale in the total noise being produced during your gaming session!

Conclusion

PC games are inherently the same as their console version in terms of audio control. Unless a developer specifically ports/programs a game to be different in their PC edition (which generally doesn’t happen), there shouldn’t be any audio-related changes in other versions of the same game.

This means that PC versions of games would have the same loudness levels as any other platform. 

There are, however, indirect methods through which PC games could cause unwelcomed loudness, such as pushing the hardware of your machine to its limits, causing extra noise around!