I think 1.5x more expensive is a more fair estimate, but that's only if want results that will perform as well as a PS5 Pro. Even then, an AM4 platform with a 9070 XT 16GB should cost ~$1100 and will generally outperform the PS5 Pro.

Entry level, potato builds tend to be overlooked for their utility in deep hobbyist communities. Four of those components you can probably carry for about a decade (PSU, case, fans, and possibly storage) and that's about $200-250 of a new build budget alone; if you do it properly.

Not to mention, if you want to learn, you should experience a potato build to get the best out of the $1200+ machine you one day build. That's how you learn game settings optimization, incremental upgrades, and how you learn what components are being upgraded that probably don't need to be. Not to mention, that's how you learn how, when, and why a PCIe 3.0 board with a quadcore CPU can sometimes still be viable in 2025. Or when your last-gen platform just needs a GPU upgrade to still chooch. The 12100f is one of the most incredible case examples of this and if you don't understand the caveats of an LGA1700 PCIe 3.0 board with a quadcore 12100f, you don't truly understand many concepts of the technical side of PC building (which I could spend an hour and a half explaining why). But if you can't comprehend how or why a 2025 AM4 1700x might only needs a $50 CPU and a $500 GPU to be 2025 relevant, then you still have the incremental potato build to pass. At the same time, mastery of the potato build is realizing when it's time to split that AM4 system with a $700 GPU into a two builds and walk away with a ~$150 AM5 migration (see: old, new-stock DDR4 AM4 ram shortages, last fall being AM4 all-time-lows, etc.,)

Regardless of how you do it: a $500 machine targeting purely price/performance provides more entertainment than one could consume in a lifetime (5700XT build). Much of that, 144FPS esports viable - albeit some things like Marvel Rivals, the latest Borderlands 4, and some other staple titles undoubtedly are inherently out of reach. So again, I get the "1.5x more expensive than console build." But when my 2020 build depreciated to about that level, it honestly didn't feel that limiting as long as you knew what was in-bounds and what was out of bounds. Further, knowing exactly what parts needed updating, what parts didn't, and at what price it was worth it is invaluable potato learning. For the most part: you just needed to know where to look in game settings and which settings to turn down. It's shocking how many people overlook the hard fact that "ultra textures" 5 years ago are not equal to "ultra textures" now. That same setting ultra setting four years ago would probably be considered medium-low or low these days. Sure, a $500 build would run poorly on everything bagel ultra settings... but that's because it doesn't support things like RT, DLSS/newer FSR, and its 8GB VRAM setting forces self-optimization to get things like that texture pop radius under control. But if you want to learn, necessity is the mother of invention and if there was a will to play a title, there almost always a way. And honestly, what you end up doesn't look like a minimum settings preset: it still looks pretty darn good in many titles.