That's true. You only need to upgrade if you want to stay on the bleeding edge of performance and quality. If you're budget-minded, you can almost always get away with building something that costs slightly more than a current gen console when it is new, and it will most likely run all multiplatform titles until the end of that console generation.
Eurogamer even has a "PC-that-equals-consoles-for-close-to-same-price" build, and tests new games up against the console versions every now and then. It's a bit of a mixed bag, but it is extremely rare for that PC to end up with less performance than an X1, and also pretty uncommon that it is significantly behind PS4.
When DX12 hits, I actually think the PC version of multiplatform games will get even a bit better relative to console versions, especially those PCs that have a discrete card combined with an integrated CPU. There are a few post-processing tasks that can be handled by intel's integrated graphics adapters, and probably even more things that could be handled by one of AMD's integrated GPUs.
Additionally, CPU requirements are projected to drop by a significant amount (I'm hearing 20% in most cases) because of the more efficient API. At the same time, all the same games still have the same CPU power limit on PS4 and for the most part also XB1, so developers can't throw more stuff at the CPU than before, even if weaker PCs can handle more.
Not to mention, it will be a lot easier to recycle your old graphics card. You don't need to throw it away, you can just let it work in tandem with the new card you buy, even if they are of a different make and performance level.




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