Some of the best video games can be found in PC format, but often to play them you need a high-performance computer. Even if you enjoy gaming, you might not know what you need to look for in a good gaming PC. Sometimes you can look at the game you want to play for an idea of the technical requirements to run the game. But these minimum requirements won’t always give you the best gameplay, and you could be looking at a game that needs lower specifications than the average. Gaming PCs can be much more expensive than others, so it’s important to understand what to look for before you buy. Take some of these factors into consideration before you make your choice.
What Do You Play?
To help you decide what you need to look for in a gaming PC, you need to think about what sort of games you like to play. Your computer’s graphics hardware will be more important for some games and will take priority over CPU performance. But other games will need a better CPU, such as war games. A strategy game will usually require a balance between CPU performance and graphics quality. But remember that genre lines aren’t as clear-cut as they once were, so don’t rule out good graphics hardware because you think you won’t need it.
Graphics Cards
Your GPU is going to be pretty important, no matter what type of games you like playing. It’s a good idea to get the best performance graphics card you can get within your budget, but be careful not to spend too much either. If you’re putting together a custom gaming PC, try not to spend more than a third of your budget for your setup on your graphics hardware.
CPU
You don’t have to go as high as possible when it comes to the number of cores in your processor. Even if you will be playing demanding games, you are unlikely to need a six-core processor to run them. It’s better to focus on the graphics instead.
Cooling
With a gaming PC, it’s essential to have forced cooling, so the CPU doesn’t overheat. The computer should have large heatsinks and several fans. Liquid cooling systems can reduce the noise from fans and cool better than fans on their own. As well as cooling the CPU, fans will also filter dust, helping to stop the debris that clogs machines and makes them hot and noisy.
Memory
You should look for high-speed DDR3 memory, and preferably your computer should have at least 8GB RAM for playing games. You can get away with much less memory if you’re only using a computer for word processing or using the internet. But a gaming computer needs to ramp up the memory to support games.
Before you start looking for your gaming PC, make sure you have a budget in mind. A clear budget will help you make a decision on how far you can push the specifications of your computer.
