Gaming PCs are a big investment, and if you choose the wrong one or the wrong components in your self-built PC the decision can slow down your gaming for years. When you are looking for a gaming PC, knowledge is power. Here is a quick guide to the most important PC components and what to look for when you are buying or building a gaming PC.
A Standalone Graphics Card
Many modern PCs and laptops use integrated graphics cards. These are great for cruising the web and completing day-to-day tasks, but if you want to play the latest games at the highest framerates you will quickly reach their limitations. For the best graphics and the ability to play triple-A titles, you need a standalone card as part of your system. These have a dedicated processor onboard, called a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), and usually their own graphics-focused vRAM.
With the help of a high-power graphics card, you can play pretty much any game you want. Even if you choose a mid-tier card, you should still be able to play the latest games at a reasonable quality. In-built graphics cards can handle the flash-based games and the online games you can find at PlayLive without any problems. The latest slot games like Cash Pig at Play Live will run perfectly on any system but for the big-name titles from publishers like EA and Ubisoft, you will need a standalone GPU.
Big Random Access Memory (RAM)
It is easy to feel overwhelmed by the numbers when you are looking at gaming PCs. Manufacturers and suppliers like to use lots of digits to sell their products. Even the most dedicated personal computer aficionados can be perplexed by some of the numbers used in advertising. Some of the most important numbers to look for are the amount of RAM and its speed. Random Access Memory (RAM) is vital to everything your computer does.
>>> Read more: How Much Ram For Gaming? A complete guide (2022)
If you want to play the biggest and best games you will need the biggest and best RAM. For a machine capable of normal PC tasks and internet browsing, 8Gb of RAM will be adequate but you have bigger plans. For the ability to play any game you choose, you are going to have to pump that number up. Double the amount of RAM at least to 16Gb, but 32Gb or more is recommended. Choose 64Gb of RAM to future-proof your system and ensure you can play all the titles that are going to come out for the next five years or more.
Top-Tier Processing Power
The central processing unit (CPU) of a personal computer is the single most important element. Every computation runs through this chip. They are often called the brain of a PC. Modern CPUs have cores, which are essentially small processors within the CPU that can be delegated different processing tasks. The more cores a CPU has, the more data it can potentially process in a shorter amount of time.
When you are looking for a gaming PC, speed is more important than capacity. Look for a CPU feature called Hyper-threading. These threads are high-speed connections between the cores of a CPU that let them share data quickly and act like a highway between the cores. Traffic moves along the threads at a higher speed. With this feature, a CPU with a smaller capacity can run games faster than a larger chip that doesn’t have hyperthreading. For a processing unit that is capable of playing the best games, look for four or more cores with two or more hyper-threads and you should have a PC that can handle top-tier games.
Drives And Peripherals
The hard drive of a computer is about more than just data storage. Many consumers look at capacity, the number of gigabytes or terabytes of data it can hold, and think that is all there is to a hard drive. If you want to play the latest games at the highest framerates, you need a fast hard drive to help keep the data moving.
Old-school hard disk drives used an optical reading system that was similar to a CD. The drive had to spin to allow the computer to read the data. The speed of the system was limited by the speed of the drive. Modern hard drives use Solid State media and are called SSDs. These hard drives are similar to the USB thumb drives you may use to hold personal information. They do not rely on a spinning disk and can operate much faster. For the best performance, look for a high-speed SSD drive to use to store your operating system and game files so your PC can access the data at lightning speeds.
With the right components, you can be playing top-tier games for years to come. Be careful when choosing a PC. It only takes one slow or low-capacity component to bring your triple-A gaming to a halt.
To read more about how much does it cost to build a gaming Pc, click here!
Eyal Ephrat serves as the co-founder and CEO of medCPU.com, where technology is making significant strides in the field of medicine. Through his experience in purchasing PC and laptop equipment and various other tech products, Eyal Ephrat contributes valuable insights to medCPU’s mission.
