Gaming PCs require some serious level of power, endurance, and reliability. You have to forget about the standard computer you have been working on if you really hold a passion for PC gaming. Not any ordinary desktop with an integrated graphic chipset and a low profile CPU would get you even acceptable gaming results, but will always remain underworked.
So what do you actually need to have in a gaming PC if any standard computer is not eligible for gaming? That’s a big question that needs a comprehensive answer. For this, we have jotted down primitive factors that need special attention by any beginner or game enthusiast when it comes to buying a new prebuilt gaming PC.
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How To Choose The Best Gaming PC Prebuilt In 2023?
We are going to discuss the following imperative parts of the PC, which need your full dedication in order to get the best out of your purchase.
- Graphics card– the heart of any gaming computer
- Processor– Headquarter
- RAM– workstation
- Hard drive– to install your favorite games
- Type of heatsink– to keep the temperature tolerable
- Type of PC tower– suitable size for the space you have
- Fancy PC case or the simple one– how good it looks in your room
- Budget for a computer– spend wisely
- Monitor for gaming– everything is now on the screen
1. What type of graphics card for gaming should I look for?
For PC gaming graphics card is the heart of the system. This component is responsible for frame rates at a particular resolution you like to play games. Not only this, but your graphics card also oversees the quality of the image that partially depends on the monitor as well. Needless to say, gamers’ sweet spot is playing games at high frames per second on a high resolution.
From beautifully generated picture quality and high FPS to high-resolution support, GPU is in short an entire debut for video gaming. Now when you look for a gaming desktop, the point is what type of GPU should be given attention in order to have these qualities?
Notably, if you think any integrated graphic chipset would be able to do this for you, then drop the idea. Because any integrated GPU is the weakest component compared to a dedicated one, to deal with the high graphic-intensive tasks. And when it comes to gaming, this part of the task requires a highly powerful and potent GPU to render a quality image which an integrated fails to come up with.
This is mainly due to the shared memory an integrated GPU is having, while the dedicated graphics card has its own memory which it doesn’t borrow and puts fully into the operation instead.
From here comes the dominant role of two popular brands come into the story, i.e. the Nvidia Geforce and AMD Radeon graphics card. Both of these companies are head to head producing magnificently great graphic cards for ages.
Now, look into the rising technologies, i.e. the “Real-Time Ray Tracing”, and “Virtual Reality”, which you might be interested in while buying a gaming PC.
A. What is Ray Tracing?
This feature is not something new to experience but with a little improvement, this has become very popular in video games these days. Ray Tracing Technology is basically a feature where shadows and reflections are elevated in a way that the moving objects with their reflections seem real, that’s also called real-time ray tracing. This results in a prominent image and enhances the realistic version of the game.
What graphic cards are having Ray Tracing?
The Nvidia Geforce has been the first to take this bold step to give an immersive and realistic gaming experience to its users. For this, you can have any of the Nvidia Geforce GPUs with Turing architecture featuring real-time ray tracing. The Geforce RTX 20 Series GPUs are featured with 1st Generation RT cores (Ray Tracing) while the RTX 30 Series is composed of 2nd Generation RT cores.
So if you are looking for Real-time Ray Tracing for games, and intend to play popular AAA game titles like Fortnite, Battlefield 2042, Cyberpunk 2077, MechWarrior, and so on, then get a gaming PC with a GPU that supports the latest Generation RT cores.
Whereas if you are hunting for an AMD graphics card that is famous in terms of affordability when it comes to budget-friendly gaming PCs, then where there were RT cores working for Nvidia, for AMD it terms as Ray Accelerator, though the purpose of the technology is the same. To have this feature, you need to see AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series GPUs.
B. What is Virtual Reality?
The possibilities for gaming have expanded to an extent where it was never even imagined before. One of the best technological projections is the beginning of Virtual Reality in video games. Virtual Reality basically enhances the realism of the objects in three dimensions (the fourth one is the gamer’s dimension to experience it). In this way, the gamer can feel the environment like everything happening around him is real to him.
There are a number of video games in which virtual reality has been used and they are been supported via VR headset, treadmills to walk on (enrich the experience of realism), and sensible gloves (to feel the touch in real). And when it comes to video gaming on a PC, VR supporting games provide an elevated and immersive gaming experience.
What graphic cards are VR-ready?
Nvidia Geforce RTX graphics cards are all VR-ready GPUs having game-ready drivers to facilitate plug-and-play VR gaming. RTX 3050 is the newer yet affordable video card for VR gaming, whereas, for cheap graphic cards, you can have any GPU from GTX 1650 onwards.
On the other hand, all the graphics cards from RX Radeon 5000 onwards support premium virtual reality gaming that is highly captivating and fills all the needs of the latest VR gaming today.
What graphics card should I look for in a prebuilt gaming PC?
Till now, we hope you have decided on the two main and very popular technologies that might interest you. After that, you need to think about your favorite gaming scale. For instance, many gamers like to run their games on 1080p because it generates high frame rates, and some focus on the quality of the visuals and prefers to go with 1440p or 4K gaming instead.
Though many of us like shift or change the settings according to the game we intend to play because every game has a different result/FPS at different resolutions. This is perhaps the reason that also suits you. Therefore, you need to decide on these phases of gaming too, i.e. which of these categories you might fit in.
For 4k PC gaming, we would suggest you look for something new in the market or the latest. For example, Geforce RTX 30 series and AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series graphics cards are highly eligible for gaming at 4k, because they have high bandwidth, a good amount of memory, and speed and are all packed with advanced gaming features too as compared to older versions. Whereas if getting high FPS is your main target to achieve, then gaming at 1080p resolution with these GPUs is worth considering.
Keep in mind, in order to play games on 240Hz or 360Hz gaming monitors, you again need to shuffle from the latest GPUs, not the older ones. In the nutshell, for high frame rates you need to go for low resolution, and for high resolution, the FPS may deteriorate, and then here you are left with visual quality settings (high, medium, low) to get reasonable frames per second.
Consequently, for mainstream gaming at suitable frame rates (at 1080p 60Hz) any mid-range to low-profile graphics cards can give you fruitful results though depends on the game you like to play as well.
2. What type of processor for gaming should I look for?
A few years back, the processor of any gaming computer was the least considered and the GPU was given all the attention. But now as you can hear questions like “How many cores are required to run games? What is the best gaming processor or What is the best gaming CPU?”, it means processors are contributing a significant role in video games and the upcoming games are CPU centric than before. That’s how in 2023 if you are about to build a gaming PC by yourself or planning to get a prebuilt computer then must give a thorough inspection of the processor too.
Many of us have witnessed crashing Windows, applications and sudden lag in the system while working on 3D software, editing videos, and playing games, this is mainly due to the incompetent single-threaded processor. To overcome all these issues and to play games along with applications running simultaneously, you need a powerful processor.
Not only this, even if you are not working on any application and running any game at a time only, still a AAA game requires plenty of strength and speed from the CPU. thus make a wise decision in order to have nonstop computing, gaming and so much more juices in the system by picking the best processor for your PC.
Typically a AAA game utilizes 4 cores and 8 threads of the processor though it highly depends on the game you like to play. For example, games like Forza Horizon 5, Halo Infinite, and far Cry 6 need 4 cores to run at their best. Whereas the latest AAA games like Cyberpunk 2077, God of War Ragnarok, and Horizon Forbidden West need at least 6 cores and 12 threads to run smoothly.
On the other side, games like PUBG, Fortnite, and Assassins Creed Volahalla can be run on dual-core processors and some less popular games can be run on a single core too. So till now, you must have made a rough estimation about which game category you intend to run and what processor could serve you better.
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3. How much RAM for a gaming PC should have?
Ever experience crashing Windows and lagging system, applications sudden stop responding, and stuttering while gaming? This is mainly due to less RAM (Random Access Memory). Other than the role of the processor (CPU), RAM is a major component that is responsible for these hiccups in the system.
When it comes to gaming, you need to look for plenty of the RAM for your gaming PC in order to make sure you can run your games smoothly along with other useful work. We suggest you look for at least 8GB RAM but if you can afford it, go for 16GB or more so that you wouldn’t strive with short of memory in a couple of months.
Another thing that comes in handy is, when you look for a prebuilt gaming PC, try your best to get a computer that is easy to upgrade and has extra slots or bays so that you can upgrade it in near future. Furthermore, for RAM upgrading, the chassis should be easy to open up and the RAM slots should be approachable without any difficulty.
4. How much local storage a gaming PC should have?
This part of the computer is essential when you need more than just one video game to store. These video games get frequently updated, having said that, sometimes the size of the files expands too much and some even get shorter with new updations.
There are two basic types of drives, HDD and SSD. we recommend you to get a prebuilt desktop with SSD (Solid State Drive), though if you have HDD (Hard Disk Drive) too, it’s good to have both instead of having only HDD alone.
Now talking about the games and their size, you need a sufficient amount of memory so that not only games but other applications or software can be stored together. For video games, for instance, Fortnite is a 26GB file and League of Legends is of 22GB video game. Therefore with such games and applications to work on, we recommend you to have at least 500GB of SSD storage to run flawlessly.
5. What type of heat dissipation of gaming PC should it be?
It’s time to dive into some necessary properties apart from the configuration which we have discussed till now. If you are a hardcore gamer you must be acquainted with how badly computers get hot while gaming, especially whilst overclocking or pushing their limits to the very extent. If not taken care of, it causes your system to lag and even shorten the lifespan of the hardware of your computer.
To overcome this situation, there are two main ways to dissipate the heat generated by the components: liquid coolant (AIO cooling) and air cooling. Liquid cooling is an All-in-one liquid cooling kit in which liquid (water) flows back and forth between the metal plate and the fans to push out the heat from the case. This is although an expansive measure but is very much effective compared to an air cooling system.
Whereas, the air cooling mechanism is the most commonly found heat dissipation method, mostly found in budget computers because they are less costly and are based on just fans and a radiator. Both of these methods are effective for intensive levels of gaming and 4k rendering. What we suggest is, that when you have decided on the nature of gaming you intend to have and the configuration accordingly, then think over which type of heat sink you would require.
For example, if you are planning to run high-end games at 4k on the highest settings or intend to get highly graphics-intensive work, and most of all, the budget is not a hindrance then there is nothing better than a liquid cooling system. Despite, if you want to play mid-range games or even the latest AAA game titles but on low to medium settings, then air cooling is enough to deal with it.
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6. What type of gaming tower should I look for?
Now here comes the size of the tower you need to look into. There are four sizes in which Full Tower and mid-tower PC case is the most commonly found chassis for gaming PC. The rest of the two are, namely, Macro-ATX and Mini-ITX. The size of the towers is mainly associated with the type of motherboards. Another thing is, that the bigger the size of the case the more it has bays to upgrade, and the more it will last with you. Moreover, for gaming, mid-size and full towers are better in terms of airflow compared to the small case.
On the other side, full or mid towers may perform well but are costly, whereas, Mini and small-form-factor PCs are less prone to upgradability and hence are less effective for heat dissipation too. However, the underline fact is, that when the configuration is your focus (which has to be) for gaming, then the size of the PC falls out of your bucket of choice. Reversing it, if the size of the computer is your main concern, then configuration choice becomes limited.
In short, you have to look thoroughly at each type and the hardware stacked in it and thus make the balance between both things (size and configuration) to get the best outcome for your purchase.
7. How your gaming PC may look?
There are gamers who prioritize the physical appearance of the gaming desktop and give little attention to the configuration. If you as well think that your PC should look appealing, it has to be gaming competitive from its appearance, then this section needs your attention too.
There are a number of PCs that comes in all shape, size, and intricate designs. One of the most demanding features that give up the physical beauty, is the glass tempered panel. You can have many great options for gaming computers that come with a see-through glass panel, showing off the internal wiring and hardware staking that looks super exciting.
Another thing is the RGB lights. These are attached to the fans (ring light fans) and in many cases, RGB lights are fixed in the tower glowing the whole case internally. You will also see ARGB lights (addressable RGB), that sync with your overall PC setup, very alluring and attractive it is.
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Add on accessories
You will see many gaming computers that give free add-ons like a gaming mouse and a gaming keyboard. Because it says it’s free, it doesn’t mean the prices of these accessories are not included, but it’s adjusted somewhere in the overall cost. We suggest you not to get fooled by these because sooner or later you will observe that the mouse or the keyboard is of low quality and then you will have to buy them separately.
It rarely happens that these work fine but mostly it is just an attractive ticket for the consumer. Regardless of these tricks manufacturers have played for the buyer, keep your entire focus on the quality of the desktop instead. Though if you are lucky enough, these might also work well and last with you longer than expected.
8. What should be the budget for a gaming PC?
“Expensive is worthy” is a preconceived notion that is not always implemented in every case, the same thing is not true for prebuilt gaming computers, we tell you. Generally, when you step into the market or search online, you will definitely find expensive computers for gaming but that does not necessarily mean you have to spend thousands of dollars blindly just by looking at them.
From here your patience will be checked, just jot down what things are needed and what configuration your gaming would be okay with. What settings you are fine to run the games at? How many games and FPS is sufficient enough? Do you like those fancy-looking PC towers or its perfectly fine to have a decent-looking PC?
These questions are relevant and bring back to the features we have discussed earlier. From there you can have your answers and you can think clearly about the budget you want to spend. Do not fret when you get flooded with so many brands and hardware (using fancy names and all that), rather just focus on your need and keep in mind the upgradability options associated with that computer too. So in case, if at present you don’t have that much to spend, you may upgrade later on the components.
In 2023, the minimum you have to tuck in your pocket is $700 to $1000 for a gaming desktop. Whereas a decent mid-range gaming PC will cost you around $1500, and the highest it will be up to $5000 depending on your gaming needs. Further, if you are a beginner or a newbie to PC gaming, there are caveats to pay attention to more than your expectation, which pertains to many unknown terms and scales you would be asked to choose from that will spin your head and takes you nowhere.
We suggest you never overlook the features because many of these might remain underutilized or even never get used fully. Thus be careful and spend wisely, for a starter, a $1000 gaming PC may work more than just enough and could even compete with a $3000 computer as well. So it’s not only the matter of price but the perspective and its job too that you intend to have with it.
For example, a game like Fortnite can be played on a PC with RTX 30 graphic card and Intel i9, at the same time it can easily run with a PC having GTX 1650 and Intel i5 processor, though with different visual quality. So when you can have an affordable desktop for gaming with less cost, then refrain from sparing an eyeball for the expensive one, unless you have money and dire need as well.
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9. What type of monitor for gaming should I have?
After deciding about the gaming PC, you should also take a look at the monitor which is responsible to display all of those brilliant investments you have made. Suppose, you have bought a prebuilt gaming PC capable of 4k gaming and you have connected it with your FHD monitor, all your effort will go in vain. Thus, make sure you have a monitor capable of doing the job perfectly that the PC exactly wants to deliver.
Conclusion
Buying a prebuilt gaming PC is a big investment today. It needs meticulous observation and knowledge of what the manufacturer has fixed in the case for the user. No chance of unwieldy purchase when it comes to gaming on a PC because each of the components is so very important to render the performance that is been required.
It infers an ingenious move instead of spending on a PC by just looking at the brand. In this guide, we have described inevitable features that must be there to fulfill the best gaming experience on your PC. we hope you have learned these elements carefully in this article. If you have any queries feel free to comment below, we will help you out.
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