Building a gaming rig

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Building a gaming rig

Gaming technology is constantly changing. What was considered a ‘good’ computer last year might not be able to play the newest games.

It is therefore important that when you decide to upgrade your system or buy a new one, that you research parts that fall within your budget and that will last you as long as possible.

All the parts that make up a computer are necessary, but when we talk about a gaming rig there are certain parts that need to be at a certain level. Every game has minimum and recommended hardware. The three main parts that are on every game requirements list are:

Central Processing Unit (CPU)

A CPU is basically the brain of the computer. Every process that takes place on a computer goes through the CPU. As you can imagine, a computer has a lot of processes taking place at once and therefore if you want to play games, you need to make sure that your CPU can not only handle the game but run the game along with the rest of your computer.

Depending on the power of your CPU you might not even be able to start the game up, but as you get closer to the minimum requirements you will be able to play but you will find the game to be very ‘laggy’ or jittery. This means your computer’s CPU is not fast enough to handle all processes taking place.

An Intel i-Series or AMD Ryzen are good choices when looking at a CPU, but there are many models – some older and less effective than others.

  • 8th Generation Intel Processors are the latest in the Intel range and have hit the markets during 2018. These processors are a major step up from their 7th generation predecessors and don’t come at much of an increase in price. If you are upgrading your processor, you should definitely consider the new 8th gen line.
  • Ryzen 2017 range is the newer and more powerful addition to the Ryzen CPUs. The upgrade came before Intel’s 8th generation and had far more cores than their 7th gen competition. AMD’s prices are also more reasonable than Intel’s and are worth considering.

There is a new release of Ryzen CPUs expected during 2018 and these units are expected to pack some serious punch.

Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)

Graphics cards are what most of us think of when we think of gaming rigs and for good reason. These cards are what makes a gaming PC.

The main aspect of a GPU is the VRAM. Video Random Access Memory provides memory solely to be used by graphics intensive processes – such as playing games or movie editing.

If you do either of these, you will want to make sure you have significant VRAM and modern casino online are quite demanding. The minimum VRAM that we could recommend, for gamers that like new-gen games, is 4gb. Even this could arguably become outdated very soon with many games recommending 6gb for average settings.

These cards do get very expensive and the two major brands are:

  • Nvidia – They are probably the most known brand available and are more expensive as a result. These cards are high quality and you will not be disappointed, just make sure you get a card with significant VRAM.
  • AMD Radeon – These cards are slightly cheaper than Nvidia but are also good quality. They also offer some high VRAM options at far more reasonable prices. If you went with an AMD processor, you might want to consider an AMD Radeon GPU.

Random Access Memory (RAM)

RAM is a less expensive part but can do wonders for speeding up your computer and improving your overall gaming experience. There are many reliable brands of RAM available so we won’t go into detail about that.

The most important thing to know about RAM is that it has various levels: DDR2 (being obsolete), DDR3 (slowly being phased out), and DDR4 (the most modern and recommended option). DDR5 RAM is expected to be released at the end of 2018 or beginning of 2019 and will almost double the speed of DDR4.

You would be looking at around 8GB of RAM, but additional RAM can easily be purchased and installed. ngagegaming mobile graphics blog is a great blog to look at if you more of a mobile gamer rather than a PV gamer.

Building a gaming rig can be a time-consuming process and you want to make sure you have spent your money wisely. Don’t rush and if you think there is a new technology coming out soon, you might be better off waiting for it. New technologies normally drop the prices of their predecessors and could provide some significant technological upgrades.