What should you choose?
If consoles such as Xbox or PlayStation don't meet your expectations, the only thing left to do is to buy a proper gaming PC. Nowadays, you'll find a lot of computer and parts manufacturers on the market, so availability shouldn't be a huge problem, especially since the difficulties with the availability of graphics cards are gone.
This article is not sponsored by any store or manufacturer, and the ranking is subjective.
Step 1: specify what you will play
Not every online game requires the same computer resources! Some, such as CS:GO overload the CPU, while the GPU hardly runs. Others, such as PUBG, load the entire computer. For your convenience, there will be information next to each suggestion regarding the performance of the games described here. Also helpful will be YouTube, where there are hundreds of comparisons and tests.
Step 2: determine your budget
You can find computers in stores at any price. A PC bought for $500 will be suitable for different games than the one for $4000. Pay attention to whether you have good headphones, monitor, mouse or keyboard, because without them, even the best computer will not work properly. If you need help with choosing accessories, an article about this topic is on our blog.
Step 3: pay attention to the specifications, not the appearance of the case
Gamers love RGB, that's for sure. But colors aren't everything, as CPU and GPU are more responsible for high FPS, and NVME or SSD drives are responsible for fast loading of games. Sometimes it's worth sacrificing looks to make games more enjoyable
Examples of computers worth considering when gaming
Up to $500:
A $500 computer will be a fairly basic unit. It will easily handle CS:GO, Minecraft and League of Legends, but you shouldn't expect high performance in games like PUBG or Valorant. It is important that your computer is equipped with an SSD, a minimum of 8gb of RAM and has a dedicated graphics card. We found the Skytech Chronos Mini on Amazon.
Example gaming performance:
- Minecraft: up to 500 fps on low settings,
- League of Legends: 140 fps,
- CS:GO: 250-320 fps on esports settings,
- Fortnite: 280 fps on performance mode,
- Valorant: 200 fps on lowest settings.
Up to $750:
$250 more in this case means a huge increase in performance. Such a computer will give you more FPS, better resolution and will even be enough to record YouTube videos, although the performance will not be mind-blowing, so this is a product aimed at Youtubers-enthusiasts and beginners. At this budget, we can count on 16gb of RAM, a larger SSD drive and a much better graphics card. Our attention was focused on this model.
Example gaming performance:
- Minecraft: up to 600 fps on low settings,
- League of Legends: about 300 fps,
- CS:GO: 320 to 400 fps on esports settings,
- Fortnite: about 320 fps in performance model,
- Valorant: about 300 fps on lowest settings,
- Call of Duty Warzone: an average of 125 fps on the lowest settings.
Up to $1,000:
For this money you will get really powerful hardware. A better graphics card, a large NVME drive (up to 1TB), a faster processor and a good chassis, allowing for independent upgrades in the future. What can we say: it's really worth it! What's more, such a set allows you to use a 144HZ monitor comfortably. And here is our recommendation.
Example gaming performance:
- Minecraft: up to 700 fps on low settings, usually about 400 fps,
- League of Legends: about 300 fps on high settings,
- CS:GO: 360 to 450 fps on esports settings,
- Fortnite: about 250-440 fps on performance model,
- Valorant: about 250 fps on medium settings,
- Call of Duty Warzone: 140 fps on average on medium settings,
- Overwatch: 360 on low and 150 on max.
Up to $1500:
$1500 brings us closer to the high end of PCs. The RTX 3070 graphics card and AMD Ryzen 5 5600x processor will allow comfortable gameplay on high graphics settings and even at 4K resolution. The manufacturer has enclosed the set in a nice case, the computer is equipped with WiFi
Example gaming performance:
- Minecraft: up to 820 fps on low settings, usually around 580 fps,
- League of Legends: about 350 fps on high settings,
- CS:GO: 370 to 500 fps on esports settings,
- Fortnite: about 200-400 fps on maximum graphics,
- Valorant: about 400 fps on medium settings,
- Call of Duty Warzone: 150 fps on average on high settings,
- Overwatch: 280 fps on ultra.
Up to $3,000:
What a beast! $3000 will allow you to buy a very powerful piece of hardware, which is the MSI Aegis RS with RTX 3080 Ti card and Intel i7-12700k processor. There are no games that would be a challenging task for this computer, so if you are looking for a high-end computer, this is an excellent option for you.
This time we won't report the results this configuration achieves in games. Why? This is such a powerful computer that the fps numbers listed next to the game titles wouldn't be able to fit on your screen 😊.
Alternative option
What if you're a teenager, you've made some money, for example on Paidwork.com, but every cent counts for you and you don't want to overpay, or you have an existing computer that just needs to be upgraded a bit? Assemble the computer yourself from scratch or perform the upgrade!
Although it seems complicated, it is not so at all! A gaming computer, just like a video editing computer or a streaming computer, is made up of more than a dozen separate parts that can be purchased from many stores. CPU, GPU or MOBO are designed in such a way that assembling a complete computer from them is not difficult. Importantly, when building your own computer from scratch, you can take advantage of the many tutorials on YouTube or industry blogs, and the savings can amount to hundreds of dollars! An additional benefit of upgrading your computer instead of buying a new one is the reduction of trash. Our planet likes it!
