What kind of PC will it take to run so-called “high-end 3D games?” If you have deep pockets, your answer could be a custom-built hot rod from elite boutique PC manufacturers such as Alienware, Falcon Northwest, Maingear, or MSI. If you’re not made of money, a couple of well-informed choices will go a long way toward helping you get the right gaming desktop or laptop, even if it’s from a standard PC vendor.
The heart of any system is its processor. Which one you select will have a major impact on performance—and on your wallet. At the moment, Intel’s eight-core processors in the Core i7 family top the list in terms of raw processing power. AMD goes bang for the buck with its FX processors, with up to eight cores. But you’ll see that the entry price for these top-of-the-line chips is steep jump to a thousand bucks or more. Lesser, but still high-powered, CPUs, such as the AMD A10 and unlocked quad-core Intel Core i7 K series processors, can also provide the computing muscle needed for a rich gaming experience. Budget gamers should look to lower-priced (but still speedy) processors, such as the AMD A8 or the Intel Core i5, which will knock hundreds of dollars off the bottom line.
While mobile processors are clocked and packaged differently, the same rules apply: Go for a six- or eight-core Intel Core i7 or high-end AMD A10 if your budget is large, but you can get by with quad-core i5 or AMD A8 if you’re trying to save some money. Strangely enough, if you’ve been a gamer for a long time, one choice may seem incongruous: the Intel Pentium processor. This venerable brand name is now being applied to inexpensive dual- and quad-core processors based on modern Bay Trail and Haswell architectures. Using an AMD A4 or Pentium processor can save you $50 to $150 on your processor, and then you can apply that money to a higher-powered graphics card or more memory. As shown in our testing, spending the money on the GPU makes more sense than spending it on the CPU.
The most pivotal gaming decision you’ll make is which 3D graphics subsystem to use. Integrated graphics are fine for casual games like Where’s My Water and TorchLight II or even older 3D games in the Doom and Splinter Cell series, but to really bring out the beast on AAA titles, you’ll want one or more discrete graphics cards. AAA titles are the games that everyone waits up for on launch day, and they’ve included games like Far Cry 4 and Grand Theft Auto V. Today, dual-, triple-, and quad-graphics card arrays from AMD and Nvidia reign supreme on the desktop, while single- and dual-GPU setups are found on gaming laptops. AMD’s CrossFireX solution consists of multiple Radeon HD processors, while Nvidia’s top draw is its 2,3, or 4-way SLI with up to four Nvidia GeForce GTX graphics cards.
A few words of warning, though: Equipping your system with these high-end GPUs will unavoidably boost your total bill by a couple of thousand dollars. Still, multiple graphics cards not only add extra GPU power to your gaming experience, it can also enable multiple-monitor setups so you can run up to six displays in AMD’s Eyefinity or Nvidia’s 3D Surround setup. You don’t have to run all the monitors together as a single screen for a single game. Multiple monitors will let you play multiple games simultaneously, if you have enough memory in your system. You can also chat and surf while you’re playing on one of your multiple displays. Using 3D with passive or active glasses is possible with the right graphics card(s) and monitor(s), but as it is in a home theater, 3D visuals are far from a must-have feature. As far as size is concerned, you want to be using 27- or 30-inch widescreen In-Plane Switching (IPS) panels to do these GPUs real justice.
You can still get a rich gaming experience for thousands less by using a single, but robust, 1GB to 2GB video card, such as a midlevel AMD Radeon or the Nvidia GeForce GT Series card. If you’re less concerned about turning up all the eye candy found on games—anti-aliasing and esoteric lighting effects, for example—then last year’s cards and GPUs will still give you plenty of oomph for a lot less.
Solid-state drives (SSDs) are definitely a hot commodity, since the prices have come down dramatically over the past few years. They speed up boot time, wake-from-sleep time, and the time it takes to launch a game and load a new level. Go ahead and get a gaming laptop or desktop with an SSD, but make sure you configure correctly. A small (128GB) SSD with a large (500GB to 1TB) spinning hard drive is a good start for gamers who also download the occasional video from the Internet. Bigger SSDs are available (512GB or more capacity), but choosing one will increase the purchase price of your gaming rig exponentially. Go with the smaller SSD if you like to rebuild your OS and driver sets after each new AAA title release; otherwise, opt for the larger SSD or large hard drive as your C: drive if you like to keep games around for a while.
But don’t stop at internal components. A couple of extras can really do wonders for your gaming experience. I recommend that you trick out your machine with good pair of noise-cancelling headphones (to drown out the fan noise). Comfortable backpacks, keyboards, mice, and specialized controllers round out your gaming options.
Still daunted by the choices? A good place to start is our list of the best gaming desktops and laptops. Have fun, and game on!
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