It seems like everyone’s gaming online these days. Truelist reports that the number of players in cyberspace will be over three billion by the end of this year. Now, it’s true to say that a lot of these games will be considered ‘casual’ – the figure includes the folks who only jump on to do the day’s Wordle over breakfast. It will also include those who game exclusively on smartphones. However, the times when PC spec advice was simply ‘get the best you can afford’ may have passed. With the increasing cost of graphics cards, in particular, it’s worth prioritizing what’s prescient to what you play. Let’s drill a little deeper.
Shooters
When reaction time is everything, frame rate should be at the top of the list of desirable features. For first person shooters, it’s worth investing in a graphics card good enough to produce 144 frames per second – and 200 plus is recommended – particularly if you’re using a 144hz monitor. Stuttering can be fatal, literally! – when that split second is the difference between dodging a bullet or not. The Nvidia GTX 750Ti is a perennially popular choice due to it’s bang for the buck, and the Maxwell architecture keeping the card to 60w means it doesn’t necessarily need a processor upgrade to run it. For current setups, CSWarzone has a good guide on how to minimize the issue. If you’re looking to get into CS:GO at a competitive eSports level, and need to upgrade or buy a new computer entirely, then the golden rule is FPS for FPS’s.
Online casinos
There’s many different variants of casino gaming out there. The scope of Ladbrokes’ casino games includes titles such as Live Poker and Premium Roulette that provide new dynamics to the traditional digital platform games. However, whatever your favorite flutter, they can be treated in much the same way. Casino games don’t put much stress on hardware by way of graphics or sound capability. They do require a fast and steady internet connection – it may be worth considering a reasonably serious router, so that the chance of dropping out during a live game and missing hands or spins is a long shot. Casino games can also take some time – particularly tournament poker. Consider a laptop over a desktop so you can move around and stay comfortable over the course of an evening. If your gaming site or app supports touchscreen input, 2-in-1 laptops that can act as a pseudo tablet provide prized portability.
MMORPGs
Again, many MMORPGs are that bit older – in some cases that’s by default as a gaming universe needs time to build up a player base – and perhaps won’t make the strains on a system that a newly-released shooter will. There are still large communities dedicated to games over a decade old such as Everquest II and Dungeons and Dragons Online. For the big boys though – World Of Warcraft or League of Legends, say – larger maps will require more capacity so it’s a good idea to have at least 16GB of RAM on board. The spontaneously generating No Man’s Sky, goes heavy on processing power, so i-7 (Intel) or potentially an FX-8120 (AMD) could be recommended for a CPU. While dual screens aren’t usually needed for MMORPG’s, they’re almost essential for streaming, so consider that if you fancy taking to Twitch. Audiences for online gaming are growing exponentially, and predicted to surpass the one billion mark by 2025.
When buying or building a new PC, it’s easy to get shinyitis. The nature of the beast means there will always be something bigger and better – and if not now, then certainly it’ll come quickly enough! Doing a bit of research tailored to your own gaming can be invaluable when it comes to getting the best value for what you need.
