If you are thinking of buying a new gaming PC or building a custom rig, there are some things you need to consider if you are going to future-proof your investment.
Games and hardware are constantly evolving, and it can be tough to know what to look for. Here are five must-have features for your next gaming PC that will keep you gaming through 2022, and beyond.
Plan For The Future With VR Compatibility
This may be a controversial opinion, but Virtual Reality is going to play a big part in the future of PC gaming.
PC enthusiasts and hardcore gamers can be forgiven for thinking that VR is just a gimmick, and in the early days they were probably right. VR gaming, particularly for sim-racing and air combat games, has evolved into a killer feature which gaming PCs cannot be without if they want to be future-proof.
If you are buying a gaming pc, make sure your CPU, RAM, and graphics card are capable of supporting VR headsets. This usually means spending a bit more on each but will give you a powerful machine that can handle just about any game you throw at it; including high-end Virtual Reality games.
Set Yourself Up For Streaming
The most significant demands on CPUs and graphics cards today do not come from AAA-rated games, but from streaming. Streaming is going to be much more common in the future, no matter how big or small your follower count is.
Supplying a high-def camera feed, while also streaming your in-play game footage, places enormous strain on mid-level graphics cards and central processing units. The data transfer demands can also be pretty high, so if you are going to stream you need high-end networking components too.
Building up a following on Twitch, YouTube, or Odyssey, you will need a streaming setup that will not let you down as your subscriber count grows. Buffering, jittering, and audio/video sync issues are common problems for streamers when they are just starting out, and it holds them back and slows their success.
Plenty of the latest, high-speed, DDR4 RAM is a must-have. To handle all that data as quickly as possible you should be looking for a gaming pc with a minimum of 16Gb of RAM with the space to expand later on. Future-proof your purchase with a PC that has 32Gb of RAM to start, and slots open so you can double up in a year or two.
Go 4K Now, You Will Not Regret It
This upgrade is not that popular with gamers, especially if you are just starting out or trying to make a budget build. The costs of a 4K screen to complement your gaming pc can be prohibitive.
There are a few ways you can keep the costs down if you are willing to make some small compromises. PC hardware that is 4K capable is fairly inexpensive. Most motherboards, CPUs, and even internal graphics cards can offer 4K video and graphics.
The more you spend the better the quality of the images will be, up to a point. Spending more in this area gives you more options for customisation, and perhaps a better framerate, but 4K is 4K even if it is from a cheaper setup.
Using a 4K television as your gaming PC monitor can often help save you money. There is more value in this market as there is more competition. You can get even more value if you use your new 4K TV as a television as well as a gaming monitor.
This dual-use screen can work great in a bedroom or lounge for streaming media and watching TV but switch instantly to your high-res gaming monitor.
The Future Is Retro
Playing games from the past is becoming more popular with gamers of all ages. Older gamers are reliving their childhood, and their kids are discovering classics from the golden age of gaming.
Building a gaming PC that is Retro-capable can actually be more challenging than you might think. High-end graphics cards can sometimes struggle to render old-school 3D polygons at 60 frames per second. The PlayStation/N64/Xbox era suffers the most, and this stops you from playing some all-time classics.
A way to get the best of both worlds and have a gaming PC that can handle VR and AA-rated games and classics like Super Mario Kart 64 and Tomb Raider, is to buy a motherboard with an integrated graphics card. Switching to this to play retro games can often be better than using a high-end GPU.
LEDs, Peripherals, And Minimalist PC Cases
The PC used to be a dull beige box that sat under a desk in a home office or underneath a gigantic CRT monitor. The modern personal computer now comes in all shapes and sizes and can be hidden away and used wirelessly or as the centrepiece of a room dedicated to gaming.
Depending on what you want your gaming PC to be, and how you want it to fit into your life, you will need an all-singing, all-dancing, computer case or something minimalist to fit in with your living room decor.
You can shoot rainbows of light around the room if you want to, but your PC may migrate to communal space in the future, bringing 4K streaming and VR to the rest of the family. When you are choosing a new gaming PC, look at all your aesthetic options.
Flashing lights, clunky mechanical keyboards, and show-off cases can be distracting when you are trying to watch a movie at night. Consider cutting back on the bells and whistles and investing in your PC’s other components.
Make sure your gaming PC will stand the test of time. These top features will future-proof your investment and keep you gaming and streaming for all of 2022, and beyond.
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