Yes. Its my primary gaming platform and always will be. My current desktop cost a lot, but how much depends. For instance, I bought a CaseLabs case and a bunch of components for a custom loop that I didnt even end up using. Plus, Ive swapped my CPU cooler twice, upgraded my COU when I didnt need to (I was trying to solve weird thermal issues and hoped the Curve Optimizer would help, but I think its because my Windows is fucked and I cant get the latest chipset drivers).
I bought my 3080 during the times when you couldnt get your hands on one and it was over double its MSRP secondhand, because I felt my GPU at the time was dying and I couldnt wait.
In general, it depends on what you want to d how much it costs, but here is some basic advice:
- Ultra is one of those because I can things. The difference between High and Ultra is usually a large performance hit for a visual upgrade thats diminishing returns, so if you cant run a game at the frame rate you want in Ultra, just use High. Medium should be roughly what the consoles are putting out, so my advice is to upgrade when you cant run the games you want at the quality / frame rate want.
- Look into optimization guides. Outlets like Hardware Unboxed (and maybe Gamers Nexus) do thorough performance testing and will typically make guides about what settings impact performance the most for the least benefit so you can turn them down etc. to really get the best quality to performance ratio.
- VRAM is very important when buying a graphics card, particularly at higher resolutions. For example, for cards with 10 GB VRAM, there are more and more games that youll have missing textures and other issues because 10 GB simply isnt big enough to hold them, so if you want to get a GPU and hold onto it for 5+ years, I advise getting a XX80 / X900 card or better with a lot of VRAM.
- Top end Intel CPUs are not worth considering for gaming PCs, at least for the moment, unless you get a killer deal on one. The 7800X3D is the best CPU you can get for pure gaming as of now. If you plan to run virtual machines or do video encoding etc. is the only reason to get a higher end model.
- If you are lucky enough to live near a Microcenter, you can get some killer in-store-only bundle deals on CPU and motherboard usually, and they even have a service where you pick out the parts and theyll build the compute for you if you want to go that route.
- You will be dealing with a higher up front cost, but over time the cost of owning the PC will balance out to be the same price if not cheaper than consoles, as the games on PC are so much cheaper (especially if you wait for deep sales).
Thats good for now, but if you decide you want to build your own theres a lot more I could go into.