Current Events > PC gaming nerds. What would you miss out on with a budget gaming rig?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Like I'm casually curious about building one but I wouldn't have enough time to really justify shelling out big bucks on it. So what don't you get to do if you make a say, $500 gaming rig? Like what's on the market right now that you couldn't play at that price point, and what's on the market that you could play but with drastically reduced specs? Would it still let you play basically anything 2-3 years old?

Example of budget rig:

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/guide/gq8TwP/entry-level-intel-gaming-build
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Honestly I've been having far, FAR more fun with budget indie titles the last few years than with major titles, so I don't know that I'd miss out on too much. Like... I'd be sad that I couldn't play Nier, but with games like Hollow Knight, Transistor, Crypt of the Necrodancer, etc.... its a good time to be a PC gamer with a budget rig.
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Anything worth playing recently should work just fine on a budget build. PC gaming has been severely lacking for a good decade now

Crysis

That's about it
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if you're playing at 1080p you'll be able to play all modern games on medium or medium-low settings and it'll look better than their console counterparts.
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s0nicfan posted...

Honestly I've been having far, FAR more fun with budget indie titles the last few years than with major titles, so I don't know that I'd miss out on too much. Like... I'd be sad that I couldn't play Nier, but with games like Hollow Knight, Transistor, Crypt of the Necrodancer, etc.... its a good time to be a PC gamer with a budget rig.

You really can't play Nier on a budget build?

dib153 posted...

Crysis

That's about it

Is this a meme or is that game honestly a benchmark still
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Still looks incredible on Ultra to this day
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pinky0926 posted...

You really can't play Nier on a budget build?

pinky0926 posted...

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/guide/gq8TwP/entry-level-intel-gaming-build

note that is from 2 months ago. parts may (probably) have changed since then.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/524220/NieRAutomata/

you can definitely play NieR at decent settings with a 1050
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6GbXaGX6QA" data-time="

ff15 is one of the most demanding games out today and the specs are the same as your sample build and he's running it on mostly high@1080p above 30fps.

in short: you can probably run everything available today except for maybe VR games and the like.

oh and if you want an answer to your question then you wouldn't miss out on much(except VR).

this is in stark contrast to say spending 500 smackeroos on a ps4 pro since you won't be able to play... anything that isn't available on ps4. though you might get better settings on future game releases up until they stop releasing games for ps4 altogether.
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only thing id miss on a budget gaming rig would be an SSD, those are game changers

honestly like 95% of my pc gaming time is either blizzard games that can run on a MacBook, indie titles, or old games I bought in a steam sale. so very little of what I play requires intense hardware.

most important part of PC gaming is not the ability to play high end games or run shit in 4k IMO, it's to get 60+ fps on anything you're already playing, so id prioritize that.
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s0nicfan posted...

Honestly I've been having far, FAR more fun with budget indie titles the last few years than with major titles, so I don't know that I'd miss out on too much. Like... I'd be sad that I couldn't play Nier, but with games like Hollow Knight, Transistor, Crypt of the Necrodancer, etc.... its a good time to be a PC gamer with a budget rig.

Same here. When I initially built my PC, I did it primarily so I could play Cookie Clicker.
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tbh any PC you build these days with modern components is ok, even the one in the OP is faster than a console and shouldnt have any issue playing even new PC games at "console quality"

as far as longevity, it will probably be fine until you're into the next generation of consoles. And even then most stuff would run, just maybe require low settings or reducing resolution.

I'd say pony up a few bucks and get an SSD though. Even if its only like 128GB or 250GB. It makes a huge difference in the perceived speed of your PC and is well worth the money
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If you already have and use a computer regularly you may as well invest into it for gaming purposes, as much of its gaming use can overlap elsewhere.

$500 builds are kinda eh unless you only play specific kinds of games. A 1k-1.5k build is still easy to budget and will likely be more than enough for anything you may want to do.
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You might have o play in 1080p instead of 35K, or in other words, games will be completely unplayable.
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max settings
4k or 1440p
framerates above 60

but like, it's still better than consoles generally
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s0nicfan posted...

Honestly I've been having far, FAR more fun with budget indie titles the last few years than with major titles, so I don't know that I'd miss out on too much. Like... I'd be sad that I couldn't play Nier, but with games like Hollow Knight, Transistor, Crypt of the Necrodancer, etc.... its a good time to be a PC gamer with a budget rig.

agree. the only game i'm playing that is remotely demanding is mordheim. i am running an rx480 and fully satisfied with that.

love transistor, btw.
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for the most part, nothing. that should run everything. just dont expect much beyond 1080p gaming.

Darkman124 posted...

s0nicfan posted...

Honestly I've been having far, FAR more fun with budget indie titles the last few years than with major titles, so I don't know that I'd miss out on too much. Like... I'd be sad that I couldn't play Nier, but with games like Hollow Knight, Transistor, Crypt of the Necrodancer, etc.... its a good time to be a PC gamer with a budget rig.

agree. the only game i'm playing that is remotely demanding is mordheim. i am running an rx480 and fully satisfied with that.

love transistor, btw.

Transistor is my proof positive that games can be art without sacrificing gameplay.
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Good, generally consistent performance
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For the price of a budget pc you can get an Xbox One X which far superior to high end gaming PCs.
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DifferentialEquation posted...

For the price of a budget pc you can get an Xbox One X which far superior to high end gaming PCs.

keep it in the political topics plz
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High frame rate gaming (very helpful for shooters)
High resolution gaming (nice but not necessary)
Multithread/core performance in different tasks outside of gaming typically as well

good graphics. performance. if you wanna play triple A games at 60fps at anything above 1080p on high/ultra/epic you wont be able to.

but that doesn't mean it wont look good. a lot of games look beautful on medium settings.

also i feel like indie are big right now and youll spend a lot of time playing games that never wanted to look good graphically, at least in the traditional sense.

but i think its worth it over all. i decided that im going to be buying multi-platform games on my PC now because in 5-10 years, i can still play them. whereas in 5-10 years, i know i wont be able to play my PSN games on my PS5.

only exception is switch games, for the portability.
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Hmm yes, useful yes

Witcher 3, how about that?
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Darkman124 posted...

DifferentialEquation posted...

For the price of a budget pc you can get an Xbox One X which far superior to high end gaming PCs.

keep it in the political topics plz

Why do you want me to talk about Xbox One X in political topics?
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I second getting a SSD. They're pretty cool.
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GeneralKenobi85 posted...

I second getting a SSD. They're pretty cool.

Do modern SSDs still have that short lifespan problem? I remember when they first came to market they weren't generally recommended for anything other than just your OS because the high read/write rate of gaming would just wreck them.
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s0nicfan posted...

GeneralKenobi85 posted...

I second getting a SSD. They're pretty cool.

Do modern SSDs still have that short lifespan problem? I remember when they first came to market they weren't generally recommended for anything other than just your OS because the high read/write rate of gaming would just wreck them.

No clue. Never even knew that was an issue.
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Yeah, go with a SSD. I bought one recently and the PC boots much faster and the games load waaaaaay faster. I love it.
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s0nicfan posted...

GeneralKenobi85 posted...

I second getting a SSD. They're pretty cool.

Do modern SSDs still have that short lifespan problem? I remember when they first came to market they weren't generally recommended for anything other than just your OS because the high read/write rate of gaming would just wreck them.

hasnt been an issue in years tbh

most SSDs will last 5-10yrs of daily use nowadays

as always, back up anything you cant afford to lose though
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halomonkey1_3_5 posted...

most SSDs will last 5-10yrs of daily use nowadays

more

in 3 years of use my SSD is at 98%
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A $400 Pro or a $600 One X is a MUCH better deal for gaming than a 500 dollar PC.

I had a budget PC(1050, fx 8300) and hated it so much that I bit the bullet and just spent over a 1000 dollars to build a better pc.
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pinky0926 posted...

Hmm yes, useful yes

Witcher 3, how about that?

I played Witcher 3 with a budget build when the game was released. The current day one will handle it easy.
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