Custom gaming PCs
A gaming build is an exercise in feeding one component. Get the order of spending right and everything else follows.
Where the budget goes first
Graphics card
Sets the ceiling on resolution and settings. Nothing else substitutes for it.
Cooling and case airflow
A card that overheats slows itself down, wasting what you paid for it.
Power supply
Undersized units cause shutdowns under load that look like software faults.
Processor
Must be good enough not to hold the card back. Beyond that, returns fall away.
Storage
Modern titles are large; a mechanical drive turns loading into waiting.
The screen decides the budget
Resolution and refresh rate set the workload, so specifying a card before deciding the display is guessing. The step from 1080p to 1440p, and again to 4K, raises the work sharply — a card that is generous at one is ordinary at the next.
If you already own the screen, that settles the target. If you are buying both, settle the screen first and specify the card to drive it.
Where mass-market gaming machines are thin
Almost always the power supply and the case airflow, because neither appears on a comparison table and both are invisible until the machine is under sustained load.
A build specified here chooses both for the parts actually fitted, which is less exciting than the component list and matters more to how the machine behaves in its third hour.
- Case airflow planned around the card that is actually going in
- Power supply sized with headroom, not to the minimum figure
- Clearance checked so the next card will physically fit
We will not print frame rates
Any number here would depend on the title, its settings, its current patch, the driver and the display — and would be wrong for most people reading it. Publishing one would make this page look more useful and make you less well informed.
Tell us what you play and what you play it on, and we will tell you which class of card matches.
What each choice costs elsewhere
| Choice | What it buys | What it costs |
|---|---|---|
| Larger graphics card | Higher settings and resolution | More heat, more noise, a bigger power supply |
| Quieter build | A machine you can sit beside | Larger case, more spent on cooling |
| Smaller case | Fits where a tower will not | Tighter thermals and less room to upgrade |
Questions
How much of the budget should the graphics card take?
Can I upgrade the graphics card later?
Next
Graphics card upgrades
Cooling and thermal planning
The custom build process
Specify a gaming build
Tell us the display and the titles, and the card class follows from there.