Monthly Archives: December 2019

People often ask me – “Which Graphics card should I buy for $200?”

And interestingly, right now, the answer is incredibly simple. And you probably think I am exaggerating! You probably think that there are so many different graphics cards, that it would be very difficult to choose one! Well normally that is the case. Normally, the different manufacturers have many competitive GPU products for gamers. But right now, two cards completely blow away all the rest for value for money.

And which are they?

NVIDIA GTX 1050 TI and AMD Radeon RX 570

Why?

Well these two cards are about 50% better than other cards at this price point. In the case of NVIDIA, its about en par with their flagship GTX 1650, which costs closer to $300. (Some tests rate the 1650 as faster, others rate the 1050 TI as faster).

So if you are an NVIDIA fan, the only card to get  for $200 is the GTX 1050 TI. And if you love Radeon cards, for $200 get yourself an RX 570.

Is there any point paying twice as much to get a card with 50% more performance again? For most people – probably not. If you have plenty of money to spend, sure. Otherwise, get one of these two cards and invest that extra money in an SSD. Or buy something nice for your mother for Christmas!

Thanks

Max Tech

Many people ask what components are important in gaming computers, because a lot of shops try to dazzle them by telling them to focus on the CPU, or the RAM Speed, or the motherboard, or to make sure you get a brand new one because “second hand computers are a nightmare”.

The reality is that those are not the most important things to focus on when looking at buying a gaming computer. And before we start, please note – there is nothing wrong with buying one second hand! Computers don’t fail much, and they are easy to fix and easy to upgrade.

So what is important?

The single most important item is the graphics card, also called the video car, or ‘Graphics Processing Unit’, aka GPU! yes, those items are all exactly the same thing! Just with different words. The reason is that any decent computer, any i7 or a more recent i5, has a fast enough “CPU”, or main processing unit, to handle just about any game. And any computer with an i7 or recent i5 will have a good enough motherboard to run those games. And a good enough PSU (Power supply unit!).  if you want some advice on which GPU to get, read our post which advises on which graphics card to buy; here:

The Central Processing Unit, or CPU – are you getting the jargon yet – is also important. But its easy, just make sure you get an i7 and you should be OK. And really there is no point getting the absolute fastest CPU, because most games are designed for people with good but not the absolute best CPU. The difference in performance between the slowest i7 and the fastest one is actually not that great. Probably the fastest CPU available is only about twice as fat as the slowest i7 from 10 years ago, and most i’7s of any generation fall roughly half way between those two extremes.

If you ten to do a lot of multitasking and open other apps while you are gaming, for chatting, video, or even for work! Then the next most important factor is having an SSD instead of a SATA Hard Drive. SSD hard drives typically run about 5 times as fast as SATA drives, but often run ten times faster if they are m.2, or if the SATA is in a SATA II system. Not THAT IS a big difference. SSD’s are the main determining factor in how fast your apps load and how quickly you can switch between apps and multi task. So make sure you have an SSD. The good news is that the real world performance difference between the best and worst SSD is pretty small, due to SATA III limitations, so as long as you have ANY SSD, you should be OK.

Next up is RAM. Make sure you have at least 8 GB. Less than 8 GB will slow down your gaming considerably. Increasing to 16 will have a minimal effect on your gaming, but once again will help a lot with multi-tasking, like having 20 chrome explorer tabs open at once. As long as you have 8 GB you should be good enough. 16 is better if you can get it, but don;t stress because it is the easiest thing to upgrade later if you decide you want more.

Finally, ‘the rest”. As mentioned above, ANY i7 PC system you buy should come with a decent motherboard and a decent PSU, and even a decent fan! Avoid i3’s, Pentiums, and dual core computers, because aside from having a very slow CPU, you can’t be sure they have decent motherboards, power supplies, and other components! And i5’s are also a risk, depending on the manufacturer.

If you’d like to read more about the best brands to buy in PC’s, read our article here:

If you’d like advice about how to choose a gaming computer system from a retailer, read our article here:

A lot of people ask me how to choose a gaming computer. Because there is a lot of misinformation out there from bad retailers! They will tell you to focus on the CPU, or size of the hard drive, or the speed of the RAM, the size of the power supply…or even the fan!

But the reality is that like most things, it comes down firstly to how much you want to spend. For example, if you want to spend over $2,000, then follow the advice of those dodgy retailers, and you will probably end up with a pretty good computer! But if you want to spend $1,000, you are in the worst position, because one of those dodgy retailers will probably sell you a computer for that price that WILL NOT deliver what you need.

The really good news is that for around half of that price you can get a very good ‘part-new’ computer from a lot of good retailers. These retailers focus on what is really important, to deliver you a gaming computer that is not too far from the $2,000 one from the Dodgy Bros, and probably way better than Dodgy Bros will sell you for $1,000. It’s a lot like buying a car. New computers are very expensive, and they depreciate in value VERY quickly once you have bought them. But the difference between computers and cars, is that computers don’t fail much, and even if they do, they can usually be fixed very cheaply. Whereas cars cost thousands to fix. So you can ‘take the risk’ of buying a second hand computer, without having to worry the way you might if you bought a 5 year old car.

In summary, if you have a big budget of over $2,000 for your computer, go to a respected gaming PC dealer, and make sure you get a warranty, and you should be OK.

If your budget is lower, probably stick to getting a ‘part-new’ or a refurbished or second hand PC, that’s a few years old. Around $500- $800 will get you a terrific gaming computer, and you can always ‘upgrade’ some components later!

If you would like to know more about which components are important in a second hand or part new gaming computer, read our article here: