If you’re new to the wonderful world of PC gaming then you might be hesitant to splash the cash on a new entry-level gaming pc. Fortunately, it’s possible to play many modern games with a very modest setup. You might not be cranking every setting right up to a maximum of seeing the best possible framerates (although in some cases, you just might) — but you will be able to get your PC-gaming journey started.
Entry-Level Gaming PC Breakdown – By Game
Here, we’ll run through some of the most popular modern games, and see how we can get the most from them using an entry-level gaming machine.
Cyberpunk 2077
To get the best from Cyberpunk, you really need quite a lot of horsepower. That’s why for our Cyberpunk Infinity Gaming PC we’ve thrown in an RTX 3060 with 12GB of VRAM. This is a member of Nvidia’s ‘Ampere’ line-up, which is able to offer real-time raytracing, as well as excellent rasterization performance. Also included is a generous 512GB Intel NVMe storage drive, which will vastly reduce loading times and get you navigating Night City in next to no time
Minecraft
With its distinctly blocky aesthetic, Mojang’s Minecraft has conquered the gaming world. The scope it offers is truly enormous, and it can (pretty much) run on just about anything. For our Minecraft Infinity Gaming PC, we’ve included a GTX 1660 super — which will capably run the non-raytraced version of the game. If you’d like to go a little further, however, you can swap that out for an RTX 3060 for around an extra £45.
Fortnite
Fortnite is another extremely forgiving game. It runs as smooth as butter on even modest hardware, which is why an AMD Ryzen is difficult to beat at the £800 price mark. The Fortnite Ryzen Gaming PC comes with a Ryzen 3 4100 as standard, which will deal with just about everything that the game can throw at it. All that matters from there is that your internet connection is able to keep up!
Fortnite is another game with RTX support bolted on — so, again, if you’re willing to spend that little bit more, it’s worth looking at your options when it comes to upgrades.
Battlefield 2042
Battlefield games tend to be set up well for inexpensive hardware. After all, it’s difficult to get armies of players together if you don’t cater to mainstream gaming rigs. Again, the combination of a GTX 1660 and a Ryzen 3 4100 achieves impressive results without breaking the bank — though you should be aware that the game isn’t out until October, and thus there’s still room for surprises.
Battlefield V was among the first games to offer raytracing support a few years ago, and we should expect that envelope to be pushed a little bit further. But probably more consequential is the doubling of the player count, from 64 to 128. Whatever the changes, you can be reasonably confident that our entry level gaming systems will handle them.
GTA V
The fifth entry in the Grand Theft Auto series is approaching its eighth birthday — but it’s shown no sign of getting long in the tooth. In fact, it’s proven consistently popular over the years thanks to the gradual rollout of the game’s online multiplayer modes, and to a vibrant modding community.
With this being an old game, you’ll be able to push it pretty far using modern hardware. Bear in mind, however, that 4k gaming wasn’t a thing back in 2013, and that some of the mods are pretty demanding. If you’re looking to enjoy another playthrough at high resolutions and high framerates, a new PC built with GTA in mind should provide the power you need.
World of Warcraft
WoW is another game that’s proven consistently popular over the years, but which is still based on the same basic scaffolding. So, while Blizzard might be able to bolt-on extras like raytracing and flashy special effects for the spells, no expansion is going to radically overhaul the entire game.
With that said, things have come a long way since the game launched in Europe in 2005 — and a modern machine will allow you to enjoy the game in a way that simply wasn’t possible back in the day. As standard, our Warcraft Ryzen Gaming PC comes with a 4GB GTX 1650 strapped in, and the trusty Ryzen 3 4100 . It will offer excellent performance, whether you’re in the middle of a hectic Alterac Valley, or you’re trying to take down Sylvanas Windrunner.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
Infinity Ward’s highly anticipated sequel to the Call of Duty franchise is just around the corner. Following on from the 2019 masterpiece, Modern Warfare II has high expectations to live up to, promising to bring a new campaign, gameplay innovations and also an overhaul of Warzone (coming post-launch).
Looking at the recommended competitive specs for both games, Modern Warfare (2019) suggested an Intel i7-8700k/AMD 1800x paired with an NVIDIA RTX 2070 to achieve high frame rates. Even though there is a 3-year gap between the games, the competitive specs are very similar. They pair the same CPUs as the previous game with an NVIDIA RTX 3060 (as the NVIDIA RTX 2070 has been discontinued) to achieve high frame rates.
Our entry-level gaming machines will offer enough power to deliver performance and play Modern Warfare II at competitive settings. Letting you hit those high refresh rates that console gamers could only dream of getting.
Can An Entry Level Gaming PC Handle Other Games?
We haven’t quite got the space to cover all of the games that you might want to play here — but that doesn’t mean that we haven’t put together the systems that can play them! You’ll find dozens of games listed on our site, each of which has specialist systems associated with them. Moreover, while the PC is a platform that can be adjusted and tweaked to suit different sorts of games, we’ve built all of our systems in such a way that performance bottlenecks are minimised (so you’ll rarely be held back by the weakness of any given component).
Of course, if you’ve got a particular game in mind and you’re unsure of what you need, you can always use our 5 Step ‘Build My PC’ Tool to help you find the best rig for your needs and budget.
