If you’re new to the world of PC gaming or just looking for a guide on buying that elusive Gaming PC, then you’ve come to the right place. This blog will go over all you need to know concerning what you should buy now to upgrade later on. Games these days require a lot more power and resources than they used to, which calls for a more powerful Gaming PC.
Gaming PCs these days can get expensive, fast, so we created a guide (this one) to help you choose the right components that give way to an easy upgrade down the line.
The Graphics Card Conundrum
With the current situation surrounding graphics cards, it can be hard to allocate such a large portion of your budget towards the GPU, as this could negatively affect the rest of your system. You splash the cash on your GPU, and all of a sudden, that Ryzen 7 becomes a Ryzen 5 and that 1TB NVMe turns to a SATA SSD.
What if I told you there was a workaround for the current graphics card situation, which involves having a GPU-less Gaming PC (crazy, I know). PC gaming technology has come far in recent years with the rise of powerful APUs capable of running some of the most popular PC games at respectable frame rates.
So, what exactly are APUs? APU stands for Accelerated Processing Unit and is essentially a processor that acts as a CPU as well as a GPU simultaneously, so no need for a dedicated graphics card. APUs can serve as a great entry-level option for PC gaming as they can tide you over until you can afford that dedicated graphics card.
Some of the most popular APUs around today include the Ryzen 5 5600G and the Ryzen 7 5700G both of which are completely capable of gaming. Tweak some settings and you could be gaming at above 60fps on some of the most popular games right now. These titles include League of Legends, CS:GO, Fortnite, Minecraft, Apex Legends, and many more!
Graphics cards are one of the most straightforward components to install within a system, so relying on an APU, for the time being, can be a very viable idea. This also means you won’t have to make sacrifices in other areas of your system as you don’t have the cost of the GPU hogging all your budget.
Memory Upgrades
Memory/RAM is essentially the easiest component to install within a system, so if you’re running with a tight budget, you could look towards your RAM to free up some of that budget. You could purchase only 8GB of memory for your system. Running games alone, 8GB of memory would be acceptable for the time being, as most games would function normally. The recommended minimum spec for most games these days still comes in at 8GB, and gaming with no background applications running should see you have a smooth experience. For the smoothest experience with recent large scale games, 16GB is the sweet spot. So running with 8GB for now to upgrade down the line can be a viable option indeed.
Further down the line upgrades could include the new DDR5 RAM modules which can boast out of the box performance of over 5000mhz! Although DDR5 is a great step forward in memory technologies, DDR4 is still completely capable of running AAA games at top performance!
Premium Component Purchase Service
If you are an existing Cyberpower UK customer, you have access to purchase components for your system where you see fit. Suppose you have previously purchased a Gaming PC with us, including a GTX 1660 Super and are wanting to update your GPU to say the new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090. In that case, you could give us a ring on 03333237776 or contact our Sales Team, where we could facilitate a GPU purchase of an RTX card for a discounted price. The same goes for almost all system components, making the whole ‘what to buy to upgrade later’ discussion a lot easier and more straightforward for yourself.
Alongside this premium purchase service, you have access to our industry-leading 5-year labour warranty, where we can cover all the heavy lifting for you, meaning you won’t have to worry about installing new hardware yourself!
Start That PC Gaming Journey!
Now that you’re equipped with the tricks of the trade in the form of what to buy to upgrade later, it’s time to spec up your own PC using our Custom Gaming PC configurator! Or check out our Next Day Pre Built Gaming PCs! All of which are available on Novuna Personal Finance! If you would like a full breakdown of how to get the best value for your budget, feel free to check out our other blogs detailing Gaming PC configuration!