Posts in Category: pc gaming

What Logical Increments Tier is Required to Run the Most Popular Steam Games?

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(Information on Steam’s top games were gathered for this article from Steam Charts)

Back in January 2020, I crafted a neat little piece discussing the Logical Increments tier needed to enjoy each of the top games on Steam at the time. Fast forward to now, and oh, how the scene has shifted! Back around that period, we were seeing trade tariffs causing a good bump in prices for PC hardware​. As we ventured into late 2020, high demand meant the cost of PC parts kept climbing, and 2021 brought even higher prices—especially for graphics cards due to a cryptocurrency boom. Oh, and let’s not forget, the world was just getting acquainted with Covid-19, adding a whole new level of complexity to tech market dynamics through supply chain issues.

Now, at the tail end of 2023, with prices and availability having normalized in some (though not all) component categories, and just a week left until Black Friday and Cyber Monday, it’s about time we take a fresh look at what Logical Increments PC building tier you’d need to dive into the most popular Steam games today. Let’s see what changed in the last few years, and whether that ol’ system still has some life in it, or whether it might be worth a little upgrade. Stick around as we unpack the current gaming demands and discuss today’s tech landscape.

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ROG Ally vs. Steam Deck – Hardware Comparison


ASUS announced a potent Steam Deck competitor May 11th and released the spec sheets for two models that vary in more ways than the different Steam Deck options from Valve. We’ll be looking at the official tech specs for each device and comparing them side by side. There’s some juicy differences ahead, so let’s get started!

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Building an Insane Gaming PC with the i9-12900KS

The i9-12900KS is now among us, and it computes its way across the land like a fearsome giant. Until the next generation of chips releases in the (not-too-distant) future, this is the best CPU for gaming that is available.

It is also a CPU with a massive power draw and large thermal requirements . . . but fear not! If you are considering the route offered by this beefy component, you don’t have to walk the path alone. In this article, we’ll be taking a look at how to build an absurdly powerful top-tier gaming system with the 12900KS—all while maintaining system balance and even room for upgrades (many years down the line, when an “upgrade” might once again become possible for this system in a really noteworthy way).

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Should You Buy a Gaming Laptop or Build a Gaming Desktop?

 

The prices for building a gaming desktop PC have improved over the past few months, but they might still be too high for you. In fact, they even be so high that you consider purchasing a gaming laptop instead. As the name suggests, a gaming laptop is a laptop made with gaming in mind; big companies like Razer, Dell, and MSI make lots of these nowadays. These laptops can be attractive options for more on-the-move, lower-budget, and/or younger players as they tend to be a little cheaper and a lot more portable than desktop alternatives.

In this article, I will explore if this is a viable alternative to building your own desktop. I’ll be covering a selection of important topics, starting with those that favor the laptops and transitioning toward those that favor the desktops.

This comparison will be mainly aimed at people wanting to play games on their system. You could also use this comparison for picking a system for similar workloads like video editing or 3D rendering, but the article is written with gaming in mind. Now, let’s get to it!

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The 7 Best Controllers or Gamepads for PC Gaming in 2022

When you think of gaming on a PC, you probably think of a mouse and keyboard. Controllers have long taken the back seat in PC gaming history but, believe it or not, there’s a handful of games out there that play better with a controller than mouse and keyboard. Yeah, I said it, and I’m not taking it back.

There’s a lot of controllers out in the wild, but which ones are the best? Out of the thousands of controllers, how can you possibly choose? Where do you even begin!?

Well, right here is a pretty good place to start, because this article is all about the 7 best options for PC gamepads you can get in 2022. Let’s begin!

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The State of VR Hardware in 2022

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Consumer VR has only been around for a few years, but that hasn’t stopped it from improving (and sometimes failing) at breakneck speeds. We’ve come a long way from the early days of 2016 VR being limited to expensive, tethered-only HMD’s and room-placed trackers as the only option.

Now more than ever, we’re witnessing a generational leap—everything from the amazing market penetration of standalone HMD’s such Meta’s Quest 2 (It’s still an Oculus Quest in my heart) to proposed new tech in PlayStation’s VR 2 and Valve’s patent sprees. Not to mention the idea of a “Metaverse” becoming an actual possibility that is actively being worked on by big names in the industry.

There’s a whole lot to cover—which is exactly what I’m hoping to do in this piece: give the reader some summarized insight into what is happening in the world of VR, and then some recommendations on the best headsets currently available!

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Top 5 CES 2022 Gadgets and Peripherals to Look Forward To

CES 2022

CES 2022 has come and gone. And with it being the first in-person CES after an online-only hiatus (with a new Covid-19 strain, at that), it is not surprising to say that CES had a rocky year, presentation-wise. Lots of issues cropped up, including everything from big tech companies canceling their attendance to the entire event being forced to run a day shorter due to health concerns.

But regardless of the doom and gloom, CES has not failed to deliver another exciting year filled with the latest, greatest, and wackiest that tech has to offer. Here’s our top 5 choices of discrete devices, cutting-edge peripherals, and other new tech to look out for in 2022 and beyond.

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Building a VR-Ready PC with the Intel i9-12900K

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Virtual Reality is an amazing thing. It lets you temporarily escape whatever mortal problems you grapple with in life: politics, expensive GPUs, your in-laws… the list is endless! But in order to power an entire virtual universe for you to freely explore and withdraw into, you’ll need quite a beefy computer to handle it.

That’s why, in this article, we’ll be taking a look at building a PC with Intel’s new flagship CPU—the powerful i9-12900K. Building around that new chip, we’re aiming to put together a computer that will crank out VR performance with incredibly high fidelity.

Before we start looking at all the bits and pieces, though, let’s closely examine the heart of this beastly PC: the i9-12900K!

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The Best Operating System for Your Gaming PC

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You just finished your brand-new gaming PC build and saw it POST. Now is the time to install an operating system. But which one should you pick? What is best for you?

There is a large variety of operating systems you can pick from, yet only a few are really suitable for gaming. The three that I consider most suitable and that I am going to compare here are Windows 10, Linux (in the form of Ubuntu), and SteamOS.

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