Cheap Gaming PC: July 2014

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Cheap Gaming PC

In this day and age of incredible graphics and extremely demanding video games, you, as a PC gamer, must have a capable gaming computer if you want to play your favorite games in the way they were designed to be played.

Unfortunately, though, the price tag that comes with a solid PC may be keeping you from getting the system that you deserve.

However, if you elect to build your own system, rather than buying it pre-built, you can forego the high costs associated with buying an expensive pre-built setup and you can finally get yourself an affordable gaming computer that will play your favorite games at acceptable levels.

Tweaks

Optimize Gaming Performance

To determine which programs are using a lot of resources, use the Task Manager. Open the Task Manager (right-click your taskbar and select Task Manager) and use it to see which applications are using up a lot of resources. In the below screenshot, we have low CPU and physical memory (RAM) usage. If either was higher, we would want to identify applications using up a lot of CPU or RAM (click the CPU or Memory column to sort the process list by CPU or RAM usage) and close them.

Upgrading Graphics Drivers

Once downloaded, install the drivers and reboot your PC if necessary. Depending on the game, you might get up to 30 percent better performance with just a driver update.

Tweaking Game Settings

Different games have different settings and different game engines perform differently, so some settings may be more demanding in some games. Some settings are obvious, like “texture detail” and “shadow type.” Enabling more detailed textures will use more of the memory on your graphics card, while selecting more realistic shadows will increase the work done by your graphics hardware. “Draw distance” will increase how far you can see in the game – a longer distance means more objects will need to be rendered, increasing the work done by your graphics hardware and, perhaps, CPU.

Optimisation Software???

Windows users see advertisements for all sorts of system tools and optimization utilities. It’s easy for companies to tell you that you absolutely have to run these tools, but you don’t need most of the junk on offer.

Using these system tools just slows downs your computer, wastes your time, and makes your life more complicated. Simplify your life and skip these system tools — you only need the essentials.

OS

Windows 7 vs Windows 8: Gaming Performance

Metro UI / Windows Design Interface

The first striking difference from Windows 7 and probably the most debated “feature” is the new Metro interface (Metro UI). For me, as a gamer, programmer etc, Metro UI has absolutely no use, but more than that it keeps getting in the way.

WDDM 1.2 and Direct3D 11.1

WDDM (Windows Display Driver Model) 1.2 brings a set of new features that are not entirely performance related, at least not from a “gaming” stand point. With the new Driver Model, the bandwidth used when playing videos (fullscreen) is reduced thus the power consumption is lower. The second feature of WDDM 1.2 is the Operating System’s ability to “discern” between a hung application and one that is still in queue; By doing this, Windows will not have to reset the GPU whenever a application freezes but only the part of the GPU (engine) that is causing the issue. The third feature called GPU Preemption allows for better and faster sharing of the GPU by applications, reducing latency. In theory, the performance that results from these new features are mostly going to be felt in 2D.

Direct3D 11.1 (DirectX 11.1) is a small increment from D3D 11 that allows developers to debug their code more effectively through the use of Shader tracing and compiler enhancements and various other new methods and functions. For the full list of D3D 11.1 Features read the Official Feature List. Some of these features will work with DirectX 11 GPUs.

Tests and Settings

All tests were ran 3 times, the average was noted. Both Windows 7 and Windows 8 had all available Windows Update patches installed.

Arma II: Operation Arrowhead – v1.62 – Very High Settings @ 1920×1080 – Benchmark Scenario 01
Batman Arkham City – v1 – Extreme Settings @ 1920×1080 – FXAA (Medium) – DirectX 11 Normal Tessellation – Cobblepot Intro and Thugs Fight
Battlefield 3 – Ultra Settings @ 1920×1080 – 4xMSAA – Multiplayer on Strike at Karkand (32p map, Large Conquest), US Deployment -> B Flag
Borderlands 2 – Highest Settings @ 1920×1080 – PhysX Low
Dishonored – Highest Settings @ 1920×1080 – FXAA – Intro Scene
DiRT Showdown – Ultra Settings @ 1920×1080 – 8xMSAA – Benchmark Mode
F1 2012 – Ultra Settings @ 1920×1080 – 8xMSAA – Benchmark Mode
Mass Effect 3 – Highest Settings @ 1920×1080 – Mars Archives Cinematic
Sleeping Dogs – v1.5 – Extreme Settings @ 1920×1080 – Benchmark Mode
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – v1.7.7 – Ultra Preset – 1920×1080 – 8xAA – 16xAF – Tested in the area East of Rorikstead
Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty – v1.5.2 – Highest Settings @ 1920×1080 – 4vs4 Replay with pre-caching, 8x speed
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition – v3.2 – Ultra Settings (Ubersampling Off) @ 1920×1080

Test System Specifications

Test Hardware \| Windows 7 vs Windows 8: Gaming Performance
Processor	Intel Core i5-2500K (Sandy Bridge) 4.5 GHz, 6 MB L3 Cache, power-saving settings disabled, Turbo Boost disabled.
Motherboard	MSI P67-C43-B3, Intel P67 Chipset
Memory	2 x 2 GB DDR3 1600MHZ
Hard Drives	WD 500 GB SATA III (OS) Samsung 750 GB Sata II (Game)
Graphics Card	Sapphire HD6950 1 GB
Power Supply	Corsair TX 650 W
System Software And Drivers
Operating System	Windows 7 SP1 x64 Windows 8 Pro x64 build 9200 (RTM)
Driver	AMD Catalyst 12.9 Beta (9.001)