By Lyka Jazmin Dela Cruz, Jonas Ryan Nitura and John Christopher Aquino
COVID-19 gave gaming an opportunity to accelerate as people were forced to stay at home without having no means of entertainment aside from television and gadgets.
With the acceleration of gaming, the demand for gaming setups and the release of various gaming-focused computer parts have seen a rise.
The Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) and the Central Processing Unit (CPU) are two PC parts that are integral for gaming as GPUs accelerate the rendering power of your PC to produce videos and animations which can be found heavily in video games. CPUs, on the other hand, are required for the computer to process the computer’s data. Here are the CPUs and GPUs available in the market to build your dream gaming setup.
Picking a GPU
A GPU is used for applications that are intensive in the graphics department, applications such as video games and editing software.
Low-end: NVIDIA GTX 1650 Super and AMD RX 5500 XT
A GTX 1650 Super and RX 5500 XT can run popular Esports games like Valorant and League Of Legends to the highest graphics the game can reach. But as time passes by, lowering the graphics options is a must to avoid FPS drops to make the game smoother compared to higher settings. These GPU’s cost around P10,000 to P13,000.
Midrange: NVIDIA GeForce 3060 ti and AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT
To run beefier and more demanding games, the base entry to NVIDIA’s 30 series and AMD’s Radeon RX 6700 XT will be enough to play triple A high-end games in a smooth framerate. However, medium-high settings must be applied to the said games to achieve a stable 60 frames per second. These cost around P20,000 to P35,000 (SRP).
High-end: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080/3090 and AMD Radeon RX 6800/6900 XT
To bring out the game’s potential in terms of visuals, a top of the line graphics card is needed. To play games in a smooth buttery frame rate with ultra-high graphics settings and a 4K display, you would like to invest in an RTX 3080/3090 or AMD’s equivalent, Radeon RX 6800/6900 XT. The high-end GPUs will run for P50,000 to P100,000, depending on availability.
Picking a CPU
To bring out the potential of the aforementioned GPUs and process the data that today’s video games put out, a proper CPU or processor should be used in order to not bottleneck the performance of the GPU.
AMD Ryzen 5 2600 and Core i5-8600K
Intel's latest i5 renditions and AMD’s equivalent in Ryzen 5 2600 is a good choice for minimal workloads and won’t be affected by video games, as long as your GPU has the strength. These will range around P9,000 to P15,000.
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X and Core i7-9700K
A Ryzen 7 3700X and an i7-9700K will get through heavy workloads such as heavy editing of videos and the ability to game in 4K resolution. These costs around P18,000 to P22,000.
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X and Core i9-10900K
The Ryzen 9 3900X and the Intel i9-10900K are the best processors today as they are able to push games to their limit and can cope up to heavy content creation workloads. These high-end processors will cost around P28,000.
