Despite the allure and simplicity of gaming consoles and handheld devices, PC gaming is still very alive and very much kicking. Indeed, it's never been stronger. Enthusiasts know that nothing beats the quality of gameplay you can get with a desktop built for gaming. And today, it's within almost every determined PC shopper's grasp to get a PC with the graphics power necessary to drive the latest games on a full HD (1080p) monitor at lofty detail settings.

But what kind of PC can make major 3D games look and run better than they do on the Sony PS4 Pro or the Microsoft Xbox One S? If you have deep pockets, your answer could be a custom-built hot rod from an elite boutique PC maker such as Falcon Northwest, Maingear, or Velocity Micro. But a couple of well-informed choices will go a long way toward helping you get the right gaming desktop from a standard PC manufacturer like Acer, Asus, Dell, or MSI, even if you're not made of money. Here's how to buy your best gaming desktop, regardless of your budget, and our top 10 latest picks in the category.

This is, admittedly, simplifying a complex argument. But high-powered graphics, processors, and memory improve the graphical detail (in items such as cloth, reflections, hair), physical interactions (smoke, thousands of particles colliding), and the general animation of scenes in your favorite games. Throwing more resources at the problem, such as a more powerful graphics card or a faster CPU, will help, to an extent. The trick is to determine which components to favor, and how much.

Most Important: Consider the Graphics Card

Most gaming systems will come preinstalled with a single midrange or high-end graphics card; higher-priced systems will naturally have better cards, since purchase price typically correlates with animation performance and visual quality. AMD and Nvidia make the graphics processors, or GPUs, that go into these cards, which are made by third parties such as Asus, EVGA, Gigabyte, MSI, PowerColor, Sapphire, and XFX (to name just a few).

Our gaming-desktop reviews will let you know if there is room in the system's case for adding more graphics cards, in case you want to improve your gaming performance in the future. Most boutique manufacturers, however, will sell systems equipped with multiple-card arrays if you want to run games at their best right away. AMD calls its multiple-card technology CrossFireX, and Nvidia calls its solution Scalable Link Interface (SLI).

This trend is fading, though. While multiple-video-card gaming is still a path to great gaming, know that a game must be written to leverage multiple cards properly, and game developers in recent years have been de-emphasizing timely support for CrossFireX and SLI in games. Sometimes this support only emerges well after a game's debut; sometimes it never comes at all. Also, Nvidia has been putting a damper on SLI in the last couple of years; it has kiboshed support for installing more than two of its late-model cards at the same time, and only a subset of its higher-end cards can be installed in SLI. Our general advice for mainstream buyers is to concentrate on the best single card you can afford.

Indeed, the most pivotal decision you'll make when purchasing a gaming desktop is which card you get. One option, of course, is no card at all; the integrated graphics silicon on modern Intel Core and some AMD processors is fine for casual 2D games. But to really bring out the beast on 3D AAA titles, you need a discrete graphics card or cards, and these cards are what distinguish a gaming desktop. Whether you go with an AMD- or Nvidia-based card is based partly on price, partly on performance. Some games are optimized for one type of card or another, but for the most part, you should choose the card that best fits within your budget. If you're buying a complete gaming desktop, you of course don't have to pay for a card in isolation, but this should help you understand how the card factors into the total price. You also have to know what you're shopping for.

Turing, Navi, Ray-Tracing, and You

For some time now, Nvidia has been dominant at the high end of the GPU battlefield. Since September 2018, that dominance had been through the strength of its uber-high-end GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, as well as the still-pricey GeForce RTX 2080. Those two cards were followed by a step-down GeForce RTX 2070, still a powerful GPU in its own right, followed by the GeForce RTX 2060. These, and the company's other GeForce RTX cards, are built on what Nvidia calls the "Turing" architecture, supplanting the 10-Series "Pascal" cards as its latest top-end GPUs for gamers. GeForce RTX cards offer not only the most powerful graphics performance yet, but also some exclusive features. Chief among these are ray-tracing (putting the "RT" in "RTX"), a fancy real-time-lighting feature that only cards with the RTX moniker are capable of running.

The top-end cards are certainly pricey propositions, and too costly for many shoppers. The MSRP for the Founders Edition versions of the RTX 2080 and GTX 2080 Ti launched at $799 and $1,199, respectively, though a bunch of third-party models were lined up for launch too, and some of them are a little more affordable.

Following from these first-wave Turing cards, in the summer of 2019, Nvidia launched upgraded "Super" versions of the RTX line, with the exception of the RTX 2080 Ti. The RTX 2060 Super, RTX 2070 Super, and RTX 2080 Super are, as you may have guessed, souped-up versions of the initial releases, and came with a price cut to boot. The performance jump is greater in some Super GPUs than others, but these are the go-to models moving forward. The RTX 2070 Super looks the best value of the bunch, offering near-RTX 2080 performance at $499, while the $399 RTX 2060 Super and the $699 RTX 2080 Super are worth a look. While they're more of a half-step up and not a whole new generation, boosts to clock speeds (and in some cases the introduction of newer memory) mean these are all a tick more capable than the original models.

For many users, the 10-Series "Pascal" cards will remain more than good enough in many scenarios—if you already have one, it might not be the best value to upgrade your system. This is especially true if you aren't that interested in ray-tracing, which is part of what you're paying for in the RTX cards. For those who need to be on the cutting edge, or are buying a desktop that will be an upgrade from below the Pascal card generation, your best bet may be to go with the latest tech, especially as ray tracing emerges in more game titles in the coming years.

As a word of caution before you spend big on a desktop that can run games with ray-tracing, though, know that it's only available in a handful of titles right now, and is a demanding technology to run that will lower your frame rate. As such, the RTX 2080 Ti and RTX 2080 Super are the two best cards for playing games with ray-tracing on at high frame rates, and doing so is more of a stretch as you go down Nvidia's RTX hierarchy. But you saw the price tags. If you're not that familiar with the nuances of the latest games, don't assume you need ray-tracing, and thus the priciest cards—especially if you're shopping on a budget and/or only gaming on a 1080p monitor.

With that in mind, there are also lower-end GTX cards built on Nvidia's Turing tech: the GeForce GTX 1650, the GeForce GTX 1660, and the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti. These cards lack the specific cores needed for ray-tracing in order to cut the price. These budget GPUs bridge the gap between Pascal and the RTX Turing cards, falling roughly between the GTX 1060 and the RTX 2060. If you're shopping on a more limited budget, desktops with these cards are worth checking out. Also look for Super variants of some of these.

While those top-tier GPUs do offer fantastic pure performance separate from ray-tracing, too, shoppers looking for an entry-level or midrange system have many options. On the lower end, those GTX Turing cards (as opposed to the RTX ones) are a decent value, while the RTX 2060 is a budget-friendly, but very capable, 1080p card. An RTX 2070 system will fit the bill for high-frame-rate 1080p or 1440p gaming, and you can try ray-tracing on a per-game basis or just turn it off to your preference.

Meanwhile, AMD competes mainly in the midrange and low end, with its Radeon RX cards, and its midrange offerings are looking better now than they have for a long time. Right as Nvidia's Super cards hit the market in mid-2019, AMD launched its first "Navi" graphics cards, based on all-new architecture. The Radeon RX 5700 and the Radeon RX 5700 XT are legitimate contenders in the midrange space, delivering good bang for your buck. Unlike the Super cards, these are a wholly new generation of GPUs, and AMD is more competitive in this space than ever.

Early in 2020, AMD also pushed a lower-end Radeon RX 5600 XT that competes with both the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti and the GeForce RTX 2060. On the AMD side, check out the reviews and see which seems like the best fit for your needs and budget. The Radeon RX 570, RX 580, and RX 590 are also good picks for more budget-minded gaming at 1080p.

Prep for 4K Gaming and VR, or Keep It Real?

Equipping your system with any high-end GPU will boost your total PC bill by a few hundred dollars per card. Beyond adding extra power to your gaming experience, multiple graphics cards can also enable multiple-monitor setups so you can run up to six displays, but some single cards can power up to four, and few gamers go beyond three (and even that rarely).

A better reason to opt for high-end graphics in the long run is to power 4K and virtual reality (VR) gaming. Monitors with 4K resolution (3,840 by 2,160 pixels) and the displays built into the latest VR headsets have much higher pixel counts than a "simple" 1080p HD monitor. You'll need at least a single high-end graphics card to drive a 4K display at top quality settings, with similar requirements for smooth gameplay on VR headsets. (See the "Make VR a Reality" section below for more information.) If you mean to play games on a 4K panel with detail settings cranked up, you'll want to look at one (or even two) of Nvidia's highest-end cards suited for 4K play, likely the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti or the RTX 2080 Super.

Buying a graphics card for VR is a different set of considerations, and not quite as demanding as 4K play on recent AAA games. VR headsets have their own graphics requirements. But for the two big ones from HTC and Oculus, you'll want at least a GeForce GTX 1060 or an AMD Radeon RX 480 or Radeon RX 580. Those are last-gen cards, of course; check for specific support for a given Nvidia GeForce Turing or AMD Radeon Navi card if that is what you will be getting.

Now, VR and 4K gaming are unquestionably high-end matters (the latter even more so than the former). You can still get a rich gaming experience for thousands of bucks less by choosing a desktop with a single but robust middle-tier video card (an RTX 2060 or 2070, for example) and gaming at 1080p or 1440p; 2,560 by 1,440 pixels is an increasingly popular native resolution for gaming monitors. If you're less concerned about VR or turning up all the eye candy found in games—anti-aliasing and esoteric lighting effects, for example—then today's less-powerful graphics cards and GPUs will still give you plenty of oomph for a lot less money.

Perfect Processor Power

The parallel heart in any gaming system to its GPU is its main processor chip, or CPU. While the GPU specializes in graphics quality and some physics calculations, the CPU takes care of everything else, and it also determines how able your PC will be for demanding tasks that require non-graphics calculations.

On the CPU front, AMD and Intel are in a race to see who can provide the most power to gamers. In 2017, AMD restarted the competition for the top spot anew with its Ryzen Threadripper CPUs, which feature up to 32 cores and the ability to process 64 threads simultaneously. (A good example is the recent Ryzen Threadripper 3970X.) Intel countered with a new line of Core X-Series processors, in which the top "Extreme Edition" model flaunts 18 cores and 36 threads. Prices for these processors are high, though the 10th Generation of Core X-Series chips, which hit in the second half of 2019, saw some much reduced pricing. The top-end chips that went for $2,000 in previous generations of Core X saw a fall to around $1,000 in the equivalent Core i9-10980XE Extreme Edition we reviewed.

These CPU advancements are exciting, but it's not essential to invest in one of these elite-level Threadripper or Core X-Series processors to enjoy excellent PC gaming. To that point, Intel also launched mainstream Core i9 chips outside of the Extreme Edition platforms in late 2018, bringing increased speed to the main consumer line. The Core i9-9900K was the first flagship option in that regard, with the more recent Core i9-10900K taking up the mantle for Intel's new "Comet Lake-S" desktop chips. Both are excellent performers, though their value has been undermined by efficient, aggressively priced AMD competitors.

The latest from AMD at this power tier is the Ryzen 9 3950X, what the Intel rival has dubbed the first 16-core gaming CPU. There is crossover with the blistering Threadripper line here in terms of core and thread count, but this Ryzen 9 is on the less costly AM4 "mainstream" platform (with a motherboard selection that should comprise some cheaper options; Threadripper boards tend to be pricey). It's a killer chip.

Below the Ryzen 9 3950X are models up and down the pricing scale, from $99 to $499. The 12-core Ryzen 9 3900X is a step below the 3950X, and a particularly excellent competitor for the Core i9-9900K and Core i9-10900K given its value. Lesser, but still high-powered, CPUs, such as the AMD Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 lines, as well as locked and unlocked six- and eight-core Intel Core i7 processors, provide the computing muscle needed for a satisfying gaming experience. These, really, are the sweet spot for most gamers. Budget gamers should look to lower-priced (but still speedy) quad-core and six-core processors, such as the AMD Ryzen 5 or the Intel Core i5, which will knock hundreds of dollars off the bottom line. The baseline has come a long way, so even these less expensive chips are well suited to gaming. Even AMD's latest Ryzen 3 processors can get the job done if you're shopping on a budget.

If your choice comes down to paying for a higher-level GPU or a higher-level CPU, and gaming is the primary use you will have for the system, favor the graphics, in most cases. A system with a higher-power Nvidia GeForce GPU and a Core i5 processor is generally a better choice for 3D-intense FPS gaming than one with a low-end card and a zippy Core i7 or i9 CPU. But you may want to choose the latter if you're into games that involve a lot of background math calculations, such as strategy titles (like those in the Civilization series), or if you also mean to use the system for CPU-intensive tasks like converting or editing video, or editing photos.

Assessing Main Memory and Storage

One thing that's often overlooked on gaming systems is RAM; it can be severely taxed by modern games. Outfit your PC with a bare minimum of 8GB of RAM, and budget for 16GB if you're serious about freeing up this potential performance bottleneck. The most powerful machines out there will pack 32GB, though there are diminishing returns for gaming beyond 16GB.

Solid-state drives (SSDs), meanwhile, have become more popular since prices began dropping dramatically a few years ago, and the price drops have accelerated especially this year. They speed up boot time, wake-from-sleep time, and the time it takes to launch a game and load a new level.

Although you can get an SSD of any size up to around 4TB (with the larger 8TB capacity still being relatively rare and very expensive), the pairing of a small one (a capacity of 500GB is a good minimum floor to set) with a large-capacity spinning hard drive (4TB or more) is a good, affordable setup for gamers who also download lots of games and the occasional video from the Internet. You can keep a subset of your favorite games and applications on the smaller SSD, where they'll benefit from quicker loading, and install the bulk of your library on the hard drive.

Favor, where you can, PCI Express SSDs over SATA ones. (The former are the performance darlings of the moment, and increasingly the norm in desktop gaming systems.) Almost all of these drives come on gumstick-size modules in a format called M.2.

Make VR a Reality

With the release of the HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift headsets and their subsequent revisions, real VR gaming is possible in the home for the first time. If you want to be able to use one of these to its fullest, your PC will need to meet the headset's system requirements.

As we discussed up top, the most important aspect is the video card—on the original headsets, you are pushing a 1,080-by-1,200 display to each eye, after all—so go with the most powerful card you can afford from either the current or previous generation. For the Vive, the bare minimum is an AMD Radeon RX 480/580 or an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060. For Oculus headsets, a processing technique called asynchronous spacewarp promises full performance with slightly lower-end video cards, but we still suggest opting for at least the minimums posited by the Vive, and ideally something a step or three higher up the GPU pecking order. Even in 2020, the headset makers still outline VR hardware minimums in terms of older-generation cards, so with current-gen cards, we'd suggest looking at nothing less than a GeForce GTX 1660 Ti on the Nvidia side, or a Radeon RX 5600 XT on the AMD.

You'll also want a newer AMD or Intel CPU with a minimum of four processing cores. As a baseline, both HTC and Oculus recommend a Core i5-4590 or its equivalent; with current-gen CPUs, we'd recommend an AMD Ryzen 5, 7, or 9 (second-generation or third-generation), or an Intel Core i5, i7, or i9. (Any of AMD's Ryzen Threadrippers or Intel's Core X-Series chips will do, too.) And while the 8GB of RAM we recommended should be enough to ensure the fluid gameplay you want, 16GB is again a better bet.

The Perfect Accessories

Don't stop at internal components. Once you have your ideal gaming desktop, a couple of extras can really enhance your gaming experience. We recommend that you trick out your machine with a top-notch gaming monitor with a fast response rate, as well as a solid gaming headset so you can trash-talk your opponents. A high-refresh-rate monitor can absorb the excess frame rates that a robust video card puts out, for smoother gameplay. In-monitor support for Nvidia G-Sync or AMD FreeSync, matched to your brand of video card, can also eliminate artifacts that result from varying frame rates.

Comfortable keyboards, mice, and specialized controllers round out your options at checkout, but know that oftentimes you're better off selecting these items separately, rather than limiting your selection to what's offered by the system seller.

So, Which Gaming Desktop Should I Buy?

Below are the best gaming desktops we've tested of late. Many are configured-to-order PCs from boutique manufacturers, but some come from bigger brands normally associated with consumer-grade desktops. Note that many of the same manufacturers also make gaming laptops, if you're weighing between the two.