When you look at the back of a modern games box, the recommended specification list you’ll see is much denser than those in the past. As machines have gotten more powerful, the games being played on them have been able to reach to new heights, becoming much larger and a lot more realistic. Of course, though, what exactly makes a game use so much power? Video, which appears to be very similar, can be run on mobile phones, and it often doesn’t make sense that you would need such powerful machines for your gaming needs. To help you out with this, this post will be exploring the resource usage of a modern video game.
- Calculations
For every action, event, and thing happening in the video game you’re playing, there will be a huge list of calculations which have to be done along with it. In most cases, programming languages are simply expressing logic, and a large part of this is mathematics. Of course, though, why would something like firing a gun take so much power? This sort of action doesn’t seem very complex.
In reality, though, it is. The very first stage of the gun firing will be an event triggered by the user, like a key press, which will have to be processed by the computer. From there, the gun will have to fire, with the computer calculating direction, speed, and damage all at the same time. If something gets hit, this will have to be picked up, too, and another sequence will run. During the gun firing, the computer will also have to pick and play an animation, sound clip, and even a vibrate command to a controller.
With all of this work going on, it could be easy to assume that you need the best processor on the market to deal with your game. Fortunately, though, this isn’t the case, and you will usually be able to get by with a mid to high-range option. At the moment, the Core i5 7600k from Intel and the Ryzen 5 1600x from AMD are some of the best contenders. This sort of chip will have more than enough power for your games.
- Graphical Rendering
Next, it’s time to think about the other side of the work your computer has to do when you’re running a game; showing you the visuals. Unlike a video which is preprogrammed and the same every time, a video game has to be stitched together on the fly, with over a hundred new screens every second in some cases. A normal processor isn’t very good at this sort of work, though, and a specialised device needs to be used to handle the work.
This is where a graphics card comes in. Equipped with a special processor called a GPU, this sort of product can drive a TV or monitor much better than the one already in your machine. Nowadays, there are more and more options becoming available, and you have loads to choose from when you’re buying a card for your machine. In a lot of cases, you will only need the very top-end if you are gaming in ultra HD or 3D. For the majority who are stuck in the past, something a little less expensive should do the trick, though.
- Storage (In-Out)
When a game is running, it isn’t one file which is simply being displayed. Instead, your games are built from hundreds of different documents, ranging from scripts and code to 3D models and the images being used as textures for them. Being able to access these assets quickly is very important when you’re playing some games. So, nowadays, most gaming computers will use SSDs instead of traditional hard drives, as they will usually be a lot faster. This sort of resource can make your experience a lot better.
Even knowing exactly what your computer is doing when it is running a game, it can be hard to decide on the best one for you when you’re at the store. There are loads of companies making machines out there, and a lot of them will charge too much for what you get, or won’t give you the product you deserve. Finding a quality desktop PC for gaming is just a matter of doing some research. Most people will be able to find options which appeal to them, even if you have to search for a long time to find it.
Hopefully, this post will inspire you to start working harder on the time you put into choosing your next gaming computer. Running a game isn’t a simple task, like running a video. Unfortunately, when so much has to be done on the fly, your computer need to be able to hack the heat, or you won’t have a very good experience.
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