Upgrade Your Graphics Card

Ah, the basics of the basics when it comes to upgrades for a gaming rig. The two main companies that you will probably be looking at will be AMD and Nvidia.

With Nvidia’s release of the Geforce 1000 series, the prices of older generation graphics cards have fallen. The Geforce 1000 series itself is also very affordable when it comes to performance, compared to the previous top of the line Titan X card.

AMD has also been releasing their own cards to compete on the price to performance aspect of cards.

If you’re looking to game on higher settings or if you’re looking to pick up a VR headset, upgrading to a new graphics card is definitely a major consideration.

Upgrade Your CPU/Motherboard

If you’re gaming on an older CPU, now might be the time to switch, especially if you’re planning on upgrading the other components in your rig.

You might not need a top of the line CPU and a workstation-grade motherboard, but anything more recent than whatever you had in that pre-made Dell in high school would be good.

A top of the line graphics card upgrade with an underpowered, five-year-old CPU means that you won’t be getting the biggest bang for your buck. In fact, you’re leaving some pixels on the floor when it comes to your games.

So definitely look to upgrade your CPU/Motherboard if you’re going for a large overhaul of your system.

Upgrade Your RAM

RAM sticks are actually one of the things that you don’t really have to upgrade or update too often since they’ll typically last you for years. The only reason that you should think about upgrading your RAM is if a stick is dead, you’re moving to a new motherboard that can use top-of-the-line RAM or if you want more RAM.

Normally, 8GB of RAM is enough for most casual/non-power gamers. 16GB of RAM should be enough if you just want some breathing room – or want to crank your graphics settings to maximum.

Upgrade Your HardDrives

If your drives are starting to run out of space, you can either delete some things or you can buy some more drives. 

Most gamers have traditional hard-drives because they’re inexpensive and they sometimes massive in terms of storage space, however, solid state hard drives have been increasingly adopted by gamers.

SSDs improve load times. Traditional hard drives have a needle that needs to move on a disc to read data. SSDs, however, have no moving parts, so they don’t have to constantly move to access games data.

SSDs do have a downside, however: They are pricey but smaller in terms of storage space, so keeping a traditional hard-drive for general storage is a good idea.

So, Do You Need to Upgrade?

Not everyone needs to upgrade.

If you’re not looking to improve your gaming experience, then upgrading isn’t something you need to worry about. PC gaming is great in the idea that you have a choice. You choose to upgrade when you want and you get to choose your upgrades. 

Figure out your budget, do your research, find your parts and upgrade as you please.