How Much Should You Spend on a Gaming PC in 2024 (2024)

Here’s how much you should spend on a gaming PC:

• $300-550 is plenty for basic games in 720p.
• $1000-$1,800 is a good range if you want to game in 1080p.
• $1,500-$2,500 for the PC itself and another $400-$600 on peripherals for gaming in 1440p or higher.
• $2,000+ budget for 4K gaming.

But the amount you should spend on a gaming PC isn’t always an easily answerable question.

As I’m sure you can tell, there are many different options in terms of components relating to whatever tasks you may want your computer to tackle, and this means that budgets will always vary.

On one hand, a student or someone a bit strapped for cash may have a very low budget of around $400 to $500.

On the other hand, someone who may have been saving up specifically for a high-end gaming PC with dreams of becoming a famous streamer might drop $1,000 to $3,500 for their ultimate gaming setup.

Check Out Our Build Guides

If you’re still confused about what is a good budget for a Gaming PC, check our builds based on different needs and use cases:

Budget	Name	Image	Build Guide
$400	Budget Gamer		Build Guide
$500	Perfect Balance		Build Guide
$600	Stealth Gamer		Build Guide
$700	Phoenix		Build Guide
$800	Monster		Build Guide
$900	Ripper		Build Guide
$1000	Beast		Build Guide

How Much Should You Spend to Game in 720p?

If you want to game in 720p, spending $300-$550 on a gaming PC will get the job done.

A budget of around $400 can get you a functioning gaming PC, ready to run your favorite games anywhere from 30fps to 60fps in some cases, all thanks to AMD’s Vega integrated graphics chips.

Using AMD’s 2018 Athlon GE chips (200GE, 220GE, or 240GE) you can get easy 720p performance and a hyperthreaded CPU all in one $60 package.

Pairing this with relatively cheap memory, storage, a power supply, and a small micro ATX case or an ATX case will yield prime 720p gaming performance.

You can even grab a small SSD while staying on budget and overclock the CPU with a cheap B450 motherboard, though you may want to opt for an aftermarket cooler instead of the provided stock cooler.

If you want to up that budget just a tad, you can even throw in some cheap peripherals.

You can go right ahead and get a 1920×1080 monitor (future-proofing), a mechanical keyboard, and a pretty nice mouse all for under $550 in total.

That sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

How Much Should You Spend to Game in 1080p?

If you want to game in 1080p, expect to pay anywhere from $600 all the way up to $1200 (or even $1500) for a capable gaming PC.

1080p is not only the king of gaming resolutions but also the most commonly used resolution for gaming.

However, being that it’s such a common resolution, the number of possible configurations for a great 1080p experience is staggering.

So what we’ll do is give you the minimum recommended config for a playable 1080p experience and a recommended 1080p 60fps experience.

Keep in mind the prices may change as the market does, and as new games come out hardware gets dated.

Running either AMD or Intel could net you this amazing bang for your buck on the processor side, you even have the choice between Nvidia or AMD on the graphics card side the possibilities are damn near endless. The current PC market is just amazing for budget 1080p gaming.

If you want to add on peripherals, let’s try that.

For a complete 1080p playable build, you can envision a bill of around $1000 if not a little more, but if you want that sick 60fps gaming with all RGB peripherals then you best expect that price to skyrocket.

How Much Should You Spend to Game in 1440p?

The next two resolutions are where we will see our highest numbers yet. Don’t expect to have a traditional “budget” build if you want to play your new games anywhere this luxuriously.

If you want to game in 1440p, you’ll need to spend at least $1,000 on a gaming PC, but that’s just the minimum. You’d be better off shelling out $1,800 for a gaming PC, and that’s before any other peripherals.

There are some benefits of spending this much money, however. Your PC will be a workstation monster, able to tackle any intensive task you throw at it, on top of gaming.

It’s well equipped to host a Rust server, for example, and would do so with ease.

For 60fps 1440p gaming, you want a minimum of a GTX 1070 Ti or RTX 2060-Super graphics card in your system, and even then you may not get 60fps in all titles.

Each of these cards will run you between $380 and $420, so definitely expect it to take up a large portion of your budget.

Ideally, you’ll want something along the lines of an RTX 2070, GTX 1080 Ti, or higher for guaranteed 1440p 60fps performance in all possible titles.

At this price point, you are definitely going to want to throw in a good power supply and case for all of your expensive new parts, your peripherals shouldn’t be an exception.

Why would you shell out over $1,000 just to equip your rig with El Cheapo peripherals? C’mon man.

For sure, you’re going to want complete and total RGB, keyboard, mouse, and maybe even some headphones. Not to mention that a 1440p monitor is gonna run you quite a fortune, you’re gonna be looking at a total reaching upwards of $1,800! Have fun with that bill bro.

How Much Should You Spend to Game in 4K?

Gaming in 4K is like cocaine; I wouldn’t know what either feels like, but I’m sure if I tried it, I’d be hooked.

For real though, 4K gaming is an amazing experience reserved for only the wealthiest of the wealthy, that is if you want a truly seamless experience.

Sure, you could go on and try to run The Witcher 3 at 4K Ultra on your dear old GTX 970 4GB, but boy are you gonna have the most unplayable experience of your life.

To be honest with you, though, we’re not entirely sold on the whole idea of 4K gaming in the first place, but since you seem so hell-bent on draining your bank account for every last penny we’ll humor your outlandish desires.

Assuming you’re putting your dollars out to reach for the sky and tackle 4K 60fps gaming, you’re going to be blowing some serious holes in your pockets, my friend.

Go ahead and expect to spend upwards of $2,000 or more for the computer alone. But keep in mind that if you spend this much, your PC will last a long time if you’re okay with turning some settings down eventually.

A majority of your budget is going to be sunk into your graphics card for sure.

When you want to play games in a manner such as this, the lowest-end graphics card we suggest would be an RTX 2080 Super.

The regular RTX 2080 may be able to hit a regular 60fps at 4K on near-high or near-high settings with third-party cards, while the RTX 2080 Super should hit a guaranteed 60fps on high settings or even above.

However, if you would like to run 4K 60fps at maximum possible settings, your only real option is an RTX 2080 Ti (or two).

Sure, you could definitely go for a Titan RTX, if you’re willing to pay more than a grand extra for a 10% performance increase…

On the low end, you could also go for an RTX 2060, 2070, or the ‘Super’ variants of either, as well as an RX 5700 XT on AMD’s side.

None of these cards will get you near high settings (or even medium) at 60fps, but that 4K playable resolution is still technically attainable at their $400 to $500 price points.

How to Save Money When Building a Gaming PC

When building a PC it is always a great idea to search around for deals and save money wherever you can, especially when you’re on a tight budget. Lucky for you, here we’ve got a set of tips and tricks to help you save a buck on your next PC build.

Sales

We cannot stress enough how important it is to always look out for sales when building a PC.

All of your components are relatively expensive and getting even the slightest percentage deal will make all the difference.

Some common sales to look for are:

• Amazon Prime Day which is usually July 16th but started on the 15th this year
• Newegg Flash Sales
• Holiday Sales (Labor Day, Christmas, Black Friday, etc.)

Plan your build around yearly sales to ensure that you get a great deal on parts.

Open-box returns can yield very good results in most cases.

Considering that most of them are fully functional and were returned for various reasons not about the integrity of the product, buying open-box or refurbished hardware can usually net you some tasty savings.

Refurbished goods can offer a decent discount just like open box returns, with the bonus of assuring that each part has been tested thoroughly for functionality.

Know that they don’t always cost that much less than brand-new versions, but it’s a safe bet if you would like to save a couple of dollars.

Most retailers have a subscription or frequent shopper programs that open the door for even more savings.

For example, Amazon Prime allows for free two-day shipping on any PC components you would buy and Newegg Premier also gives the benefits of free expedited shipping along with no restocking fees for returns, plus you can add up to four people to the same Premiere subscription.

The Used Market

For someone brand new to PC building or someone looking for quality assurance, I don’t suggest shopping the used market for your next build.

However, for those of you out there ready to take the added risk, the used market is the best way to get PC parts for amazing prices.

Online sites like eBayand Redditcan offer amazing savings on used parts around the world.

Local buying sites and apps like Craigslist can also provide great deals in your area, subverting the shipping process.

Each option, though, has its drawbacks.

Online you can’t always tell if the component you’re buying is authentic and obviously you can’t test it before buying, luckily most online trading sites have systems in place for easy returns in the case of a mis-advertised item or broken product.

When buying locally you can usually test parts on location before buying, but in some cases, you may deal with some shady people so I always suggest meeting publicly.

As each side has its issues, they also share a prominent problem.

You can really go by the seller’s word as to how long the component has been used and what internal condition it might be in.

There’s no telling if maybe in a year, a month, or even a week down the line the part will cease functioning. From personal experience, I’ve had a used motherboard’s VRM burn out on me a year down the line, frying the motherboard and a brand-new CPU in the process.

Barebones Systems

Another, less popular (and viable) option for saving a bit of cash on a build is buying a barebones system.

Most of the time, buying a barebones system is to put in less effort when building since all of the main components are usually pre-installed and you just have to buy secondary components like storage and graphics.

Barebones systems aren’t usually worth it for desktop systems, however.

Where they do shine is in gaming laptops. Some online retailers are based around selling barebones laptops, and they give some pretty good savings as opposed to buying a brand-new thousand-dollar gaming laptop.

Sometimes you can get amazing deals on barebones systems though.

This would allow you to have an almost completed system on the spot, you’ve just got to buy a couple more parts to finish up your build.