How Do Gaming PCs Differ from Regular PCs?
Gaming PCs are specially designed for playing high graphic games. For this reason, they need a high amount of computing power that is made possible by additional features, like more RAM, graphic cards, and high core count CPUs, just to name a few.
On the other hand, regular computers are everyday personal PCs you can use for basic things, including typing, emailing, streaming, watching movies, and browsing. Gaming professionals like Maximilian Lang-Orsini suggests that you don’t have to enhance regular computers’ internal components as people do in gaming PCs. To help you understand the difference between the two computers, you need to narrow it down to the following features:
1. CPU
The biggest difference between the two types of computers comes down to the CPU used. Almost every regular PC has a strong CPU, but they use processors optimized for parallel processing, but not for gaming reasons. The processors usually go beyond anything gamers will ever need or want, like AMD EPYC or Intel Xeon.
If you are creating a high-end gaming computer, you may spend approximately $290 for top-shelf CPUs. In contrast, chips for regular PCs may cost over $2,100.
2. GPU
Gaming PCs always come with a high-end graphics card. This is because every computer game is graphics-based, something which the everyday individuals don’t usually see. Computer games are normally simulation-based animations.
Hence, with a high graphics card, gaming PCs can give a good performance compared to regular computers. The graphics on gaming PCs effortlessly display on monitors, thanks to the high-end graphics card.
3. Storage
Modern regular PCs favor SSDs as a means of sharing data because of their sheer speed, which outweighs that of the HDDs. Though since regular computer users might also have to store bigger volumes of information, HDDs with a few terabytes of space can be included in the configuration.
Simply put, gaming and regular computers don’t vary a lot in this, except for the fact that regular PCs will use a higher-capacity storage drive.
4. Motherboard
The motherboard is the most important feature of your computer. If you have higher-end computers, you will require a motherboard with a specific chipset so as to squeeze a lot of power out of your rig. Apart from that, the motherboard should be compatible with whatever RAM sticks you use for greater consistency between different components.
Although there is no direct difference between regular and gaming computers in terms of this feature, you may require a high-end motherboard for regular PCs because of stronger CPUs. As for gaming computers, the motherboard should be geared to the general buildup.
5. RAM
People usually overestimate the total amount of RAM needed by gaming computers. The gaming PCs can perform better with as little as 8GB of RAM.
On the other hand, regular PCs require a humongous amount of RAM when compared to gaming computers. Many regular computers stick to 32 or 64GB, though the high-end ones might even have 128GB of RAM and beyond. What is more, regular PCs usually depend on ECC RAM to improve program/stability or prevent data corruption.
The Bottom Line!
Regular computers are one of the most powerful PCs on the retail market, so it makes sense that you can use them for gaming. However, performance gains may heavily depend on the GPU. For your regular PCs to perform both kinds of functions, you will require an AMD Radeon Pro or NVIDIA Quadro graphics card.
Conversely, gaming computers may be used as regular PCs, but only under some limited situations, depending on users’ lower-performance requirements. Most gamers use their PCs for both pleasure and work. For this case, it’s advisable to create a system, which is suitable for your needs, integrating the important components for both gaming (optimized GPU) and regular computers (storage performance, CPU, and RAM).