I'm planning a new gaming-only PC and can spend up to €6,000, although I care more about value than simply using the entire budget. I mainly play demanding AAA titles such as Resident Evil, Cyberpunk 2077, Monster Hunter, God of War, and Horizon. I want to play at 1440p and 120 Hz with Ultra settings, excellent image quality, and features such as ray tracing whenever practical. I'm based in France and already own my monitor, keyboard, mouse, and headset, so I only need the computer itself. What configuration would provide the smoothest experience and strongest price-to-performance balance?
2 Answers
You do not need to spend anything close to €6,000 to make the most of a 1440p 120 Hz monitor. A roughly €2,500 system with a strong modern CPU and GPU should exceed 120 FPS in many games, while still handling demanding AAA titles at high or Ultra settings. Rather than putting the unused budget into a more expensive tower, you could consider upgrading the display to a high-refresh OLED model, such as a 280 Hz or 360 Hz 1440p monitor. That would make better use of the extra money if you want a more noticeable visual and responsiveness upgrade.
For price-to-performance at 1440p, a Ryzen 7 9800X3D paired with a Radeon RX 9070 XT would be a very strong choice. It should deliver excellent performance in demanding games without paying the huge premium for a top-end Nvidia card. Nvidia still has an advantage in ray tracing, but the 9070 XT is capable there too, and a more expensive RTX 5070 Ti or RTX 5080 would not provide anywhere near proportional gains. A quality 360 mm liquid cooler, fast NVMe SSD, and suitable power supply would complete the build. You could also increase the memory to 48 or 64 GB or add storage, though 32 GB is generally enough for gaming. Even high-end hardware cannot completely overcome poor optimization in newly released games, so some titles may still need patches.
Related Questions
Lenovo Thinkpad Stuck In Update Loop Install FilterDriverU2_Reload