I'm familiar with building PCs, but I haven't followed the market closely for about four years. My current gaming laptop still works, though I'm considering a proper desktop upgrade in the near future. I'd like a rough idea of the parts and budget needed for a system that can handle most games at 4K 60 FPS or 1080p 144 FPS on very high settings, while still managing demanding or poorly optimized titles at around 1080p 60 FPS with medium-to-high settings. I'm especially interested in performance similar to what would be needed for Monster Hunter Wilds. I want at least 32GB of RAM, preferably 64GB if pricing allows, a minimum of a 2TB SSD, and an Nvidia graphics card. I live in Eastern Europe, so regional pricing may be different. How much would a suitable build cost, and are current GPU and memory price problems expected to improve soon?
4 Answers
If comfortable 4K gaming is the priority, I’d look closer to an RTX 5080-class card rather than treating an RTX 5070-class card as a guaranteed 4K solution. A 5070-level system can often reach 4K 60 FPS with DLSS and reduced ray tracing, but demanding games may require compromises. A high-end CPU such as a Ryzen 7 9800X3D, 32GB or 64GB of DDR5, and a 2TB SSD would put the complete build around $2,500–$3,000 or more in some Eastern European markets.
Prices are unusually difficult right now, especially for memory and graphics cards, and there’s no dependable short-term guarantee that they’ll drop. You can still build a solid system for roughly $1,200–$1,500, but that would be more in the range of a midrange setup with 32GB of RAM and an RTX 5060 Ti-class GPU. It would be excellent for 1080p and usable at 1440p, but it would not consistently meet your requested 4K 60 FPS target at maximum settings.
Don’t spend the entire budget chasing maximum settings in every game. A system with a strong mid-to-high-end GPU, a recent gaming-focused CPU, 32GB of RAM, and a 2TB SSD is the sensible baseline. Upscaling and frame generation are increasingly important for demanding titles, so choosing a GPU with good support for those features may offer better value than buying extra CPU power you won’t use.
For those targets, a rough budget is probably around $2,000–$2,500, depending heavily on local pricing and whether you choose a current high-end graphics card. A balanced build would likely include a strong modern CPU, 32GB of DDR5 memory, a 2TB NVMe SSD, and something around an RTX 5070 Ti-class GPU. That should handle high-refresh 1080p easily and 4K reasonably well, though you may need upscaling such as DLSS in heavier games.
That’s a lot less than I expected. I assumed a capable system would start closer to $3,000, so I’ll compare local prices carefully before setting a savings goal.
The distinction between technically reaching 4K and doing it comfortably is useful. I may start with 32GB of RAM and leave room to upgrade later if 64GB is too expensive.