Online games dominate every modern gaming platform. From PC’s to smartphones, multi-genre multiplayer games are the most ubiquitous pastime in the world. Whether you want to jump into an esport, or play highly rated slot games, you will need the best hardware to enjoy the latest games to the fullest extent.
The product catalogue for any given tech can be extensive and daunting to browse. A lot of modern games won’t run on older tech, and when it comes to hardware requirements, there are a great many brands and models to choose from. In order to save you some trouble we’ve put together some of the most important tech to have the best online gaming experience.
Best laptop
Clunky gaming laptops are a thing of the past. The Asus ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition is the best gaming laptop available. At £1,699 the G15 boasts best-in-class performance, battery life, and versatility.
The G15 Advantage Edition has the latest AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX processor, and a powerful Radeon RX 6800M GPU. With the option to upgrade its 16GB of DDR4 RAM, the G15 will handle any game you throw at it (especially with AMD’s Smart Access Memory system as a standard feature). The 15.6 inch 1080p display has an enviable 300 Hz refresh rate, with the choice of swapping to a more crisp 1440p resolution at 165 Hz.
The battery life of the G15 will last for at least eight hours of continuous gaming, a whole two hours more than its closest competitor. It comes equipped with a 512 GB solid-state drive (SSD), and features fully integrated Bluetooth & Infrared support. Weighing in at just under 2.5 kgs, the G15 is true power with portability, beating most pre-built PCs in terms of value, performance, and mobility.
Though its design is gamer-focused, the G15 isn’t egregious with its use of RGB, and the physical customisation options are surprisingly extensive. The keyboard’s soft material coating offers just the right amount of resistance, and there are extra keys dedicated to media playback as well as performance mode selection.
The G15 is one of the ten most popular laptops on sites like PriceSpy and Amazon. Performance benchmarks put the G15 at the top of most current laptop rankings, and there’s simply no other gaming laptop that can match its capabilities.
Best Monitor
The two most important things to look for in a gaming monitor are high frame rate per second (FPS), and a high screen resolution. Higher resolutions increase visual quality, allowing gamers to maximize their chosen platform’s graphic capabilities. The latest screens come with refresh rates of 100 Hz or more, and 60 FPS gaming has become a standard feature in the latest home consoles.
With the aforementioned caveats in mind, we have decided on two recommendations – one with the highest refresh rate (or FPS), and another with the best resolution. You could of course go for a combination of both, but you would have to sacrifice quality in both areas to a certain extent.
Highest Frame Rate
With an astonishing 360 Hz refresh rate, the Alienware 25 AW2521H is the ultimate esports monitor. This panel isn’t just another G-Sync ‘Compatible’ device; instead it has an integrated Nvidia G-Sync chip, making for a much smoother gaming experience. Featuring G-Sync as well as Nvidia Reflex technology, the Alienware is a premium product with an affordable price tag.
Retailing at about £599, the Alienware is for serious esports enthusiasts. If you aren’t that enthusiastic for the price tag, there are quite a few 240 HZ monitors currently available, as well as tons of options in the 60 Hz – 144 Hz range. Most 144 Hz – 240 Hz will be perfectly suitable for gaming, but if you want the highest refresh rate Alienware is the best by far.
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Best Resolution
The Dell Ultrasharp UP3218K is the world’s first 32 inch 8K monitor. With a 7,680 x 4,320 pixel count, the Ultrasharp provides unprecedented visual clarity. Using Dell’s PremierColor software technology, Dell has created the most advanced and accurate colour coverage available on the market.
Ultra-new tech often comes with a steep price tag, and the Ultrasharp is no different. Finding one at retail can set you back £3,000, give or take a couple hundred pounds. However, that’s not the only high price to consider.
Video games will still have to perform well at such a high resolution, which means your graphics card (or GPU), processor, and memory (RAM) will all have to be high-end products. The high price is understandable if you want the best of the best, but 1080p – 4K is still more than sufficient for a mid-to-high end gaming setup. Even 5K monitors are becoming more affordable these days.
GeForce NOW
Put simply, video streaming and cloud gaming allow GeForce Now to bring high-end gaming to the masses. Using sophisticated server networks, Nvidia’s subscription service provides unlimited access to a vast library of games. GeForce Now is available on Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Chromebook, and Nvidia’s own Shield TV.
GeForce Now solves many problems with online gaming. For example, you don’t have to worry about overpriced GPU markets. With thousands of possible combinations, buying a PC can take quite a lot of time and research. Even if we were to list a few pre-built PC’s here, chances are there would be at least one component that sacrifices performance for affordability.
Featuring 1080p gaming at a solid 60 – 120 FPS, GeForce Now is only just getting started. Server-side hardware is being upgraded over time, meaning that 4K gaming might well be around the corner. Starting at £8.99 per month, GeForce Now offers RTX-supported gaming at a fraction of the cost it would take to buy a system with comparative performance.
