Modern PC games are an incredible leap from early video games, which were mostly text-based until 3D graphics became popular in the late 1980s. Even then, the games were completely rudimentary with very basic graphics. In today's modern world, cutting-edge features like ray tracing, and Voxel Cone tracing, help deliver almost life-like realism in video games. These lighting systems replicate how light works in real life, and individually trace beams of light to follow their reflection across 3D space. Obviously, this is a very simplified version of what they actually do, but it helps to understand the basics. These new systems and technology mean that not every computer is capable of running them, and some games like Cyberpunk 2047 have such high-performance demands that top-of-the-line gaming PC components struggle to get above 60 FPS.

A few years ago 60 FPS might have been considered high, but by modern standards, it's fairly low. Most gamers expect to be able to run games at 144 FPS, minimum, to keep up with the refresh rate of their monitor and get the smoothest experience possible. That is before we even start looking at the resolution that most PC gamers expect to play at. Today's best gaming computers should easily be able to run games at 60 FPS+ while displaying at 1080p resolution.

Not all gaming computers are built the same, and not all games demand such high specifications. It's probably right about now that you're asking yourself, is my PC powerful enough for modern PC gaming?

Why You Need To Check Your Specs

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The first thing that you need to check are your PC specs themselves. If you're running Intel integrated graphics then you definitely won't be running any modern PC games at anything above 30 FPS, which some gamers might consider unplayable. For modern PC gaming, you need a dedicated graphics card, or GPU. For the best performance, you want a GPU that was released in the past few years. Anything past five years old will really struggle with modern games. The best gaming computers will have something like an NVIDIA RTX 20 or 30 series that can allow you to play the latest games and not have to worry about your PC's performance. As well as your GPU, the U is also a central component in deciding if your PC is good enough for gaming. For modern games, you'll want a U that again has been released in the last few years.

RAM, or sometimes just called memory, is another core component to any modern gaming computer. Most modern games will require a minimum of 8GB of DDR4 RAM, with some even suggesting that you have 12GB. However, the next generation of RAM has recently been released. DDR5, which delivers greater speed, can offer better performance than the previous version.

How You Can Play All Games

A screen capture from the game ARK 2. Two people ride on the back of a T-Rex. Behind them is a skyline of another planet, with two moons.

If you have the latest specs, and one of the best gaming computers, you shouldn't really have to worry about what games you can play. Your machine should be more than capable of handling the latest releases and giving you good performance at high resolutions.

What if you're running slightly older components? Well, you should be fine for most modern titles if your components were released within five years of the release of a game. However, some games do have massive requirements, and you should always check the minimum and recommended specs of the game you want to play. If your machine is struggling to play the latest releases, then it might be time for an upgrade.