Hello all, I am new to the PC Gaming world and looking for something for my son for Xmas. He primarily plays Fortnite, but will also get into other games like Minecraft, GTA, etc.
I’m looking at these 2 PCs, the first is sold out.
Would the 2nd option be good/better than the first?
Hey there @user935 and welcome to the Newegg Gamer Community forum!
The first option comes with an Intel® Core™ 5 Processor 120 which has six cores.
The second option comes with a more powerful Intel® Core™ i5 processor 14400F which has six cores for running games, and four additional “efficient cores” for running background tasks. This helps to free up the six main cores to run more demanding tasks.
Aside from the CPU difference, these two PCs are extremely similar. Both have the same RAM and storage, both are equipped with WiFi and Bluetooth capabilities to connect wirelessly to the internet and to connect through Bluetooth to a headset or game controller. The $749.99 option actually has more USB ports than the $799.99 option does - the $749.99 option has eight rear USB ports, while the $799.99 option has only six. Granted, a kid playing games doesn’t need more than three at a time for his keyboard, mouse, and possibly a headset. Just something to keep in mind for the future.
The fact we have to go deep enough to look at USB port count to try and find meaningful differences in which PC is better - this should tell you how close these really are.
You mentioned Fortnite primarily, as well as Minecraft and GTA. These are CPU-heavy games - having a powerful CPU and lots of RAM will help them to run well. They don’t have very complex graphics; the RTX 5060 graphics card included with both of these PCs will work just fine. If your son decides he wants to play a more demanding game like Assassin’s Creed, that’s when a graphics card upgrade would be beneficial - but the power supply included with each of these PCs is not really capable of powering a much more powerful graphics card than the RTX 5060 anyway. Just something to keep in mind down the road - if your son decides to play more graphically-demanding titles then upgrading his graphics card would help, but you’d likely also need a power supply upgrade at the same time, adding to the cost.
The takeaway: The 799.99 option is a bit better due to its more powerful CPU. This will be a solid Fortnite machine for the time being. However, a PS5 Pro would be a smoother and faster gaming experience for a similar price.
Thanks for the response! Does the integrated graphics card on the first option factor into the decision?
Not at all. You’d never use the integrated graphics.
When hooking up the PC, you’d connect the monitor to the HDMI or DisplayPort output directly on the RTX 5060 graphics card, not to the HDMI or DisplayPort outputs located on the motherboard. If you were to connect the monitor to the ports on the motherboard, then the graphics would be displayed by the integrated graphics (on the first option) or you would get no signal at all (on the second option). Using the integrated graphics would mean that games like Fortnite would drop from, for example, 150FPS down to about 30FPS. For a competitive game where reaction time is important, this would make it unplayable.
Awesome, thanks for your help!
Talking performance, is there anything I need to consider for a monitor to pair with this?
Sure, ideally you’ll want to find a monitor sporting NVIDIA G-Sync technology.
Typically a monitor will have three important specifications:
Most gaming-oriented monitors will advertise a refresh rate anywhere from 165Hz and up, so that the monitor shows a new image 165 times a second. However, NVIDIA G-Sync allows the refresh rate to change as the PC runs.
If, for instance, your son is playing Fortnite and the RTX 5060 graphics card is only producing 100 new images per second, but the monitor is updating 165 times a second, this introduces a desynchronization which causes a phenomenon called “screen tearing.” Due to the way the monitor displays and the way our eyes work, this makes some portion of the screen appear to be lagging behind the rest, which is extremely jarring and - in a competitive, reaction-time based game like Fortnite - can often be the difference between a win or a loss. Particularly as this phenomenon is most likely to occur when the player is looking around quickly, this can stop the player from being able to tell where the enemies are at a quick glance.
NVIDIA G-Sync would allow the monitor to change its refresh rate in this scenario; if the RTX 5060 can only produce 100 new frames per second, then the monitor will change how fast it’s updating as well to only 100Hz, so they stay in sync (hence the name.) Arguably, spending an extra $100 on a nicer monitor is more important than spending an extra $100 to get the next tier up on the PC you were shopping for.
https://www.newegg.com/msi-mag301rf-29-5-fhd-200-hz-optix-rapid-ips-black/p/N82E16824475143
This is a recommended monitor for your son; it checks all the boxes here.
Awesome, thank you so much for your help!!!