Without beating around the bush, PC gaming is expensive these days. Or, at the very least, it certainly feels like it is. With the prices of the best graphics cards still way too high, it might feel like you’re stuck with your same old PC for the foreseeable future.
Good news: It’s not universally that bad. In fact, there are plenty of PC upgrades ranging from free to not-too-pricey that you can jump on today. I’m a PC builder with 20 years of experience, and here’s what I recommend doing if you want to give your gaming rig a boost without breaking the bank.
Better PC without spending a dime
Short of your friends and family suddenly deciding to gift you PC hardware, you can’t get any serious gains without spending money — but you can get some improvements. There are ways to boost your existing PC and make it run better, and some of those things can give you improvements in games.
This is especially true if you think that your PC seems to be struggling right now. Thermal throttling, crashes, and disappointing performance can often be addressed without upgrading the hardware — all you need is some good ol’ PC troubleshooting.
Start by cleaning up your PC, and by that I mean, get rid of all the random junk you’ve probably accumulated over time. (I know I have an alarming tendency to do that.)
Uninstall unused programs, disable startup apps via the Task Manager to make your PC boot faster, and clear temporary files and cookies. Install one of the best antivirus programs and give your PC a thorough scan. Lastly, update all your drivers, including those from Nvidia and AMD .
Optimize your settings, both for your PC and on a game-by-game basis. If your PC is getting old, scaling back in settings like View Distance, Projected Textures, or (duh) Ray Tracing can make a world of difference for your frame rates. If applicable, try out upscaling technologies from your GPU vendor, be it Nvidia’s DLSS, AMD’s FSR, or Intel’s XeSS.
Next, I recommend cleaning the actual hardware — a process that should be done once every few months, but often goes neglected for years. We have a detailed guide on how to clean your PC , so check it out.
These won’t make or break your performance, but are a good first step when you’re in a pinch. And honestly, cleaning your PC can affect the temperatures in a major way, which translates to better performance.
More (or faster) RAM
How much RAM do you really need ? There’s an answer, I promise, and yet, my gut instinct is always to simply say “more.” I always have an urge to buy more RAM, or at least faster RAM, and it’s something I have to fight myself about regularly.
Well, don’t be like me — instead of debating, just do it. Get yourself a RAM upgrade. It’s one of the cheapest ways to give your whole PC a boost — not just in gaming, but overall.
Realistically, if you’re already sitting at 32GB RAM, you don’t need to double it. 64GB is reserved for enthusiasts and most of us don’t need it, so if budget is tight, stick to your current RAM and try something else. But if you’re under 32GB, that is the current sweet spot in a gaming PC, so buying extra might help your PC handle multitasking like a champ. In games, you’ll likely see an improvement in loading times and overall performance.
RAM speed and generation matters, too. If you’re on an older motherboard, you most likely need to stick to DDR4 RAM. But if you’re using an AMD AM5 processor, or an Intel 12th-gen and up CPU, you might be able to buy DDR5 — which opens up a lot of room for speed-based RAM upgrades. Older DDR5 RAM runs at 5,000MHz or less, but newer memory can easily go above 7,000MHz.
Want DDR5 RAM? Check out this Crucial Pro DDR5-6000 32GB kit with reasonably tight timings. DDR4 RAM is cheaper, and you can snag 32GB of DDR4-3600 RAM from T-Group for $69 .
Better SSD? Yes, please!
When it comes to storage, gamers can never have enough. I bought myself a 2TB SSD thinking I’d have plenty of room, and I was really wrong. I ended up buying an extra SSD just to store my games.
If you don’t have an SSD yet, then this is the single most impactful upgrade you can get — hands down. But, realistically, you’re probably already using SSD storage. No worries, because you can still score a great upgrade for cheap.
Upgrading from a SATA SSD to an NVMe drive is still going to feel like night and day. NVMe SSD to faster NVMe SSD won’t feel as impactful, but you’ll still shave off a few seconds from every loading screen and your Windows boot time. It helps, and SSDs are reasonably affordable these days.
The drive I recently bought was the Lexar 2TBN NM790 with 7,400MB/s in read speeds, and I can heartily recommend it. If you want something smaller and cheaper, it’s also available in 1TB for $68, so check it out .
A new CPU could be a huge deal
CPUs are impactful upgrades, but they’re tricky. It’s not like RAM or SSD, where you can pretty much pop them in and out of your PC at any given time. Every CPU is locked to a specific motherboard socket, which means that your upgrade path is limited to whenever the CPU vendor changes sockets.
In the case of Intel, that happens often. You can generally expect Intel to switch sockets once every one or two generations. Meanwhile, AMD’s AM4 platform has lasted for years, and the company still releases new CPUs made for those motherboards. The AM5 platform, on the other hand, is still new and likely not in need of upgrading.
It’s hard for me to give you a blanket recommendation here without knowing your motherboard, but I’ll say this: Spending $100 to $200 on a new CPU might make more of a difference than you think. Most games rely on the GPU more so than the CPU, but even GPU-bound games benefit from a faster processor. The rest of your PC does, too.
Have a look at our list of the best budget processors and pick the one that fits your motherboard. Steer clear of motherboard upgrades — that’s neither easy nor cheap.
Improve your cooling
You may have followed my advice (in which case, thanks for making me feel useful) and cleaned your PC, but there’s only so much you can achieve with a can of compressed air. Sometimes, you should just go ahead and upgrade your cooler to give your PC the (literal) breathing room that it needs.
This will be an especially impactful upgrade if you currently have a stock cooler combined with a mid-to-high-end CPU. While stock coolers are meant to be good enough to handle the processor they come paired with, they don’t quite have the power of a third-party CPU cooler. I’ve personally witnessed many PCs, including my own, that were completely transformed by a CPU cooler upgrade — and those aren’t too pricey.
When it comes to cooling upgrades, you have three options:
- Buy a third-party air cooler
- Buy an all-in-one (AIO) liquid cooler
- Stock up on some more case fans
You can do two of those things at once, as case fans don’t cost a whole lot.
As far as air coolers go, I heartily recommend the Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE , which is just $37 on Amazon. It’s versatile, so chances are it’ll fit your motherboard, so make sure to double-check.
Meanwhile, AIO coolers get a bad rep for being expensive, but you can get this 360mm Thermalright Frozen Notte model for just $55 . Again, a pretty versatile beast, but do your research before shopping to make sure it’ll suit your case.
No matter which upgrade you go with, you might be surprised how a little investment can help your PC in a major way. While graphics cards are expensive right now, these upgrades can help you get by until things improve in that regard.
