1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,480 If you're building a new gaming PC, there's a good chance that you've heard this piece of advice. 2 00:00:05,480 --> 00:00:09,760 Balance your build, which is an important rule to follow, 3 00:00:09,760 --> 00:00:12,840 but balancing is kind of a vague term. 4 00:00:12,840 --> 00:00:17,440 So we're gonna explain what balancing means and what it doesn't mean. 5 00:00:17,440 --> 00:00:21,760 The basic idea behind it is to minimize the impact of bottlenecks. 6 00:00:21,760 --> 00:00:27,280 A bottleneck occurs when a weaker component prevents a stronger one from performing its best, 7 00:00:27,280 --> 00:00:31,800 lowering your overall system performance in the applications that you care about. 8 00:00:31,800 --> 00:00:36,920 A common bottleneck is overspending on a top tier gaming CPU 9 00:00:36,920 --> 00:00:42,120 and then underspending on your GPU. However, it's worth noting that this blade 10 00:00:42,120 --> 00:00:45,400 can cut both ways and a weak CPU 11 00:00:45,400 --> 00:00:48,440 can also result in lower than expected frame rates. 12 00:00:48,440 --> 00:00:54,360 Making matters even trickier, the ideal CPU-GPU balance is going to differ 13 00:00:54,360 --> 00:00:57,400 depending on what kinds of games you play. 14 00:00:57,400 --> 00:01:01,400 Say for example, you're the competitive type and you play eSports titles 15 00:01:01,400 --> 00:01:04,440 where you're chasing the highest possible frame rates 16 00:01:04,440 --> 00:01:09,840 instead of maximum visual fidelity. Well, for you, balancing your build 17 00:01:09,840 --> 00:01:15,000 would mean making sure that your CPU can pump out hundreds of frame rates per second, 18 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:20,320 reducing latency and giving you a competitive edge. And a good CPU might matter more than you think 19 00:01:20,320 --> 00:01:24,120 if you play simulation-type games like Cities Skylines. 20 00:01:24,120 --> 00:01:27,080 Large cities can drag the game's simulation speed 21 00:01:27,120 --> 00:01:30,560 to a crawl, literally slowing the in-game clock. 22 00:01:30,560 --> 00:01:36,040 But on the flip side, if you like to enjoy beautiful AAA single-player experiences 23 00:01:36,040 --> 00:01:39,560 at the highest fidelity, you are almost certainly better off 24 00:01:39,560 --> 00:01:43,120 allocating all of your character sheet points to your GPU 25 00:01:43,120 --> 00:01:49,080 before you even begin to allocate anything elsewhere because modern techniques for rendering lighting and shadows 26 00:01:49,080 --> 00:01:53,120 are almost entirely dependent on having a strong GPU. 27 00:01:53,120 --> 00:01:56,400 So your best bet in any case is to figure out your budget, 28 00:01:56,400 --> 00:01:59,600 then read independent reviews for the games 29 00:01:59,600 --> 00:02:05,080 and the hardware that you're interested in to see how different CPU and GPU combinations 30 00:02:05,080 --> 00:02:09,040 play with each other. Remember, the GPU is often the bottleneck 31 00:02:09,040 --> 00:02:12,480 when trying to run at high resolutions and high quality settings, 32 00:02:12,480 --> 00:02:17,960 but the CPU is often the bottleneck when trying to reach the highest possible frame rates. 33 00:02:17,960 --> 00:02:21,920 As you go through this exercise though, remember that balancing your build 34 00:02:21,920 --> 00:02:25,040 does not mean buying the highest end component 35 00:02:25,040 --> 00:02:29,200 just because you splurged on a different component elsewhere in your system. 36 00:02:29,200 --> 00:02:32,840 Don't be pressured into spending fistfuls of money on, 37 00:02:32,840 --> 00:02:38,360 let's say a fancy liquid cooler if an inexpensive heatsink is good enough for your needs. 38 00:02:38,360 --> 00:02:43,840 Another example is extra CPU cores. Well, those can be worth spending money on 39 00:02:43,840 --> 00:02:48,940 if you're performing tasks that use them, like video encoding or 3D rendering. 40 00:02:48,940 --> 00:02:52,560 But I pretty much guarantee you that most of the games you play 41 00:02:52,560 --> 00:02:56,800 only use a handful of cores and a mid-range chip is gonna do just fine. 42 00:02:56,800 --> 00:03:00,280 Another core component to balance is your RAM. 43 00:03:00,280 --> 00:03:05,240 Avoiding critical bottlenecks typically means having enough RAM to run all of the programs 44 00:03:05,240 --> 00:03:10,840 you need at once without running out. And in modern games, that can be a lot these days 45 00:03:10,840 --> 00:03:15,400 with 32 gigabytes quickly becoming the recommended amount to reduce stutter 46 00:03:15,400 --> 00:03:19,120 and even shorten loading times as you move to new areas of the map. 47 00:03:19,120 --> 00:03:22,120 But that doesn't mean that you should go overboard 48 00:03:22,120 --> 00:03:26,240 and over buy. In the old days, it could be worthwhile 49 00:03:26,240 --> 00:03:29,400 to load your system up with as much RAM as you could afford 50 00:03:29,400 --> 00:03:32,520 because newer programs might need more in the future 51 00:03:32,520 --> 00:03:36,560 and if you filled it up by accident, it could result in a full system crash. 52 00:03:36,560 --> 00:03:39,960 But modern systems will use their drive as an overflow 53 00:03:39,960 --> 00:03:43,440 which will slow down performance but it won't lock up your system. 54 00:03:43,440 --> 00:03:47,000 So you can just head to the store at your leisure for an upgrade. 55 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:50,600 And besides, if you have extra budget for your RAM today, 56 00:03:50,600 --> 00:03:54,740 I'd consider putting it towards faster RAM rather than more of it. 57 00:03:54,740 --> 00:03:58,880 Though there is a point of diminishing returns. So again, read reviews to figure out 58 00:03:58,880 --> 00:04:02,200 what speed of RAM to buy for your needs so you aren't buying something 59 00:04:02,200 --> 00:04:05,880 that's so fast you're wasting your money. Balance. 60 00:04:05,880 --> 00:04:09,580 Outside of these core components, CPU, GPU and RAM, 61 00:04:09,580 --> 00:04:14,720 there are some other considerations for balancing that may not affect your frame rates in your games 62 00:04:14,720 --> 00:04:19,740 as directly but can still save you money. For example, there isn't much point 63 00:04:19,740 --> 00:04:24,240 to getting some kind of gargantuan power supply that's rated far and excess 64 00:04:24,240 --> 00:04:29,360 of what your system actually draws under load. A good guiding star is to look for a quality unit 65 00:04:29,360 --> 00:04:33,320 with 100 to 200 watts of headroom for future upgrades. 66 00:04:33,320 --> 00:04:37,080 Cybernetics certifications on the box, never a bad sign. 67 00:04:37,080 --> 00:04:41,800 And I could actually say something similar about components like your motherboard and your case. 68 00:04:41,800 --> 00:04:45,640 For example, getting the motherboard with the right chipset is important 69 00:04:45,640 --> 00:04:50,080 so that your CPU will fit in it. And so you'll have enough PCI express lanes 70 00:04:50,080 --> 00:04:54,880 and other key features you might want. Like fast networking or USB ports. 71 00:04:54,880 --> 00:04:58,880 But is there really a point in getting a super high-end motherboard 72 00:04:58,880 --> 00:05:02,040 with a ton of extra headers and overclocking tomfoolery 73 00:05:02,040 --> 00:05:05,720 you're never gonna use? In a different vein, do you really need 74 00:05:05,720 --> 00:05:09,760 a gigantic space hogging case if you're just rocking a mid-range graphics card 75 00:05:09,760 --> 00:05:14,880 and a single M.2 storage drive? We can't talk through every scenario like that. 76 00:05:14,880 --> 00:05:19,760 There's a lot to consider to have a well-balanced system. But the underlying concept is simple. 77 00:05:19,760 --> 00:05:23,960 Figure out how you're going to be using your computer and buy the components 78 00:05:23,960 --> 00:05:28,840 that fit your use case without overspending. And just because you spent a whole paycheck 79 00:05:28,840 --> 00:05:35,440 on an RTX 4090, that doesn't mean you have to spend two more paychecks on a 64-core CPU. 80 00:05:35,440 --> 00:05:39,000 You're not gonna hurt your graphics card's feelings. I promise. 81 00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:42,320 Thanks for watching, guys. If you liked this video, check out our other video 82 00:05:42,320 --> 00:05:45,960 on PC components that are surprisingly overrated.