what would you consider a basic pc in 2024?

[okkee]

just outta curiosity, what's the basic spec pc for a 1080 low experience. here's my picks:

cpu - 4 cores 8 threads 

gpu - amd, rx590 at least. nvidia, 1060 6gb at least.

memory - 8gb minimum

storage - at least sata ssd

 

and even then i'm not sure just how many years these specs have left in them. alan wake 2 has left me shook. i know it's an outlier but it seems to be a major signal. 

[johnno124]

Id personally say that 16gb is minimum nowadays, given that game textures are getting much higher even at 1080p.

 

[podkall]

31 minutes ago, johnno124 said:

Id personally say that 16gb is minimum nowadays, given that game textures are getting much higher even at 1080p.

 

16GB is not minimum, it's still the average

[LloydLynx]

2 hours ago, okkee said:

rx590 at least

Oh come on. My 8GB 580 is still doing me great.

[johnno124]

2 hours ago, podkall said:

16GB is not minimum, it's still the average

I misread, I though he was asking for our opinions. not factual lol. Yes 8gb is most listed as minimum.

 

[Uttamattamakin]

A Chromebook is a basic PC.  The OS is open enough to allow one to use it to run any software that is compatible with Linux and the CPU/SOC that runs it.   

A chromebook can even be over 2000 USD and be a ultra premium PC in their most expensive custom versions from HP. 

SBC's and other mini PC type things too.  

[okkee]

7 hours ago, johnno124 said:

Id personally say that 16gb is minimum nowadays, given that game textures are getting much higher even at 1080p.

 

yeah. i think 8gb is good but 16gb definitely gives you some breathing room.

[okkee]

5 hours ago, LloydLynx said:

Oh come on. My 8GB 580 is still doing me great.

tbf, it is basically a 590

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

You should change your title to "low-end gaming PC" and not "basic PC". PC gamers still only make up a small percentage of the overall computer market.

 

Most people would be serviced just fine with integrated graphics, and not even the newest chips. Integrated graphics on Intel Core 7th gen from 2017 is still good enough for 4K60 YouTube streaming so that's plenty fast for basic use. A mid-spec Surface Pro 5 (stay away from the 4GB RAM models) would still have enough horsepower to power through daily tasks with ease and blow away anything you can get for sub 300 dollars any day.

[Kisai]

9 hours ago, okkee said:

just outta curiosity, what's the basic spec pc for a 1080 low experience. here's my picks:

cpu - 4 cores 8 threads 

gpu - amd, rx590 at least. nvidia, 1060 6gb at least.

memory - 8gb minimum

storage - at least sata ssd

 

and even then i'm not sure just how many years these specs have left in them. alan wake 2 has left me shook. i know it's an outlier but it seems to be a major signal. 

If you want something that just barely slides past the minimum, then yes.

 

However if you want something that will still be usable in 3 years:

CPU : 6 core

GPU: 106GB memory bandwidth minimum (eg no iGPU's (other than the Apple GPU)), basically 1050Ti level or better) otherwise it doesn't hit the requirements to run AutoCAD or any other program that uses the GPU. So yes something like a 1060 is still viable for 1080p

Memory: 16GB

Storage: 1TB NVMe 

 

 

 

[DeerDK]

Interesting question. 

I'm going to take a page from Hubs book and say "it depends". 

A basic pc that can run games could be integrated graphics. You can use it to play older titles and some newer with lowest graphics. 

I mean, an iPad can run minecraft, albeit with very low drawing distance and it gets chubby when my 6yo goes full creative. 

So we may have to set up additional parameters. 

But I agree, a cpu that is roughly 10 years old, and some 900/1000s  Nvidia card or Radeon from the same period. 

If I had to put something together from new parts that can play modern titles, I'd say an rx 6600 or similar price range /performance and 12th Gen Intel /Ryzen 5000

8 ram is minimum but one should strive for 16 GB 

[okkee]

8 hours ago, johnno124 said:

I misread, I though he was asking for our opinions. not factual lol. Yes 8gb is most listed as minimum.

 

opinions are fine. just wanna hear everyone's reasoning 

[BrandonLatzig]

I mean basic for what? A basic pc for gaming is going to be *slightly* more beefy than a basic pc for schoolwork

[Lomac]

23 hours ago, LloydLynx said:

Oh come on. My 8GB 580 is still doing me great.

My kid is using my old 8gb 570 and it's doing fine. Won't win any awards for visuals these days but she can play most games decently off my shared Steam library without much issue. Well, maybe not Cyberpunk... lol

[emothxughts]

Purely talking off my own vibes, a basic (gaming) PC to me has to be able to run popular esports games like CS2 (formerly CSGO), Valorant, PUBG, Fortnite and Genshin Impact (ok, GI's not an esport game, but whatevs) at 1080p low at least 60fps and above. That'll be something with like a Ryzen 3 2200G, GTX 1650 and 16GB RAM. (The integrated graphics is unnecessary, just talking about CPU performance)

[cmndr]

one of the $150ish mini PCs
N100 (4 cores with i5 6600Tish level performance)
16GB RAM
~500GB SSD

 

 

8GB RAM hasn't been usable for me for nearly 15 years. No idea how that passes "basic" also RAM is cheap. 

[LAwLz]

The most popular games right now on Steam are things like CS2, Dota 2 and PUBG.

 

Here are the recommended minium system requirements for those games:

 

CS2 

Core i5-750 or better.

8GB of RAM.

Nvidia GT 740 or Radeon 7750

 

Dota 2

Dual-core CPU at 2,8GHz or higher.

4GB of RAM

Nvidia 8600 or Radeon 2600

 

PUBG

Intel i5-4430 or AMD FX-6300

8GB of RAM

GTX 960 or Radeon R7 370

 

 

16GB is not at all the minimum requirement for a basic gaming PC.

Basically, as long as you got a somewhat recent CPU and somewhat recent GPU, you will be able to play most popular games at low. In a lot of case you don't even need a discrete GPU because the integrated GPUs are fairly decent these days.

 

Of course, it depends on what you are going to play. There is a big difference between running Cyberpunk and Minecraft, but in general the most popular games that the average Joe want to run are very basic and fairly old. 

 

 

As soon as the demands go from let's say 120 FPS minimum, in the latest games, at 4K, with everything set to max/ultra, and with mods that further increase system requirements, then the performance needed drop like a rock.

 

 

Let's take GTA 5 as an example. It's still one of the most popular games out there. It came out in 2013. Back then, a really high end PC had a quad-core Haswell processor at 3,5GHz and an Nvidia GTX 870 Ti with 3GB of VRAM.

A lot of reviewers used 8GB of RAM for their "high-end setups" back in those days, and the minimum recommendation for GTA 5 was 4GB.

 

A PC with 16GB of RAM in 2024 is not a "basic PC". It's most likely really high end relatively speaking. 

[Kisai]

22 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

 

A PC with 16GB of RAM in 2024 is not a "basic PC". It's most likely really high end relatively speaking. 

Nay, the reason it's 16 and not 12 is because 12 is a 2x4 (8)+2x2 (4) not 2x4 (8) or 4x4 (16).

 

And the OS footprint has moved twice since 2013. Those requirements are based on 32-bit OS's that only support 4GB of ram and games that only support 4GB of ram, nothing else.

 

You literately could not run a 32-bit game and take advantage of more than 4GB of ram unless the game was doing unusual things like PAE on 32-bit Windows. Even then, the applications typically got locked to 2GB.

 

GTAV and FFXIV also aren't using the same DX9 modes they used in 2013, they're using 64-bit binaries now.

(GTAV stops rendering when you tab out in case you're wondering why the cpu and gpu are 0)

 

This is FFXIV at 4K on a 3090, it could pull this off on a 3070 and a 1080 too.

 

Point being is that even though the game might "be older" it doesn't mean all games, especially live service games, have been standing still in their system requirements. The current version of GTAV will not work on XP. The current version of FFXIV and GTAV will not work on anything older than 64bit Vista. Even though both started on DX9 and would work on XP.

 

That also means that a few years down the road they might end up as DX12 games and those older GPU's people are using will not be supported either.

 

Even though a game says something is a minimum requirement, that has always ever been a "technically it can run on that" not a "you will enjoy the experience of using it on that"

 

 

 

[TetraSky]

A basic new PC in 2024 should have at least :
-An actual quad core CPU. None of that Dual Core + 2 logical thread BS.

-An iGPU. Yes. A dedicated GPU is not needed for a basic PC.

-At least 8GB of RAM. It's enough for those who don't play games.
-A SATA SSD with 256GB of storage on it. Plenty of storage without feeling limited like 128GB is if all you're doing is storing pictures, web browsing, word processing and maybe some esport title.

 

Though if I were to specs a basic PC for gaming... I personally wouldn't go any lower than the following unless there was a strict budget restraint :

-At least 6 cores. Ryzen 5 5600G or Intel i5-10600K

-A dedicated GPU. GTX 1660 or RX 5500 8G at the bare minimum.

-At least 16GB of RAM.

-256GB NVME SSD. Cost wise, they are practically the same as SATA SSD these days yet they are much faster.

 

Prices of SSDs have been on a steady rise since last november... Might not be economical soon if it price keep going too high.

[okkee]

3 hours ago, TetraSky said:

A basic new PC in 2024 should have at least :
-An actual quad core CPU. None of that Dual Core + 2 logical thread BS.

-An iGPU. Yes. A dedicated GPU is not needed for a basic PC.

-At least 8GB of RAM. It's enough for those who don't play games.
-A SATA SSD with 256GB of storage on it. Plenty of storage without feeling limited like 128GB is if all you're doing is storing pictures, web browsing, word processing and maybe some esport title.

 

Though if I were to specs a basic PC for gaming... I personally wouldn't go any lower than the following unless there was a strict budget restraint :

-At least 6 cores. Ryzen 5 5600G or Intel i5-10600K

-A dedicated GPU. GTX 1660 or RX 5500 8G at the bare minimum.

-At least 16GB of RAM.

-256GB NVME SSD. Cost wise, they are practically the same as SATA SSD these days yet they are much faster.

 

Prices of SSDs have been on a steady rise since last november... Might not be economical soon if it price keep going too high.

L1tech crew keeps talking about how the price of storage is gonna absolutely balloon

[TetraSky]

10 minutes ago, okkee said:

L1tech crew keeps talking about how the price of storage is gonna absolutely balloon

Oh it absolutely is. 

It has been on a steady rise for a few months, when it had been creeping downward for a while.

It's just going up up up with no signs of stopping. When Linus said a few months back to buy a SSD if you need one "now" and not wait on it... Well he wasn't wrong either.

Spoiler

 

[cmndr]

1 hour ago, TetraSky said:

Oh it absolutely is. 

It has been on a steady rise for a few months, when it had been creeping downward for a while.

It's just going up up up with no signs of stopping. When Linus said a few months back to buy a SSD if you need one "now" and not wait on it... Well he wasn't wrong either.

 

Yep.

I bought 2*8TB of SSDs for a NAS. They're slow, but that's what the optane cache is for. 

Kind of the most "basic" gaming PC I'd say is a steam deck. 
4 Zen2 cores

16GB RAM
not 100% awful iGPU.