Best CPU and GPU combinations

If you're building a computer for gaming, then the two most important components are CPU and the GPU. It's not just enough to get good value CPU and GPU individually though, you need to balance them to get the best overall performance and value. Today we'll be looking at some of the best combinations currently available, how they perform, and potential tweaks depending on what type of games you play most often.

When gaming, you also need to make sure that you have enough system memory, or RAM. There are many different RAM options though, and what you need is more dependant on your use case, but we will mention quickly what RAM you may want be with these combos. Now, let's have a look!

1. ~£550 PC 

For a high entry level PC like this one you may want to take advantage of the second hand market to get the best deal. Under normal circumstances (when there isn't a global chip shortage and all the Graphics cards are selling like hot cakes for the price of gold) I'd recommend trying to get a second hand AMD RX 580, or NVIDIA GTX 1660. Hopefully you should be able to get a good one for between ~£90 and £150. If you could find a GTX 1660 Super for this price, then definitely go for that, but don't count on it. If you would prefer to buy your graphics card new, then you could try to for an RX 570, or 580 for ~£150. 

Then the CPU! The best option will be something that can easily match your GPU, and even survive a GPU upgrade on the future. We are aiming to spend ~£100 on a nice CPU, so if you're building a new machine using a Ryzen 3 3100, Core i3 10100F, or second hand 6700K or 7700K would probably be the best option. The 3100 and 10100F will be the easiest to find a motherboard for, and once you've overclocked the 3100 they perform very similar, so if you want a new CPU, they're the easiest options. If you're willing to delve into the second hand market however, then picking up a Core i7 6700K, or even better 7700K, and overclocking it would easily provide the best performance out of these options. Try to make sure you get it for below £100 though (they're often best value in CPU motherboard combos, so watch out for one of those that's less than £200). If you're not planning to upgrade you GPU and CPU separately, or any time soon, then you could get away with using a cheaper Core i3 9100F, but it's only a remotely good value option if you can get it for below ~£75, preferably £65.

For this system 16GB of RAM would be ideal, but you can get through with 8GB. If you go for the Ryzen 3 3100 try and get something running at over 3000 transfers/second (it will be marketed as 3000 MHz, but it isn't actually). The Ryzen series of CPUs really benefit from these higher speeds, but for the others it's probably not worth it. Getting 2666 speed should be ample for these Intel CPUs.

 

2. ~£750 PC

We're into the midrange market here, so there's often lots of good value to be had. For the Graphics card I would advice choosing a GTX 1660 Ti, or second hand RTX 2060. We want to be spending ~£200-275 on this GPU, so buying a second hand AMD Radeon 5600XT, or 5700 could also be an option. Any one of these GPUs for £200-275 would do just fine. There is a chance that a cheaper RTX 3000 Series or RX 6000 Series GPU will be released fairly soon, so it may be better to wait and see if you can snag one at launch for less than ~£285 before the scalpers do. 

For the CPU we're going to be aiming for ~£100-150, and there are a few good options here. If you can find a Ryzen 3 3300X, or 5 3600 for below £130 they could be an option, but the real start of this show is the Core i3 10400F. It's currently available for ~£130, and easily outperforms both the 3300X and 3600 in practically any game. The 400 series Intel motherboards have decreased in price now as well, so there's basically no reason not to go for the 10400F.

The RAM for this system should probably be 16GB of high speed dimms. The 10400(F) doesn't have memory controller overclocking, so 2666 speed or 3000 Speed RAM should probably be fine. If you go for a Ryzen CPU however, choosing 3200 or 3600 speed memory is probably a good idea.

 

3. ~£1000 PC

Here at the top end of the midrange spectrum, we can finally afford a 'next gen' GPU! The RTX 3060 has a MSRP of £329, making it a viable option at this price point. You could also choose the RTX 3060Ti if you were willing to make a few sacrifices elsewhere in the build. This is of course theoretical however, as the chances of acquiring an RTX 3000 Series GPU at anything less than 1.5 times the MSRP are slim to none. At the moment, if you need a GPU for this build, aim for whatever's best performing for ~£300-400, although it may be better to wait and buy a GPU later. 

For the CPU I would go for the 10400F's newly released big brother: the 11400F. The 11400F offers even more performance, currently for ~£175, often outperforming the more expensive 10600K. AMD currently has nothing particularly competitive for this price, so the 11400F is pretty much the only sensible option here, unless you can get a good deal on a 10600K and overclock it to outperform the 11400F. 

RAM wise I'd advise you to get a 16GB of around 3000 or 3200 Speed memory for the 11400F. If you're going for the 10600K, you can overclock the memory control, so you could go for 3600 speed memory. 

4. ~£1250 PC

We're beginning to enter the realm of high end gaming, unlocking multiple graphics card options to choose from. The RTX 3060Ti, RX 6700XT, and RTX 3070, retailing for £399, £479, and £499 respectively can all be implemented into this PC, but the 6700XT is probably the best option. The availability of all of these cards is variable and prices fluctuate dramatically, but if you can get one for less than £500 then you should be good to go. 

To keep pace with these higher end GPUs a good CPU is paramount. The two main options are the Ryzen 5 5600X, and the Core i5 11600K. When both at stock the 5600X generally outperforms the 11600K, and combined with a cheaper motherboard option than the 11600K it seems the obvious choice, but if you play titles that favour Intel CPUs, or you're prepared to overclock then the 11600K could also be a good choice.

For both the 5600X and 11600K 16 or 32GB of 3600 or so speed RAM would go nicely, but the 11600K could live with 3200 speed memory. 16GB should be perfectly fine for most games, but if you're playing a game that uses lots of RAM (Check out my post coming soon covering what games are CPU, GPU and RAM intensive) 32GB is possible.

5. ~£2000 PC

Near the top of the high end, and basically anything more expensive is a waste, as you really don't need it. £2000 is provides pretty much the best Gaming experience, for a lot less money than the very best. Your GPU choice here depends on your target resolution most of all. If your planning to play games at 1440p you have 3 main options, the Radeon RX 6800XT, RTX 3080, and RX 6900XT. At both 1080p and 1440p the 6900XT usually performs best, while the cheaper 3080 and 6800XT trade blows depending on the title. If you're playing at 4K however, the 3080 provides the best value, often beating the significantly more expensive 6900XT.

For the CPU side of things, the Ryzen 7 5800X is hard to beat. On average it performs on par with Intel's Core i9 10900K, usually costing less at ~£425. The 5800X is also on the AM4 platform, allowing for an upgrade to a Ryzen 9, or a next Gen Ryzen CPU once they're released, providing yet another reason to choose the 5800X

When you're spending this much on a gaming PC, 32GB of RAM can definitely be justified. With the 5800X, you probably want at least 3600 speed RAM, maybe even slightly faster if you're prepared to overclock the CPU's memory controller.

Conclusion 

We've covered a wide range of common PC target prices, and I hope that you've been able to find an idea of the right combo for you. If you know a bit more about how much you want to spend on each component, you may enjoy my more detailed looks at the best CPUs and GPUs under a certain price, more of which are coming soon. If you're looking for a cheaper option, I'll be posting a few different ways to get a cheap but decent Gaming PC. Thank you for reading all the way to the end, and goodbye!