Gaming as a passion and a source of income has become easier as faster internet, faster computers, and more complex games have entered the market. Playing games is just part of the puzzle; a large part of the video game industry is people who want to watch game commentary, view guides, and hear from entertaining personalities in the gaming community. If you're an enterprising game streamer, competition gamer, or a video personality with a focus on gaming, here are a few things you need to control within your information technology (IT) layout.

Future Upgrade And Maintenance Planning

The core of a gamer's career is the gaming console and a way of delivering your gaming content to potential fans, sponsors, or just connecting to servers consistently. Whether you're gaming mainly on a console or a PC (personal computer) gamer, you need to be ready for upgrades and maintenance to your system.

Gaming consoles are fairly simple when it comes to new models or completely different systems, but gaming computers need proper planning. You don't need to be buying an entirely new system when a new layer of high quality gaming comes out; so many components are redundant or barely an upgrade that you'd be wasting your money.

The key components to keep an eye on are the video card and the processor. These are coincidentally the most expensive components in most gaming rigs, but they're tied to far more rapid upgrade requirements than other parts.

Video Card Upgrading Theory

Video card upgrades happen when the gaming industry releases new ways to take advantage of video-dedicated memory and processing power. Although every year brings a new level of power, you need to be aware of major jumps. Such jumps are the switch from GDDR2 to GDDR3 memory standards, or when the amount of memory leapt from 1GB being impressive to 2 or 3GB being almost within an easy budget level. 

An easy way to keep track of computer upgrade needs is the system requirements for upcoming games and updates. These requirements will show what is necessary, and as long as your system is beyond the requirements, you're still competitive. 

Processor Upgrading Theory

Central Processing Units (CPUs) can be compared against system requirements as well, but the need to upgrade is often slower. Processors are usually still competitive until new physical differences change the speeds and performance, such as adding more cores (multiple virtual processors within a single processor unit to increase speed by sharing the load) or drastic changes to architecture.

The traditional processor upgrading mindset has been waiting for increases in speed. Processors are measured in gigahertz (GHz), and for a long time it was a race to get to 4GHz at a cool, stable, and energy-efficient level.

Multicores changed the playing field, but 4GHz remains the stable goal for most computer users. It's more about getting multiple cores that all operate close to that 4GHz number while handing off tasks to share the load and not overburden a specific core, and there are many technical aspects to getting the job done.

Counting cores and GHz can be done by comparing the processor's specifications against the recommended system requirements of the game. There have also been leaps in the way processors have built, such as the Ryzen processor architecture from AMD--often considered a budget processor option--bringing out newer, faster processors (for the price) than the current Intel i-series processors.

This can quickly change as Intel--or any other new processor industry player--responds with a new generation as well. Contact a managed IT services professional, such as those at TEC Consulting Group, to get help pairing the right generation with your gaming prowess.

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