Have no idea why people spend sometimes 1000 on a computer. But I guess I'm not a gamer, so I wouldn't understand.
Usually it is the graphics card that attracts us gamers, followed by other CPU abilities. A few months ago, my old Dell XPS 3900 finally gave out. The disk controller, the HDD, AND the SSD all started showing various issues, and then the main system fan failed while I was doing a backup. (Got myu files OK, but I don't dare start the old beast again.) The machine that died was running 16 GB RAM with a 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7-2600 CPU (8 threads) and a mid-range NVidia dedicated graphics card. When new, it was a really good machine. But when it died it was maybe 13 years old. It ran all of my games at mid-level graphics and 30-40 frames per second depending on the game. Very rarely did it show any hiccups, though there WERE a few moments of hesitation.
The replacement system has 28 threads (20 "economy" and 8 "performance") - the economy threads are about 1.5 GHz x 64-bit memory bus and any one of the CPUs could handle Word seamlessly smooth. The performance cores can get up to 5.4 GHz in "Turbo" Mode. However, this system also has an NVidia GeForce RTX 4060, which is a mid-scale display unit. That display lets me pick either "High" or "Ultra" on all of my current games, and either of those options is darned good. Memory isn't an issue either because this unit came pre-configured with 32 GB RAM. Given the way games eat memory, I still have some room for some memory-hogging games. And of course, let's not forget that it IS Win11, which hogs the heck out of memory and CPU - but this beast can keep up and still play games pretty darned well.
For games like Fallout 3 or 4, or Skyrim, I can get a sustained 60 frames per second screen painting with detailed shadows enabled and a few other features that give me near-photo realism. It's all about the immersive nature of the gaming experience. With a good, fast-response display, a decent audio system, and a responsive CPU, there are times when it is almost like I really AM in the Capitol Wasteland, the wreckage of post-nuclear Boston, or the rugged mountains of Skyrim.
Isaac, since you aren't a gamer, you certainly don't care about the immersive nature of the gaming experience, but that is the thing that a true gamer WILL care about. Most of us also care at least somewhat about price, which is why (a) I don't have a higher-rated video card and (b) as it happens, my new machine actually cost less by about $300 than the one that died from many years ago. Chip prices and memory prices have fallen over the years too.
