It’s not just youngsters that are hardcore gamers these days—people of all ages are diving headfirst into the world of online gaming, and they’re loving it. Not to mention the soaring popularity of Esports. But how can you ensure you’re having the best experience you can while gaming?
Here, we’ll lay out a few simple tips that anyone can understand about how to improve your online gaming experience, from your attitude while you game to what kind of monitor you’re using (hint: hopefully it’s better than 1080p).
Get A Monitor With At Least 1440p
If you want to enjoy your time gaming online, you’re going to have to up your specs. One of the most important things is your monitor. Gaming hardware has never been more powerful than it is now, so having a monitor that can handle a lot of action is crucial.
For this reason, 1080p, which has long been the standard for most uses, is becoming obsolete not only in the gaming community but everywhere else as well. It’s being replaced at a rapid rate by 1440p monitors, which deliver your games at a much higher resolution.
A 1440p monitor will boost your pixels by about 75% when compared to 1080p. That means your picture is going to be nearly twice as clear and twice as crisp. This results in an overall better-looking game, which usually means a better gaming experience.
Be careful though because a 1440p monitor will also put more strain on your computer’s hardware. It’s important to make sure the graphics card you have in your system can handle the monitor, which leads us to our next point.
Invest In A High-Quality Graphics Card
Video editors will search for a top-of-the-line graphics card so they can encode their videos more quickly. But apart from them, gamers are the only category of computer users that ever really need to think about a graphics card. And they think about it a lot.
Gamers have been the main driving force behind the advance of graphics cards, or graphics processing units (GPUs), without a doubt. PC games have become more realistic and complex than ever before, and the skyrocketing performance of new-age GPUs is both a reason why and a product of gamers demanding better, more modern looking games.
When building PCs, the GPU is always the most important purchase for a gamer. It can sometimes account for about half of the price of your CPU. Other components affect your PC, like the CPU and RAM, but if the GPU isn’t up to snuff for the games you’re looking to play, none of that other stuff will matter.
There are different kinds of games, of course, not all of which require the best GPU out there. That is why you should always read a game’s required, recommended, and optimal specifications before buying. To be sure, it’s best to simply buy the best GPU you can afford at the time of purchase. This will ensure that it will be ready to go for popular games that haven’t come out yet.
Ensure You Have A Strong And Reliable Internet Connection
Encountering lag is the biggest pet peeve of many a PC gamer, and more often than not the culprit will be an overworked, unstable, or unreliable internet connection. If you are going to be doing a lot of gaming, make sure you choose your internet plan with that in mind.
If possible, plug your CPU directly into your internet connection via an ethernet cable. These connections are generally much more reliable, as well as a bit faster than your phone’s data or your wireless home Wi-Fi.
Learn From Each Game And Keep On Practicing
If you want to get better and have fun playing your online games, you have to do what you do to get better at anything: practice. Practice, practice, practice. And we don’t mean mindless practice either.
When you’re gaming online you have to be present both physically and mentally. Think about how you’re playing the game, where you’re making your mistakes, and try to improve on those errors next time around.
Every game is like a new test where hopefully you can learn new strategies or moves that can help you moving forward. It is much more productive to remember why it went wrong last time and try to fix it next time instead of getting discouraged with yourself because you haven’t become an expert in that particular game overnight. People say you learn from your mistakes in life. Well, it is no different when it comes to online gaming.
Final Thoughts
What was once nothing but a hobby for teens has become an international craze. And all gamers, from beginners to hardcore players to the top-notch professionals want to have a positive online gaming experience nowadays.
Boosting the specs of your monitor and GPU, plugging your CPU into a strong internet connection, and rolling with the punches when games get tough are just a few ways to start making your online gaming setup work better for you.