Reaching 144 frames per second (fps) is considered the pinnacle of gaming. But getting there requires more than hardware alone: for silky-smooth gameplay to occur it requires both game and monitor optimization.
The Asus ROG Swift PG32UQX offers an attractively affordable Mini LED panel and AMD FreeSync support at an surprisingly reasonable price. While not quite powerful enough to compete against 4K 144 Hz competitors, it should suffice for most AAA titles.
1. Intel Core i5-12400F
At PS180/$1880, Intel’s Core i5-12400F offers incredible gaming power at an extremely reasonable price point. Boasting six cores and 12 threads clocked at 2.5GHz that can boost up to 4.4GHz base clock frequency – it provides excellent value for money; easily outperforming more expensive models like Core i5-12600K while often outclassing rival AMD Ryzen 5 5600X as well.
This processor lacks integrated graphics, so it must be used with separate graphics hardware for best results. However, its energy usage levels are typical of modern CPUs while cooling costs should remain manageable with less-than-stellar cooling hardware.
2. AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT
At just $500, AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT offers incredible value for 144 FPS gaming. Equipped with full version of AMD’s Navi 32 GPU, this GPU can compete against Nvidia RTX 40 series cards in multiple titles.
It features a 2124 MHz game clock and 2430 MHz boost clock, 60 Compute Units (3840 stream processors), as well as 96 ROPs and 60 RT Accelerator Cores to enhance performance.
Combine an AMD Ryzen processor and Radeon RX 7800 XT graphics cards, and you can experience buttery smooth 1440p gameplay – it even handles esports titles and AAA titles at ultra-high resolutions! Plus, AMD’s Upscaler Technology delivers improved image quality and performance; including FidelityFX Super Resolution 3, for optimal upscaling in supported games.
3. Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070
Nvidia’s RTX 4070 graphics card is an impressive piece of technology. Capable of running demanding games at 1440p resolution with high refresh rates and DLSS frame generation support for certain titles, it boasts a pass-through cooler design and dense PCB board layout for maximum cooling.
Nvidia RTX 4070 features 5888 CUDA cores and 12GB of GDDR6X memory, providing enough power for many software features available for the Nvidia RTX series, such as DLSS 3 frame generation and Nvidia Reflex.
In our tests, the RTX 4070 produced an impressive average framerate in Spider-Man Remastered with Ray Tracing enabled: an astounding average framerate for such a budget GPU! Cyberpunk 2077 performance averaged 39 fps on average but could reach up to 69 with DLSS quality mode enabled; these results make an impactful statement about its capabilities as an efficient power consumption solution: it used 23% less energy than its GeForce 3070 Ti predecessor!
4. AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT is another high-resolution option, boasting 12GB of GDDR6 memory over a 192-bit bus for solid 1440p gaming performance. Its only real competition comes in the form of Nvidia RTX 3070; although AMD card has more on-die VRAM than Nvidia counterpart, Nvidia holds the upper hand when it comes to support for second generation Ray Tracing hardware such as Deep Learning Super Sampling System (DLSS).
RX 6700 XT’s impressive rasterization performance makes it an excellent choice for 1440p gaming. At Ultra settings in Battlefield V, it averaged 130 frames per second on average and came close to matching Nvidia’s Watch Dogs Legion benchmark results.
5. Intel Core i7-7700K
Intel Core i7-7700K processors are among the fastest gaming CPUs, even when overclocked; however, their performance gains don’t justify paying more than double for them when Skylake-based CPUs are over 97 percent faster at half their cost.
This quad-core desktop processor was released in 2017 and based on Kaby Lake microarchitecture. It supports Hyper-Threading for up to 8 threads and runs at 4.2 GHz with Turbo Boost of up to 4.5 GHz for increased performance.
Letter K denotes the processor is unlocked, allowing users who understand overclocking techniques to increase the frequency and enhance performance while increasing risk. Due to its potential risks associated with overclocking, however, overclocking should only be undertaken by those with sufficient knowledge and equipment for safe overclocking.
