Having a $500 budget to spare on a gaming PC will get you more than you would otherwise have been made to believe. I am sure we all heard that gaming PCs are expensive and “budget” gaming PCs that are actually good don’t exist.
Don’t worry this cannot be further from the truth and granted you know where to look and which parts to acquire, you can end up with a solid 1080p gaming PC at the $500 price range.
That being said, I do believe where this bad rep comes from. Primarily, this happens when gamers don’t do their homework and end up buying the wrong gaming PC at the $500 budget which leads them to have this wrong conception about this price bracket.
I don’t blame them because margins at the $500 budget are very stringent and even a small mistake can have a massive impact on the overall.
Therefore, in this article along with telling you what you can expect from a $500 gaming PC I will also guide you on how you can buy the right gaming PC parts at this budget.
Is $500 Good for a Gaming PC?
At the $500 budget, you can get yourself a decent entry-level gaming PC. I know this is the answer you want but unfortunately, we will have to take an in-depth look at this question.
While there is no denying that a $500 budget can get you a decent entry-level gaming PC but the definition of decent here is a little different.
By decent what I want to say is that PCs at this price will be able to play games but not always at the best graphic settings.
More often than not, you will need to lower the graphic settings of the game from high to medium or low. Similarly, at times you will also need to scale down the resolution down to 900p from 1080p to run the game smoothly.
In simple terms, the performance of an entry-level gaming PC at the $500 price point can be compared with the last generation consoles that being the PS4 and the Xbox One. Although this PC will have them beat in performance as well as graphics but cannot compete with the newer generation consoles.
If that is something that doesn’t bother you then it can be said that you can get a good gaming PC at the $500 price range.
Recommendation for a $500 Gaming PC
As previously said I am not going to tell you why $500 is a good price range for an entry-level gaming PC but also mention some amazing entry-level builds that you can use.
My absolute recommendation will be the HP Pavilion TP01-2032. This gaming PC performs quite well for what it is and can play most games at 1080p resolution. This however is not the only PC that can fulfill that task and to find out more you can check out my article on the best prebuilt gaming PCs under $500.
If you are more of a hands-on gamer and want to build your own gaming PC then that is also possible at this price range. As you can see, I have thoroughly explored this price range and have an article on the best specifications for a gaming PC under $500 which you can check out.
All in all, I can firmly say that the PCs that I am recommending to you will be able to play at 1080p for the most part while only requiring you to lower the graphic settings in heavy demanding games.
Related PC Guides
Check out our GPU-focused prebuilt PC guides below.
- RTX 3070 Prebuilt Gaming PC
- RTX 3080 Prebuilt Gaming PC
- RTX 3060 Prebuilt Gaming PC
- RTX 3090 Prebuilt Gaming PC
Check out our aesthetics-focused gaming PC guides below.
Check out some of the other related guides.
- Is $800 Enough for a Good Gaming PC
- Is $1000 Enough for a Good Gaming PC
- Is $2000 Enough for a Good Gaming PC
- Is $1000 Enough for a Good Gaming PC
Conclusion
With that being said, it is time to now conclude the article. To quickly refresh your memory, in this article I gave you a distinct answer stating that $500 is a decent enough budget for an entry-level gaming machine.
These entry-level gaming PCs will be able to game at 1080p in most circumstances therefore you cannot go wrong with PCs at this price budget.
Now before I sign off, tell me in the comment section your experience with a budget gaming PC if you have used one.
