5 Tips for Leveling Up Your PC Gaming for 2023

donreisinger

As part of the transition into the new year, you may be wondering how 2023 can help you improve the quality of your PC gaming experiences going forward. While there is no singular solution that will help you achieve digital victories in terms of skill and talent, there are many potential purchases, strategies, settings, and other tools to improve the functionality of your gaming rig. With these five tips for leveling up your PC gaming for 2023, you can enjoy improved performance and, hopefully, better results in-game as well. 

Try Gaming with Your Laptop Plugged in to Achieve Peak PC Performance 

While there is no shortage of articles covering whether leaving your PC constantly plugged into a power supply is best for the device's overall health, failing to do so may be hindering your PC gaming performance in more ways than one. Without having your PC connected to power, some devices may not engage their discrete GPUs (graphics processing units) and other effects that result in underperformance. For those unfamiliar with the term, the discrete GPU is a graphics card with dedicated memory and is commonly used in high-end gaming PCs. Since discrete GPUs have built-in cooling systems, a lack of power can cause these components to shut down. 

Consider Purchasing a New Headset with Immersive Audio Capabilities 

There is seemingly no end to the number and variety of both wired and wireless PC gaming headsets available for purchase, but one commonly desired feature across them all is immersive audio capabilities. While much importance is placed on having the best possible graphics setup for your monitor, you should consider your audio quality equally, particularly if you regularly enjoy online multiplayer games. With the addition of immersive audio allowing you to determine the location of in-game sounds and react accordingly, it will be much easier to maintain awareness of your environment and prevent opponents from getting the drop on you. 

Upgrade Your Chair to a Genuine Gaming Throne with Real Back Support 

Whether you enjoy casual PC gaming sessions or regularly spend hours and hours engaged in rigorous bouts of digital combat, you should not underestimate the importance of having a suitable gaming chair to provide some much-needed back support. Although some younger players may be inclined to ignore such advice and purchase cheaper gaming chairs, the accumulation of muscle strain, spine misalignment, and motor injuries over time can cause your skills to suffer or even lead to permanent damage.  

Rather than dealing with unnecessary pain and inconvenience brought on by going with a less expensive model, you should consider buying one with features like a reinforced frame, 4D armrests, lumbar support, and adjustable magnetic headrests. Take the time to research and select a gaming chair whose design favors genuine ergonomic features and back support over flashy but ultimately uncomfortable models. 

Make Sure Your Monitor is Appropriately Responsive to Your Inputs 

Much like selecting an appropriate headset can significantly improve the quality of your PC gaming sessions, it is equally important to have a monitor that can help your games feel responsive. No matter how expensive or affordable a PC monitor is, certain features across all models and manufacturers are considered a benchmark for PC gaming performance. Therefore, as an absolute minimum for most modern PC games, it is highly recommended that your monitor has a resolution of at least 1080p, incorporates useful software like Freesync and G-Sync to harmonize monitor output with your graphics card and a refresh rate of 120Hz. 

While you may not be able to justify the cost of purchasing monitors with bleeding-edge technology like 360Hz refresh rates and NVIDIA Reflex technology, any monitor with the features listed above should be more than sufficient for the average PC gamer. Given that you will ultimately need an adequate quality monitor to get the most out of your gaming rig, it may be worth upgrading your monitor rather than focusing on internal components. 

Engage in a Thorough Disk Cleaning, Driver Updates, and Other Maintenance 

While performing routine maintenance on your gaming PC is hardly a glamorous task, it can be incredibly rewarding and lead to notable improvements in your performance. As is the case with all kinds of files and programs, if your PC has to search its memory for data stored in multiple locations due to file fragmentation, its overall performance can suffer. This can lead to slower game loading times and even extended boot times for the PC itself. If you have not set up your hard drive disc to defragment regularly, you may wish to do so rather than performing the operation manually each time. Other important activities for ensuring your gaming PC's performance include adjusting your monitor's resolution, changing the power setting for both individual components as well as the entire system, checking for updated graphics drivers, and disabling unnecessary apps and programs from launching upon booting up. 

Consider using these five tips to help improve the performance of your PC and enjoy the PC gaming experience you deserve. Check out our other articles on PC accessories and upgrades to learn more about your available options. 

About Dan Martin: Daniel Martin is a technology researcher and writer with more than a decade of experience. He is a professional librarian and an experienced tech teacher, writer and blogger. Specializing in technology, Dan has taught courses in technology and writing at the college level, developed web pages for businesses and higher educational institutions, written on tech topics for leading national publications and created numerous how-to guides.