Also known as: Gaming rig
A gaming PC is a personal computer built and tuned to run video games well — usually a desktop computer centered on a powerful graphics card and a fast processor.1
Overview
The defining part is the discrete GPU, which renders the game’s 3D scenes at high frame rates and resolutions. Around it a gaming PC pairs a fast multi-core CPU, plenty of quick RAM, a solid-state drive for fast loading, and enough cooling to hold those parts at full speed without throttling. Enthusiasts often overclock the CPU or GPU and choose a case with strong airflow.
Where it fits
A gaming PC overlaps heavily with the enthusiast desktop and is a common first machine for people who build their own. The same GPU-heavy hardware also handles GPU compute, machine learning, and video work, which blurs the line with a workstation — the difference is mostly tuning, ECC memory, and certification rather than raw parts. For GopherTrunk a gaming PC’s GPU and CPU headroom make it a capable bench for replaying captures and crunching many channels of DSP at once.
Sources
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Gaming computer — Wikipedia, on PCs built and optimized for gaming. ↩