Learn > NPA Esports > Game Performance > Hardware > Core Components

Hardware: Core Components

While a full gaming setup is important to the running of games, there are three core components that directly impact a gaming platform’s ability to play games. 

Solid State Drive (SSD)

Solid State Drives (SSDs) are the backing storage devices where you can install games, streaming software and other software you may need.

An SSD is significantly faster than traditional hard drives, which allows for faster game loading speeds.

Random Access Memory (RAM)

Random Access Memory (RAM) allows the opening of more games and additional programs.

The more RAM you have, the bigger the games, and the more pieces of software you can run at once.

For streamers, more RAM is required so that you can run your streaming software, as well as your games, at a higher setting. ​​

Graphics Card (GPU)

Improves the graphical quality and frames per second of a game.

The better the graphics card a computer has, the better graphical quality you will get from games. This includes having more stable frame rates and overall better performance.

Frame rates refer to ‘frames per second’ which is the number of still images displayed by a computer each second.

Target

You should be able to describe each hardware component, its purpose, and its impact on gaming and streaming performance using relevant metrics.