Best gaming PC for under £1,500
£1,500 buys a powerful gaming PC. It plays games at high settings at 1080p, and it is a real first step into sharper 1440p gaming. Here is how to spend it well.
What changes at £1,500
The main difference is a stronger graphics card. The graphics card is the part that draws the game on your screen, and it is the most important part for gaming.
With a stronger card, you can turn the settings up and keep games smooth. You can also move up to a 1440p screen. That is a sharper screen with more detail, but it needs more power to drive.
1080p or 1440p?
Your screen decides how strong a graphics card you need. A 1080p screen is easier to drive, so a £1,500 PC will play almost anything on it at high settings. A 1440p screen has many more dots to draw, so the same PC works harder.
If you game on a 1080p screen and plan to stay there, you may not need to spend this much. If you want 1440p, this is the budget where it starts to make sense. Our guide to 1080p, 1440p and 4K explains it in more detail.
Our PCs from £1,000 to £1,500 right now
Picked from our shop's list by graphics card strength, then price. Prices update by themselves.
Pre-order1080p gaming
Sandbox Gamer 1 gaming PC
Ryzen 5 5500 + Radeon RX 9060 8GB
Made for 1080p screens: Fortnite, Valorant, Minecraft and Rocket League play well. The newest big games may need lower settings.
- Processor
- Ryzen 5 5500
- Graphics
- Radeon RX 9060 8GB
- Memory
- 16GB DDR4 3600MHz
- Storage
- 512GB NVMe SSD
- Windows
- Windows 11 Home installed
£1,092.22
Pre-order
Games this PC plays
- Fortnite Plays well
- Minecraft: Java Edition Plays well
- Minecraft (Bedrock Edition for Windows) Plays well
- Roblox Plays well
- VALORANT Plays well
- Counter-Strike 2 Plays well
- League of Legends Plays well
- EA SPORTS FC™ 26 Plays well
- Grand Theft Auto V Enhanced Plays well
- Marvel Rivals Plays well
Comes with an RGB case - you can swap it for a non-RGB case if you prefer.
Sold by Sandbox Computers, Worcester
Pre-order1080p gaming
Sandbox Gamer 21 gaming PC
Ryzen 5 5600 + GeForce RTX 5060 8GB
Made for 1080p screens: Fortnite, Valorant, Minecraft and Rocket League play well. The newest big games may need lower settings.
- Processor
- Ryzen 5 5600
- Graphics
- GeForce RTX 5060 8GB
- Memory
- 16GB DDR4 2666MHz
- Storage
- 1TB NVMe SSD
- Windows
- Windows 11 Home installed
£1,276.92
Pre-order
Games this PC plays
- Fortnite Plays well
- Minecraft: Java Edition Plays well
- Minecraft (Bedrock Edition for Windows) Plays well
- Roblox Plays well
- VALORANT Plays well
- Counter-Strike 2 Plays well
- League of Legends Plays well
- EA SPORTS FC™ 26 Plays well
- Grand Theft Auto V Enhanced Plays well
- Marvel Rivals Plays well
Comes with an RGB case - you can swap it for a non-RGB case if you prefer.
Sold by Sandbox Computers, Worcester
Pre-order1080p gaming
Sandbox Gamer 2 gaming PC
Ryzen 5 5500 + GeForce RTX 5060 8GB
Made for 1080p screens: Fortnite, Valorant, Minecraft and Rocket League play well. The newest big games may need lower settings.
- Processor
- Ryzen 5 5500
- Graphics
- GeForce RTX 5060 8GB
- Memory
- 16GB DDR4 3600MHz
- Storage
- 1TB NVMe SSD
- Windows
- Windows 11 Home installed
£1,316.57
Pre-order
Games this PC plays
- Fortnite Plays well
- Minecraft: Java Edition Plays well
- Minecraft (Bedrock Edition for Windows) Plays well
- Roblox Plays well
- VALORANT Plays well
- Counter-Strike 2 Plays well
- League of Legends Plays well
- EA SPORTS FC™ 26 Plays well
- Grand Theft Auto V Enhanced Plays well
- Marvel Rivals Plays well
Sold by Sandbox Computers, Worcester
What a good £1,500 PC should have
- A strong graphics card. Most of the budget should go here.
- 32GB of memory. Memory (RAM) is the PC's short-term workspace. 16GB is the minimum now, but 32GB is comfortable at this level.
- A large, fast SSD. An SSD is a fast drive. Big modern games take a lot of space, so more room saves hassle.
- A good processor. The processor is the PC's main chip. It matters less than the graphics card, but at this price it should keep up easily. Some AMD processors marked X3D are built for gaming; our X3D guide explains what that means.
- A quality power supply and good cooling. Strong parts need steady power and enough fans to stay cool and quiet.
Spend it where it shows
At this budget it is easy to spend money on extras that do not help games. Coloured lights, glass panels and fancy cases look nice, but they do not make games run better. If a choice comes down to looks or a stronger graphics card, the graphics card wins for gaming.
Every PC we sell is built and tested on our own bench in Worcester before it goes out. If you are trying to decide between a cheaper PC and this level, see the best gaming PCs for under £1,000.
Questions people ask
Is £1,500 enough for a 1440p gaming PC?
Yes, for most games. At about £1,500 you can get a graphics card strong enough for 1440p in many games. For the very heaviest new games, you may still need to lower a few settings.
Do I need 32GB of RAM at £1,500?
It is a good idea. 16GB still runs most games, but 32GB is comfortable and gives you room if you stream, record or run other programs while you play. At this budget it is worth having.
Is a £1,500 PC good for 4K gaming?
For lighter or older games, sometimes. For the newest big games at 4K you usually need a stronger graphics card than this budget allows. A £1,500 PC is a better match for 1440p.
Is it better to spend £1,500 now or upgrade later?
If you already know you want 1440p, buying the stronger graphics card now is often simpler. If you play at 1080p, a cheaper PC with a good power supply and room to upgrade can be the smarter buy.