The best hardware for playing online slots

The best hardware for playing online slots

Online slot gaming isn’t what it used to be. Gone are the basic interfaces, simple animations and low-quality graphics, replaced with engaging 3D experiences in high-definition, with great soundtracks and of course immersive gameplay. If you don’t believe us, click here to see. The next generation of slot games is just around the corner too, with VR casino gaming imminent and improvements to existing web-based games ushering in a new era of gaming using HTML5. There are now a huge range of slots to suit every budget, preference and playing style, the latest high quality slot games feature everything from superb graphics to excellent sound effects. The way their games look, sound and feel will change massively if you’re using good hardware to enjoy them.

We’ve put together this handy guide to help you get your computer in shape in time for any new releases, as well as making existing games looks even better. We’ve also added a few recommendations and prices, so you can get an idea of the best options for making online slots look a million dollars on your rig.

Processor

At the core of any computing device you’ll find a processor which dictates exactly what the entire machine is capable of. For web based applications or basic slot gaming apps, smaller processors found in mobile devices like the Intel Atom, which is found in many note and netbooks or the Snapdragon and Hummingbird models found in many Android devices are more than capable of handling in-browser games. But for the best slot games and of course other PC games, you’ll need some beef. Although AMD have upped their game, Intel still rule the roost, with their i3, i5 and i7 series’ setting the benchmark for high speed, multi-thread, multi-core processing. An i3 is a great little processor, but the latest generation of i7 will handle extremely complex games, design software and other resource-intensive software. You’ll have to fork out upwards of £1,500 for the ultra-high spec i7-6950X, but the base level i7-8700 is still a great processor that can be picked up for around £230.

Graphics card

ATI or NVidia are the graphics card powerhouses in the market, and it’s NVidia who provide the most powerful options on the market. Most machines equipped with a 2GB graphics card will be more than sufficient and the entry level GT-710 can be picked up for a bargain at £30, this will add an extra edge to your online slot games, you’ll feel closer to the action and the games will have an added level of intensity. As the gameplay of slot games improves, so do the graphics, you need to stay with the times to get the best experience. If you’re looking for raw power and of course seamless presentation with vivid colour, no lagging or tearing and crisp 3D edges and shadows, you can invest something like the behemoth Nvidia Titan XP. With a staggering 12GB of dedicated graphics memory and transfer rates north of 11.4 Gbit/sec, you’ll need to seriously consider your power supply and cooling options in your cabinet to handle the raw power that is almost certainly overkill for even the most demanding gamers. Oh, and it’ll cost you about £1,000.

Nvidia Titan XP

Hard Drive

We used to worry about hard drive capacity when we bought a new computer, but now it’s all about transfer speed, so the textures stored locally or downloaded from the internet can be translated from your hard disk or memory to the screen as quickly as possible. Solid State memory is the way forward, with no moving parts or fragile discs with limited speed to get in the way. The better your hard drive, the better your slot game experience. Even the most complex games will run smoothly, allowing you to concentrate on the game. Luckily, finding a good hard drive isn’t an expensive solution, we’d recommend either the Samsung EVO 500GB drive which hits 500MB/Sec transfer speeds with ease, or the Intel SSP 600p 512GB solution which is equally speedy.

 Sound Card

Playing slots with the sound off is never as much fun, so having a sound card capable of providing high-fidelity audio to your speakers or surround sound system is crucial if you want to enjoy the full online slot experience. The best slots now have a soundtrack to match the gameplay, Creative have created (ahem) a name for themselves when it comes to PC audio peripherals, and their Sound Blaster 7 solution is ideal for 7.1 high quality for under £50.

Memory

As gaming becomes more demanding on computer systems, RAM becomes increasingly important to ensure games aren’t ground to a halt. We’re now in the era of DDR4, but DDR5 is just around the corner, doubling the speed of DDR4 without the huge jump in size or price. Corsair are the high-end solution with the truly wacky Vengeance clocking in at £180 for 16GB of the best performing RAM out there. In all honesty, this is one area where you don’t need to spend lots of money however, with other Corsair solutions coming in at a quarter of the price and offering similar performance. Just keep an eye on the MHz speeds – aim for solutions at 2666 MHz as this will be super-fast for most machines without melting the soldering on your motherboard.

Predator

Screen

There’s not much point in investing in high-end computing hardware without a decent display to showcase your favourite slot games in all their glory. Although plugging your PC into a HD TV is a good solution, gamers are better off finding a decent dedicated display with a high pixel count and refresh rate to really show off those high FPS rate. The curved 27” Acer Predator is a top display for gaming, with 4K output, deep colours and motion blur reduction. They aren’t cheap at around £700, so for lower budgets Samsung offer the excellent C27F390 curved monitorC27F390 which can be found for under £200.

Cheater’s option

If you don’t have the time or money to build a high end gaming monster to enjoy mobile slot gaming on, then don’t worry too much. The vast majority of mobile slot games can be played using tablets and smart phones, so you’ll only be missing out on a few games that can only be played via PC.

IPhones from 4 onwards and even early Android devices with a compatible browser will probably manage most of the online slot games out there, and an iPad or tablet will do a better job. We’d recommend the high-end iPad Pro for the screen size and resolution alone, but you may struggle to get your favourite apps thanks to Apple’s strict control over what appears on the Apple Store. The Samsung Galaxy range of tablets are an ideal solution for this, with a lot more freedom allowed by a more ‘open source’ approach to their device via Android.

The beauty of online slot gaming or additional software is that it isn’t too resource intensive. Even those with the most basic PCs will be able to access and enjoy slot gaming, but the big difference are the looks and sounds. By investing a little extra in some quality hardware, you’ll soon notice the difference and begin to enjoy gaming in a more refined way.

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