Should I just buy the biggest GPU I can afford?

Not at 1080p. Past a point the card sits idle waiting for the processor, and you have paid for headroom you will only use if you later move to a larger monitor.

Why is the cheapest tier not cheaper?

Because below it the engine cannot assemble a machine it would stand behind. We would rather show you the real floor than a number that needs three asterisks.

Is high refresh rate worth it here?

It is the main reason to build for 1080p at all. If you are running a 60 Hz panel, the money is better spent moving to 1440p than on any of these tiers.

best pc foR 1080p GaminG

The resolution where the processor matters most and the graphics card matters least — which is the opposite of how most 1080p builds get sold.

The builds

Balanced

$1,167.13

gpu: Sapphire PULSE Radeon RX 7600
cpu: Intel Core i3-14100F
motherboard: ASRock B760M Pro RS/D4
ram: TeamGroup T-Force Vulcan Z 16GB (2x8) DDR4-3200 CL16
storage: Kingston A400 240GB
case: Cooler Master MasterBox NR600
cpu cooler: ARCTIC Freezer 7 X
psu: EVGA 600 BR

Bottleneck: Intel Core i3-14100F

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Max

$1,794.44

gpu: ASUS Prime GeForce RTX 5060 OC
cpu: AMD Ryzen 5 7600
motherboard: ASUS Prime B650-Plus
ram: Crucial Pro 32GB (2x16) DDR5-5600 CL46
storage: Crucial P3 Plus 500GB
case: Cooler Master MasterBox NR600
cpu cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE
psu: EVGA 600 BR

Bottleneck: none at this target

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Prices are the engine's live totals including assembly and estimated tax. Fork any tier to change a part; the price and the score recompute as you go.

Why this is demanding

At 1080p a modern mid-range GPU is rarely the limit; the CPU is. Frame rates climb high enough that the processor's per-core speed decides whether you see 90 fps or 140. That is why the engine tilts this budget toward the CPU: money spent on a bigger card at this resolution buys frames the rest of the machine cannot deliver.

Questions

Should I just buy the biggest GPU I can afford?: Not at 1080p. Past a point the card sits idle waiting for the processor, and you have paid for headroom you will only use if you later move to a larger monitor.
Why is the cheapest tier not cheaper?: Because below it the engine cannot assemble a machine it would stand behind. We would rather show you the real floor than a number that needs three asterisks.
Is high refresh rate worth it here?: It is the main reason to build for 1080p at all. If you are running a 60 Hz panel, the money is better spent moving to 1440p than on any of these tiers.

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