{"id":110600,"date":"2016-11-15T17:56:44","date_gmt":"2016-11-15T15:56:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=110600"},"modified":"2016-11-16T07:45:19","modified_gmt":"2016-11-16T05:45:19","slug":"essential-software-for-your-gaming-pc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/pc\/110600-essential-software-for-your-gaming-pc","title":{"rendered":"Essential software for your gaming PC"},"content":{"rendered":"

The biggest advantage of gaming on PC is the level of customisation you have, allowing you to play however you want.<\/p>\n

While dedicated gaming rigs tend to forgo the usual selection of pre-installed software that comes with general computers, there are certain essential programs which are either required for a full PC gaming experience or improve that experience considerably.<\/p>\n

Check out our picks for the essential software you need on your gaming PC:<\/p>\n

\n

Steam<\/h3>\n

Steam is\u00a0a necessity for PC gamers these days, unless you plan on only ever playing one or two game\u00a0for some reason.<\/p>\n

The platform’s sales, unparalleled games library, and social features have made it the primary interface for PC gamers, and it even has a Big Picture interface for a more console-like gaming experience.<\/p>\n

\"steam\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

MSI Afterburner + RivaTuner<\/h3>\n

MSI Afterburner is a great utility which allows you to overclock and monitor your graphics card.<\/p>\n

Rivatuner is an overlay for MSI Afterburner which closely monitors various temperatures and processing load during gameplay, and gives you a useful FPS counter.<\/p>\n

These tools are great for ensuring you know exactly what type of performance you’re getting from your hardware.<\/p>\n

\"msi-afterburner-logo\"<\/p>\n

\n

TeamSpeak 3\/Discord\/Mumble<\/h3>\n

While some PC gamers may be able to go without voice communication, these programs are a must-have for social and competitive gamers.<\/p>\n

There is not much difference between the basic functionality of TeamSpeak, Discord, and Mumble, so just use whichever platform your friends hang out on.<\/p>\n

\"teamspeak-3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Drivers<\/h3>\n

This may seem obvious, but gamers sometimes overlook things like bundled peripheral software and graphics card control panels.<\/p>\n

This advanced driver software allows you to customise the functionality of your hardware, and is especially important for graphics cards and gaming mice.<\/p>\n

Also, it is usually better to stay away from driver manager programs, as most tend to bombard you with requests and notifications or automatically download updates.<\/p>\n

\"NVIDIA<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Fraps\/OBS<\/h3>\n

Open Broadcaster Software or Fraps are both great options for recording gameplay in either video or picture form.<\/p>\n

This is not necessary for most gamers, but if you are a social gamer or potential content creator, you should give\u00a0one of these programs a try.<\/p>\n

It’s worth keeping around even if you only occasionally a share a replay or screenshots with friends.<\/p>\n

\"open-broadcaster-software\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

F.lux<\/h3>\n

F.lux is not necessary for most gamers, but it can greatly reduce eye strain and sleep problems when gaming at night.<\/p>\n

The program dims the blinding blue light of your display and changes it to a softer, warmer colour as the sun sets, allowing you to continue gaming without staring at the same bright blue light you were looking at throughout the day.<\/p>\n

F.lux is a great, lightweight program that you should try if you experience any sleep problems after using a computer at night.<\/p>\n

\"flux-logo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Now read:\u00a0The fastest gaming SSDs you can buy in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This software can seriously improve your gaming experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":232,"featured_media":90237,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_enabled":true,"_sma_x_custom_text":"","_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[23250,807,15309,23147],"class_list":["post-110600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pc","tag-essential","tag-pc-gaming","tag-software","tag-useful"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/232"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110600"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110676,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110600\/revisions\/110676"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}