Streaming Equipment: 7 Essentials for Gamers

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Whether you’re just embarking on your YouTube streaming career or are trying to up your game, choosing the right setup is crucial. You don’t have to empty your life savings, but spending your money wisely when purchasing streaming equipment — and knowing what to look for and what’s worth dropping the extra cash on — makes a huge difference.

We’ll walk you through what we believe are the essential pieces of streaming equipment that you should add to your collection or upgrade to take your gaming to the next level.

1. Quality Internet Access

As incredible as a high-tech, lightning-fast laptop or desktop is, none of it matters if you can’t steam your content smoothly. That’s why quality internet access is at the top of our list of crucial streaming equipment.

Good internet access can get expensive (especially if you live in a more rural area), but it is always worth the additional cost. If your internet is on the slower side, it can not only be incredibly frustrating when trying to do anything requiring an internet connection — like watching Netflix, for example — but can also put a serious damper on your streaming capabilities.

Slow internet connections present a variety of disadvantages with streaming, especially when it comes to the video quality of your content. If your home internet isn’t fast enough to stream your games properly, it’s nearly impossible to make any content with a high enough quality that people will enjoy watching it and take it seriously.

No matter how great you are at playing Overwatch or Call of Duty, if your sound and video can’t keep up, you’re going to lose followers.

And that’s just for your standard internet access; you also have to take into account any differences in streaming quality related to your in-home wifi. Many of us take our wifi for granted and don’t understand how much it actually does for us. If your wifi can’t keep up or isn’t strong enough to reach your entire home, you may have dead spots or playback issues.

2. A High-Quality Graphics Card

There are a lot of computer peripherals that can make a difference in the quality of your streaming experience, but none of them are quite as vital as your graphics card (or GPU). The primary job of your graphics card is to render images on your display screen.

Basically, your GPU translates digital code into visual pictures. The higher in quality your graphics card is, the quicker and smoother it can translate and render those images into realistic visual images. Lower-quality graphics cards make your images look blurry and pixelated and can also lead to movements that look unnatural and glitchy.

If you’re streaming newer games, anticipate that you’ll need a significant upgrade in your graphics card to keep up. While they can get pricey, the results are well worth it — both for your own gaming experience and your viewers’.

Brands like NVIDIA and AMD are always safe bets, as they consistently lead the gaming industry in making the best graphics cards on the market.

3. Clipping Software

The joy of streaming is that you get to showcase your skills to people who are into the same things that you are. Being able to find and create a community of like-minded people, sharing not just gaming tips and tricks but parts of their lives as well, is a fulfilling experience that only some have the luck to have.

When you’re exploring the wild world of game streaming and building your community, why not find ways to be able to dive deeper into the experience and focus on your interaction with your viewers instead of having to micromanage your content?

That’s where clipping software like Powder PC comes in. Instead of having to pay attention to hitting the record button or smashing the hotkey when something exciting happens, our AI-based software does the hard work for you.

All you have to do is sit back and enjoy playing — at the end of your streaming session, Powder for Creators will automatically extract your stream highlights for you, and with the click of a button, you’ll have a perfectly packaged, easy-to-upload greatest hits montage without having to do any additional work. Your highlights and clips can be formatted to be vertical or horizontal, perfect for the social media platforms - TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and others - you use to reach and engage with your community.

4. A Solid Webcam

Not every game streamer wants to be on camera while gaming, but if you do, you don’t want to do it with a cheap webcam. While most modern computers come with built-in webcams, that doesn’t mean they’re good enough to be used for streaming.

Instead, we recommend investing in a solid webcam that you can mount separately from your system. There are multiple benefits to using an external webcam. For one, you’re not locked into a specific perspective when you stream — as much as you and your viewers enjoy seeing your face, you’ll want to feature more than just your reactions to the games to keep them interested.

Try setting your webcam up to the side or just behind where you’re sitting when you game. That way, your camera will capture the actual gameplay but also your reaction without making you feel like you’re quite as obviously on display. You can even up your game further by investing in a green screen, where you can create all kinds of artistic expression from the comfort of your own room.

5. A Good Mic

Even if you don’t want to be on camera, you’ll still need a good mic to make your streaming content engaging. People want to hear you — your reactions to whatever game you’re playing, your tips for getting through difficult boss battles, or just your funny running commentary (because not all gaming has to be so serious).

A high-quality microphone can ensure that every syllable you say is captured as true to life as possible without any warping or other artifacts that may make you difficult to understand. You should also tailor your microphone to your surroundings. For instance, condenser microphones are better for quiet areas, while dynamic microphones are better at isolating sounds in a noisy environment.

Some people like to invest in free-standing microphones that sit on the desk in front of them, while others prefer to use a headset with a built-in mic. Both have advantages and disadvantages, but it ultimately comes down to personal preference and the type of gaming you enjoy.

6. Headphones

You might not think you would need headphones for your gaming setup, but a good set of noise-canceling headphones (we’re talking over-the-ear gaming headphones, not a cheap set of earbuds) are worth their weight in gold. Ambient sound (sound from your environment) can easily bleed into your streaming space and make it hard to concentrate on the essential details of your game. When you’re able to take away that distraction, you can fully immerse yourself in your game and make it an even more exciting experience for your viewers. Plus, headphones come in a wide variety of different styles — you can easily find a pair that suits your personality and the general vibe of your content. Cat ear headphones, anyone?

7. A Lightening-Fast CPU

If you’re planning on using your computer or laptop for gaming, you’ll want to make sure that your CPU — your computer’s central processing unit — is fast enough to keep everything running smoothly. Your computer’s CPU is its brain, the part that interprets all of the commands coming in and tells all of your other peripherals what to do.

Most PC games require a certain amount of power from your CPU. If it’s not fast enough, your game will be laggy or even not be able to run at all.

If you’re still unsure whether your current setup will be able to run whatever games you’re hoping to run smoothly, check out the “Can I Run It?” site. The site quickly scans your computer in less than a minute — just enter the game you want to play (the site has a database of over 8,500 different games).  

Your computer will be analyzed for a variety of crucial factors, including your CPU, video card, RAM, operating system, and other things like free disk space and pixel/vertex shader. If your system does not meet requirements, it will tell you where you may be lacking so you can invest your money in the right places.

The Bottom Line

Streaming equipment can make or break how many viewers you have or if you’re able to transition your hobby into a career. Although you don’t have to go all out, investing extra money in key pieces of equipment can help make streaming more enjoyable — both for you as a content creator and for your viewers.
Quick internet access, AI-clipping software, a fast CPU, and a high-quality video card all add different benefits to your streaming set-up. Once you’re more confident in your streaming equipment, you’ll be able to sit back, relax, and focus on doing what you love.

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