Best gaming PC for a teen under $1,000

For a teen who plays Fortnite, Roblox, Minecraft and the rest with friends: a 1080p gaming PC from a brand you know, ranked by how it runs Fortnite in Justin's testing. Every pick is in stock today at $1,000 or less, at a real store price we checked this morning, and clears our quality bar.

How we get our numbers

Our picks today

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Ranked by estimated FPS in Fortnite (Benchmark) at 1080p.

Best pick

ABS Cyclone Aqua Gaming Desktop PC, Windows 11, Intel Core 5 Processor 120, GeForce RTX 5060 8GB, 16GB DDR4 RAM, 1TB NVMe SSD, WiFi, RGB, Prebuilt

RTX 5060 · 8GB VRAM · Core 5 120 · 16GB RAM · 1TB storage

8GB: great for 1080p esports and Medium/High; newer games at Ultra or 1440p can stutter

$849.00Price checked Oct 15

  • You don't need to spend $1,000. This $849 PC is as fast as anything at 1080p.
  • 41% cheaper than similar PCs (same graphics card and CPU class)

About 170–195 FPS in Fortnite (Benchmark) at 1080p (Max settings, native; estimated from Justin's testing of this graphics card in another PC)Measured in Justin's own testing: RTX 5060 with a Ryzen 5 5600X (CPU class 8), highest preset, native (no DLSS/FSR).

Next best

ZOTAC MEK3050A5500BR0 MEK Gaming Desktop with RTX 3050 Ryzen 5 5500 16GB 500GB SSD

RTX 3050 · 8GB VRAM · Ryzen 5 5500 · 500GB storage

8GB: great for 1080p esports and Medium/High; newer games at Ultra or 1440p can stutter

Sold by Newegg Inc. on Walmart.com

Marketplace seller: returns and warranty follow the seller's terms, not Walmart's. Check them on the listing before you buy.

$800.00Price checked Oct 14

About 90–100 FPS in Fortnite (Benchmark) at 1080p (Max settings, native; estimate from Justin's testing, calibrated against published independent reviews)Estimated from Justin's testing, calibrated against published independent reviews: Justin's RTX 5060 run with CPU class 8 CPUs, scaled by the performance index (the RTX 3050 is about 48% slower than the RTX 5060 at 1080p); no runs with CPUs of this PC's class (9) or a weaker one place it between two measured cards here, so the nearest stronger class's, GPU-bound there (well under its CPU cap).

At this budget, look for: 8GB+ of video memory for 1080p (12GB for new games at Ultra), 16GB of RAM (2 sticks), a 512GB SSD or bigger.

What to look for

What to avoid

Return windows

Each store sets its own. Here is what the stores on this page say for a new gaming desktop, from each store's own policy page (a store we have not checked yet just links to its policy). Holiday return dates show here in November and December when the store has published them.

Before you wrap it

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