The Skytech Nebula Gaming PC might easily be the most affordable gaming machine you’d find around rocking Nvidia’s RTX 4060 GPU paired with a 2.5GHz Intel Core i5-13400F CPU and a 600W Gold power supply unit. It might not be the award-winning desktop to run the latest titles at Ultra settings, but it’s a solid, nice-looking desktop that does its job right and at a very reasonable price.
Being an entry-level desktop, it does have a few flaws such as the limitations that are common in midrange hardware. Well, it still gets 1080p gaming done quite fine. But you shouldn’t expect a PC equipped with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 to handle ultra-settings with ray tracing on.
That said, for under a grand you’re getting a package that’s impressive enough that, for most people looking for a good entry-level option, it might be one of the best gaming PCs available right now. Again, there are other Nebula configurations with up to RTX 4080 GPUs, you should consider them if you can stretch your savings a little bit.
Design
Like most other pre-built gaming PCs, the Skytech Nebula strikes that elegant gamer aesthetic that all Skytech products have. It’s a look you’d ordinarily find on gaming machines like CyberpowerPC Gamer Xtreme and iBuyPower’s latest gaming range. I like the case design here, especially since it’s on the larger side so is not the kind of rig you can discreetly stash away or have difficulties upgrading.
Part of the charm is that almost matte-black color that’s accented with RGB fans on the inside, a transparent glass side panel, and a honeycomb grille on the front. For the most part, Skytech creatively manages to give the case texture with its venting on the top and front without adding aggressive-looking lines as you’d find on most gaming machines.
Additionally, the RGB comes through stylishly, giving you a nice light show instead of just one or two small lighting zones. Not only is “SKYTECH GAMING” emblazoned atop the front panel, but the venting on the front allows for cooling fans, which all sport RGB lighting, to glow through.
For ports, there are plenty on hand, and the selection is quite robust than most budget gaming machines. The top panel holds two USB ports, a USB-C port as well as a headphone and mic jack. There are more USB ports at the back, alongside HDMI and DisplayPort inputs on the RTX 4060 graphics card.
- System: Intel Core i9-13900KF 3.0GHz 8+16 Cores | Intel Z790 Chipset | 16GB DDR5 | 1TB...
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 12GB Video Card | 1x HDMI | 2x DisplayPort
- Connectivity: 6 x USB 3.1 | 2 x USB 2.0 | 1x RJ-45 Network Ethernet 10/100/1000 | 802.11AC...
Performance
Even though the Skytech Nebula reviewed is pretty close to the base configuration in Nvidia’s RTX 40 Series line of GPUs, it’s surprisingly powerful as long as you stay at 1080p. Rocking a 13th-Gen Intel Core i5, 16GB of RAM, 1TB SSD storage, and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060, the machine’s 1080p performance is very strong.
Even on previous machines that we’ve reviewed with the same RTX 4060 GPU, 1080p gaming performance is pretty impressive on this GPU. Cyberpunk 2077 hits over 78 fps on Ultra settings and that’s a fairly demanding title, even if it’s been around for a few years now. Beyond that, other games like Control, Far Cry 6, and Gotham Knights run pretty fine at high settings. However, you can see the limitations of the RTX 4060 at high settings for some games. In Control, you get some screen tearing at max settings, and you might have to stick with medium settings on some games.
Again, turning on ray tracing would negatively affect performance and you might experience enough screen tearing to be distracting. And if your setup includes HDR, you probably will have to adjust the settings accordingly if you want to turn HDR on.
As a gaming or productivity PC, the Nebula is straightforward as Skytech has included some proprietary hardware that’s useful in both scenarios. The 2.4GHz Intel Core i5 13400F paired with 16GB of RAM and 1TB SSD storage are capable enough to run most productivity apps, and the RTX 4060 GPU adds up to the machine’s gaming prowess.
For everyday tasks – browsing, watching Netflix, emails, creative tasks – well, of course, there won’t be problems. Even playing games while doing most of those things at the same time doesn’t disturb the pool of performance at all. The cost is maybe the RGB lights that might not blend with the office environment, unlike the HP Envy Desktop which is designed for gaming and productivity with a design meant for the office.
Skytech Nebula Review: Verdict
While not as beautiful as the CyberpowerPC GXiVR8080A34 or the latest Aurora R16, the Skytech Nebula is a thing of beauty. It’s slick, quiet and powerful. It’s also not insanely expensive for an RTX 4060 machine, and it doesn’t come in iterations that will confuse you when buying the right one. It doesn’t come with a bundled monitor, but you can pair it with, let’s say, a Sceptre C255B-FWT240 with a 240Hz resolution as it doesn’t cost too much.
The CyberPowerPC GXiVR8080A36 is arguably a more powerful pre-built machine in the same general price range, and it’s also a quite pretty machine. But the Nebula is an excellent choice for anyone looking to spend as little as possible for a gaming machine that looks and performs better than most competitors in the sub-$1000 price range.
If you want a fantastic 1080p machine, the Skytech Nebula is one great desktop PC. While you’re limited by the hardware that you get, the Nebula Gaming PC squeezes every ounce of performance out of its components for rock-solid 1080p performance in most situations.
Last update on 2024-06-30 at 14:40 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
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