HardwareUnboxed did a with/without ray tracing comparison. TL;DR in most games it’s not worth the performance hit. Don’t bother with ray tracing for now, especially on low or mid-range hardware. https://youtu.be/DBNH0NyN8K8

Need? No. But hardware acceleration makes things faster and more efficient.

I can recommend this site for up-to-date and fairly neutral parts recommendations split by budget https://www.logicalincrements.com

Honestly the LCD decks are so cheap, especially with sales, I don’t think you could build a gaming PC for that price.

Or just don’t use it