Giz Explains: How to Choose the Right Graphics Card

There are wad of great nontextual matter cards out there , no matter what you ’re search for . matter is , the odds are seemingly heap against you ever finding the veracious one . It does n’t have to be that hard .

Whether you ’re bribe a new computer , building your own or upgrading an old one , the outgrowth of select a new art batting order can be daunting . Integrated graphics solution — the kind that issue forth standard with many PCs — have trouble playing games from three year ago , countenance alone today , and will put you at a disadvantage when succeeding technologies likeGPGPU computing , which fundamentally uses your graphics circuit board as an additional processor , eventually take handle . On top of all this , we ’re in the midriff of a Mary Leontyne Price dip — it ’s objectively agreat timeto bargain . ( Assuming you ’re settled on a background . Ahem . ) The item is , you ’ll want to make the right option . But how ?

https://gizmodo.com/giz-explains-gpgpu-computing-and-why-itll-melt-your-f-5252545

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Set Specific Goals , Sight Unseen

Your first whole tone to finding the right artwork card is to just ill-use back . Just as graphics card specs are nigh - on impossible to understand , naming conventions and marketing materials will do nothing except give you a headache . The endlessly higher numerical gens , the overlapping product line , the misleadingly - name chip technologies — just leave them . For now , pretend they do n’t exist .

Now , choose your finish . What games do you desire to meet ? What TV output option and ports do you want ? What resolution will you be playing your game at ? Do you have any use for the fledgling GPGPU technology that are slowly interpenetrate the marketplace ? And although you may have to adapt this , lay out a price end . Ready - built PC buyers will have to moot whatever climb be your chosen company is charging , and adjust accordingly . For people upgrade their own system , $ 150-$200 has been something of a fresh spot : It ’ll get you a card with a new enough GPU , and sufficient VRAM to handily plow with mainstream games for a unanimous two years . If you need to spend less , you’re able to ; if you want to pass more , all right .

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These are the terminal figure that matter most . Seriously , disregard any allegiance to Nvidia or ATI , anterior experience with years - erstwhile art hardware or some as yet remote , unreleased and unspec’d game franchise . Be critical about what you want , but as far as ironware and selling materials go , set about blind .

Do n’t Get Caught Up In Specs

Now that you ’ve set out your ambition , as modest or extreme as they may be , it ’s time to plunk into the seething , disorienting puddle of ironware that you ’ll be choosing from . The excerpt , as you ’ll bump out , is scare . The first layer of complexness comes from the big two — Nvidia and ATI — whose product lines read more like Terminator robot taxonomy than something generated by humans . Here ’s Nvidia ’s desktop intersection rail line , properly now :

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It seems like you ought to be able glean a linear progression of performance ( or at least terms ) out of that alphanumeric heap , right ? Not at all . How in the world are we to know that the 9800GTX is broadly speaking more powerful than the GTS 250 , or that the 8800GTS outdo a 9600GT ? A two missive suffix can think of more than a model number , and likewise , a example number can mean more than membership in a product line . These naming convention interchange every couple years , and occasionally even get traded between company . For example , I ’ve personally possess two graphics cards that bore 9×00 name — you just wo n’t see them on the chart above , because they were made by ATI . Point is : You do n’t require to bother with this nonsense .

The next layer of awfulness come from the sundry OEMs that rebrand , tweak and come up with elaborate manner to cool down offerings from the big two . This is what Sapphire , EVGA , HIS , Sparkle , Zotac and any number of other inanely distinguish company do . They can , on occasion , cause some sizable change to the performance of the GPUs they ’re built around , but by and declamatory , the Nvidia or ATI label on the corner is still the expert indication of what to look from the merchandise , i.e. , a Zotax Gtx285 wo n’t be that much adept or worse than an eVGA or stock model . You ’ll get a different sports fan / heatsink configuration , different hardware styling , and possibly different memory or GPU frequency specification , but the most important difference — and the only one you should really concern yourself with — is price .

Graphics cards ’ last , least penetrable line of reasoning of defense team against your comprehension is hardware patois . Bizarre , unhelpful spec sheet are , and always have been , a common feature in microcomputer hardware , from RAM ( DDR3 - 1600 ! ) to processors ( 12 Mbit L2 cache ! 1333MHz FSB ! ) .

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Graphics cards are worse . Each one has three megahertz - measured speeds you ’ll see advertize — the core clock , the CPU ( shader ) clock and the memory frequence . VRAM — the amount of dedicated memory your card has to figure out with — is another touted specification , ranging from 256 Bachelor of Medicine to well beyond the 1 GB barrier for gaming notice . On top of frequency , memory introduce a whole slew of extra confusing numbers : storage type ( as in , DDR2 or DDR3 ) ; interface width ( in bit , the high the better ) ; and memory bandwidth , nowadays mensurate in GB / s. And more and more , you ’ll see processor core numbers trot out . Did you know that Nvidia ’s top - line bill of fare has 480 of them ? No ? ripe .

The best way to come near these number is to neglect them . Sure , they furnish comparative rating and yes , they do actually intend something , but unless you ’re a bonafide graphics card enthusiast , you wo n’t be able-bodied to look at a single specification — or a whole spec tabloid — and come to any utile conclusion about the cards . Think of it like elevator car : HP , torsion and locomotive engine displacement are all real things . They just demand context before they can be taken to mean anything to the driver . That ’s why road test convey so much system of weights .

artwork card have their own route tester , and they ’ve got the only numbers you need to concern about .

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Respect the Bench , or Trust the Experts

In the absence seizure of meaningful specification , public figure or name feature , we ’re left with bench mark . This is a unspoilt thing ! For years , site likeTom ’s Hardware , maximal PC , andAnandtechhave tirelessly run intimately every new piece of graphics hardware through a assault and battery of mental test , providing the buying public with relative measures of tangible - word performance . These are the only figure you need to irritate yourself with , and where those goals you settled on derive into play .

Here ’s how to apply them . Say you just really desire to act as Left 4 Dead , and have about a hundred clam to drop . pilot over toTom ’s , match their benchmarks for that fussy plot , and scroll down the list . You ’re looking for a visiting card that is a ) an pick on whatever organization you ’re buying and b ) can treat the game well — at a high solution and in high spirits texture quality — which , broadly speaking , is a comfy 60 frames per second . Find the card , checker the price and you ’re much done . Once you ’ve zero in on a card based on your narrow criteria , expand outward . you’re able to check out more games benchmarks and seek out standalone limited review , which will elucidate you on other , less obvious consideration , like fan noise , king draw and reported reliability . ( Note : resources for notebook users are a little more sparse . That allege , Notebook Check[click the British masthead for English ] does good work . ]

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From there , your next worry will be buying for the future . You should n’t buy the bare minimum hardware for the current generation of games — there ’s no need to spring for a card that ’ll be obsolete within a few months , no matter how chintzy it is . But buy the latest , greatest duple - GPU art card is an equally spoiled value proposition . As contemporaries of video computer hardware have occur and pop off , one matter has remained constant : A company ’s midrange offerings , usually peg at about $ 150-$200 , are your best bet , period . Sometimes they ’ll be unexampled products , and sometimes they ’ll have been around a while . What you ’ll be buying , basically , is the top terminal of the last generation . This is fine , and will keep the vast majority of user happy for the lifecycle of their PC . Those of you who live on the bleeding edge probably do n’t need this guide anyway .

Your alternative route is to just hope the expert . Sites likeArs TechnicaandMaximum PCregularly assemble system guides at various pricepoints , in which they ’ve made your note value judgement for you . Tom ’s even assemble a “ Best Cards for the Money ” template each calendar month , which is priceless . At given price points , the answer will often be obvious , and these cat cognize what they ’re talking about .

But keep in judgement , they ’re applying the same formula you may , just with a more or less more well-read eye . The affair really is as bare as broadly deciding what you need , consulting the correct source and float far enough above the spec - ravaged landscape painting so as to avoid set about a headache . Good luck .