Graphics Card Buying Guide: All You Need to Know

Those who are into PC gaming or heavy graphics work know that Graphics Cards is one of the most essential parts of the computer. Hence, the Graphics Card Buying Guide is so important. This component alone can make or destroy your gaming experience on PC.

So, whether you are assembling a gaming PC or buying a laptop, graphics card become one of the most essential parts of it. The only problem is selecting the right graphics card is the availability of tons of graphics cards from various brands. So, in this article, we will be discussing the numerous factors to keep in mind and selecting the right graphics card. So, carefully follow the Graphics Card Buying Guide before buying anything on your own.

Graphics Card Buying Guide: What to Keep in Mind?

Also Read: Laptop Buying Guide: Things to keep in mind before buying

There are several factors that are involved in the selection of the right graphics card like the brand, compatibility, memory, and more. So here are some of the factors that you should look out for:

AMD or NVIDIA?

When you go on the search for Graphics Card Buying Guide, you will see AMD and NVIDIA. This is the forever going debate among gamers that which one is better the AMD or NVIDIA and these two are the best options if you are looking for a graphics card. Both brands are so popular because of satisfactory performance and a wide range of products at every price segment.

So, if you have a slightly tight budget or not a remarkably high budget to spend, then AMD is your best option. This is because even one of the most powerful AMD graphics card that is the AMD Radeon RX Vega Pro will cost you about $500 and is capable and good enough to handle 1440p resolutions and has that VR headsets support too.

But if you do not have a budget constraint then NVIDIA is the OG in the higher price segment with really-really high performing graphics card series, the RTX cards just kill anything at any given day. These cards have that 4K support and AI technology. But the only catch is that these are expensive and like good expensive, RTX cards are priced easily at somewhere between $1000-$2000.

If you see the budget side then NVIDIA GTX 1050, NVIDIA GTX 960M, AMD Radeon 560 are the cards that come in the cheaper versions of laptops.

Now if you do not have a favorite brand, then you should opt card based on whether your monitor supports AMD FreeSync or NVIDIA G-Sync. Because finding this right match will make your gaming lag-free.

Compatibility

So it is also very essential that you have the good knowledge about the space provided in the case where you are supposed to put your graphics card and it is the best feeling when you get the right size card for the case. Also, these good performing GPUs require 75W or above that PCIe slots come with so make sure that you have a 6 or 8 pins connector and if your power supply does not have that, it’s time to upgrade that too.

Memory

It is particularly important to keep in mind that make sure you do not pay extra bucks just to get some memory. Having a huge memory isn’t everything. It depends totally on how you would want to use your laptop, and this comes down to the resolution and the number of monitors you plan to run the game on.

If you going to play a game on 4K and connect your laptop to another screen then of course you would need about 8GB or more memory but if you play games at 1080p, then 3-4GB memory is more than enough.

Also, bandwidth is one of the things that most people ignore, which is referred to as GDDR3 or GDDR5. So, in this case, your obvious choice should be GDDR5 as it is twice in bandwidth size compared to GDDR3.

Thermal Design Power (TDP)

So, when you use your laptop for gaming, it generates heat when you run it on an optimum state. So how much heat does a CPU or GPU generate?

This comes down to the TDP value so if you are not wanting to spend some extra bucks on a cooling pad. A GPU with a lower TDP is the best option to pick. Ideal TDP values are anywhere between 180-250 as GPU with such values keeps the heat minimum while you play high-end games like FIFA 19, GTA V, etc.

Number of Cores

This is also one of the key factors to keep in mind. CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) and Steam Processors in AMD tells you about the number of processing units there are in a GPU.

The greater number of cores a GPU has, the clearer output it will generate. This becomes an especially crucial factor when you play games like GTA V, Halo, etc. Go to Amazon, eBay, or even Facebook Marketplace and see for sellers with a rating of 95% or above and those are the ones that you can trust. But it would be good if you buy a new seal packed graphics card.

Scope of Integrated Graphics

Now shared or integrated graphics have some advantages that they consume less power and also generate less heat compared to the dedicated graphics that is because they do not run high-resolution media and hence are only suggested for playing light games like PUBG or high-end games on low settings.

So these were some of the factors that you should keep in mind before buying the right graphics card and the choice often depends on the budget, the types of game you play, and the resolution on which you will be playing the game on. I hope you found these Graphics Card Buying Guide useful if so, share with your friends so that they can buy accordingly.

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