What should I be looking for in a graphics card?

Robin

Robin

New member
This might seem like a simple question, but everything is harder to n00bs: What determines the performance of a graphics card? Is it the amount of memory? And also, does anybody know a website where I can find the complete details of a graphics card simply and maybe be able to compare some cards?
 
Toms hardware and Anandtech have great benchmarks. They will give you the actual game performance of cards to compare with each other.

For you it might be simpler just to look at the resulting performance. There are quite a few aspects to graphics cards that can be technical and understanding them better wont necessarily improve your choice.

I suggest just looking at performance in the games you would play and compare them using performance:price ratios.

Just as an example, more ram in any application doesnt make your pc faster. But reaching the capacity of the ram will hinder performance. Unless you are using very intense graphics (usually high settings and resolution), gpu ram over 1gb should be fine.

If you would like, we can point you in the right direction; given some info about price, what other hardware you are using and what you are running on the hardware (games, cad, etc)

Sent from my GT-I9100 using MyGaming Android App
 
I usually look at the generation(aka how new it is and what new tech it has) and how much stream processors it has. Ram is used as a marketing gimmick to fool people that don't know much about pc's. At one point in history ram mattered but these days its so cheap that more than enough will be on the card relative to its performance.
 
I would just post your current PC specs on here for guys to look at, and tell us what games you would like to play. Then people can suggest exact upgrades for you.
 
I have:
Intel i3 processor
Nvidia GeForce 8400 GS (I know it sucks)
I have a 250 GB hard drive
4gb RAM
I am running Windows XP SP3

I can spend about R1500 on a graphics card and that's the only thing I need to upgrade.
I don't really want to play games, just play high quality videos on the NAG without it freezing. If I play games, I play old ones, since I have a Xbox and current pc exclusives are expensive
 
I would recommend going for this:
Inno3D GTX550 Ti, 2GB/2048mb 192bit DDR5
It shouldn't cost you more than R1300 and it offers great value for money.
 
The Joker said:
I would recommend going for this:
Inno3D GTX550 Ti, 2GB/2048mb 192bit DDR5
It shouldn't cost you more than R1300 and it offers great value for money.
Click to expand...

Exactly this, would be the best card for your budget and would be my next upgrade choice buying on a budget.
 
The Joker said:
I would recommend going for this:
Inno3D GTX550 Ti, 2GB/2048mb 192bit DDR5
It shouldn't cost you more than R1300 and it offers great value for money.
Click to expand...
Yes this is a good option. And should do what you want it to fine. If you do play the odd PC game it should run ok as well.
 
With your budget, what the other guys have suggested is fine. Just maybe rather go for a different brand such as Gigabyte. Inno3D cards only come with 1 year warranty, where Gigabyte comes with 2 years and a 3rd year manufacturers warranty (if you lucky). We retail those cards for R1650.
 
Kuga said:
With your budget, what the other guys have suggested is fine. Just maybe rather go for a different brand such as Gigabyte. Inno3D cards only come with 1 year warranty, where Gigabyte comes with 2 years and a 3rd year manufacturers warranty (if you lucky). We retail those cards for R1650.
Click to expand...

True, the Inno3d cards are quite a bit cheaper though. But, you will probably get a little more performance from the bigger brands as well.
 
Graphics cards are made by different people?!:wtf: Guys, I don't think I can get one. My dad's being a total d!ck and planning on sending me to boarding school so I won't see my pc if his serious.:cry:
 
1st: GPU Speed
2nd: RAM 512 is fine, 1gb is good and about 1.5gb would be the best.
bitrate, the faster your card can send all the graphics info back to your CPU the better.
specs like shaders will fit in with the rest of the specs. as long as its dx10 its should be ok.


if you are going to boarding school, get a laptop, or even an xbox, that was a hit with the boarders at my old school.
 
I got a graphics card (though I'm struggling to get it to work) It's a Geforce 210. It only cost R.400. Is it a good graphics card and worth the money?
 
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