Of course, you can use a universal approach by simply purchasing a model from those that are more expensive — in the case of video cards, this technique works quite effectively. However, even in this case, at least elementary knowledge of the general rules for choosing a graphics adapter will not be superfluous at all. In addition, there is a whole class of professional video cards that, with advanced characteristics, are not too suitable for games, since they were created for completely different tasks.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to write a detailed article about the correct choice of a graphics card. This topic is too extensive, and the text will be overloaded with various terminology that is incomprehensible to beginners. For those who already understand all this, such a "debriefing" is simply unnecessary, such users will make the right choice themselves. Therefore, we will consider only the general rules by which you will be able to choose a solution, the acquisition of which you will not have to regret in the future.

Graphics processor

Today, in the world of graphics adapters, the absolute leaders are two types of graphics processors (GPUs) — ATI/AMD Radeon and nVidia GeForce. Their fans are constantly engaged in heated debates, the purpose of which is to find out which type is better. In most cases, all these disputes are based on attachment to the brand, since both manufacturers have successful and not too good solutions. And graphics card models that are similar in capabilities usually cost approximately the same. In fact, there is not much difference, just choosing a graphics card, a simple user who does not want to delve into technical nuances absolutely does not need to get attached to a particular brand.

The newer and more performant the GPU, the higher the cost of the graphics card may end up. But there are also middle-class models that demonstrate good performance at a moderate cost. This will be more than enough for most consumers. Before making a choice, it makes sense to learn about the latest trends in the GPU world, find out which processors are the most performant and which are the most popular. Such information is not difficult to find on the Internet.

It should be remembered that the frequency of GPU operation is an important, but not the most significant indicator. It is not at all necessary that a model with a lower frequency will be slower, sometimes it happens exactly the opposite, because other parameters also have an important impact on performance. Another thing is when the choice is made between two video cards with the same processors. In this case, it is better to purchase a model with high frequencies.

Of course, the frequencies can be increased somewhat later by overclocking the graphics card. However, this requires additional knowledge from the user, for this reason, not everyone is engaged in overclocking.

Power supply unit power

An important point is that the more performant the graphics card, the more powerful the power supply must be installed on the computer. In most cases, it is enough that it is at least 500 watts, but there are also more demanding solutions. You should first make sure that your computer has a sufficiently powerful power supply that can withstand such a load. Information about the required power is usually reported in the technical specifications of the graphics card.

If you purchase an inexpensive graphics card for work and the Internet, then it is not necessary to pay special attention to the power of the PSU, 350 watts will be more than enough, which corresponds to even the simplest modern solutions.

 

The amount of video memory

A universal principle works here — the more memory, the better. A good graphics card should have at least 1024 MB of video memory. If you are going to play serious games, it is better to buy a more "charged" model.

At the same time, it is important to make sure that the video memory is of the latest type — at the time of writing this article it was GDDR 5. The more affordable and less performant GDDR 3 video memory was used only in low-cost or outdated models.

The frequency of video memory also plays an important role — but everything is simple here, the higher it is, the better. You can find out about the type of video memory used and its frequency from the technical description of the graphics card.

Bus bit depth

A very important parameter. The higher the bit depth of the bus, the more data will be transmitted per unit of time, the higher the performance of the entire graphics card will be. To be sure that the selected graphics card will provide higher than average performance, you need to make sure that the bus bit depth is not lower than 256 bits.

Connection interface

Also quite an important parameter. We are talking about the interface through which the graphics card is connected to the motherboard. The newer it is, the higher its throughput will be. At the time of writing, the most advanced interface was PCI-Express version 3.0 (PCI-E v3.0), the bandwidth of which is twice as high as that of PCI-E v2.1.

It is important that the motherboard installed in the computer is equipped with an appropriate slot. If you install a graphics card for PCI-E v3.0 in the PCI-E v2.1 slot, it will work, but it's pointless to expect an increase in speed.

Cooling system

Graphics card cooling can be of two types — active, with one or more fans, and passive in the form of one massive radiator.

Passive type cooling is good because it does not produce any noise at all during operation. However, due to low efficiency, it is not used in really performant gaming solutions.

Theoretically, the more fans an active cooling system (cooler) has, the higher its efficiency. In fact, this is not entirely true. A high-quality Cooling system with two fans can be no less effective than the average in quality, but equipped with three at once. As for the noise level, a lot depends on the quality of the cooler. So, manufacturers such as ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte are not without reason proud of their proprietary developments, which demonstrate high efficiency at a low noise level.

A good cooling system is characterized by the presence of heat pipes adjacent directly to the GPU. It is generally believed that it is better for hot air to be blown out, and not just "kneaded" in the computer case. In fact, with the proper arrangement of the fans of the main cooling system in the housing, it is not so important. On the market you can find many models of video cards equipped with efficient cooling without blowing out.

Some high-performance video cards are equipped with very massive cooling systems, while occupying three slots at once and having an impressive length. Before buying such a model, you need to make sure that it will fit into the case at all.

And finally, the overall attractiveness of the model depends on the appearance of the cooling system. This, of course, is not the most important parameter, but it is always nice to buy exactly the thing that looks more beautiful than others.

Connection openings

There is also nothing complicated here. It's enough just to make sure that at least one of the graphics card slots matches what your monitor has. The better the graphics adapter, the larger the set of slots it has, allowing you to connect multiple monitors at the same time.

It should also be remembered that some connectors are compatible with each other and can, if there is a special adapter, replace each other. So, DVI-I is compatible with D-Sub (VGA), and DVI-D is compatible with HDMI.

Additional parameters

Among these parameters, it should be noted the number of shader pipelines and texture blocks, as well as the degree of anisotropic filtering and smoothing. Without going into technical details, we can note only one thing — the higher these indicators, the better.

DirectX and OpenGL versions play an equally important role. Again, the larger the figure, the better. At the time of writing, the latest versions were considered, respectively, 11 and 4.2.

Conclusion

And finally, even if you are absolutely sure of the correctness of your choice, it will never be superfluous to search the Web for information about the model you like. Today, there are many resources specializing in thematic reviews of components and any sufficiently successful model of a graphics adapter usually falls into their field of view. Thanks to such review articles, users always have the opportunity to get such information about their chosen model, which is impossible to find out based only on the technical description.

For example, at first glance it may seem that the graphics card is equipped with an impressive cooling system. In fact, the visibility of this creates a massive casing, under which there is nothing, and the size of the radiator is minimal. It is difficult, if not impossible, to find out about this with a superficial review of the adapter.