Graphics cards

Buying a graphics card: what matters

The graphics card decides at which resolution and detail level games run smoothly. It also has to fit your power supply, case and monitor.

Performance by resolution

Mid-range cards are enough for Full HD; QHD at high frame rates calls for the upper mid-range, and 4K with high detail needs high-end models. Video memory (VRAM) matters more with new games and high resolutions; 12 GB or more gives headroom.

Upscaling and ray tracing

Technologies such as DLSS (Nvidia), FSR (AMD) and XeSS (Intel) render at a lower resolution and upscale the image, giving many more frames per second. Ray tracing creates realistic lighting but costs a lot of performance.

Will the card fit your PC?

Check the card's length and the number of slots it occupies in your case, the power connectors it needs and the power supply wattage the maker recommends. A power supply that is too weak causes crashes under load.

Variants and price

The same graphics chip is sold by many brands with different coolers and slightly different clock speeds. Quiet cooling and good build quality are often worth paying a little more for. Graphics card prices swing a lot; the price history shows when a card is cheap.