The gaming industry has become a 160 Billion dollar industry and almost 2.4 billion people are gamers of some sort. 47% of the above people own a computer for gaming purposes. The most crucial factor in any gaming setup is a graphic card. If you are also aiming to build a gaming setup on your own, or want to buy a readymade gaming set-up, then this article is going to give you a better outlook on graphic cards.
Table of Contents
WHAT IS A GRAPHIC CARD?
A graphic card is hardware that transforms the signals coming to the system into images. It is responsible for depicting every move of your avatar on your screen. Without the Graphic card, Almost all of the latest games won’t run on your setup. The graphics of games are getting deeper and deeper and are demanding more power from hardware to render successfully on the screen.
Graphics card is the building block upon which this multi-billion dollar industry is erected. With the advancement in gaming, Graphics cards are also being forced to level up if they want to survive in this cut-throat environment.
The throne of the worlds best graphic card producers is currently occupied by two parties i.e AMD and NVIDIA. All the other companies in the world like ASUS buy the GPUs from one of these two companies.
TYPES OF GRAPHIC CARD
There are two main types of a graphic card.
INTEGRATED GRAPHICS CARD
Integrated Graphics card is the built-in GPU on the motherboard. It is not designed for gaming purposes specifically. It executes simple processes(by calculations) which are related to graphics in general.
In this case, the efficiency is decreased because since both CPU and GPU are present on the same chip, the function of one of them is to be reduced for the other one to function properly. In most of the cases, The GPU isn’t allowed to function at maximum potential in order to increase the processing power of the system.
DEDICATED GRAPHIC CARD
Dedicated graphic cards are completely separate from the whole CPU. Only the GPU is present in it so nothing is limiting its ability to render images. Dedicated Graphics cards have their own RAM so their dependency on the system’s memory to render images from is reduced to nothing. Dedicated Graphics cards have become a necessity for every gamer.
FEATURES OF GRAPHIC CARD:
Graphics card is a pretty complex subject and there are too many factors to accumulate. But our team have simplified this for your comprehension.
MEMORY
The memory which is also referred to as VRAM(Video Random ACCESS MEMORY) of Graphics Card is measured in GBs. Higher the VRAM of your graphic card, Intense the gameplay will be and vice versa. If you want to play games at 720p then 2 GB of VRAM will suffice.
But if you want to play games at 1080p then consider availing a graphic card with VRAM between 2 – 6 GB. And if you want to step up your game even further then consider buying a graphic card with the VRAM of 4-8 GB which will run the games at 1440p smoothly.
GPU
GPU is like the motherboard of a Graphic card and is solely responsible for almost all of the function of the graphic card. There are two main manufacturers of GPU in the world i.e NVIDIA and AMD. You can’t rank them above each other as the throne of the best GPU producers in the world keeps alternating between them.
COOLING SYSTEM
Before you buy a Graphic card, arrange a proper cooling system. A graphic card depending upon the size can emit heat enough to heat the whole system. So before buying a graphic card, have a propeller ready in place. Don’t underestimate the heat of a graphic card, in some cases, it has even blown up the whole system.
Thermal Design Point(TSP) is the measure of the power which generates a maximum amount of heat that a system can handle before malfunctioning. If the power of your Graphic card is larger then 180 watt, then avail a PC case which exhausts the heat.
TYPES OF GAMES:
If you are buying a graphic card for PUBG or other relatively light games then a Graphic card with 2 – 4 GB of VRAM is adequate. But if you want to play games like CyberPunk and GTA 5, Then you will require a Graphic card with higher VRAM.
INTERFACE
Most of the advanced GPUs connect using a PCLe slot. So you will have to make PCLe slots on your motherboard available for connection. Some GPUs can take up to the three slots depending upon the model. Making PCLe slots available requires consideration about accessories which have already occupied PCLe slots.
You will also have to make room in your case for GPUs. Most of the gaming CPUs are wide enough to host a GPU, but if it isn’t then consider upgrading to a more advanced model.
MULTIPLE GPUs
More than one GPUs in your gaming system can give a boost to your gaming system to provide a lifelike experience. This phenomenon is called Scalable Link Interface(SLI) for Nvidia and crossfire in AMD. If you are opting for this then you will require compatible Graphic cards and Motherboard.
But this practice now is not as popular as it once was. Newer models don’t even support SLI. You can choose the older versions for this purpose but you will be missing out on many features like ray tracing.
CONCLUSION
I know by this time, You have gotten an idea about what your next Graphic card will comprise of. This is a research-driven article which is exclusively published just to give you a better outlook on Graphic cards.
