The Graphics Processing Units have become an integral part of computing as technology has evolved by leaps and bounds with time, In the olden days the graphic processes were handled by the natively built VGA enabled units in a CPU (Central Processing Unit) but as demands for more life-like visuals grew and the gaming industry picked up steam, GPU’s became a household name and a must-have computer add on to curb the consumers growing demands of better performing systems.
We at memoryclearance have worked day in and day out to bring to you a step by step of how and what to shop for when going out to buy a GPU.
For most people, gaming is the most intensive graphical task that you will ask your PC to perform. It’s no surprise, then, that serious gamers spend hours researching the latest GPU technology and often upgrade their GPUs on a regular basis. As GPUs get faster, games are written to take advantage of the extra speed, and that pushes manufacturers to make even faster GPUs.
If you’re not a gamer, then you might not care as much about your GPU’s capabilities unless you run other kinds of applications that can make direct use of a GPU’s special processing capabilities. Examples include video editing, where a GPU can be used to speed up processes like encoding video, and computer-aided design/manufacturing (CAD/CAM) and applications which can also use the GPU for significantly better performance.
Gaming
Thermal take NVIDIA graphics card, the gaming industry has pushed GPU technology faster and further than any other group. Today’s PC games are more realistic and complex than ever before, and the increasing performance of modern GPUs is both part of the reason why and a response to gamers demanding better-looking games.
Simply put, if you’re building a PC to play games, then the GPU will be your most important purchase. Other components can affect performance, like the CPU and RAM, but getting a GPU that’s too weak for your chosen games is guaranteed to result in disappointment.
There are different kinds of games, though, and not all of them demand the most powerful GPU on the market. That’s why it’s important to read a game’s required, recommended, and optimal specifications to make sure that you get a suitable GPU. Buying the best GPU you can afford is a good way to future-proof your build, and keep it ready to play popular games that have yet to be released.
Video and professional applications
Another demanding group of users are those who perform complex tasks like 3D rendering and video editing. High-end applications like AutoCAD and Adobe Premiere Pro can make use of GPUs to speed up processing and make for faster and more efficient workflows.
In fact, there’s a class of GPUs aimed specifically at these users. These workstation GPUs are optimized for these applications, and their drivers are certified to be stable and reliable. These GPUs aren’t always the best at powering games, even though they can be much more expensive than consumer GPUs.
Everyone else
If you’re not going to be gaming or running creativity applications that can use a GPU to speed things up, you might not need to invest as much money in your graphics card. If you’re mainly running productivity apps, browsing the web, managing email, and performing other common low-end PC tasks, then you’ll want to spend more time picking out the right RAM, CPU, and storage.
Integrated vs. discrete GPUs
Some CPUs have integrated graphics, which are GPUs that are built into the CPU itself, or are otherwise closely interlinked with the CPU. Integrated graphics options tend to be low-performers, providing enough power to do the most basic and mundane tasks a computer can perform like driving the operating system and running web browsers, email clients, productivity apps, and other routine software, but not enough for anything more than casual low-res children oriented games. Discrete graphics cards are standalone GPUs ranging from relatively low-cost, entry-level options all the way up to incredibly powerful GPUs that can cost well over $1,000 all by themselves making them an extremely valued commodity. You can buy discrete GPUs as part of pre-built systems.
The GPU: Nvidia vs. AMD
When you’re shopping for a GPU, you’re choosing between graphics cards that build in all the components needed to power a PC’s display. These graphics cards include the GPU itself, which is a single chip that’s almost always going to come from one of two companies: Nvidia and AMD.
Historically, these two companies have battled for leadership in the GPU market, and Nvidia was strongly in the lead until the last few years. Nvidia still holds a strong position in the market, but AMD’s newest graphics cards have placed it in a far more competitive position.
When shopping for a graphics card, you’ll most often be choosing from models made by companies like ASUS, Gigabyte, and MSI, which put their own special spins on the core hardware developed by NVIDIA and AMD. Of all the various specifications you’ll come across when learning about GPUs, the GPU model itself is the most important. This is what tells you where the GPU falls in terms of overall performance, though specific graphics cards within a GPU model can vary in performance depending on a variety of factors.
Nvidia
Nvidia gtx 1080 ti graphics card announcement (20) Nvidia’s most recent GPUs are built on its Pascal architecture, and its most popular and powerful GPUs are those in its 10-series. Nvidia has a wide range of GPUs covering the low end to the very high end of the consumer GPU market. In general, how many processing cores, called “CUDA cores,” an Nvidia GPU offers determines how powerful it is.
AMD
AMD has two consumer GPU architectures that are particularly relevant today. The first is the Radeon RX 500 series, which is its most affordable lineup, and the new Radeon Vega series that represents AMD’s next-generation architecture. Note that AMD’s term for its GPU cores is “Stream Processors,” and again the more, the better.
At the end of the day you are the decision maker and the affected party of whatever decision you make, so… choose wisely. Get started today with the device you want scrolling through the nifty configurator feature on memoryclearance.com