Graphics Card Buying Guide [Updated 2023]
Choosing the right graphics card is arguably the most important choice to make when you’re building or upgrading your gaming PC. Not only is it the one component that determines the quality of your gaming experience the most, but it could very well be the most expensive part of your build.
With that said, figuring out the best GPU for your gaming PC is much easier said than done.
There are a lot of factors that go into the purchasing decision.
Sure, you could just buy the most expensive graphics card that you can afford, but that still isn’t a guarantee of anything.
You see, another potential issue you could come across when buying a graphics card is if it’s matched with the right processor.
If, for example, your processor is not powerful enough to match the performance of your brand-new graphics card, you’ll end up what’s known as a bottleneck — a situation where a component is hamstringing the performance of another component, which usually happens with processors and graphics cards.
And, that’s not even considering the complications caused by having a multi-GPU setup.
Although, if you’re willing to throw that kind of money for what usually is a marginal AND situational boost in performance, you probably can take the time to do the hours of research necessary to understand which games support multi-GPU setups (hint: there are very few of them).
Now, since most of us will have to be a bit more economical with our graphics card purchases, the most important factor here is what’s known as the price-to-performance ratio.
To sum it up, this ratio shows how much value you’re getting per card for the price (if you require one that doesn’t burn a hole in your pocket then a low profile GPU is the one for you).
Confused? Don’t worry.
Below, in our graphics card buying guide, we’ll go into detail about many of the factors that we mentioned above below, as well as a couple of others.
TL;DR
Since not everyone has the time to read through the entirety of our graphics card buying guide, we figured we’d make things easier for the busier folks out there.
Here’s a quick summary of things that you’re about to learn below:
Don’t forget about your CPU
Your Central Processing Unit, otherwise known as your processor, is an integral part of your gaming PC.
A well-balanced build consists of a powerful graphics card paired with an equally powerful processor.
Think about monitor resolution and refresh rates
The best low profile graphics card today is arguably the ZOTAC Gaming GeForce RTX 2070 Super Mini, which should be enough to run most gaming titles today at 4K resolution while maintaining a steady 60 frames per second even when the graphic settings are cranked up at near maximum.
If you lower your monitor resolution and up your refresh rate to at least 144Hz (or even higher), the RTX 2070 could still keep up. The same can be said at 4K resolution at 60Hz, albeit you’ll have to lower the settings a bit more.
Of course, this is assuming that you have the right processor paired with your graphics card.
On the other hand, if your monitor maxes up at 1080p resolution with a 60Hz refresh rate, then you won’t need anything more powerful than a GTX 1650 or a GTX 1660.
Can your power supply and case support it?
Unless we’re talking about the best low profile graphics card, which should fit nearly any case out there, you should really check first if your graphics card can fit inside your case. More importantly, you’ll need to make sure that your power supply has enough power and power connectors to spare.
Avoid multi-GPU setups at all costs
It’s true that more games today support multi-card GPU set-ups than before, but it’s also true that the number of games supporting such set-ups is going down every year at an alarming rate.
Adding a second card might seem like a good idea, but don’t even think about it.
You’re better off buying the best single graphics card within your budget.
Overclock for fun, not for a huge performance boost
If you were looking for a better-performing graphics card, don’t bet on getting the performance you need from overclocking your graphics card. At best, you’ll get a 10-15% performance boost, and that’s if you get lucky with your graphics card.
Not to mention, whether you get lucky or not, overclocking puts a tremendous amount of stress on your card, shortening its lifespan.
Important Graphics Card Specifications
Graphics Memory
At 1080p, you’ll need at least 4GB if you want smooth performance. However, we do recommend getting at least 6GB for future-proofing purposes. This is especially true if you like playing games with maxed out graphic settings, or love to mod your games with high-resolution texture packs.
If you’re gaming at 4K (or higher resolutions), you’ll need at least 8GB of graphics memory for ideal performance.
Form Factor
The length, height, and thickness, as well as whether the card takes up a one, two, or three PCI-e slots are all important as well. Also, keep in mind, that even if a card only takes up two or one slots on paper, it might block the adjacent slot because of the size of its fan shroud and/or heat sink.
If space is an issue, the best low profile graphics cards are almost always below 8 inches in length.
Just to be safe, always check out the specifications first to see if a graphics card can truly fit inside your case or not.
Thermal Design Power
The TDP, otherwise known as the Thermal Design Power, is a measurement of heat dissipation. It should also give you a good idea of how much wattage you’re going to need for your power supply to run your entire set-up, AT STOCK.
For example, if you pair a 95-watt CPU with a 250-watt TDP GPU, a 400-watt PSU (Power Supply Unit) is cutting it a bit too close.
In general, a quality 600-watt PSU is a safe bet for most casual gaming set-ups today. However, if you really want to keep things safe and give yourself more upgrade headroom, an 800-watt PSU is your best bet.
Power Connectors
By default, your motherboard comes with an x16 PCIe slot that can provide a maximum power of 75W.
This is enough power for a low-end graphics card. However, for serious gaming, gaming-oriented graphics cards have a much larger power draw than the 75w that your motherboard can offer.
This is where 6-pin and 8-pin power connectors come in handy.
Some cards will require only a single 6-pin power connector. Others will require two 6-pin power connectors. Some will even require a combination of a 6 pin and an 8 pin power connector.
It’s important that you take note of what kind of supplemental power connectors a graphics card you’re eyeing on needs. This way, you can make sure that your power supply has the necessary supplemental connectors. Although workarounds do exist, using SATA and/or Molex adapters are not considered a safe practice.
Ports
The most common ports found in today’s monitors are DVI, HDMI, and DisplayPort.
It’s important that you make sure that your graphics card has the connectors that your monitor uses. Otherwise, you’ll have to buy an adapter. Or, in worse cases, you might even have to buy a new monitor.
Click here if you need help choosing the right display connection to use.
Clock Speed
Now, this isn’t necessarily the most important factor, but it could help you decide whether or not a certain manufacturer’s graphics card is worth your money more than another one’s.
When comparing the same graphics card from different manufacturers, clock speeds are a determining factor. This is because some manufacturers will overclock their graphics cards to have a higher speed out of the box. This translates into better real-performance. However, you’ll have to consider if this bump in performance is worth the assumed premium price.
Plus, clock speed isn’t everything either. Customer service and warranty are both important as well.
CUDA Cores and Stream Processors
Like clock speed, CUDA Cores and Stream Processors are also somewhat important, but they’re not everything.
What we mean by this is that it’s only useful to compare core count within the same architecture.
So, for example, if you’re comparing between the same Turing architecture graphics cards, the ones with the higher core counts always win out. But, if you’re comparing graphics cards from different architectures, then it’s pretty useless. This is especially true if you’re comparing between AMD and Nvidia graphics card architectures.
Think of it as comparing apples to oranges. It’s an entirely different argument already.
TFLOPS and GFLOPS
Again, if you’re comparing graphics cards within the same architecture, the faster graphics cards are the ones with a higher TFLOPS number otherwise known as “trillions of floating-point operations per second”.
Also, again, try not to compare TFLOPS between graphics cards of different architectures, let alone brands.
Is Ray Tracing Important?
Not necessarily. Or, rather, not at all.
Well, it all depends on whether you want to have the latest. But, speaking from a value standpoint, ray tracing, as well as the ray-tracing focused RT cores (and by extension, the machine-learning oriented Tensor Cores), are not as useful today.
There just isn’t enough gaming support for these features today, and there’s no guarantee that there’ll be better support in the future.
Plus, there are rumours circling around saying that today’s ray-tracing graphics cards will be nowhere near as good as the next-generation graphics cards with ray-tracing.
True, everything could still change. After all, the next-generation flagship consoles, the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, will both support ray tracing. But, again, we don’t have any exact details at this point. This isn’t even including the uncertainty surrounding which games will have ray tracing support for either console.
Do You Need a VR-Capable Graphics Card?
The HTC Vive and Oculus Rift are the leading VR platforms for the PC today. They both require a capable mid-range set-up for optimal performance. This includes, at the very least, an Nvidia RTX 2060 or AMD RX 5700 graphics card.
Both the Nvidia GTX 1060 and the AMD Radeon RX 570 could support the said VR platforms, but performance won’t be as good.
Also, if you plan on using either the HTC Vive Pro or the Pimax, you’re going to need a more powerful graphics cards, like the Nvidia RTX 2070 Super.
Third-Party Manufacturer vs Reference Design
Even if you’ve already decided on the GPU that you’re going to get, you’re still going to have to choose between a reference card design graphics card or one with a third-party manufacturer design?
For Nvidia, this means buying a graphics card tagged with the Founders Edition on its name. Meanwhile, for AMD, you’ll have the choice to buy the reference design from licensed manufacturers.
Both companies also license their graphics cards to be available in other designs to other manufacturers.
Reference design cards are almost always good enough. They’re also cheaper. However, compared to third-party cards, their thermal performance and coolers won’t be as good. Not to mention, they’ll have lower clock speeds, which translates to a minimal difference in performance.
Performance-wise, the upgrade to a third-party graphics card is not worth the premium.
What you’re paying for, however, is better cooling so that your graphics card don’t end up running as hot nor as loud. This also suggests that third-party graphics cards last longer compared to reference cards.
But, there are instances wherein reference design graphic cards are better-suited, such as when you plan on setting up a liquid cooling system (LCS) set-up for your gaming PC.
What Are the Best Graphics Cards Today?
- If you’re on a budget, the Nvidia GTX 1650 Super is the best sub-$200 graphics card available today. It’s more powerful than its closest competition, the AMD RX 570, which is based on slightly older and less power-efficient architecture.
- If you’re looking to get the most out of your money but plan on sticking to a 1080p display resolution, we recommend the Nvidia GTX 1660 Super. It’s noticeably faster than the 1650 and the regular 1660, all without being that much more expensive than the latter.
- The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is currently the fastest GPU from AMD and our recommendation for gaming on 4K/8K display monitors.
- Get the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super if you want a graphics card that can keep up with the refresh rates of VR headsets (90 Hz). But, if money is not an issue, we do recommend going all out with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090ti, especially if you’re gaming on a 4K display at 240Hz or 8K display at 120Hz.
Final Thoughts
We get how complicated it is to buy the right graphics card for your next gaming PC build or upgrade.
There are just so many things to consider that anyone who’s not used to doing it will definitely find themselves in over their head.
After all, how do you expect to know that your processor affects your graphics card? Or, that the type of monitor that you’re using plays a role in the graphics card that you choose? Or, whether or not your power supply can support the graphics card that you want to buy?
With that said, we made sure to list these considerations, and more, in our guide.
This way, once you’ve given our buying guide a thorough read, you’ll find it much easier to pick the right graphics card for your needs and your budget.