Understanding the Hardware : Graphic Cards
@abhishek-fg9tRh
•
Oct 22, 2024
Oct 22, 2024
996
Selecting the Graphics Card is always crappy task. You always seems to stuck between Nvidia & AMD Chipsets, right ? It's totally obvious, both are equally dope !
You compare two graphics Card of your price range & buyout the one with greater specification units, right ? But, that's not the way Graphics card is to be bought .. Bit of education on Hardware can help you a lot in selecting the Graphic card.
1) INTERFACE :
Interface of the graphics card mainly decides the compatibility of chipset with motherboard or not.
PCI Express 2.0 - Decade ago, PCI slot uprooted the AGP Generation graphics card due to its very high data bandwidth rate. You see PCIe 2.0 x16 in the specification, right ? The x"unit" (eg x4, x8, x16) determines number of available lanes (bandwidth limiter). In most of New Gen GFX cards x16 Lanes are used.
PCI Express 2.1 - There is almost no difference between 2.0 & 2.1 other than debugging & troubleshooting fixes which were covered for next gen 3.0 slot migration.
PCI Express 3.0 - PCIe 3.0 x16 slots are for massive Bandwidth than that comparing to 2.0/2.1 version. Let's say mathematically it's 100% faster than 2.0/2.1. With PCIe 3.0, the advancement in Graphics has improved like in atmospheric graphics, smokes, environment rendering, etc.
So, If your motherboard supports PCIe 3.0, then GO FOR IT !
Compatibility - People seems always troubled in compatibility issue. As far as your motherboard supports the PCIe 2.0 x16 slot ,you surely don't have to worry about PCIe 2.0,PCIe 2.1, PCIe 3.0 & PCIe 4.0 . All PCIe x.0 graphics cars & slot are inter-compatibile. (Means If your motherboard has PCIe 2.0 x16 slot & you bought GFX card supporting PCIe 3.0 x16, it means it will support motherboards with PCIe 2.0 x16, PCIe 2.1 x16 & PCIe 3.0 x16 but not PCIe 4.0 x16 .. hope you getting the point)
2) MEMORY :
The more the better, but again it's not everything. The memory won't help you if your GPU is slow. Let me make it simple, GPU is Engine & Memory is Fuel ... You won't attain speed until Engine works fast. So, Do Take a look in Core Clock along-with Memory Clock.
Graphic Card with Higher Core clock works pretty faster than the one with Higher Memory clock.
3) SHADERS :
There are three sub types Pixel shaders, Vertex shaders & Geometry shaders.
Pixel Shaders - Pixel shaders processes the simple color, highlighting & depth handling. It doesn't care about the background, it's only aim is to work on single pixel that it is intended to do.
Vertex Shaders - Calculates the location of vertices & positions of 3D locations alongwith rendering 2D co-ordinates.
Geometry Shaders - It is probably used in advanced graphics rendering after the work of vertex shaders & Pixel shaders get completed. It mainly focuses in complex rendering of high detailed 3D images & real time 3D rendering.
4) Power Supply :
Be sure sufficient supply is available to the card else it won't work as intended, it might result in stop working. 450W to 500 W for Midrange cards are good .. High end cards needs more power supply & apart from that Cooler Cabinet too.
5) Graphic Card & Monitor :
How to choose the Graphics Card suitable for your requirement ? You don't have to spend 18k Bucks in Graphics Card if you owe 720p 19" Monitor, It's totally useless spending additional bucks over such high-end card when your monitor is old-school.
If you own full HD monitor 1080p & you don't have any Price barrier, Go for High end beast. It's always a fun playing games with Highest details in Full HD monitor.
6) Respect the Benchmark :
Do check online for Benchmarks comparison of Graphics card that you can find in TomHardware website. They ain't fake.
Am I Missing something ? Suggest me ... I'll add Asap 😀
You compare two graphics Card of your price range & buyout the one with greater specification units, right ? But, that's not the way Graphics card is to be bought .. Bit of education on Hardware can help you a lot in selecting the Graphic card.
1) INTERFACE :
Interface of the graphics card mainly decides the compatibility of chipset with motherboard or not.
PCI Express 2.0 - Decade ago, PCI slot uprooted the AGP Generation graphics card due to its very high data bandwidth rate. You see PCIe 2.0 x16 in the specification, right ? The x"unit" (eg x4, x8, x16) determines number of available lanes (bandwidth limiter). In most of New Gen GFX cards x16 Lanes are used.
PCI Express 2.1 - There is almost no difference between 2.0 & 2.1 other than debugging & troubleshooting fixes which were covered for next gen 3.0 slot migration.
PCI Express 3.0 - PCIe 3.0 x16 slots are for massive Bandwidth than that comparing to 2.0/2.1 version. Let's say mathematically it's 100% faster than 2.0/2.1. With PCIe 3.0, the advancement in Graphics has improved like in atmospheric graphics, smokes, environment rendering, etc.
So, If your motherboard supports PCIe 3.0, then GO FOR IT !
Compatibility - People seems always troubled in compatibility issue. As far as your motherboard supports the PCIe 2.0 x16 slot ,you surely don't have to worry about PCIe 2.0,PCIe 2.1, PCIe 3.0 & PCIe 4.0 . All PCIe x.0 graphics cars & slot are inter-compatibile. (Means If your motherboard has PCIe 2.0 x16 slot & you bought GFX card supporting PCIe 3.0 x16, it means it will support motherboards with PCIe 2.0 x16, PCIe 2.1 x16 & PCIe 3.0 x16 but not PCIe 4.0 x16 .. hope you getting the point)
2) MEMORY :
The more the better, but again it's not everything. The memory won't help you if your GPU is slow. Let me make it simple, GPU is Engine & Memory is Fuel ... You won't attain speed until Engine works fast. So, Do Take a look in Core Clock along-with Memory Clock.
Graphic Card with Higher Core clock works pretty faster than the one with Higher Memory clock.
3) SHADERS :
There are three sub types Pixel shaders, Vertex shaders & Geometry shaders.
Pixel Shaders - Pixel shaders processes the simple color, highlighting & depth handling. It doesn't care about the background, it's only aim is to work on single pixel that it is intended to do.
Vertex Shaders - Calculates the location of vertices & positions of 3D locations alongwith rendering 2D co-ordinates.
Geometry Shaders - It is probably used in advanced graphics rendering after the work of vertex shaders & Pixel shaders get completed. It mainly focuses in complex rendering of high detailed 3D images & real time 3D rendering.
4) Power Supply :
Be sure sufficient supply is available to the card else it won't work as intended, it might result in stop working. 450W to 500 W for Midrange cards are good .. High end cards needs more power supply & apart from that Cooler Cabinet too.
5) Graphic Card & Monitor :
How to choose the Graphics Card suitable for your requirement ? You don't have to spend 18k Bucks in Graphics Card if you owe 720p 19" Monitor, It's totally useless spending additional bucks over such high-end card when your monitor is old-school.
If you own full HD monitor 1080p & you don't have any Price barrier, Go for High end beast. It's always a fun playing games with Highest details in Full HD monitor.
6) Respect the Benchmark :
Do check online for Benchmarks comparison of Graphics card that you can find in TomHardware website. They ain't fake.
Am I Missing something ? Suggest me ... I'll add Asap 😀
