Computer Shopper - UK (2020-01)

GRAPHICSCARDS

ISSUE383|COMPUTER SHOPPER|JANUARY2020 71

spend moreifthe graphics card you initially

wantisalready performing highly.

HEATING CONTEST

We’ve also tested each cardonthermal

performance,usingthe freeGPU-Z utility to

measure core temperaturesatidleand under

heavy load.GPU overheating is arare problem

even on cards that come pre-overclockedby

the manufacturer,but coolerisbetter

regardless: heatbuildingupinside your PC can

makeitrun slower and noisier,and as one of

the largest PC components,graphics cards

can contributetounnecessarytoastiness.

We typicallyfind that open-aircoolers –

which usefans to expel heat away from the

GPU –are bothmore effectiveand quieter

thanblower-stylecoolers,which suck cold air

intoanenclosed chamber, pull it across the

hot GPU and then blow the heatedair out the

back. Since mostGPUs come in avariety of

‘partner’models, made by companies suchas

MSI,Zotac,Asus,Gigabyte, EVGA andsoon,

you’lltypicallyhaveaselection of different

cooler designs to choose from,althoughthe

underlying GPU will perform similarly, if not

identically,across them. Open-air-cooled

cards also tend to be more expensive, so it

can be worth putting up with ablower cooler

if the saving is big enough.

ELECTRIC BOOGALOO

Thereare higher priorities than power

efficiency when choosingagraphics card,but

it’s stillworthnoting how much juice aGPU

needstorun. Themost powerful models can

chug up to 300W when under load,and so will

need to be paired with asufficientlypowerful

PSU –atleast650W–toensure that bothit

and the rest of thePCare receivingenough

juice. You’ll also needtomake sureyou have

enough 8-pin and 6-pin PSUcables to deliver

that power to the GPU, as higher-endcards

will require multipleconnectors.

At theother end of thescale,somebudget

cards might not need any cables at all, and can

getall the powertheyneedfrom theirPCI-E

motherboard slot.This might be an attractive

quality if you’re building, say, acompact system

whereextra cables might get in theway,or

you’re concernedabout the environmental

impact of yourPC’spower usage.

RAM RAID

Graphics processors work by providing the
computing power neededtorun the complex
texture, lighting and physicscalculations that
visual software uses to produce an onscreen
image. ACPU’s integrated graphics cando
enough to getWindows and basic softwareup
and running, butadedicated GPUcan process
farmore data at once,hence whygraphics
cards aresouseful forgames,video editing
and 3D modelling applications alike.
Like aCPU, aGPU consistsofmultiple
processor cores,except they’remuchsmaller
and number in the hundreds or thousands
rather than the lowdoubledigits. More
coresislikely to equal better performance,
although how fast these coresrun willalso
be afactor: again like CPUs,there’s abase
clockspeed and ahigher boostclock speed,
whichcan kickinwhenthere’s sufficient
thermalheadroom to do so.
Memory,orvideo RAM (VRAM), can also
affect performance.Graphicscardshavetheir
own memory that worksindependentlyfrom
the PC’s system RAM,and having more
available will allow formoreprocesses to be
completedwithout abottleneck forming.
We wouldn’t saythere’s aminimum or
ideal number of processor cores (calledCUDA
coresonNvidia architectures,and stream
processorsonAMD architectures), but even
at budget levelyou should try to get at least
4GBofmemory.Some gameswill also
explicitly require at least 6GB or even 8GBto
enable their best graphical settings.

SPEED MERCHANTS
To test each GPU,weinstalled it in our usual
benchmarking system, whichusesanIntel
Core i7-4770K processor running at stock
speeds, andran the built-inbenchmarking
tools of thegamesDirt Showdown,Metro:
Last LightRedux andTombRaider.Wealso
ran the SteamVR PerformanceTest
benchmark tool,whichmeasures
performanceinVRgames specifically.
Youcan readmoreabout each test game
on page81, but ultimately the idea is to see
how each graphicscard handles games
that are very different in theamountof
horsepower theyneed and how they’re
optimised fordifferent hardware.Wealways
used the highest possible qualitysettings, as
well as anti-aliasing(except whenstated),so
the results should tell you howwell aGPU
can run each gameatits respective best.
Generally,60fps is the number to aimfor,with
30fpsbeingthe absoluteminimum;anything
over 60fps is good, but you’ll need amonitor
with ahigh refreshratetosee the difference.
It’s also worth rememberingthat as frame
ratesget especially high,you start to get
diminishing returnsinterms of visible
smoothness.For example,agame running at
40fps will appear clearlysmootherthanit
does at 30fps, butthe difference between
130fps and140fps will be much harder to
perceive,even thoughthe gap is 10fpsin
both cases. Don’t, therefore,feelobliged to

Fullreviewsstartoverthepage,buttheseareour

toppicksforgamingatdifferentresolutions

1080p

AMDRadeonRX570

Once upon atime this GPU merely bridged the gap between the

entry-level RX 560 and the mid-range RX 580, but while there have

always been preferable alternatives to those cards, the RX 570’s

drastic price drops have seen it settle as apowerful budget option. It’s cheaper

and faster than Nvidia’s much newer GTX 1650, and can even make afair go of 1440p in

certain games. It excels as a1080p card, however,performing as well as it needs to make

lower-end GPUs look underpowered and conventional mid-range cards look like overkill.

1440p

AMDRadeonRX5700

An obscenely good-value graphics card at £290, this cruises

through games with very nearly the same ease as the RTX2060

Super: anewer and better-cooled GPU that was made,inlarge part,

to take down the RX 5700. Since Nvidia’s card is much more

expensive,werecommend the Radeon instead. There’s simply nothing

this affordable that runs as well at 1440p,its 111fps result in Tomb Raider

being aparticular highlight. It can’t quitereach 60fps in Metro: Last Light Redux, but that’s

easily fixed by turning off SSAA, which isn’t as useful at higher resolutions anyway.

4K

NVIDIA GeForceRTX2070Super

This is something of adead heat with the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT:

the latter is slower,but much cheaper,soitshares the same

value-for-moneyquality as theRX5700. If there’s areason to

stretch the purse strings, however,it’s 4K, and the RTX2070 Super

handles this punishing resolution without asking forthe exorbitant

sums of the RTX2080 Super and RTX2080 Ti. Even with slightly lower clock

speeds than the RX 5700 XT,itdoes what AMD’s card can’t in hitting 30fps in Metro,and

managesaslick 75fps in Tomb Raider as well. The RTX2080 Ti is about 50% faster in both,

but we’re not sure it’s worth paying out more than twice as much for.

THE BEST GRAPHICS CARDS FOR...