Custom PC - UK (2020-02)

FEATURE/ ANALYSIS

Graphicscard(averagefps)

1,920x 1,080 GTX 1050 RTX 2060 Super RTX 2080 Super

RiseoftheTombRaider 30 123 141

PUBG 49 165 197

Dota 2 127 179 176

AshesoftheSingularity 51 54 55

CS:GO 146 197 201

3,840x 2,160 GTX 1050 RTX 2060 Super RTX 2080 Super

RiseoftheTombRaider 10 48 65

PUBG 67395

Dota 2 42 139 171

AshesoftheSingularity 36 53 52

CS:GO 73 195 210

GRAPHICS CARD

The graphics card is the heart of any gaming PC, but there’s
a crossover point where you can have too much graphics
power for the rest of your PC. Maybe your CPU is too slow,
or the resolution or refresh rate of your monitor is too low to
get any benefits from the hundreds of frames per second
(FPS) your graphics card can deliver.
To get a sense of where this crossover lies, we tested
three cards from across the spectrum – a last-gen £150
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050, the £400 MSI Gaming X RTX
2060 Super and the £800 MSI Gaming X Trio RTX 2080
Super. For this feature, we’ve tested performance using
the same tests as the other components, so you can see
how the figures compare with other component changes.
However, to get a better idea of which graphics card you
should buy for games with more advanced graphics, you’ll
need to check our regular graphics card reviews, where
we test with new features such as real-time ray tracing
and DLSS, and also test more demanding games at very
high graphics settings.
Anyway, back to the tests for this feature. Not surprisingly, the GTX
1050 struggles to keep up with the demands of 4K in all but CS:GO and
Dota 2. Even then, the average of 42fps in Dota 2 is only just about
playable for a fast-paced multiplayer game. However, at 1080p, the
GTX 1050 fared much better, churning out well over 100fps in both
Dota 2 and CS:GO, which is good enough for competitive play.
It also managed nearly 50fps in PUBG and Ashes of the Singularity
(AOTS), making both these games playable, although you’d struggle

to compete at that frame rate in PUBG. Nonetheless, with Rise of the

Tomb Raider (ROTTR), it struggled to deliver any sort of playable frame

rate at either resolution – you’d have to drop detail settings to Low/

Medium in order to get a playable frame rate at 1080p. If esports

games are your priority, a low-end GPU will do the job fine at 1080p,

but you’ll need more power for the latest graphically demanding

games, and for higher resolutions.

Rise of the Tomb Raider is almost completely

limited only by graphics card performance

The graphics card is still the most important place to spend big for gaming

performance, but you can spend too much if your monitor isn’t good enough