Custom PC - UK (2021-09)

We mainly evaluate graphics

cards on the performance they

offer for the price. However, we

also consider the efficacy and

noise of the cooler, as well as the

GPU’s support for new gaming features, such as ray tracing.

Every graphics card is tested in the same PC, so the results are

directly comparable. Each test is run three times, and we report

the average of those results. We test at 1,920 x 1,080, 2,560 x

1,440 and 3,840 x 2,160.

TEST KIT

AMD Ryzen 9 5900X, 16GB (2 x 8GB) of Corsair Vengeance

RGB Pro SL 3600MHz DDR4 memory, Asus ROG Strix B550-E

Gaming motherboard, Thermaltake Floe Riing 240 CPU cooler,

Corsair HX750 PSU, Cooler Master MasterCase H500M case,

Windows 10 Professional 64-bit.

GAME TESTS

Cyberpunk 2077 Tested at the Ultra quality preset and Medium

Ray Tracing preset if the GPU supports it. We run a custom

benchmark involving a 60-minute repeatable drive around Night

City, and record the 99th percentile and average frame rates

from Nvidia FrameView.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Tested at Ultra High settings with

resolution scaling set to 100 per cent. We run the game’s built-in

benchmark, and record the 99th percentile and average frame

rates with Nvidia FrameView.

Doom Eternal Tested at Ultra Nightmare settings, with resolution

scaling disabled. We run a custom benchmark in the opening

level of the campaign, and record the 99th percentile and

average frame rates with Nvidia FrameView. This test requires a

minimum of 8GB of graphics card memory to run, so it can’t be

run on 6GB cards.

Metro Exodus Tested at Ultra settings with no ray tracing and

both Advanced PhysX and HairWorks disabled. We then test it

again with High ray tracing if the GPU supports it. We run the

game’s built-in benchmark, and report the 99th percentile and

average frame rates.

POWER CONSUMPTION

We run Metro Exodus at

Ultra settings with High

ray tracing at 2,560 x

1,440, and measure the

power consumption of our

whole graphics test rig at the

mains, recording the peak

power draw.

GRAPHICS CARDS

CUSTOM PC REALBENCH

Our own benchmark suite, co-developed with Asus, is

designed to gauge a PC’s performance in several key areas,

using open source software.

GIMP IMAGE EDITING

We use GIMP to open and edit large images, heavily stressing

one CPU core to gauge single-threaded performance. This

test responds well to increases in CPU clock speed.

HANDBRAKE H.264 VIDEO ENCODING

Our heavily multi-threaded Handbrake H.264 video encoding

test takes full advantage of many CPU cores, pushing them to

100 per cent load.

LUXMARK OPENCL

This LuxRender-based test shows a GPU’s compute

performance. As this is a niche area, the result from this test

has just a quarter of the weighting of the other tests in the

final system score.

HEAVY MULTITASKING

This test plays a full-screen 1080p video, while running a

Handbrake H.264 video encode in the background.

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CUSTOM KIT

For those gadgets and gizmos that really

impress us, or that we can’t live without,

there’s the Custom Kit award.

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AP

PROVED

APPROVED

Approved products do a great job for the

money; they’re the canny purchase for a

great PC setup.

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PR

OF

ESSION

AL

PROFESSIONAL

These products might not be appropriate for a

gaming rig, but they’ll do an ace job at

workstation tasks.

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P

RE

MI

UM GR

AD

E

PREMIUM GRADE

Premium Grade products are utterly desirable,

offering a superb balance of performance and

features without an over-the-top price.

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EX

TR

EME ULT

R

A

EXTREME ULTRA

Some products are gloriously over the top. They

don’t always offer amazing value, but they’re

outstanding if you have money to spend.

AWARDS