Custom PC - UK (2021-05)

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

Intel Core i7-8700K overclocked to 4.8GHz on all cores, 16GB of

Corsair Vengeance LED 3000MHz DDR4 memory, Gigabyte

Z370 Aorus Gaming 5 motherboard, Thermaltake Floe Riing 240

CPU cooler, Corsair HX750 PSU, Cooler Master MasterCase

H500M case, Windows 10 Home 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 FrameView.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Tested at Ultra High settings with

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

benchmark, and record the 99th percentile and average frame

rates with 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 FrameView.

Metro Exodus Tested at Ultra settings with High ray tracing, and

with Advanced PhysX and HairWorks disabled. We run the game’s

built-in benchmark, and report the 99th

percentile and average frame rates.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider Tested

at the Highest settings preset with High

ray-traced shadows, with both TAA and

DLSS if it’s supported. We run the built-in

benchmark and record the 99th percentile

and average frame rates with OCAT.

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.

tttheheheeeggggamam

cu

stom PC

ccuu

ssstommPPCC

C

US

TOM^ K

IT

CUSTOM KIT

For those gadgets and gizmos that really

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

there’s the Custom Kit award.

cu

stom PC

ccuu

ssstommPPCC

AP

PROVED

APPROVED

Approved products do a great job for the

money; they’re the canny purchase for a

great PC setup.

cu

stom PC

ccuu

ssstommPPCC

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.

cu

stom PC

ccuu

ssstommPPCC

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.

cu

stom PC

ccuu

ssstommPPCC

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

tet

1010111 0 0 p

LULU