Video card – purchase tips for video cards

Choosing the video card for the computer – an important choice, because it is largely responsible for the quality of the computer games. But how do I choose the best video card? What are the best video cards – AMD Radeon or Nvidia GeForce? What should be the type and amount of video memory? What video card to choose – with active or passive cooling?

The answers to these and other questions you will find in this article, and concrete models of the best video cards for 2014 – at the end of the article.

Choosing video card manufacturer

The list of the most famous manufacturers of video plates has been unchanged for several years – are ASUS, Gigabyte, Palit, Gainward, Xpertvision, His, Inno3D, MSI, PowerColor, Sapphire, Zotac and others. All these manufacturers test the video plates before sending them for sale, so in the first year the share of the video plates out of office for internal reasons is from 1 to 3%. Engineering defects, the economy of the components and the cooling system do their effect after the first year, when the video plate radiator will be covered with a large layer of dust, the thermal paste between the face and the radiator will lose some of the properties, and the components will fail one after the other.

According to statistics, ASUS, MSI and Gigabyte produce the best video cards (the fewest defects in the first six months of operation), and I remain in the opinion that the best video cards produces ASUS – almost all active cooling models at the price at 75 € are silent, safe and have long life. The main quality of the ASUS video plates – very good cooler and cooling system thought very well. Video plates to other manufacturers (very strong overclocking model) are often damaged after the second year of operation due to overheating or due to the accumulation of dust on radiators.

The type and quantity of video memory

The quantity of memory often «puts the buyers in the fog», because it is believed that the larger – the better the video card. In fact, the graphic performance to a large extent depends on the GPU (video processing unit), and the memory only stores the data (textures, etc.). The tests of the video plates show that the amount of 2 GB memory is sufficient for any pregnancy, so for low budget video cards is sufficient 1 GB, for middle -class video cards – 2 GB, and for a strong card (for games) will be sufficient 3 GB. For the last – rather to calm consciousness, than necessity.

The type of memory-DDR3 or DDR5-is important only when choosing a low budget video card, the use of faster memory on the same face improves 20-30%. All middle or high -class video plates use DDR5 fast memory. I should note that today you should not buy the video card for games with the type of DDR3 (does not matter the manufacturer and the price), because the performance by current standards will not be high.

Cheap video plates with slow DDR3 memory, but with 4 GB storage space – is the bait for proston (you cannot expect decent power).

Chip Chip-AMD Radeon or Nvidia GeForce

In the endless competition between the two trademarks – Radeon and GeForce – only win consumers. And although the performance of the best video cards of the competitors are approximately at the same level, the comparative results of prices and the performance tests show that the balance always changes, for example, in the middle of 2013. They were weaker than the GeForce GT610 and GT620), in 2014 the situation has changed. For this reason, choosing the video card we must be careful at the price and graphic performance, and not the manufacturer of the chip.

Video card in hybrid processors (APU)

And Intel, and AMD produces hybrid processors (APU), which have a single processor and video card. Because for the operation of the video card, the DDR3 RAM is used, the power of the video card incorporated in the processor cannot be high. The performance of the best video cards, incorporated in the latest FM2 AMD process, will be approximately equal to dedicated video boards (see: what does the dedicated video card) on the NVIDIA GeForce HD620 or HD630 (Windows 7 performance rating about 6.5-6.8). Of course, weaker processors have even weaker video cards. Intel processors built in Intel processors, compared to AMD, and only the latest models (Intel HD 4000 and larger) can be called «for games».

So it makes sense to buy a computer with hybrid processor? Yes, first of all because of the price, because the video plates incorporated in the latest AMD or Intel processors even if they are weaker than the dedicated video plates, they come with good and quickly exhausted processor, and their performance will be sufficient for ordinary tasks. In the future, if necessary, you can install a stronger video card in the computer, the price for which it decreases continuously, but the possibilities increase. It would be worthy to specify, that in order to achieve maximum performance, the RAM in dual-channel (2 identical modules installed in the system) is needed, and the higher the frequency, the better.

What should we know about the video card to avoid repair problems?

The strong video card cannot be small. Large radiator and quality cooler (usually large size) – is the main guarantee of the video card, because in most cases the problems arise due to overheating.

Should I choose a video card for passive cooling games (usually the name contains the word silent)? Definitely-no, because usually the chips of passive cooling video plates to reduce the elimination of heat works at lower frequencies, in addition, they often work under extreme temperature conditions, which does not add «life days».

The cheap video plates, which in principle cannot be strong, are often equipped with small coolers, have a high rotation, and produce loud noise, and because of fast wear.

The overlocking model (usually the name contains the word overclock, OC, O) – powerful models for games for games, works at increased frequencies. It offers a significant increase in performance, but also at the same time, often reduces the life of the video card, because many of the components (graphic, memory, power components) work at limited frequencies. It is not recommended for purchase, better to buy the video card on a new face, than to work on an old and «swollen» to the maximum. It is something similar to the nitrogen injection in the Neef Speed ​​game – at the end you will reach faster, but it is not known how many times, because very quickly it destroys the engine.

Choosing the concrete model

In order not to confuse yourself in hundreds of models from different manufacturers, the optimal choice of the best video card is made after three price categories, based on the ASUS video boards. All models are classified according to performance within each group. Very important is efficient (Raposrt performance/price) – the higher the purchase. With red color are highlighted those, which are pointless to buy them, because you can receive it almost for free in any hybrid processor with four state -of -the -art nuclei. If you want to get more information, you can access the EMAG online store, although the list of ASUS video cards is sufficient.

Best ASUS video cards (in price/performance ratio)

R7250x-1GD5-Very good video card for games (for those with low budget), performance is sufficient for games with medium settings.

GTX 660 OC Directcu II – The best video computer video card, cope with almost all modern games at maximum settings.

R9280X-DC2T-3GD5-Very powerful video card, performance is sufficient not only for modern games, but also for the next few years.

GTX780TI-3GD5 and GTX 760 ROG MARS-the strongest video cards currently available on the market. They have a low performance/price ratio, their purchase is meaningless, especially since the difference will not be seen in comparison with the previous video card.

Price/performance ratio of video boards: