
Mainstream cards such as Nvidia's GeForce GTX 550 Ti and AMD's Radeon HD 5770 occupy spots near the top, as does Intel's HD Graphics, the comparatively weak graphics solution that comes integrated into most late-model Intel processors. But there's a big gulf between what most buyers read about, and what they're actually running.Ī quick glimpse at Steam's regularly updated Hardware & Software Survey (Opens in a new window) will tell you that most gamers are packing decidedly more modest hardware than the frame-burning leaders of the day. They get an outsized portion of the press around video cards. Same specs as the two-year-old Radeon HD 7770.įew tech enthusiasts will argue that elite, high-end graphics cards tricked out with new features and extreme levels of pixel power, such as Nvidia's GeForce GTX 780 Ti and AMD's Radeon R9 290X, (Opens in a new window) are less exciting to read about (and benchmark-test) than lower-end offerings priced at or below $100.Uses significantly more power under load than Nvidia's newest cards.How to Set Up Two-Factor Authentication.How to Record the Screen on Your Windows PC or Mac.How to Convert YouTube Videos to MP3 Files.How to Save Money on Your Cell Phone Bill.How to Free Up Space on Your iPhone or iPad.How to Block Robotexts and Spam Messages.AppAccelerationĪPIs supported, including particular versions of those APIs. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes. OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips).

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated VRAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. For notebook video cards it's notebook size, connection slot and bus, if the video card is inserted into a slot instead of being soldered to the notebook motherboard.

Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. Information on GeForce 920M and Radeon R7 M260 compatibility with other computer components. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked. These parameters indirectly speak of performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider their benchmark and gaming test results.

General performance parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed.
