Buying a graphics card can prove difficult. Nvidia or AMD? What does this “Ti” mean and which technical data should one pay attention to? We help you.
Graphics cards are currently very rare. (Source: Nvidia)
The graphics card is the relevant part of your PC that is responsible for the image displayed on the monitor. Manufacturers give out a lot of information about graphics cards, but what does it actually mean? Which manufacturers are there and what advantages do they offer? Our guide is intended to give beginners, but also professionals among you, a brief overview.
Why which graphics card?
There are many different graphics cards on the market. Which one makes sense for you depends on what you intend to do with it. If you only need one PC for the office, the onboard graphics card of these PCs is usually sufficient. For private use and if you don’t spend a lot of time on the computer, inexpensive mid-range graphics cards are sufficient.
This is how you find out which graphics card you have
Determine the model and manufacturer
What graphics card are you using? You may remember the chip, but also the manufacturer? Let alone the model? You can read here how you can access this often very important data in Windows 10.
The upper middle class is suitable for those of you who want to use the PC for gaming from time to time. Gamers who spend several hours a day playing games should use graphics cards in the upper price segment.
There are so many different manufacturers
Graphics cards are available from an incredible number of different manufacturers, but they are basically very similar because they all have the graphics chip from Nvidia or AMD installed. The graphics cards from MSI, Asus or other manufacturers only differ in clock frequency, cooling and optics.
Nvidia or AMD?
Broadly speaking, there are two sides to graphics cards served by Nvidia and AMD. Nvidia’s graphics cards are called “GeForce”, while AMD’s cards are called “Radeon”. In terms of performance, the two graphics chips from both companies only differ in a few points, but the graphics cards with AMD chips are significantly cheaper.
What is “ray tracing”?
Both AMD and Nvidia advertise ray tracing, but what is it all about? Ray tracing is about simulating light and shadow as in reality. However, this only works for games that also support ray tracing.
It’s also worth mentioning that Nvidia is currently the front runner when it comes to ray tracing, as the company has been using this technique for a long time, while AMD has only recently started to do so.
What is “DLSS 3”?
“DLSS 3” combines super resolution, frame generation and Nvidia Reflex, whereby frame generation has so far only been reserved for the new graphics card generation from Nvidia.
The interaction of frame generation and super resolution ensures that the number of frames per second (FPS) in games is increased. Currently, the number of FPS has quadrupled.
So that the latency of your system doesn’t increase too much, Nvidia Reflex ensures that the processor and graphics card work synchronously.
What do the numbers and the “Ti” mean?
The graphics card manufacturers issue different series. The numbers of the designations indicate the approximate age of the graphics cards. The GeForce RTX 10 series is an outdated generation, while the 20 series is still useful today and the 30 series is the latest generation.
Some graphics cards have a name suffix like Ti or OC and these say a lot about their performance compared to the standard versions. Strictly speaking, a card marked Ti stands between two standard versions. An RTX 2060 Ti is more powerful than an RTX 2060, but weaker than an RTX 3060.
OC, on the other hand, stands for Overclocked and refers to overclocked graphics card outputs. The graphics processor unit (GPU) is operated with a higher clock frequency than the manufacturer intended for the original version.
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