

You'll see a lot of price variation across cards using the same GPU.The most powerful GPU on the planet won't make a difference if your CPU is the bottleneck (and vice versa) - think overkill.Don't forget to take the other cards and devices in your system into account concerning power usage. Power requirements: Always check the power needs of a card against your power supply's output.

For a simple speedup, the cheapest decent one I've seen was $115, though prices can fluctuate. That's why you'll see some offerings for less than $130.


If you do want to play games, though, spring for versions with DDR5 memory, not DDR4 it can make a noticeable difference. In some cases, games may simply go from unplayable to a little less unplayable. But Fortnite, CS:GO, League of Legends and other popular multiplayer games generally fall under the "can play on a potato" umbrella, so you don't need to worry as much if they're your go-tos. Unlike most gaming graphics cards, 1030-based cards can be low-profile and take up just a single slot for connectivity, and are quieter because they only require a single fan.ĭon't expect to game with the GeForce GT at 1080p - 720p at best, unless a game is very lightweight. It's designed with lower power requirements than most other discrete GPUs, so it can fit in systems with small power supplies and compact designs. If you've got an old desktop with integrated graphics that don't support the current versions of graphics programming interfaces such as DirectX 12 or Vulkan, or you have a game that won't run unless it detects dedicated graphics memory (these have 2GB) or if you just want to make your Windows experience feel a little more snappy or smooth, a GT 1030-based card can help. While you can make some judgments based on specs like the manufacturer, graphics chip, amount of video memory, memory and gaming clock speeds, power requirements and other factors, they're imperfect predictors of how any particular model will perform in your games or creative applications. Learn what to look for and which GPUs make sense for your budget and needs. Still, if you're ready to throw down some cash for a new graphics card now, we hope this can offer some guidance on the best graphics card options around. Prices for anything you can find remain out of control, and while they're not nearly as high as they were eight months ago, they remain substantially higher than the manufacturers' fantasy launch-target prices: Some casual calculations I made showed a range of about +30% to +130% difference between the press-release prices and the cheapest recommendable card I could find for a given current-generation chip. They're actually a lot easier to find than they were a year ago, but some continue to be in the LOL-try-to-get-one-for-a-rational-price phase. But this is still a bad time to shop for a new video card.
