Making Sure You Get the Best Value for Your Money When Buying a New GPU

If you are into computers then, at some point you’ll probably need to buy or, replace your graphics card but, it can be tricky to get the balance right when it comes to what you actually get for your money and, making sure that your money is well spent;

The PC Rule of Thumb

Whenever you buy computer components there are two main things you should keep in mind and use to make your final decisions, purpose and cost which can be seen in more detail further down the page. You will find that there are two manufacturers of GPU chips of which, 3rd party companies use the chips and make sell their own cards, you have the choice of either, a graphic card from AMD or, from Nvidia,  Nvidia hold the top spot in terms of how powerful their cards are however, you may find that you get better ‘all-round’ bang for your buck when going with AMD.

If graphics are important to you then you should try to get the most powerful card for your money because, every two generations or so, the power of a GPU can double, they become much more capable than that of their predecessors. A good example would be something like the RTX 2080 from Nvidia, which, at launch was around the $700 mark and, even though it is around 3 years old, it’s still a really powerful GPU.

However, with the newer 3000 cards its performance can be beaten using something like a 3060 ti which would have been a couple of leagues below the 2080, at the time. Furthermore, the cost of the 2080 hasn’t really changed too much over that time either. At launch, the cost of the 3060ti was only around $400 yet, offering the same if not better performance in almost every area. It just goes to show that, even the ‘flagship’ models only hold their lifetime value for around 3-4 years before the user will want to upgrade.

The Two “Main Things”

Purpose – Most people will use similar day to day features of a computer however, if you’re intending to build a PC for entertainment like, gaming or, video editing, processing and, design then, you’ll want a (GPU) and a powerful one at that. If not then, you’ll save yourself a small fortune although you could add to your build later if you wanted. If you aren’t intending to buy a GPU then make sure your CPU (central processing unit) has some form of graphics processing capability or you won’t get a picture when you turn your system on.

Budget – This should really be the number one consideration when buying a GPU because the ‘beefy’ ones aren’t cheap. Taking everything above into consideration, you will find that flagship models can be purchased for around the $1000 price range depending upon which brand you go for which, for many people is more than a month’s salary. There is a big chance however coming…. if you spend that kind of money then you can be reasonably comfortable that it will last you for at least 3-4 years.

Final checkpoint

Whatever you do, make sure that your PSU is up to the task, some cards draw on a lot of power and may require a more powerful PSU.