Best graphics cards for under $200 - August 2017Overall Winner: GeForce GTX 1050 TiBut which brand? It depends, mostly on the cooling. If you don't care, or want a compact card, then get the... EVGA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti SC
If you want more fans, then get the... Gigabyte GTX 1050 Ti Windforce OC
The Contenders, and comparisons:GeForce GTX 1050 vs GeForce GTX 1050 TiPrice Range: GTX 1050: about $110-$130 (Check prices on Amazon) GTX 1050 Ti: about $140-$180 (Check prices on Amazon) The GTX 1050 Ti is noticeably faster, so if your budget allows, it's definitely a better option. 4GB of video RAM is also a lot better than 2GB. Video RAM assists with higher resolutions. It is possible to play games on 1080p with 2GB, however FPS will drop occasionally. If you're going to play at over 1080p, then 4GB is nearly mandatory. How much Video RAM (VRAM) do you need? 3DMark Fire Strike Graphics Score
The GeForce GTX 1050 features a GPU clock speed of 1354 MHz, and the 2048 MB of GDDR5 memory is set to run at 1750 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is comprised of 640 SPUs, 40 Texture Address Units, and 32 ROPs. Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, which makes use of a 14 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 1290 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM runs at a frequency of 1750 MHz on this particular model. It features 768 SPUs as well as 48 TAUs and 32 Rasterization Operator Units. Specifications
Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the largest amount of information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions. Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied per second. Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the video card can possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.
GeForce GTX 960 vs GeForce GTX 950The GeForce GTX 950 comes with core speeds of 1024 MHz on the GPU, and 1652 MHz on the 2048 MB of GDDR5 RAM. It features 768 SPUs as well as 48 Texture Address Units and 32 ROPs. Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 960, which makes use of a 28 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 1127 MHz. The GDDR5 memory runs at a speed of 1750 MHz on this particular model. It features 1024 SPUs as well as 64 Texture Address Units and 32 Rasterization Operator Units. 3DMark Fire Strike Graphics Score
Power Consumption (Max TDP)
Specifications
Radeon RX 460 vs Radeon RX 550The budget range for these is more around $85-$130. The Radeon RX 460 uses a 14 nm design. AMD has clocked the core speed at 1090 MHz. The GDDR5 memory works at a frequency of 1750 MHz on this particular card. It features 896 SPUs along with 56 Texture Address Units and 16 ROPs. Compare those specs to the Radeon RX 550, which uses a 14 nm design. AMD has set the core speed at 1100 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM runs at a frequency of 1750 MHz on this specific model. It features 512 SPUs as well as 32 Texture Address Units and 16 ROPs. Power Consumption (Max TDP)
Memory BandwidthPerformance-wise, the Radeon RX 550 should in theory be a little bit better than the Radeon RX 460 overall. (explain)
Texel RateThe Radeon RX 460 is much (more or less 73%) faster with regards to AF than the Radeon RX 550. (explain)
Pixel RateThe Radeon RX 550 will be a small bit (about 1%) faster with regards to anti-aliasing than the Radeon RX 460, and should be capable of handling higher resolutions better. (explain)
Specifications
Older cards that may be worth getting if you can find one for cheap:Radeon R9 380 Radeon R7 370 GeForce GTX 750Ti
What do you think? Which one is best? Leave a comment below!
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