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00:00Hey guys, I'm Tom from Tech Chap and this is a pretty simple question.
00:05How much of a difference does your graphics card make to your games?
00:09Well I've teamed up with CyberPower and Nvidia for this video and rather than going for some
00:14ultimate gaming PC that you'll never be able to afford, look what I've got.
00:18This is a good but not over the top custom build with 16 gigs of RAM, a Ryzen 7 5700G
00:25and an Nvidia GTX 1660 Super.
00:29So a very nice little upper mid-range build that doesn't cost a fortune.
00:33So the 1660 Super is a pretty capable card but is it worth paying more for a bit of a
00:39beefier graphics card?
00:40Well here are a couple that I made earlier.
00:43Which one is which?
00:44We've got the RTX 3060 and also the RTX 3070 Ti because all three are great options at
00:52different price points and of course one advantage of buying a pre-build from a retailer like
00:57CyberPower is you're not paying stupid money for these cards and they're actually in stock
01:01which also helps.
01:02So if you're interested I'll leave a link in the description below.
01:05Check out CyberPower's huge range of PCs and have a play with their configurator to spec
01:10your own custom build.
01:13Okay so four games, three graphics cards and two resolutions, 1080 and 1440p.
01:19But first let's run a quick 3DMark Time Spy benchmark to see in theory the kind of difference
01:24we're looking at here.
01:25And between the three cards the 3060 is 37% faster than the 1660 Super and then the 3070
01:32Ti is a further 55% faster.
01:35However this doesn't take into account some of the extra features like ray tracing and
01:39DLSS and also how does this translate into games?
01:43Well let's jump into a bit of Fortnite.
01:45Epic settings and at 1080p on the 1660 Super I'm averaging a pretty healthy 84 FPS.
01:51If we bump up to 1440p or Quad HD then the frame rate dips to 52, that's a 38% drop going
01:58to the higher res.
02:00Now bringing in the RTX 3060's results and we're looking at a 50% jump in FPS across
02:05both resolutions.
02:07And finally the 3070 Ti is over twice as fast as the 1660 Super and still 40% faster than
02:14the 3060.
02:16But that's not the whole story because as I mentioned we're not taking into account DLSS
02:20which I think is actually magic in how it all works.
02:24It stands for Deep Learning Super Sampling which renders the game at a lower resolution
02:28so it's less demanding on your PC and then upscales it back up using machine learning.
02:33Mostly goes over my head but it boosts your frame rate.
02:36So these two RTX cards have ray tracing, DLSS, the GTX cards don't.
02:42So let's run Fortnite again but with DLSS enabled.
02:46And just look at the difference.
02:48We're seeing a 38% and an 11% boost respectively and that is essentially free extra performance.
02:55Okay so to save time and avoid boring you all to death, these are all my results from
03:00the four games on test at both 1080p and 1440 with DLSS enabled where it's supported.
03:07And to the surprise of absolutely no one, the more expensive, more powerful cards perform
03:11better.
03:12Who'd have thunk it?
03:13So I reckon if you were going to build a PC like this, the 3060 is probably the best
03:18bet in my opinion at least.
03:20Obviously you can pay as much as you want and get better performance but there are a
03:23couple of things to think about which will hopefully give you an idea of what card's
03:26best and the first thing, the big one really, is actually what's back over there.
03:31Your monitor.
03:32What resolution are you playing at and what refresh rate.
03:34If you've just got a good old fashioned 1080p 60Hz monitor then something like the 1660
03:40Super here is all you need.
03:41I mean all four games maxed out comfortably here over 60FPS so you're not really going
03:46to see much benefit going with a higher end card aside from just future proofing.
03:50But if you do have a high refresh 144Hz or a high resolution 1440p monitor or both then
03:57you'll definitely want one of the beefier RTX cards to fully take advantage of it.
04:02Secondly it all depends what you play because I don't think most people need 394FPS in
04:08Rainbow Six Siege unless you're a pro esports gamer with a 360Hz monitor or something in
04:13which case actually maybe that would be a good idea but for most people that is overkill
04:17and you just won't see the benefit.
04:18So if you are playing older or less demanding games then you don't need to spend the money
04:22on a super high end card.
04:24Thirdly, don't underestimate the value added extra features that we get with these RTX
04:30cards.
04:31I do appreciate Nvidia is partially sponsoring this video but I will be saying it anyway
04:34and of course AMD do have their equivalents of most of these technologies but it's such
04:38a big reason to upgrade or pay that little bit extra to go from a GTX to an RTX card
04:44particularly one of these new 3000 series cards.
04:46Of course ray tracing for more realistic lighting and reflections and my personal favourite
04:51DLSS to give you that FPS boost and they all add up to give you a better gaming experience.
04:56And finally, if you are thinking about buying a new graphics card or a whole new PC then
05:08remember that it's only going to be as fast as its slowest component so make sure you
05:12have a decent processor and a good amount of fast RAM to back up your shiny new GPU.
05:17And also bear in mind that some games like GTA 5 are very CPU or processor intensive
05:23so don't just put all your money into a nice new graphics card.
05:26Make sure your system as a whole can support it and there aren't any bottlenecks.
05:30You can also see with this Lian Li case I've got here we've got a mesh front and also a
05:34mesh top so we've got really nice airflow coming through.
05:37We've also got this AIO cooler because keeping your components cool so they don't have to
05:41throttle and also giving you a bit more headroom to overclock if you want to again all adds
05:46up to give you a more powerful gaming rig.
05:48So yes, buying a new graphics card does make a difference to your performance in games.
05:52Of course it does.
05:53But it all comes down to how much money you have to spend and crucially what your setup
05:57is.
05:58Don't buy something that will be completely bottlenecked by the rest of your PC and if
06:01you've got a rubbish old monitor well maybe upgrade that first.
06:05But if you do fancy buying a whole new system then head on over to CyberPower.
06:09I'll leave a link below because they're one of the UK's best custom PC retailers with
06:13excellent build quality, warranty, customer service and as graphics cards continue to
06:18be pretty hard to find and also very expensive, buying a pre-build like this is a great way
06:22of not overpaying.
06:24But if you've got any questions about speccing a PC or what graphics card you should go for
06:28then do let me know in the comments below.
06:30I try my best to respond to as many of them as I can and if you enjoyed the video then
06:34a little like and subscribe would be lovely.
06:36Thank you so much for watching guys and I'll see you next time right here on The Tech Chap.