A Simple Guide to Graphics Card Hierarchy

Have your friends been posting about their offense and defense moves in Overwatch on social media? Or do you suspect them of talking about The Witcher III in a private group on Facebook?

Well, FOMO is huge on that one.

Because we know how not owning a Windows PC with an amped-up GPU and memory can affect your psychology. It hurts. But help is here – in the form of a detailed graphics card hierarchy that you can consider to upgrade your gaming system.

You may be a Grand Theft Auto V veteran but today the world is where the trend is. So here is a quick look at the top tiers of the current-generation GPUs that money can buy.

Time to upgrade your rig…

The Importance of GPU

GPU stands for Graphics Processing Unit, which enhances the imaging and video rendering quality in the gameplay. Together with your computer’s RAM and other parameters, this video memory elevates your gaming experience by rendering images, loading them faster, and making them look like real life. Have you ever wondered how Rockstar Games replicates the critical expressions of a character or the minute details of a setting in Red Dead Redemption? Well, that’s where the GPU comes in.

This is true for any game you play – from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas to Fallout 4 to the recent fad among pro gamers, Overwatch.

The Graphics Card Hierarchy

It is obvious that any gamer would want to experience the greatest gameplay. Whether it is Virtua Cop II or Battlefield 1. Therefore, we have listed down the five different tiers of graphics cards.

American tech company Nvidia is the leading player in the GPU industry. Their GeForce line of graphics cards, with its CUDA cores, is one of the most popular and bestselling gaming products around the world. No wonder that the top GPU model in tier 1 of our GPU hierarchy is a Nvidia GeForce model.

While Intel is busy shifting gears (both with its GPUs and processors), AMD (with its Steam Processors) has come close to at least trying to dethrone Nvidia from the #1 position. But, has it, though? Let’s check out in the GPU tiers below.

But, first, here are some basics.

How to Select the Best Graphics Card and Upgrade?

The easiest way to find out if your current system specifications are enough and if you can play that game is to use the CYRI (Can You RUN It?) tool by System Requirements Lab. (Go on! Check if you can really play Fortnite Battle Royale or PUBG in your computer!)

This will give you a bird’s eye view of how your system fares compared to the what the developers of the games think are minimum/recommended specification requirements.

You will find that the GPU is one of the most common limitations for playing such games. Of course, processor clock, system memory (RAM), and monitor resolution matter. But video memory is what new games gasp for when compared with their older cousins.

For example, just compare GTA: Vice City with GTA V and you will notice that graphics is one of the biggest improvements in the latter. To render such improved graphics for an open world game like GTA, the engine requires a lot of video memory. And that is where GPU comes into the picture.

Three Factors to Consider

While selecting or upgrading your graphics card, there are a few points you must consider. They are as follows:

• Upgrade only if you are moving up from tier 4/5 to tier 2/3. There is no point in moving from tier 4 to tier 3 because the changes will be negligible. You may not even be able to play the game that you desired in the first place (at least not as efficiently as it is meant to be)
• Look at all the parameters. Fortnite, for example, is recommended to be played on a system with 8GB RAM, Intel Core i5, and with a video card that is equivalent to Nvidia GTX 660 (minimum). This means that just bumping your video memory is not enough. You need to look at other parameters as well
• Look at the price difference. It is obvious that as you go higher in the hierarchy, the price shoots up. In cases where you are looking at upgrading your entire system, putting everything on your video card is improvident

According to our experience, you must ponder over these three factors before taking the plunge. However, if you already have, let’s get down to business.

Legacy GPU Hierarchy

Different Tiers of GPU

This list has been updated with the current-generation GPU models available in the market.

There are five tiers in total, with the topmost tier i.e. tier 1 denoting the best of the best. None of your friends will dare look you in the eye if you get this. There’s no game on planet Earth that will not run in your system if you get any of the tier 1 GPU. Our favorite is the Titan V.

Following tier 1 are the high-end, mid-range, budget, and entry-level models. These are pretty self-explanatory and their positions are dictated by their price and video RAM. Here goes…

Legend

If you are new to these terms, let us give you a brief rundown.

GeForce and Vega are GPU series by the respective manufacturers. High bandwidth memory (HBM), is an interface technology first used by AMD in their hugely popular Fiji GPUs. Its highlights are low power consumption and small form factor. It’s a direct competitor of the GDDR5 (double data rate for graphics) technology. HBM2, GDDR5, GDDR5X are just newer generations of these technologies.

Understanding the 5-tier GPU Hierarchy

The five tiers listed above are based on their performance, video RAM, framerates, and price. We also took other minor parameters such as clock speed and the number of ports to bifurcate them.

Tier 1 GPUs

Tier 1, also known as the “enthusiast” tier or crème de la crème of GPUs, is swarmed by none other Nvidia video cards. All three provide powerful performance at 60 FPS and seamless rendering. If you are into ultra 4K (and even 8K) and VR, then these are the ones to go mad about.

Compared to Titan Xp, the Titan V provides at least 5x more power and performance. Name a game and you will be able to play with both of them, with the only difference that in Titan V, you will be stuck to your couch for weeks. These are clearly intended for professional gamers and enthusiasts because the price tag is not for the faint-hearted. But, is it worth it, though?

If you have an equally beasty monitor and system memory, hell yes, it is worth it.

Tier 2 GPUs

Now let’s get the basics right: HBM2 is more expensive than the DDR technology, which is why AMD has made an entry here. The main difference between tier 1 and tier 2 GPUs is the ability to play in 4K resolution. You can definitely try doing that but at the cost of lower frame rates.

There are five options to choose from here, and even if you keep an eye on your wallet, these are affordable models. If you ask us, the Vega 64 is the most popular among millennial gamers. We wonder why?!

Tier 3 GPUs

Turn the resolution a notch lower to 1080p and you enter tier 3. You can still render 2K resolution but then be ready to compromise on the frame rate. It should be noted that you can still play all possible games using these video cards. The difference will be in the quality of the images.

Nonetheless, these are some kinks in “the most popular GPUs across the globe” mostly because they can run any game in question and not cost you a fortune. Do the prices still seem on the higher bit? Check out the last two tiers.

Tier 4 GPUs

The good part is that you can still play Fortnite Battle Royale using this GPU because we tested it on our Windows 10 system and we couldn’t stop playing. The better part is that none of these costs a fortune and are possible all in your budget even if you plan to get that Thrustmaster flight stick you love.

But if you are on a tighter budget, we don’t want you to go home disappointed. Here are two great options…

Tier 5 GPUs

30 FPS guaranteed in even the most addictive online multiplayer games. And that is enough of a promise to help you make a decision. If you are a casual gamer, you should choose either of the Nvidia and AMD model and be done with it.

Owning an entry-level GPU is not bad, especially if you are looking to upgrade to a console. Now that PS5 is just around the corner, why not?

Even as we mourn the death of TotalBiscuit and get ready for an ugly lawsuit between Fortnite and PUBG developers, we must not lose heart. We must look at improving our game and for that, we need high-performing GPUs. We hope this short guide and overview has given you more idea as to where to spend the money.

So, choose your machine and fire up your hero. Do you like Tracer enough?