Tune Up Tips Vol 3: Graphics Card

Take your gaming, photo/video editing, or VR to the next level with a graphics card upgrade! There are several reasons that would make this upgrade well worth the money. With newer, more graphic intensive software coming out, you will need more than just your onboard video controller. Graphics cards have many benefits including multi-monitor support, high resolution capabilities, and huge system performance.

If you are looking to upgrade to a 4k display or get into some of this new virtual reality stuff, you are the prime candidate for getting a graphics card. Most VR application require 4GB of dedicated video memory to work at the recommended settings. This is equivalent to a NVIDIA GTX 1050 or a RADEON RX 470.

To make sure that you select the correct graphics card, always check the system requirements for your app. This will tell you what the bare minimum requirements are and also what the recommended system configuration is. In some cases there will also be a high or best requirements to run the application at the highest settings possible. You normally can find the system requirements online or in the manual of the software you are purchasing.

Be sure to also consider what video outputs you need to best suit your existing monitors. Different connection types include display port, mini display port, HDMI, mini HDMI, DVI-D, DVI-I, and also VGA. If you are to accidently overlook this, don’t worry, there is probably and adapter to help!

You can find your current graphics card by looking in your device manager. To access this if you are using Windows 10, you can right click on the start button and then left click on device manager. You can click the little arrow by display adapter and this will give you the model in most cases. You can use this information to look up the specs online.