Gadgetory

excellent so I am frequently asked the question what graphics card should i buy which is understandable since the GPU is often the most expensive part of a gaming PC build even if you've already decided on a specific GPU such as the nvidia geforce gtx 1070 that i'm using for my example today there might be five or ten plus different versions of it from different ad and board partners like ZOTAC to choose from so here's how you can narrow down those options to choose the graphics card that's right for you so let's assume that you've figured out your total PC budget and what GPU you want since choosing between AMD and NVIDIA is going to be a topic for another video entirely I'm just going to figure it with about a 400 to 450 dollar budget for the graphics card the gtx 1070 is a solid choice i used an msi gtx 1070 for the monthly build i did in july i consider that to be a very well balanced system link is right up there i was $1,200 total and the GPU in a gaming system is usually going to be about 25 to 40% of the overall budget the good news is that as long as you're considering a single specific GPU from either AMD or nvidia what doesn't matter are the base specs that will not change all gtx 1070 s whether they're from ZOTAC err EVGA or asus or ms i use in videos GP 104 pascal GPU beneath the cooler with 1920 cuda cores 120 texture units providing 6.5 teraflops of raw computer performance you also get a gigabytes of gddr5 memory but that is where the consistency ends what does matter and what can change significantly from board to board is GPU memory frequencies cooling performance noise generation size aesthetics and those little bonus extras that the manufacturers might throw in from time to time all these variations matter to some degree but the nice thing is that if you don't care about one particular category like aesthetics for example you can pretty much ignore it and focus on the more important differences let's run down each one speed or GPU frequency raw performance should be number one on this list but how much can this vary given that we're talking about the same GPU from board to board well the GPUs that have a reference design like the gtx 1070 founders edition we have a starting off point this is the frequency that nvidia has decided every single 1070 GPU can run at and if you want to learn more about reference versus custom card designs you can check my video in the card linked in the top right so the way I look at it is every GPU has a minimum frequency which for the gtx 1070 is one thousand five hundred and six megahertz base clock 1683 boost clock then there is what I call the reasonable overclocking range which I usually determine by testing myself or reading reviews online for the gtx 1070 about 2 to 2.1 gigahertz maximum boost is what most people can expect now add in board manufactures will tweak their designs in several ways to give the impression that it might be able to overclock better and hit the upper end of that reasonable overclocking range such as redesigning a custom PCB and increasing the board's available power delivery capabilities or creating a massive cooler with more heatsink surface area and additional fans note how much bigger these otech 1070 amp is then the reference version of the gtx 1070 but does this really matter well it can keep your temps down it could also mean that your card runs quieter but if you're looking for more raw performance you're going to have to spend more on a binned GPU binning is just sorting and when an add-in board partner gets a batch of GPUs from Nvidia it's common practice to test each one first before plopping it onto a graphics card PCB to determine what is known as ASIC quality our ASIC quality means that the GPU can maintain its operating frequency using less voltage which almost always means that it can run stable at a higher frequency than another otherwise identical GPU with lower ASIC quality the upshot is that unless you're buying a vintage GPU which are usually flagship products with special names like EVGA classified or kingpin or MSI lightning you're gonna get the normal GPU leftovers that remain after all the highest ASIC quality chips have been set aside EVGA even listed variants as a 980ti kingpin last generation by ASIC quality charging upwards of $1,000 for card with a base price of 650 dollars for the chips that they know will have superior overclocking performance in my opinion you should just ignore these flagship cards since they're mainly there for people looking to break overclocking records and a premium you pay does not scale with the performance gains that you'll get versus a non Bend GPU any GPU frequency over those reference base clock numbers mentioned earlier is technically overclocking though and you should decide if you want overclock your GPU right up front most add in board manufacturers have software to let you overclock the zotac called firestorm by simply having a 200 megahertz positive offset to the GPU clock on this card I was able to overclock to about a 2 gigahertz boost clock and it actually ran at twenty fifty to twenty seventy-five megahertz during testing this is a good overclock but also nothing special compared to other GTX and 70s that I've tried including the lowly founders Edition even with the big cooler the extra eight pin power delivery sexy carbon-fiber accents and all the determining factor for this 1070 amp overclock was the luck of the draw with the GPUs ASIC quality more than anything else all this is to say that with the majority of GTX 10 70s or any specific GPU that you're looking at you're better looking at other factors to decide which one to buy out of the box than just frequency alone that is if you're okay to manually overclock if you don't want to overclock though and there's nothing wrong with that not everyone likes to do it definitely check those default speeds out of the box 1070 ampere runs at 1797 boosts clock compared to the reference design 1683 for example that's over 100 megahertz manufacturer overclock that'll get you more performance out of the box and you will never need to load up the manual control software that's not to say that these large coolers are useless though and cooling is important especially over long play sessions if your gtx 1070 gets hotter than 83 degrees celsius it will reduce the operating frequency which will also reduce performance so fortunately this big cooler never allowed my GPU to get above 72 degrees Celsius also that cooling efficiency means that the fans don't need to work as hard under max low the zotac 1070 amp never had to push the fans beyond 40% speed to keep the temperatures under control so the card was basically silent unless I put my ear like right up next to it and the silent running card is a very desirable selling point also when it's not using any of power doesn't even spend fans up so that's nice too those are the most practical considerations for choosing a specific third-party graphics card design but there are other things to take into account as well with a custom PCB you might consider water cooling in the future so custom PCBs need custom water blocks you may or may not have one available from a manufacturer like ek so for that reason you might want to go with a reference style PCB the boards can also be bigger though and the cooler size can also increase so having room in your case is a very important consider having a long GPU can conflict with drive bass and having a two slots or even three slot sized cooler can block expansion slots you might also consider the cards design and aesthetics especially if your case has a side panel window and you want to get all matchy-matchy and stuff colors or lack thereof are either the least important thing on your list or the most important I guess depending on how much of a visual person you are the yellow accents trip on this card's backplate for example is a make-or-break aesthetic choice it would work perfectly and a yellow accented build that would stand out horribly and other color schemes if color coordination is important to you consider this carefully as otherwise you might have to resort to modding or painting things to work which while fun can void your warranty lighting is also the new rage in GPUs and motherboards now - there's RGB LEDs on the zotac logo and the accents on the shroud of the 1070 amp you can control them with the firestorm software just make sure that your GPUs LEDs will match with your build if they're a static color or double check they can be disabled or controlled with software if your stall defense in your GPU buying decision consider these extras a backplate like the nicely designed wraparound job on the zotac amp is largely an aesthetic addition but often considered quite valuable as an upgrade since it is usually very visible in your case accessories for GPUs are often pretty minimal but some packages like the one that came with the gigabyte GT X 1080 extreme that I reviewed a few weeks back can provide some compelling add-ons like a high bandwidth sli bridge and front panel hdmi ports for VR free games are common additions to keep an out for as well especially if it's a game that you already planned on purchasing although those promos tend to come and go also a good warranty can provide some peace of mind ZOTAC provides a two-year warranty which is extendable to three if you register your card and finally mail-in rebates can help save on pricing as long as you remember to mail them in of course so what graphics card is right for you well that depends on you your budget your build and your personal tastes but as long as you don't mind the yellow I think so Tech has built a very nice gtx 1070 in their amp edition right here so check the description down below for a link to this card on amazon it's got current pricing if you're interested or use what you've just learned in this video to make your own choice there's also a link to the pauls hardware store down there where you can buy shirts while you're at it hit the like button and get subscribed if you enjoyed this video thank you watching and I'll see you next time