Graphics Cards

We have direct relationships with all of the major graphic card manufacturers, so you’ll find the latest NVIDIA and AMD graphic cards from the likes of MSI, ASUS, Gigabyte, Palit, PNY and many others in our range.

What’s more, all of our graphics cards are available with fast delivery, local collection options and more. 

So, if you want the very best graphics card and you want it now, buy it from CCL today.

Graphics Card Buying Guide

When it comes to buying a graphics card for your computer, there’s a lot of different factors to consider. 

From performance through to the different features available, it can be difficult to know exactly which graphics card is best for you. 

That’s why the CCL team has created this buying guide to answer the most commonly asked questions we receive from gamers. 

What is a graphics card? 

Let’s start off with the basics. If you’re new to gaming (or computing in general), then you may be wondering what exactly a graphics card does. 

The answer is that the graphics card is the component within your PC which is responsible for producing the images you see on your monitor. It’s the job of the graphics card to render an image to your monitor, converting the data into a signal that your monitor can understand.

It’s worth noting at this point that graphics cards as most gamers know them today, are ‘discrete cards’, that is, they are expansion cards which sit within your computer as a separate component. 

They are different from integrated graphics cards which can be part of a computer’s processor. You’ll normally only find integrated graphics cards in laptops or in cheaper desktop PCs. 

What are graphics cards used for? 

Apart from the obvious - gaming - graphics cards are used for a variety of purposes, from crypto currency mining to rendering high definition 3D images or video. 

Today, graphics cards are even being used for advanced purposes like machine learning, AI and deep learning.

Who makes graphics cards?

At present, virtually all graphics cards are designed by two companies, NVIDIA and AMD. 

The designs they come up with are then licensed by various other brands, who then manufacture their own versions of AMDs and NVIDIA’s graphics cards. 

That’s why you can buy NVIDIA and AMD graphics cards from companies such as MSI, ASUS, Gigabyte, Palit and many others. 

The differences between these different brand’s graphics cards is largely superficial, as they have to stick to the core designs that they have licensed from NVIDIA and AMD.

How much are graphics cards?

Graphics cards vary wildly in price. Like many computer components, graphics cards are always changing, with new iterations and models being released on a regular basis. 

Because of this, as graphics cards age, they become cheaper. 

So, whilst it’s entirely possible to pick up a graphics card for under £200, you’ll find that it’s an older model which isn’t capable of playing the latest games at higher settings. 

In general, graphics cards can be categorised as follows:

• Very cheap.
• Budget.
• Mid-range.
• High-end.
• Premium/top-of-the-range.

To help you select a graphics card that matches your budget and system/gaming requirements, we’ve set out the main graphics cards currently on the market grouped based on their cost/performance below. 

So, depending on what kind of performance you want from a graphics card, you can pay anything from £200 all the way up to £2,000 for the graphics cards that offer the most extreme performance. 

What specifications should you look for in a graphics card? 

In order to select the best graphics card for your purposes, there are several things you should look for in the card’s specifications. 

We’ve detailed the key specifications you should pay attention to below. 

In order to select the best graphics card for your purposes, there are several things you should look for in the card’s specifications. 

Graphics card memory 

This is an absolutely critical thing to look for when you’re selecting a graphics card for your system. 

At the very least, you’ll want a graphics card that has 6GB of memory, but if you’re going to be playing at 1080p or higher, then you really should opt for a GPU with at least 8GB of memory.

If you’re going to be playing at 4K then you’re going to want more than 8GB of memory in your chosen graphics card. 

Note - it’s possible to buy graphics cards with as much as 24GB of memory, but as you’d expect, these are the costly top-of-the-range models.

Form factor

It’s easy to get carried away and select a graphics card based on its sheer graphical processing power, only to find it doesn’t fit in your PC case…

So, pay attention to form factor!

Check the length, height and thickness of your chosen graphics card. 

It’s possible to buy slim (also known as half-height), as well as single-slot, dual-slot and triple slot formats, so make sure you know what type you’re getting. 

At present, the top end graphics cards are all quite sizable, due to their fans and heat sinks. 

It is also possible to get newer graphics cards which have a smaller form factor. A good example is NVIDIA’s RTX 3050, which is a mid-range card with a more compact size.

Power connectors

How will your chosen graphics card draw power? And how much power will it draw? 

These are really important questions to answer, as graphics cards tend to be quite power hungry and will typically require more power than the 75W that is generated by the x16 PCIe slot. 

Many graphics cards will need to use additional PCIe power connectors.

So, you should make sure that your PC’s power supply has the additional connectors that your chosen graphics card requires. If it doesn’t, then you’ll need to upgrade your PSU.

Note - you will need to check what type of PCIe power connectors that your graphics card comes with. For example, some RTX 30-series graphics cards come with 12-pin connectors. You may require adaptors, such as an 8 pin to 12-pin adaptor.

Thermal design power (TDP)

Thermal design power is another power-related consideration. It’s not only a measure of heat dissipation, but provides you with an estimate of how many watts you’ll need to power your graphics card at standard settings. 

Thermal design power can also be helpful in calculating what type of power supply unit you require when you are using a graphics card, especially one which is overclocked. 

Ports

It’s really important to ensure that the graphics card you purchase has the right connectors for your monitor. 

The majority of monitors these days will have a HDMI port, however newer monitors are increasingly coming with DisplayPort ports too. 

You may find that if your monitor is particularly old, you may need to use an adaptor if available, otherwise you would need to upgrade to a new monitor.

Clock speed

If you’re particularly concerned about frame rates, then you’ll want to check your prospective graphics card’s clock speed. 

Some manufacturers will overclock their graphics cards, which can provide a 3-5% difference in frame rates.

However, clock speed isn’t the be all and end all of performance considerations. Things like cooling performance, core counts and architecture all also make a difference to the performance of a graphics card.

TFLOPS

TFLOPS is another indicator of the performance of a graphics card. Standing for ‘trillions of floating-point operations per second’, TFLOPS is calculated based on the core count multiplied by the clock speed GHz, multiplied by two.

It’s worth noting however, that you shouldn’t compare TFLOPS across different architectures. So, it’s not very useful to compare AMD Navi 10 vs. NVIDIA Turing TU106 etc. 

Do you want to use a VR headset? 

If you want to use a VR headset for gaming, then it’s important that you select a GPU that is powerful enough to support this. 

Something like an NVIDIA RTX 3060 is what we’d consider the minimum graphics card you’d require for a VR headset, but bear in mind that as newer, higher-resolution headsets are released, they’ll require more powerful graphics cards.

Why buy a graphics card from CCL?

There are a whole host of reasons to buy your new graphics card from CCL. 

Not only do we have direct relationships with both NVIDIA and AMD, meaning we get the latest cards as soon as they are released, but we also offer weekend and next day delivery, we are rated ‘Excellent’ on Trustpilot, and we have a variety of payment options including 0% finance. 

Should you not find what you’re looking for, then be sure to sign up to our newsletter so you’ll be the first to find out about the latest graphics card releases. 

Plus, if you have any questions about a particular graphics card, then our expert, friendly team can help.

You can contact them on 01274 471200 or at: sales@cclonline.com