TECH SPECIAL ..................... A GUIDE FOR BEST GRAPHIC CARDS

A GUIDE  FOR BEST GRAPHIC CARDS  We list out some of the best graphic cards that will fit in almost any budget While most computers come with in built graphics, it's always better to invest in a graphic card to take the load off your expensive CPU. Supercharging your computer with a graphic card not enables you to game, but also helps with work.Adobe products run faster, enabling you to design or edit videos.Here's a graphic card for every budget, and every format. Note: A lot of these prices dip over time, so you may get some of these cards for cheaper if you're lucky and look for deals. SUPER BUDGET CARDS (Less than Rs 6,000) Great for casual gaming as well as doing a bit of graphic  work.Don't expect wonders though. AMD HD 5450 Starts at Rs 1,800 onwards and comes in 1 GB and 2GB VRAM variants. With a small enough profile to fit on a small home theatre PC (HTPC). This is the absolute base card you can go in for. NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 730 Budget Nvidia Geforce cards range from 210's to 610's and 620 model numbers. However, there are certain brands which sell the GT 730 from the newer 7 series Nvidia cards for a little less than Rs 5,000. u Lower end o ones offer 1GB of RAM but for a few hundreds more, you can get 2GB, and quite a lot more power than base cards. As well as 4K support. AMD R7 240 Like the GT730 above, you can get a lower end card from AMD's new R7 line of graphic cards for well under Rs 5000. Slightly less powerful than the GT 730, but both great options. Not to mention, you can run Battlefield 4 in a decent resolution. At this price you will get a 1GB variant, however, for a bit more you can score 2GB VRAM. BUDGET AND HTPC CARDS (Rs 6,000 ­ 12,000) Can run most games very well at 1080p or lower. Best for those who play a lot of Massively Multiplayer Online RPG's and online games.As well as those who want some thing small yet potent in their HTPC's. Capable of 4k. NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 750 TI You can get the 750 variant for a little less than Rs 9,000. However, the Ti is the higher powered variant you can go in for about Rs 11,000. With it's very low power consumption, small footprint and excellent performance, this is the perfect fit for your gaming machine or to pop into your HTPC platform.Comes with 2GB VRAM, the 750 Ti can power your games at 1080p easily, though not at Ultra settings. AMD R7260X Almost neck to neck with the 750, the R7260X retails for between Rs 8,000 and Rs 96,00.Also capable of decent 1080p gaming, with 2GB of VRAM, the R7260X is a decent card at a decent size and it performs better than the 750, though not as good as the 750 Ti. MID RANGE (Rs 12,000 ­ 25,000) Can run most games very well at 1080p or lower. Best for those who play a lot of Massively Multiplayer Online RPG's and online games. As well as those who want something small yet potent in their HTPC's. Capable of 4k. From this point on you will need a 500Watt+ power supply. NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 960 Recently released the 960 starts at about Rs 17,000 and for a bit more you can get a higher powered OC edition. This card straddles the fine line between power and price, with multi monitor as well as 4k support. You can play all the latest games easily at 1080p and many of them at Ultra, though a few newer ones you may have to scale down a bit. The 960 comes with 2GB of RAM. If your budget is more than Rs 20,000, you should look at an OC edition. AMD R9 285 For about Rs 20,000+, you can get the, brand new AMD R9285, with 2GB of RAM, as well as a host of features like 4k connectivity and TrueAudio which takes the audio processing tasks of the CPU. A bit more expensive than  the GTX 960, it's a little lower powered than the OC editions of the 960. However, it is a good card nonetheless. ENTHUSIAST (Rs 25,000 ­ 35,000) This is now high end gaming territory. For those who love their games, and want the best out of them. Not only that using a feature called Dynamic Super Resolutions (DSR), you can run 4k games on a 1080p Full HD display. NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 970 Using the new Maxwell architecture, the GTX 970 is the perfect buy those those gaming enthusiasts who want power for their price. With a wholesome 4GB of RAM stuffed into it, the 970 is blazing fast and can run all games settings all turned up to Ultra. With 4k support, the 970 can also game easily at upto 2k resolu tions using DSR, n a 1080p moni. Which adds a visual fidelity to games. With multi monitor upport the GTX 970 just hits all he right gaming buttons. PROSUMERHARDCORE GAMER (Rs 35,000+) No compromises, just power all through. These cards are for the hardcore gamers, who prefer quality above everything else.Also for those who want to balance their high end gaming with adequate power to so high end video editing and 3D work. NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 980 This is top of the line and yet affordable for some. Starting at Rs 46,000, the 980 is packing some serious power. With 4GB of RAM and 2048 CUDA processor cores packed in, this card can handle anything thrown at it, turning everything up to the highest setting. It will not break a sweat even running games at 2k using the DSR. HIGH END LUXURY (Rs 85,000) The Lamborghini of display cards. NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX TITAN X If price was no bar and you wanted the best, then look no further than the GTX Titan X. A beautiful card that comes packaged in a sleek metal body, the Titan X is the ultimate in luxury gaming.You will almost feel bad for hiding it inside your PC, instead of displaying it on your wall. With a whopping 12 GB of RAM, and 50 per cent faster than the 980, this is the absolute edge of cutting edge tech.

Andre Rodrigues  PM 23APR15