One key question is: are your programmes GPU-accelerated? If your apps employ OpenCL, they’ll work with cards from both Nvidia and AMD, but if they’re CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) accelerated, you’ll need an Nvidia card.Īdditional GPUs provide more power in certain workflows, but with a typical setup – outside of intensive video work or 3D rendering – a single powerful GPU is often enough you can add more but you probably won’t see enough benefit to justify the cost. Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1080 Ti is a powerhouse of a card (Image credit: Nvidia) Similarly, why pay top dollar for one of Nvidia’s RTX GPUs if none of your apps support raytracing? It’s tempting to splurge on a sexy new card with lots VRAM – but unless you’re handling huge CAD files or doing 3D rendering, any more than 8GB is probably overkill. While it’s not the best idea to scrimp on budget, by the same token you don’t necessarily need to buy most expensive GPU you can find, either. For example, Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (released in 2017) is a powerhouse of a card and available for less than £400 if you shop around. While last year’s GPU might not cut it playing the latest Modern Warfare in 4K, you might find it’s ideal for your illustration, video or animation needs.
#NVIDIA GRAPHICS CARDS COMPARISON 2017 FOR GRAPHIC DESIGNERS UPGRADE#
High-end gamers will upgrade regularly, and so you can often find last-gen models cheaper online. Not only because of the large number of models and options available, but also because there’s a vibrant second-hand market. When it comes to desktop setups, your choice of GPU is vast. You will pay a premium price for a setup like this, but if you need performance on the go, the laptop form factor is no longer a limitation. Having said that, the more expensive (and bulkier) laptops can be equipped with top-end GPUs, like Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 2080. Our roundup of the best graphics cards (opens in new tab) will help you with the latter, but first let's take a closer look at exactly what type of card is best suited to your creative needs. Choosing a GPU depends on your workflow, the apps you use and, of course, your budget. Some high-end cards can perform at more than 100 teraflops – but that’s not to say any GPU will speed up your work in Photoshop or make sculpting in ZBrush any faster. Today’s mighty graphics cards are rated in teraflops – the ability to calculate a trillion floating-point operations per second. The best Black Friday graphics cards deals in 2019 (opens in new tab).They’re ideal for repetitive tasks like raytracing a 3D render or performing complex simulations. Basically it means that the processors in a GPU can be called upon to take some of the heavy lifting away from the CPU. The advent of polygonal 3D graphics led to programmable pixel and vertex shaders, which in turn led to the GPGPU – or general purpose graphics processing unit – which first began to appear in the early 2000s.