1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,400 There's a lot of bad advice out there and just look at the relationship forums on Reddit. 2 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:08,880 But today we're going to steer you away from some common misconceptions about PCs 3 00:00:08,880 --> 00:00:15,440 that even you enthusiasts might have fallen for. First off, let's talk about your graphics card. Perhaps you've been eyeballing it the same way 4 00:00:15,440 --> 00:00:20,400 you'd eyeball a long-term partner and you're considering replacing it for a newer, sexier 5 00:00:20,400 --> 00:00:24,720 model. But here's a word to the wise, just like in real life, there's a good chance it'll be a 6 00:00:24,720 --> 00:00:28,720 waste of time and money and you should maybe just try therapy instead. 7 00:00:28,720 --> 00:00:33,120 You see, even as games have gotten more complex, you don't need the most powerful 8 00:00:33,120 --> 00:00:38,400 or most recent GPU to play games at a decent frame rate. At the time we wrote this video, 9 00:00:38,400 --> 00:00:45,200 the most common GPU in the Steam hardware survey was the GTX 1650. And the next seven most common 10 00:00:45,200 --> 00:00:51,520 graphics cards after that were all in the NVIDIA XX50 or XX60 category. In other words, 11 00:00:51,520 --> 00:00:57,520 we're talking mid-range chips up to around seven years old, a long time in PC component land. 12 00:00:57,520 --> 00:01:02,480 Now, don't get us wrong, you'll need something more powerful to run the most demanding titles at 13 00:01:02,480 --> 00:01:08,640 4K on maximum settings. But if you're just trying to have a solid medium to high experience at 1080p, 14 00:01:08,640 --> 00:01:13,680 chances are the graphics card in your current rig can deliver that. So maybe save your money 15 00:01:13,680 --> 00:01:18,640 for more actual games instead. Here's another performance-related misconception we'd like 16 00:01:18,640 --> 00:01:24,560 to clear up. Thinking that your RAM will run at the speed on the box right out of the box. 17 00:01:24,560 --> 00:01:29,920 You see, when you first plug in your RAM sticks, they'll run at a default speed set by Jetek, 18 00:01:29,920 --> 00:01:34,320 an industry group that decides on standards for memory. Although this makes it much more likely 19 00:01:34,320 --> 00:01:38,640 that your RAM will be stable as the default speeds and timings are rather conservative, 20 00:01:38,640 --> 00:01:43,520 you'll have to complete an additional step if you want it to run at its actual rated speed. 21 00:01:43,520 --> 00:01:47,280 Open up your BIOS, which you can usually do by spamming DELETE at startup, 22 00:01:47,280 --> 00:01:50,880 and find the setting that will allow you to quickly adjust your memory speed. 23 00:01:50,880 --> 00:01:55,840 If you have an Intel CPU, this will be called XMP. But if you have an AMD processor, 24 00:01:55,840 --> 00:02:02,240 it might be called Expo DOCP or EOCP. Simply select the option that matches the numbers on 25 00:02:02,240 --> 00:02:07,680 your RAM packaging, save and reboot. And you should be good to go. And because modern memory modules 26 00:02:07,680 --> 00:02:12,400 tend to be thoroughly tested, you shouldn't have too many issues after you enable the right setting. 27 00:02:12,400 --> 00:02:18,240 Here's a tip for both PC enthusiasts and random grandparents everywhere. Viruses and malware 28 00:02:18,240 --> 00:02:24,320 don't necessarily slow your computer down. 20 to 25 years ago, the extra load that viruses would 29 00:02:24,320 --> 00:02:28,880 put on your system, sometimes including annoying pop-ups that would appear out of nowhere, 30 00:02:28,880 --> 00:02:34,240 could slow your computer down to a crawl, especially as most computers of the era had slow, 31 00:02:34,240 --> 00:02:39,200 clunky, mechanical hard drives. But these days, viruses have more of an interest in harvesting 32 00:02:39,200 --> 00:02:44,560 your information in the background than hogging your RAM or your CPU cycles. Not to mention that 33 00:02:44,640 --> 00:02:49,520 the vast majority of modern PCs have solid state drives, meaning that there's a good chance you 34 00:02:49,520 --> 00:02:53,840 won't notice it when the most insidious types of malware are running in the background. 35 00:02:53,840 --> 00:02:58,640 And while this can unfortunately make malware harder to detect at first glance, it also means 36 00:02:58,640 --> 00:03:04,880 a slow PC probably has some other culprit, insufficient RAM or a severely underpowered 37 00:03:04,880 --> 00:03:09,520 processor being among the prime suspects. What are your misconceptions you'd like your fellow 38 00:03:09,520 --> 00:03:13,920 PC enthusiasts to be aware of? List them below in the comments and you might see them on a future 39 00:03:13,920 --> 00:03:18,880 episode of Tech Quicky. That's this show. But for now, thanks for watching. Like the video if 40 00:03:18,880 --> 00:03:22,400 you liked it, dislike it if you disliked it, check out our other videos, comment below with 41 00:03:22,400 --> 00:03:27,120 video suggestions. We always need things to think about and look up on Google. And don't 42 00:03:27,120 --> 00:03:30,480 forget to subscribe and follow on Google.