WEBVTT 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. 00:00:04.400 --> 00:00:08.880 But today we're going to steer you away from some common misconceptions about PCs 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 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 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 00:00:24.720 --> 00:00:28.720 waste of time and money and you should maybe just try therapy instead. 00:00:28.720 --> 00:00:33.120 You see, even as games have gotten more complex, you don't need the most powerful 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, 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 00:00:45.200 --> 00:00:51.520 graphics cards after that were all in the NVIDIA XX50 or XX60 category. In other words, 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. 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 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, 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 00:01:13.680 --> 00:01:18.640 for more actual games instead. Here's another performance-related misconception we'd like 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. 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, 00:01:29.920 --> 00:01:34.320 an industry group that decides on standards for memory. Although this makes it much more likely 00:01:34.320 --> 00:01:38.640 that your RAM will be stable as the default speeds and timings are rather conservative, 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. 00:01:43.520 --> 00:01:47.280 Open up your BIOS, which you can usually do by spamming DELETE at startup, 00:01:47.280 --> 00:01:50.880 and find the setting that will allow you to quickly adjust your memory speed. 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, 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 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 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. 00:02:12.400 --> 00:02:18.240 Here's a tip for both PC enthusiasts and random grandparents everywhere. Viruses and malware 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 00:02:24.320 --> 00:02:28.880 put on your system, sometimes including annoying pop-ups that would appear out of nowhere, 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, 00:02:34.240 --> 00:02:39.200 clunky, mechanical hard drives. But these days, viruses have more of an interest in harvesting 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 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 00:02:49.520 --> 00:02:53.840 won't notice it when the most insidious types of malware are running in the background. 00:02:53.840 --> 00:02:58.640 And while this can unfortunately make malware harder to detect at first glance, it also means 00:02:58.640 --> 00:03:04.880 a slow PC probably has some other culprit, insufficient RAM or a severely underpowered 00:03:04.880 --> 00:03:09.520 processor being among the prime suspects. What are your misconceptions you'd like your fellow 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 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 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 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 00:03:27.120 --> 00:03:30.480 forget to subscribe and follow on Google.