Ultimate Guide to Value Graphics Card Shopping
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2014-05-07
·
2,037 words · ~10 min read
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looked at his original tests last week on AMD's Dual Graphics or the ability to
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basically run your integrated GPU and your discret GPU that's like an addin
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card in
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crossfire have you got an unlocked Intel processor do you want access to
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exclusive offers click now to join Intel Club Enthusiast and get started so we
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showed you the numbers that we got in a couple of games with AMD's latest fa
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7850k Apu alone that Apu running with a
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discrete graphics card an r7250 running by itself and we showed you what it's
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like when we pair them together in dual Graphics mode well you guys asked for an
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expanded test so we've thrown two more discrete graphics cards into the mix an
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r7260x and a GeForce 750 Ti and we've
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thrown in more CPUs so we've got a 4670k
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that's a Core I5 from Intel that we' run with discreet and on board a 6800k so
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that's AMD's own last generation Apu and
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an Athlon 760k which is a very inexpensive CPU
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from AMD with no onboard Graphics at all
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but based on the same architecture as that last gen Apu now before we dive
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into this I want it to be clear that cavar has other benefits that are not
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being tested in this video HSA or heterogeneous system architecture allows
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the GPU cores on Andy's latest Apu to be utilized for General productivity tasks
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much more efficiently efficiently than previous architectures allowed it can
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share system memory rather than having data copied back and forth between the
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CPU and GPU RAM over the PCI Express Bus
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which opens up a whole new world of cooperation between your CPU cores and
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your graphics cores this enables today
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better performance with some image filters improved thumbnail Creation in
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Windows better performance in Libra office and some other things but HSA is
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mostly about the future with some very exciting developments such as opencl 2.0
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with a compliant driver expected in early 2015 and all that good stuff the
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bad news is that we'll have to wait for software development to catch up but the
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good news is that application developers and compiler writers should if AMD is to
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be believed find it easier to code for HSA systems which should help Drive
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adoption with all of that aside if you're a value gamer and you're looking
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for a system today what do you buy well we saw your comments on the previous
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video and on the Forum and science wins so I was let loose and I was able to
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test almost all of the things all right guys as these graphs are a lot more
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compact with data than our normal graphs I'll give you guys some tips on reading
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them fairly standard Fair the CPU and GPU are listed on the left hand side so
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you can see what row that correlates with to help you guys differentiate
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between the rows I've also color coordinated each row with based on its
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CPU not its GPU so you can see how the different CPU combinations stack up that
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way also there's a dollar value right beside the name of the combination and
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that dollar value is an estimated guess based on numbers that I pulled from
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newegg.com so these are American prices if you're an international viewer I
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would highly suggest when you get to the dollar per performance graphs later on
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that's the second set of two that you base them based on uh numbers in your
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own region also these dollar values do not include the cost of the motherboard
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as that can vary quite a bit and was not a super important variable in these test
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I'm sure you guys will come up with your own conclusions and let me know in the comments below and on the Forum and all
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that kind of stuff but here's some conclusions of my own that I gathered from looking at my graphs after I made
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them there seems to be a sweet spot for both of these games in Far Cry 3 that
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sweet spot is about $7 while in BioShock that sweet spot is about $5 that makes
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sense because bshock infinite is easier to run than Far Cry 3 Therefore your
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dollar per performance goes down which is a good thing um but you're going to
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need to be able to run certain games so it all kind of makes sense although be
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completely honest for most of these setups the price that you're paying
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you're getting 1080p on high at no problem so it makes a ton of sense uh
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especially one last thing personally I would not buy a solo 4670k for gaming by
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that I mean 4670k and no discrete graphics card it does not perform very
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well and personally I'd rather pay less than a 4670k and get a 760k and an
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r7260x or pay $10 more and get a 760k
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and a 750t and get even more performance on top of that that see makes a lot more
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sense to me but again just let me know what you guys think in the comments down below and on the Forum so a main
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takeaway I would grab from this is that going back a few generations and
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grabbing a processor from that time at a really low price and then buying a nicer
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more powerful graphics card and pairing those two together is an awesome
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combination and you get a lot of power for your price with that combination
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another thing is that 1080p gaming has been never this viable at a price point
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like this you can run games at high at 1080P and get epic frame rates that's
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really cool to see because value gaming has always kind of been a shove under
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the bus but now you can go with a very nice resolution very nice settings at a
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very nice price point and have a really good experience and the word console
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killer was brought around a lot when the consoles were first coming out and we
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all knew it would be easier to surpass consoles later on down the line I didn't
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realize it would be this fast with certain setups that we have in this
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video Even and with 750 Ti 750
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and 260x now taking up bat it's really
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easy to actually just beat the absolute crap out of a console a lot of console
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games aren't running at 1080P and they're not running that fast and with a
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setup like this you can run it at really good frame rates at 1080p at high
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settings with AA on and all that kind of stuff so it's a very interesting setup
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and I hope you guys are going to take advantage of this kind of stuff if
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you're building a console build in the future just so you guys know as well our
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Star team is in second place and I know most of the times I upload a video and
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call it what place we're in it's inaccurate but I think this might be the first time it's actually accurate so be
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sure to join up we're going to have a lot of fun and the dog fighting module should be coming around sometime around
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April 18th so Luke's testing reveals a bit of a problem with the way the term
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value gets thrown around to describe inexpensive products volume is not the
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same thing as cheap I understand that
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for some people they're going to have $300 to spend on a PC and even if they
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could have something 10 times better for another $10 that won't be feasible so
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they will need to settle for the reduced price to Performance ratio of a cheap
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computer for those folks who do have the regular income that would allow them to
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save a couple more allowances or skim some money off a couple more paychecks
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the advice I've always given wait until you can afford something decent
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continues to ring true grabbing a cavar
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today and running with on board then upgrading later with a discret graphics
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card does make a fair bit of sense if you're impatient and you don't want to
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wait to save up another $60 to $70 for the cheap CPU and mid-range GPU up front
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but make sure that when it comes time to upgrade to a mid-range GPU you are
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picking one based on its individual merits not just based on Dual Graphics
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compatibility the r7260x or the 750 Ti cannot take
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advantage of the onboard graphics for you know and ened gaming the way the
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r7250 can but because they're so much
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better it doesn't matter this may change in the future when the onboard can be
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used for AI or something as a co-processor but we're still a fair way
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away from that and if you're buying a graphics card today for games you can
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play now and you want the most for your money then you're going to want to get a
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proper discrete graphics card just like has been the case up till now sorry dual
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Graphics uh you're just not the most for my money at this point in time speaking
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of getting the most for your money we've got an exciting new sponsor now I
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switched to an electric shaver 3 years ago because I was too cheap and more
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importantly too lazy to deal with the [ __ ] of buying replacement blades
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for my Razor it does a decidedly worse job of
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removing hair from my face and to my dismay it turns out I'm still supposed
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to buy replacement blades for the thing I haven't replaced the blade on it once
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so I guess it's time for a new strategy Dollar Shave Club you know the our
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blades are [ __ ] great guys their whole concept is that for a few bucks a
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month less than the price of buying brand name razors and cartridges with
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unnecessary like vibrating handles and like built-in speakers and stuff you can
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get fantastic blades shipped straight to your door by a highly skilled and
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diverse team of people and bears the cost savings is great but for me the
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appeal is really the convenience of having fresh bathroom stuff delivered
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every month no more like you know maybe maybe I can get like one more shave out
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of this Elvish replica blade bam there goes the jugular they've also got Dr
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Carver's easy shave butter which is clear instead of foamy so you can
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actually see what you're doing and one wipe charlies's which are basically butt
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wipes for men with a peppermint infusion I tried to say that with a straight face
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but I couldn't do it so start shaving time and shaving money join now at
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dollarshaveclub.com Linus and see what it's all about it's available in the US
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Canada and in Australia guys like and
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share this video if you liked it dislike it if you disliked it and leave a
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want to discuss this product or technology we didn't really feature a
9:37
product in this video or if you have constructive criticism for me and my
9:41
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oh and always thanks for watching guys and don't forget to subscribe
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he