When is the Best Time to Upgrade Your Graphics Card and What Are the Benefits of Having a High-end One?
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Jun 24
Computers and their components can always seem like such a daunting thing. As a beginner, it's difficult to differentiate the CPU from the GPU, or what your RAM does, or what the point of a motherboard even is — in reality, this is all relatively simple to get into, and it's why building PCs has become so many people's hobbies and passions. Everything fits together like LEGO blocks, and the more you learn, the more it all makes sense!
For those transitioning from console gaming to PC gaming, the process can indeed be daunting. On consoles like the PlayStation 5, the Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch, it's a straightforward experience: you power on the console and start playing games. Even with the Steam Deck, which is lauded for its user-friendliness, it's a simple plug-and-play setup that many gamers adore. You stick with your console until the next one arrives (and has enough games) to warrant an upgrade. However, in the PC world, the upgrade process is a bit more intricate.
Unlike console upgrades, PC upgrades are a more nuanced process. While new components are released every couple of years, it's not a straightforward case of "new is better". To help you navigate this complexity, we've put together this guide. It will assist you in understanding when the optimal time to upgrade your PC is and what implications it could have for your system as a whole.
When is the Best Time to Upgrade Your PC?
Let's talk about the hard question first — when should you upgrade your PC? This depends from gamer to gamer, and it'll depend on your personal use case, too. In my personal case, I upgrade a PC when I feel that my hardware can no longer keep up with the current-gen video games releasing.
When I first created my PC, I skipped two generations because I felt the upgrade was "good enough" throughout all of them and could run the games that I wanted to play until then. This varies from your personal gaming preferences as well: if you're looking to enjoy AAA titles, you'll be looking at more frequent updates, whilst simpler titles — like League of Legends or vanilla Minecraft — could run for ages to come. Indie vs AAA, realistic and taxing graphics vs beautiful pixel sprites will all play a part in your decision.
When I started, I was playing more AAA games, but I was catching up to the titles that I had to play from the past (e.g., older AAA entries). As I got more into gaming, though, I started dabbling in newer experiences (like Ghost of Tsushima and ELDEN RING’s latest expansion, Shadow of the Erdtree nowadays) and it required me to start thinking about an upgrade. This was bolstered by the fact that as I grew as a gamer, I began using super ultrawide monitors (32:9 resolution equivalent to two screens side-to-side) and enjoying the more niches that the high echelons of the Gaming society partook in — 4k resolutions, ultrawide, max graphical settings...
PCs are more than just a console for gamers, too. Endless tweaks to your software and hardware, the capability to customize your own case means that you get a truly unique gaming setup. A full black chassis with few RGB? You got it! A full white chassis with all the colors under the rainbow? That's a possibility! Decorating your PC means that you get to show off your style by cherry-picking the pieces you want and making it more than just a hunk of metal at the side of your PC in the office/gaming area but a part of your personality and decorations. Every PC is unique, and that comes from both the technical hardware and the visual hardware.
And this is where the second part of the article comes from, where we'll be talking about...
What Are the Benefits of High-end Graphics Card?
We've spoken a bit about the pros of upgrading and changing your PC around for aesthetics and performance, but we haven't really touched on what that really entails. The higher grade you go, not only will you have more performance you will also find more options around aesthetics and features. — older components didn't have as much customisation support as the newer generations now bolster. A high-end graphics card comes with higher memory capacities, better graphics and even upscaling Technology. Ever heard of FSR and never understood what that is? It's an upscaling tool to make your games run at higher resolutions with higher frame rates.
And just because you're going high-end doesn't mean you don't have the opportunity to personalize your own rig to your liking. Take the 7900 models as an example — in PowerColor, you can find plenty of different types of options to pick from, giving you the opportunity to choose between a slew of colours and themes:
- Red Devil Series
The Red Devil Series is PowerColor's flagship line, built for top-tier performance and overclocking enthusiasts with maximum reliability. Featuring a more aggressive design and customizable RGB lighting, these cards are perfect to stand out in your gaming build.
- Hellhound Series with Spectral White Variants
The Hellhound Series offers a sleek design and awesome performance for gamers. Available in classic all-black and the striking Spectral White variant, these cards offer a great look for the more clean builds; even if being a clean design, the Hellhound series still offers customizable minimalistic light implementation.
- Liquid Devil Series
The Liquid Devil Series is the pinnacle of cooling and performance, featuring custom-designed water blocks for optimal thermal management. These cards are engineered for extreme overclocking, providing unparalleled performance and stability. The Liquid Devil Series combines premium materials, superior cooling efficiency, and customizable RGB lighting, making it the ultimate choice for custom water-cooled PC enthusiasts.
But the benefits don’t stop there, if you have a PowerColor Red Devil RX7000 series, you will be able to go even further when customizing your gaming PC look, with the support for Devil Skins, you can make your gaming PC truly unique.