Want to play the latest PC games? How to upgrade your computer and get a better graphics card for the best performance

You don’t even need a top of the line card to get high resolution and smooth performance from your PC

Even with an entry level modern chip, tweak your settings and set-up and you will be able to play the most demanding games

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If you want to play the latest games on your PC, you don’t need the top of the line graphics cards to get great results. Photo: Christopher Pike/Getty Images

Published: 11:15pm, 5 Jun 2020Updated: 5:02am, 6 Jun 2020

A graphics card is a key hardware component in any PC, but if you’re interested in gaming or editing media, it’s probably the most important part of your computer.

If the latest games will no longer run smoothly in Full HD resolution, a new graphics card may be the easiest fix. But it doesn’t even have to be one of the top-of-the-range models supporting 4K.

According to numerous tests from gamers on YouTube, even entry-level models of the current chip generations of Nvidia and AMD are powerful enough to deliver smooth performance for current software and games.

Performance isn’t the only consideration – you also need to think about the set-up of the computer that the card will be installed in.

First, is there enough room in your PC’s housing to fit it? Some especially large graphics cards such as older Nvidia GTX 1080 take up a lot of space. A card that’s too big could obscure adjacent slots or prevent you from being able to close up the PC again after installing the card.

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