The correlation between a graphics card and frame rate is of utmost significance if you ask me, as they are linked with each other. This simply means, the better the graphics card, the higher the frame rate, given that the rest of the specs are equally solid enough as well for assistance.
A graphics card work as an FPS generator while taking assistance from the CPU and DRAM.
However, for a gamer, it’s one of the most important components of his rig, as it affects the frame rate quite substantially. So, let’s see what kind of performance difference a graphics card can exhibit.
Graphics Card’s Role in Gaming Performance
The role of a graphics card in gaming is quite significant, as it is responsible for all the effects and stuff that you see on the screen.
The graphics card, as in the name, takes care of the graphical work, it renders all the graphical assets and game physics in real-time right after it receives the required assets from the CPU and DRAM.
Every graphics card comes with some dedicated amount of graphics memory which stores all the graphical assets of the game and renders the frames one after another, the more powerful the graphics card, the faster it will render the frames, therefore, resulting in higher FPS count.
You need a minimum of 30 frames per second to enjoy a game, that’s the bare minimum, and anything above that is a bonus, which the GPUs nowadays can easily generate.
A mid-range graphics card is more than capable of delivering a 60 FPS experience on 1080-1440p resolution and adjusted settings. This ensures a nice balance between visuals and performance and allows you to experience the best of both.
Importance of Frame Rate in Gaming
Frame rate is the frequency at which the generated image frames are displayed on the monitor each second. The more the frames are displayed in a second, the smoother the video gets.
30 is the typical number of FPS which most of the games run on consoles due to the limited graphical horsepower which the consoles possess.
However, on a PC is totally different as you can throw any configuration you like and get the result you desire. In most instances, a PC can generate more frames than a console, and you still have the option to tinker with the graphical settings of the game to get additional performance at the cost of visual fidelity.
For a PC gamer, 30 FPS feels like a cinematic experience, moreover, a perfect 30 FPS lock on a PC is quite hard because of the uncertainty of the kind of optimization of each gaming title.
So, you’re better off with high frame rates to make up for the casual frame drops due to the bad optimization of the game or limited graphics processing power.
Graphics Card Performance Impact
A powerful graphics card means a seamless gaming experience with high frame rates. Having a powerful graphics card requires more electricity as well to perform better than many on the market.
A flagship graphics card such as an RTX 4080 can render frames surprisingly faster than any budget series graphics card. This means that the RTX 4080 will be outputting almost double the performance of what a budget graphics card like the RX 6600 XT or RTX 3060 can pull out.
However, this kind of graphical processing power also comes at a much higher cost. Basically, you’re paying more for more performance.
Almost every game benefits from a powerful graphics card, but triple-A titles benefit the most from a powerful graphics card.
Because of how those games are built, a powerful graphics card is a must to render the heavy graphical assets of the gaming world as well as in-game physics to make the games look more alive and responsive.
Games like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Cyberpunk 2077 require a lot of graphical power because of the high-quality textures and attention to detail that both games possess.
So, the heavier the game, the more the graphics card has to work to generate favorable frame rates and vice versa and you can know more on to this on Techies Mag as they’ve covered graphics cards topics in depth.
Resolution and Frame Rate
Resolution and frame rates, both are handled by the graphics card you have. However, increasing either of them brings the remaining functionality down. This implies that if you increase the resolution of the game, the frame rates will get a significant hit based on the resolution you choose.
It’s a trade-off that you have to think about and stick with what makes more sense to you, an extra crisp image or much smoother gameplay. You might be wondering, even after having powerful graphics, why a trade-off is still required.
Since the graphics card is responsible for rendering the given data into viewable frames, so rendering a frame with a much higher pixel count requires additional power and time in comparison with a lower-resolution frame.
As you can see, the graphics card is taking more time in rendering a high-resolution frame, which means it’s delivering somewhat less frame per second depending on the resolution you go with.
For gamers with mid-range graphics cards, 1440p is a decent sweet spot, that provides a noticeable uplift in visual fidelity at minimal FPS hit.
Overclocking
Overclocking is an option available to every graphics card, irrespective of its class, whether it’s from the budget category or flagship. It is possible for all of them, however, it does require a little bit of knowledge about the power and clock sliders.
Overclocking is a free way to get slightly more performance out of your graphics card, most modern-day graphics card comes overclocked from the factory with still some room left for you.
You can achieve higher frame rates by overclocking your GPU, whilst losing a little on the power efficiency and lower overall temperatures of the GPU.
Conclusion
Now that we are done explaining everything related to graphics cards and frame rates. We wish that you will now consider more options if you’re planning to purchase a graphics card solely for gaming purposes.
As we have discussed, frame rates are heavily dependent on the graphical processing power of the GPU, so go with the best value option available.
Furthermore, it is necessary to consider the rest of the PC specifications in order to prevent any potential bottlenecks to ensure a seamless gaming experience with a higher FPS count.
