+ AA6YQ comments below
An important distinction is that most of the features of these performance graphics cards are not going to be used at all with typical ham applications. Almost nothing in the ham application use 3D graphics. Instead, it's the 2D rendering performance that is key but it's not talked about at all in most card reviews. This is especially important because there is a complete and total mess in the higher end graphics market now which may confused and scare away hams from picking up a very fine graphics card that would meet their needs.
Fortunately there is a web page that will help guide relative speeds of graphic cards, both old and newer ones.
Take note at the G2D column, and sort from highest to lowest. Then just go down that list and check whatever graphic card you have an interest in.
Notice that the fastest card on the list is about 1000 in the 2D speed. The card I have in my main PC (GTX 1060) scores 770 - a card that must be at least 5 years old. It runs a trio of UHD monitors here in the shack. And you can get a similar one for under $100 on ebay.
I'm not advocating this card, rather mentioning that whatever card you are thinking of buying can be judged on it's speed by consulting this list. And anything that's on the top half (500 or more) will most certainly be completely fine for ham applications.
+ It would be nice to have a "Selecting a Video Card" article in the DXLab Wiki to go with the "Selecting a Monitor" article developed by Dave W6DE:
+ The above guidance regarding 2-dimensional rendering performance would certainly be included in "Selecting a Video Card", but there are additional considerations:
- resolution
- refresh rate
- power consumption
- physical size
- monitor connectivity (HDMI, DisplayPort, etc.)
- motherboard compatibility
+ Would someone like to take a crack at this?
73,
Dave, AA6YQ
