Buying a new graphics card at a normal price is impossible today and unfortunately everything seems to indicate that this situation will not change in 2021. By that I mean that, with the exception of surprises, there is a high probability that the situation will change it will not begin to normalize until 2022.
This reality has forced many users to keep using their graphics card as it is currently unable to update unless we are ready to accept really insane prices. For example the NVIDIA RTX 3080, the one recommended price of 719 euros In its Founders Edition version, it is sold at prices that vary from 1,300 to over 1,900 euros.
Not impressed? Well, it should be that the situation is so out of control that people are selling notifications on graphics cards, and the RTX 3080 to be precise is one of the most demanding. As we have told you on previous occasions, the main cause of this situation lies in the high demand from the cryptocurrency mining sectorwhich completely drained the market.
Right now is the smartest thing we can do Extend our graphics card to the maximum and wait for the market to normalize. I understand this can be complicated for some, especially if you were already starting to notice a significant lack of performance in your graphics card, or if you had updated parts and just had to renew that component.
To help you cope with the situation a little better, I am going to give you a number of tips that will help you improve directly and really effectively. the performance of your graphics cardwithout having to take any costs or risk.
1.-Update your graphics card driver
We’ll start with the simplest, although strangely enough, it’s also the most effective. If you have a very old graphics card, its support has been reduced and it is very likely that it will no longer get significant performance gains, but in some cases You can see slight improvements and maintain a high level of compatibility with your operating system.
You know what It’s not a good thing to keep an obsolete componentThe same goes for drivers. To update the drivers for your graphics card, always visit the manufacturer’s official website:
2. Settings in the driver’s control panel
The control panel of our graphics card drivers from NVIDIA and AMD contains numerous settings that enable this Adjust the graphical settings in general and also specificallyThat means you can customize certain configurations for certain applications.
Changing the configuration can help us improve the performance of our graphics card, although in return we will be sacrificing graphics quality. The improvement we are experiencing may vary depending on the game and configurationand of course it won’t work miracles with low-end graphics cards that perform very poorly, but in some cases it can help us scratch a few FPS and make the difference, for example between moving a game up 25 FPS or doing it at 30 FPS.
I recommend that you first make sure you have the option selected “Preferred top performance” In power control mode, try to tweak the quality used in settings like texture filtering and test step by step for the best result possible.
3.-Use patches and mods: a real lifesaver
It’s curious to see how the community dedicated to the world of modding has fared more than once. the work of the developers In terms of optimization, the development of patches and easy-to-install mods that allow us to run games “optimally” on hardware configurations that do not reach the recommended level.
It is important that you keep two things in mind. The first is that if our PC is well below the minimum requirements, these mods and / or patches they won’t work miracles and the second is that they don’t directly increase the performance of our graphics card, just change the game settings and introduce changes that allow us to use settings that we had blocked at first.
For example, I remember that Fallout 4 received an unofficial mod that allowed this to be done Adjust the viewing distance of shadows in real timeThis is important to maintain stable frame rates per second when moving in areas with lots of rundown buildings. There’s also a mod for Red Dead Redemption 2 that optimizes the graphic settings and enables the use of textures in medium, high or extreme quality with graphics cards that only have 2 GB of memory.
Don’t underestimate the value of these patches / mods, but be careful about installing and Only look for trusted sources.
4.-Optimize your graphics card
Over time, the cooling system of our graphics card collects dust and dirt, Thermal paste dries upand the heating pads they worsen (The latter happens very long term, keep that in mind).
Something as simple as disassembling our graphics card and Thorough cleaning of the cooling system can lower operating temperaturesand particularly. This can improve the scaling of the GPU turbo mode and allow the GPU to run faster, resulting in higher performance.
We can also Dismantling the cooling system to the Change thermal pasteand heating pads if required. This process is pretty straightforward for the most part, but I understand that carries a riskSince you will have to “fiddle” with disassembling your graphics card, if you are unsure how to do this it is better to seek help as this is not a good time to “break” a graphics card.
5. Overclock, but be careful
There is no doubt that overclocking our graphics card is one of the best ways to boost its performance for free, but we must do it with great care as the clock frequencies are increased onIncreases energy consumption and also temperatures work.
By overclocking, we can increase the working frequencies of the GPU and also increase the speed of the memory. Mostly, The first has the greatest impact on performanceSo we have to prioritize it. It’s also important to keep in mind that touching the memory speed can lead to very noticeable stability issues, but they don’t need to be noticed right away.
To safely overclock your graphics card, I recommend doing this before trying anything a stress test to see what temperatures it records at its storage frequencies, and that you check that your power supply has room to handle the extra consumption that this overclocking brings with it.
When you are sure, you should turn to a trustworthy tool like MSI Afterburner. Increase the frequencies in small steps (+25 MHz for example) and check the stability with every jump. This allows you to fine-tune overclocking and find the sweet spot without compromising the stability or integrity of your graphics card. With reasonable overclocking, you can win between 5% and 10% yield. This can make a 2.5 FPS difference when playing a game at 25 FPS, which would bring us to 27.5 FPS.
Overclock our CPU and RAMThis can also help us improve performance in games, especially in games that are more CPU dependent and when we play in resolutions of 1080p and lower. In many cases, this can increase the performance of the graphics card, as the GPU is more dependent on the CPU at these resolutions in order to exploit its full potential.
6.-Improve the airflow of your PC
Heat is the great enemy of semiconductors, and of course the graphics card is no exception. Even relatively older generation models, such as NVIDIA’s GTX 900 series, use a turbo mode called the Adjusts the GPU frequency based on temperatures work. If the temperature is kept at a reasonable level, the speed increases and with it the performance.
Improve the airflow in our PC reduces the internal temperatureThis has a positive effect on the working temperatures of the graphics card. In some cases, and in particularly hot environments where the ambient temperature is very high, removing the side panel of the device can make a big difference, although it is not ideal in the long run.
Clean the inside of the deviceThe fans in particular can be of great help, and the maintenance of other components to reduce their working temperatures, such as Changing the thermal paste on the processor, for example, can also help reduce the amount of heat that has accumulated in the case. We must also remember to organize the wiring well and limit the obstacles that can affect the airflow.
7.-Every game is a world: configure the graphics settings correctly
I know it may sound cliché, but it’s something very important that not everyone end up internalizing. Graphics settings can make a huge difference, so a graphics card can perform well at medium quality settings Completely collapse at high quality settings.
Reduce the graphics settings of a game This does not increase the gross performance of our graphics card, but it does reduce the workload that this must be faced, and thanks to this, we will enjoy greater fluidity. In some cases, the sacrifice we have to make is minimal, as many games scale very well even at medium quality. You do not believe me? Think PS5 Control moves in medium to low quality.
All in all, keep that in mind Every game is a worldand that in some cases we have to try to change some settings, such as B. Textures to keep in high quality. The low quality level is usually not worthwhile, except in rare cases where the performance improvement is very large and the visual impact is “bearable”.
Do you have any doubts? Good Don’t miss this guide for graphical adjustmentsHere you can find all the information you need.
