If you’re building your own PC, then finding the perfect parts can be difficult. There are so many graphics cards and processors available today and not all of them will be compatible with your existing system or its motherboard.
Balancing performance, price, and compatibility can be a difficult mental juggling act for anyone to perform. At the Fix My PC Free blog, we try to educate visitors on how to choose the fastest, most break-resistant PC hardware. But with the hardware industry changing on a near-daily basis, it can be a difficult task.
That’s why I was happy to stumble upon a pair of helpful websites called GPUBoss.com and CPUBoss.com, each of which is designed to make comparing video cards and processors as easy as possible.
How to use CPU Boss and GPU Boss
Each of these websites features a similar style. On the homepage, visitors see a matchup between two popular video cards or processors. Simply click ‘Compare’ to see a detailed head-to-head matchup between those two cards.
For example, the popular video card matchup on GPUBoss.com involves the GTX 670 versus the GTX 680. The GTX 670 manages to squeak out on top, although the final score is close (6.3 for the 680 compared to 6.0 for the 670).
To compare other video cards, simply scroll to the top of the page and click Change. Swap another video card into the mix and the website will instantly lists its details, performance, price, and more.
Each website is incredibly easy to use and very intuitive. Below, you’ll find some tips and tricks to get the most out of the websites.
Sorting based on price and performance
Most gamers have some sort of budget they need to stick to when building a rig. Price is another part where GPUBoss.com truly shines. The website assigns a value called “G3D Mark per Dollar” to each card on its page. The higher that score is, the better value the card will be.
Top G3D Mark per Dollar cards include:
-GeForce GTX 560 (21.22pt/$)
-Radeon HD7850 (20.35/$)
-GeForce GTX 660 (18.81/$)
Another useful section is the “Best performance under $XXX” portion of the page. Simply find your budget range and choose the best card under that amount. For example, the best card under $200 is the Radeon HD7850, which costs $180 and can run Battlefield 3 at a smooth 49.3 frames per second.
For gamers who don’t have a budget (lucky you!), the websites also feature a pure performance section where the best video cards on the market today can be found. If price is no object, GPUBoss.com recommends scooping up the GeForce GTX Titan or the GTX 680, for example.
Sorting PC hardware based on performance within a specific game
If you plan on playing a specific game or two on your new rig, then you’ll appreciate the game performance comparison section on both GPUBoss.com and CPUBoss.com. In-game performance is benchmarked in popular games like:
-Crysis: Warhead
-Batman: Arkham City
-Civilization V
CPUBoss.com works in precisely the same way. Except there seems to be more variation among processors (cache size, overclocking performance, etc.) as opposed to video cards, which tend to have one or two leaders in each price range. That makes shopping around more complicated, but it’s much easier to choose the perfect CPU thanks to CPUBoss.com
Whether you’re building a rig for the first time or you just want to upgrade to the best possible video card under $200, CPUBoss.com and GPUBoss.com aim to cure headaches for gamers all over the world. Even if you’re an experienced PC hardware builder, these websites are incredibly useful and can save hours of Google searching among benchmark sites.
Check them out today – they’re worth a visit.
http://www.cpuboss.com
http://www.gpuboss.com
