A graphics card page lists numbers and feature names. Each one answers a narrow question, and none says how a given game will run on your PC. This guide shows how to read a specification row, then how to check each software feature on its own: which version it is, which cards the maker lists for it and which games use it. It ranks no card and promises no gain.

Gimaxo has not tested any graphics card, so every measurement below belongs to a named reviewer. Pages were read on November 6, 2026 and change often. Where a sentence starts with “Our reading:”, it is this guide’s own conclusion, drawn from the source named just before it.

Photo: Gary Houston, CC0, taken June 4, 2020, resized and converted. A low-profile GeForce GT 1030, an older entry-level card, shown only to illustrate the parts a specification row describes. It is not one of the models cited in this guide, it is not a current model, and it was not tested or chosen by Gimaxo.

Start from your target

Decide what you want before you read a row: the resolution, the refresh rate and the settings you like. A card that suits one target can be more than you need for another. Measured performance for your target comes from independent reviews, covered below, not from a specification page.

Read a specification row

NVIDIA’s comparison page lists, for each GeForce model, the memory, the power figures, the connectors and the size. The two RTX 50 series rows below are examples of how to read one. They are not recommendations.

• Memory. The GeForce RTX 5070 is listed with 12 GB of GDDR7 on a 192-bit interface. The GeForce RTX 5060 Ti is listed as “16 GB / 8 GB” of GDDR7 on a 128-bit interface. One model name can cover two memory sizes, so check which variant a listing sells.
• Power. The page lists a Total Graphics Power (250 W for the RTX 5070, 180 W for the RTX 5060 Ti) and a Required System Power (650 W and 600 W). Its footnote says the minimum is based on a PC configured with a Ryzen 9 9950X processor, recommends a PCIe CEM 5.1 compliant power supply, and adds that power requirements can differ with the system configuration.
• Connectors. The RTX 5070 row lists “2x PCIe 8-pin cables (adapter in box) OR 300 W or greater PCIe Gen 5 cable”. The RTX 5060 Ti row lists one 8-pin cable or a 300 W or greater PCIe Gen 5 cable.
• Size. The RTX 5070 row lists 242 mm and a 2-slot design. The RTX 5060 Ti row lists “Varies by manufacturer” for both. The page’s note says its specifications represent the Founders Edition or reference design, and that partner cards may differ.
• Temperature. The page lists a maximum GPU temperature (85°C for the RTX 5070, 87°C for the RTX 5060 Ti).

Our reading: read the row of the exact card you plan to buy, from the maker that sold it. Gimaxo did not open AMD’s or Intel’s card pages in this pass, so the examples above come from NVIDIA only. Our guide to power supplies covers the connector and cable checks.

Check each software feature separately

A page that lists several versions of a feature does not show that all of them work on every card. For each feature, check three things: the version, the hardware the maker lists, and the games.

NVIDIA DLSS. NVIDIA’s DLSS page has a hardware table, read on November 6, 2026:

• Super Resolution: GeForce RTX 50, 40, 30 and 20 series. NVIDIA says a second-generation transformer model arrived with DLSS 4.5.
• Frame Generation: RTX 50 and 40 series only.
• Ray Reconstruction and DLAA: RTX 50, 40, 30 and 20 series.
• Dynamic Multi Frame Generation: RTX 50 series only. NVIDIA says it arrived with DLSS 4.5.
• Multi Frame Generation: described as powered by the RTX 50 series. Two NVIDIA pages give two maximums, in generated frames per rendered frame. The DLSS page says “up to five frames per rendered frame”, and its demo caption reads “Multi Frame Generation (6X Mode)”. NVIDIA’s list of games and applications says “up to 3 frames per traditionally rendered frame”. Counting the rendered frame too, up to five generated frames means up to six frames shown per rendered frame, and up to three means up to four. Neither text names the DLSS version that goes with its maximum, and the list’s post, dated January 30, 2025, mentions DLSS 4.5 in its text and so has been updated since. This guide does not decide whether the two maximums describe different versions. Check the multiplier in your game’s own settings.
• 3D-Guided Neural Rendering (DLSS 5): RTX 50 series, and NVIDIA says developers tune it for each game.

NVIDIA’s list of games and applications says over 1,000 of them feature RTX support. That count covers more than DLSS, and it is a total, not a list of which game has which feature version.

NVIDIA Reflex. The Reflex page describes Reflex Low Latency as reducing PC latency through synchronization of rendering across the GPU and the CPU. It describes Reflex Frame Warp as “coming soon” in the text Gimaxo read, so it is not described there as available. NVIDIA’s comparison table lists Reflex Low Latency Mode for the RTX 50 series rows. Which older cards and which games support it was not read.

AMD FSR. AMD’s FSR page says FSR Upscaling 4.1 is available in over 400 supported games on Radeon RX 6000 series desktop graphics and higher, Ryzen AI Max and Ryzen AI 9 laptop processors, and Ryzen Z2A and Z2 Extreme handhelds. The page says FSR 4 was renamed FSR Upscaling, and that the FSR “Redstone” suite includes FSR Upscaling, Frame Generation, Ray Regeneration and Radiance Caching. Its hardware table lists the full Redstone suite for the Radeon RX 9000 series and above, and upscaling only for the RX 6000 and RX 7000 series. It lists FSR 3 Frame Generation for the RX 5000 series and above. AMD adds that FSR requires developer integration in each game and that it does not provide support for FSR on other vendors’ cards.

Intel XeSS. Intel’s Arc page lists XeSS Super Resolution, XeSS Frame Generation, XeSS Multi-Frame Generation and Xe Low Latency across XeSS, XeSS 2 and XeSS 3. It says Multi-Frame Generation inserts up to 3 generated frames between two rendered frames. The page text Gimaxo read does not state which Arc cards support each feature, and does not give a game count. This guide therefore does not say which version includes which feature or which cards run it.

One game as an example. TechPowerUp’s Phantom Blade Zero review (W1zzard, November 2, 2026) says the game supports DLSS 4.5, FSR 4.1 and XeSS 2.0 as upscalers, plus DLAA and native rendering. For frame generation it says NVIDIA goes up to 6x with a dynamic mode, while AMD and Intel are at 2x. That describes one game on one date. It is not a rule for other games.

Our reading: a feature name on a maker’s page proves nothing about your card or your game. Check the version, then the hardware table, then the game’s own settings or the maker’s game list.

What one reviewer measured: memory use

The Phantom Blade Zero review also measured graphics memory use. Its test system used a Ryzen 7 9800X3D on an MSI X870E Carbon, 2x16 GB DDR5-6200, Windows 11 25H2 and drivers NVIDIA 621.01, AMD 26.10.2 and Intel 101.9150. All cards were Founders Edition or reference designs where one exists, and the run was a typical open-world location. At the Low preset the game used 5.6 GB at 1600x900 and 7.3 GB at 4K. At Ultra it used around 8 GB up to 1440p and a little over 10 GB at 4K. Ray tracing added about a gigabyte at 4K, path tracing reached 13 GB, and stacking 6x frame generation on it reached 14 GB. The reviewer notes that upscaling lowers the requirement because the game renders at a lower resolution.

These figures describe one game. Our reading: they show why a listed memory size is not a verdict. They do not tell you how much memory your games need.

Compatibility in your PC

Check the power connectors and the Required System Power against your power supply, and the card’s length and slot width against your case. Take both from the card maker’s specifications for your exact model, since partner cards can differ from the reference design. Our guides to power supplies and to cooling cover the cable and clearance checks.

Where to find measured performance

A specification page does not measure performance. For that, use independent reviews, and note for each one the games, the resolution, the settings, the drivers, the processor and the date. This guide gives no ranking, because a ranking depends on those conditions. If you already own a PC and want to find what limits it, start with our gaming PC performance guide.

What this guide does not cover

Prices, laptops, content creation and video encoding, power efficiency claims, and the specification pages of AMD and Intel cards. It names no current best card.

Before you buy

1. Read the maker’s row for the exact model and variant, including memory size.
2. Check the power connectors, the Required System Power and the card’s size against your PC.
3. For each software feature you care about, check its version, the supported hardware and your games.
4. Look for reviews that match your games, resolution and drivers.

Sources

Named here as plain text. Pages read on November 6, 2026 unless stated.

• NVIDIA, GeForce graphics cards comparison page, including its footnote on required system power
• NVIDIA, DLSS technology page and its supported hardware table
• NVIDIA, “NVIDIA DLSS & GeForce RTX: List Of All Games, Engines And Applications…”, Andrew Burnes, dated January 30, 2025 (text read on November 6, 2026)
• NVIDIA, Reflex technology page
• AMD, FSR technologies page, including its hardware compatibility table
• Intel, Arc graphics gaming technologies page (XeSS)
• TechPowerUp, “Phantom Blade Zero Performance Benchmark Review - 35 GPUs Tested”, W1zzard, November 2, 2026
• Wikimedia Commons, “MSI GeForce GT 1030 2G LP OC Graphics Card” (Gary Houston, CC0)