Should You Run Baldur’s Gate 3 On AMD or Nvidia Cards And Why? Here’s The Simple Answer

Baldur’s Gate 3 is sweeping fans off their feet with its stunning visuals and gameplay. However, with players being spoilt for choices with so many graphic cards in the market, the decision of which GPU to opt for can become daunting. Both Nvidia and AMD GPUs offer great performance thanks to their advanced APIs. But like all games, Baldur’s Gate 3 is also expected to run slightly differently on the two GPUs.

With that in mind, we elaborate on the APIs for DirectX11 and Vulkan to give you a better idea of which should be the best GPU pair for BG3.

What are DX11 and Vulkan?

First off, let’s get a better idea about the two. Both DX11 and Vulkan are graphical APIs. APIs manage the communication between a game and PC’s hardware. While DirectX11 is developed by Microsoft, Vulkan is a product of the Khronos Group, a supergroup comprised of some of the biggest names in the industry including AMD, Nvidia, Epic, Valve, Apple, and more.

While Vulkan is a more recent API, DX11 is somewhat outdated. Vulkan also receives more regular API updates compared to DX11. Even though DX11 is slowly being replaced by DX12, the former still manages to hold up pretty well when it comes to running modern high-demand games. Even though Baldur’s Gate 3 is using Larian Studios’ own Divinity 4.0 engine, the devs recommended Vulkan as the right API during early access of the game.

Which GPU should you opt for?

You have to select your GPU based on the API you prefer. Both Vulkan and DX11 have their pros and cons and both produce different results on Nvidia and AMD GPUs. Selecting to run Vulkan or DX11 should also depend on which graphics card you have installed in your setup.

Even though the devs recommend Vulkan to run Baldur’s Gate 3 with AMD GPUs, DX11 does show better quality visuals in many cases. In case Vulkan is struggling to dish out great visuals while playing BG3 with an AMD card, DX11 is a great substitute. On the other hand, DX11 delivers better performance with Nvidia graphics cards. This performance difference can get up to as much as 6 to 13% on occasion. In a nutshell, deciding on your GPU should come with your preference for the API which you will engage while playing BG3.

Read more “This Is the Utopia We Dream of”- Baldur’s Gate 3 Players Are in Support of the Game’s ‘Old-School’ Move in the Present Gaming Space

Are you camp Nvidia or camp AMD? tell us your favorite GPU right now in the comments.

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