I'm deciding which graphics card to buy for my first proper

[crowdo]

Good afternoon. I'm deciding which graphics card to buy for my first proper build and I've noticed that synthetic benchmark scores often don't match what people report in actual games. One card wins in 3DMark and loses in real play. I'd rather see in-game results from regular users than lab tests. I'm especially interested in how cards behave in older titles and esports games, not just the latest AAA releases. Do you know any source that collects actual gameplay numbers from ordinary players?

[crowdo]

That gap between synthetic scores and real games is exactly why I stopped looking at 3DMark first. Lately I check the H2Bench GPU benchmarks, because their FPS Lab collects runs from regular players through a small Windows app, and each result needs video proof before it's approved. You see average FPS, 1% lows, the CPU it was paired with, resolution and preset. For real-world expectations that's more honest than a lab bench with a top-end CPU. Fair warning though: the number of measured runs is still modest, so your exact card and game may not be there yet. I use it as a second opinion next to a couple of reviewers I still trust. In that case their spec comparisons and score are still useful as a baseline.