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All the latest and greatest GPUs


What’s the best graphics card?

Looking to build a new PC, or upgrade your current rig to turn it into a gaming powerhouse, but not sure which graphics card to get?

You’re not alone, picking a GPU is a trick business at the best of times and with the top line costing over £1000, picking the wrong one for your needs can be a costly mistake. That’s especially true this year when we’ve seen a wealth of new graphics cards hit the scene.

Highlights have included Nvidia’s new GeForce RTX 30-series cards, which offer the biggest generational jumps in gaming and general performance since the company moved to its iconic Pascal Architecture many moons ago.

Then AMD followed suit releasing its new RX 6000-series cards. Built on the company’s spiffy new RDNA2 architecture (which also powers the new PS5, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S) the Radeon cards are the first from AMD to feature Ray Tracing.

This is a key selling point that puts them on a par with the Nvidia cards for the first time in years. Ray Tracing is a graphics technology Nvidia rolled out two years ago with its RTX 20-series cards. It lets games render light much more realistically, adding key things like improved shadows and the ability to render reflections.

What’s more, according to rumours there’s more to come. Speculation suggests Nvidia may have new affordable and top end RTX 3060 Ti and RTX 3080 Ti cards before the year’s end.

Here to help make sure you pick the right card for your specific gaming needs we’ve created this list detailing the best cards we’ve tested. Each card’s been tested for value, raw gaming performance, overclocking, power efficiency and stability.

Editor’s note: Select graphics cards may be missing from this list as the unexpected Covid 19 lockdown has cut off access to our test samples. We’ll also be updating this list frequently in the next few months as review samples come our way. 

  • The ultimate card for 4K gaming: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080
  • Best value for ray tracing: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060
  • Best value for Full HD: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti
  • Best for budget Full HD: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660

Related: Nvidia Ampere vs AMD Big Navi

1. Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080

The ultimate card for 4K gaming

Pros:

  • Excellent 4K performance
  • Ray tracing is awesome
  • Far cheaper than the RTX 2080 Ti
  • HDMI 2.1 support

Cons:

  • Very power hungry
  • Not massively overclockable

The Nvidia RTX 3080 is the first card to feature Nvidia’s new Ampere architecture. It brings with it a number of improvements that make it THE best graphics card on the market for 4K gaming.

Highlights include an improved, more efficient 8nm manufacturing process, new RT Cores, third-gen Tensor cores and Micron G6X video memory (VRAM).

Related: What is DLSS? 

The combination of factors make the RTX 3080 the first card we’ve ever tested to consistently offer 4K ray tracing at frame rates over or around 60fps and some of the best performance per watt stats we’ve ever seen.

Considering the fact it costs nearly half what as much as an RTX 2080 Ti, this makes it a no brainer choice for any serious gamer looking to build a top notch, no compromise rig in today’s market. The only slight downside is that it’s not massively overclockable, and, with the RTX 3090 set to appear very soon, it’s time as top dog could be fairly short.

2. Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070

The best for 1440p performance

Pros:

  • Excellent 1440p and 1080p performance
  • Amazing value
  • Smaller than the RTX 3080

Cons:

  • Little room for overclocking

If you’re after a current gen, ray tracing card that won’t require a remortgage then the RTX 3070 is the cheapest entry point to Nvidia’s new Ampere architecture at the moment.

While it’s not exactly cheap, retailing for £469, there’s no getting round the fact it offers fantastic performance. Specifically, the card matches, and at times beats the older RTX 2080 Ti’s performance across the board. This makes it a perfect choice for 1080p and 1440p buyers looking to enjoy top notch Ray Tracing graphics that haven’t made the jump to 4K yet.

Featuring a two fan design it’s also a lot smaller than the RTX 3080, making it a better choice for small builds.

AMD Radeon RX 6800

3. AMD Radeon RX 6800

The best entry to 4K

Pros:

  • Solid 4K performance
  • First AMD card to support Ray Tracing
  • Good value

Cons:

  • Ray Tracing performance lags behind Nvidia
  • No DLSS equivalent at launch

The Radeon RX 6800 is AMD’s answer to the RTX 3070. This means it’s the cheapest card on the market featuring AMD’s swish new RDNA2 architecture, which adds a number of cool new features.

Highlights include things like Ray Tracing support, AMD’s custom Infinity Cache and Smart Cache Memory. Infinity Cache is a particularly unique bit of tech that improves how the card and compatible AMD Ryzen CPUs communicate, in a bid to boost performance.

As cards go it gives great value 4K performance. During testing it blitzed through every game we threw at it, running them at 60fps with their graphics maxed hassle free. If that wasn’t enough to tempt you it’s also much more overclockable than the 3070.

The only minor downside is that, with AMD being new to the race, the RX 6800 can’t match Nvidia RTX 3070 when it comes to Ray Tracing performance. This is in part because AMD doesn’t have a DLSS solution. DLSS is a clever AI solution that reduces the amount of work a graphics card has to do while rendering games at high resolutions or with Ray Tracing turned on.

4. Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060

Best value for ray tracing

Pros:

  • Solid 1080p and 1440p performance
  • Future-proof with Turing
  • Decent value when compared to the 1070

Cons:

  • Ray tracing and DLSS still not widely supported

Though there’s now a Super version, the RTX 2060 remains the best entry point to ray tracing. What’s more, with Nvidia remaining hush, hush about the RTX 3060 during its Ampere launch, it looks set to stay that way for at least a few more months.

The card doesn’t offer the fastest performance, but it’s powerful enough to run Battlefield 5 and Metro Exodus with ray tracing on if you’re willing to sacrifice resolution, which considering its price isn’t to be sniffed at.

Specifically, during testing we found most triple-A titles will run at 60fps or above with their graphics settings maxed at 1080p. This makes this GPU the best value RTX graphics card currently available.

What’s more, the RTX 2060 has a number of decent ITX options, making it one of a select few 20-series cards suitable for small builds.

PNY GTX 1660 Ti best graphics card

5. GeForce GTX 1660 Ti

Best value for Full HD gaming

Pros:

  • Fantastic value Full HD performance
  • Intelligent shading improves efficiency for modern games
  • Small enough for mini-ITX cases

Cons:

  • Limited overclocking potential

If the 2080 Ti and 30-series sound like complete overkill and you just wanna play basic games at 1080p, then the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti is the card to go for right now.

It doesn’t support ray tracing or DLSS, and it’s specs sheet isn’t top end, but you won’t find a better card for the money.

During testing we were able to get a 120fps Full HD performance on the likes of Fortnite, PUBG and Apex Legends, with minimal fuss. For battle royale shooters, you couldn’t ask for a smoother experience.

And even if you’re not fussed about big online brawlers, the GTX 1660 Ti is still the best value 1080p graphics card you can currently buy.

It’s also fairly small and has lower power consumption than its 20 and 30-series siblings, making it a better choice for small, affordable lounge PC/media builds.

GTX 1660 Best graphics card

6. GeForce GTX 1660

Great Full HD performance at a low, low price

Pros:

  • Superb value for Full HD gaming
  • Adaptive shading gives modern games a performance boost
  • Incredible optimisation for battle royale game

Cons:

  • The slightly more expensive GTX 1660 Ti offers better value

If you really, really, really have basic gaming needs then the GTX 1660 is the most affordable card on the market we can recommend. The card is aimed at MOBA and battle royale gamers who don’t want to break the bank.

It doesn’t match the performance of its Ti sibling, which we’d see being a better fit for most buyers, but with it costing £100 less there’s no denying it’s still cracking value.

Our tests prove the GTX 1660 is capable of running modern AAA games, such as Shadow of the Tomb Raider, at high frame rates, while even being able to achieve a respectable Quad HD performance for titles released a few years ago. Fortnite and Apex Legends fans will certainly benefit, with the GTX 1660 optimised specifically for battle royale games.

How to choose the right card for you

Third-party cards: whenever you buy a GPU, consider which manufacturer you want to opt for since the  the specs will differ accordingly. Nvidia’s latest 10-series cards also include so-called ‘Founders Edition’ designs, which are the models we review. Third-party models tend to be more expensive and perform slightly better. Common brand names include EVGA, Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, XFX, Zotac and many more.

With prices constantly shifting and special offers appearing daily, recommending a specific model purely on its price is difficult. As such, this guide will offer each card’s usual price range and the sort of performance you can expect.

Related: Best gaming monitors

A manufacturer’s cooler designs will also affect performance, but only by single-digit percentage points – this is especially true of cheaper cards. With more expensive GPUs card manufacturers push the boat out, throwing clever fans and software into the mix and offering up higher clock speeds, which can make a difference.

Things to look out for on each card include (in order of importance):

  • Length of warranty
  • Price
  • Overclocking
  • Fan noise
  • Visual flare
  • Extra cooling fans

Ray tracing: Ray tracing is a recent graphics card feature (although an older technology) that enables video game developers to create more realistic reflections and light simulation. Traditionally a very processor intensive operation, the new cards ensure reflections in puddles and light shining through a window will look far more impressive than with traditional rendering methods. Currently, only Nvidia’s RTX cards are fully optimised for this technology.

DLSS: DLSS is a another RTX exclusive feature that uses artificial intelligence to help the GPU render frames more efficiently, resulting in a juicy frame rate boost. However, our testing has shown activating DLSS will negatively impact the display quality, with detail becoming more fuzzy and less pronounced.

Unlike other sites, we thoroughly review everything we recommend, using industry standard tests to evaluate products. We’ll always tell you what we find. We may get a commission if you buy via our price links.
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