These days, in the realm of the best graphics cards, we’ve been facing quite the conundrum. While sales for Nvidia are up, that also means that the best graphics cards are in high demand. This means that it’s nearly impossible to buy a graphics card (GPU) at the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP), due to cryptocurrency mining and the unprecedented growth of PC gaming. For anyone who isn’t hip to cryptocurrency – a lot of people are buying GPUs in bulk to try to make a quick buck by mining Bitcoin, Ethereum or even Dogecoin.
PC gamers are then faced with a difficult dilemma. Do we wait for the best graphics cards to fall within our price range? Or do we wait for the Nvidia Turingseries with its rumored GDDR6 Memory? Maybe you’ll be able to sell your graphics card in a few months to make back some of your cash. Until then, however, you can use the best graphics cards to play the latest, most demanding games, like Final Fantasy XV and Far Cry 5.
And, it’s certainly an odd time for the best graphics cards, as we’re left waiting to see what the next products from both AMD and Nvidia are going to look like, as AMD’s recently introduced Radeon RX 500X Polaris GPUs aren’t exactly exciting.
However, you need to keep in mind that the market for the best CPUs is dense and packed with a wide variety of solutions. That’s why we’ve created this list of the best graphics cards you can buy today, so you’ll be able to find exactly what you need. We’ve culled through the dozens of cards we’ve used over the last year or so and picked the ones that truly stood over the rest. So, no matter who you root for in the perennial war of Nvidia vs AMD, we’ve found the best graphics cards for every use case. Because with GPU prices at a record high, you want to take as much stress out of GPU shopping as you can.
Best graphics card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060
The best GPU to start PC gaming
Stream Processors: 1,280 | Core Clock: 1,506MHz | Memory: 6GB GDDR5 | Memory Clock: 8Gbps | Power Connectors: 1 x 6-pin | Outputs: 3 x DisplayPort 1.4, 1 x HDMI 2.0, DL-DVI
As we’ve explained before, the best graphics card is going to be the one that offers the most bang for the buck. As such, it’s our consensus that the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 is far and away the best graphics card when it comes to sheer value. For a modest sum of cash, this GPU lets players experience full HD 1080p and – maybe with a bit of overclocking – 1440p and even 4K gaming. However, the GTX 1060 doesn’t support SLI, so you’re limited to just one card.
Best 4K graphics card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti
Titan X performance without the Titan X cost
Stream Processors: 3,584 | Core Clock: 1,480MHz | Memory: 11GB GDDR5X | Memory Clock: 11GHz | Power Connectors: 1 x 6-pin; 1 x 8-pin | Outputs: 3 x DisplayPort 1.4, 1 x HDMI 2.0
