The Best Graphics Cards: Top GPU Choices for Every Budget

[Julio Franco]

If you're looking to buy a new graphics card today, don't mind all the testing, marginal fps gains, power consumption figures, or overclocking potential. TechSpot's Best Graphics Cards is written to get a simple question answered: Given a certain budget, which is the graphics card you should buy?

Read the full article here.

https://www.techspot.com/bestof/graphics-cards/

 

[pcnthuziast]

Hmm, so basically, AMD is never a good option?

 

[MaxXx91]

Hmm, so basically, AMD is never a good option?

Yes, it seems ...
take Nvidia at the price you can put in is the conclusion of this test ^^"

 

[enemys]

I really, really wanted to buy Vega, but those prices... Ended up getting a 1080Ti. So far so good, though I'm yet to get a decent G-Sync screen. For now, I can run The Witcher 3 in 5880x1080 ultra 60-70fps, which is definitely awesome, if totally impractical.

 

[Steve]

I really, really wanted to buy Vega, but those prices... Ended up getting a 1080Ti. So far so good, though I'm yet to get a decent G-Sync screen. For now, I can run The Witcher 3 in 5880x1080 ultra 60-70fps, which is definitely awesome, if totally impractical.

In my opinion adaptive sync technology isn't terribly useful on extreme high-end GPUs. Just get a 144 Hz 1440p monitor and ya set!

 

[enemys]

In my opinion adaptive sync technology isn't terribly useful on extreme high-end GPUs. Just get a 144 Hz 1440p monitor and ya set!

I can't hit 144fps in my modded Morrowind setup . Maybe OpenMW will do better. And it's not like I'm going to buy a new super high end card every year, so adaptive sync might come handy in the future.

 

[hahahanoobs]

In my opinion adaptive sync technology isn't terribly useful on extreme high-end GPUs. Just get a 144 Hz 1440p monitor and ya set!

I can't hit 144fps in my modded Morrowind setup . Maybe OpenMW will do better. And it's not like I'm going to buy a new super high end card every year, so adaptive sync might come handy in the future.

Sigh....
You don't need to hit a constant 144fps.
I really wish people would stop thinking that.

 

[Steve]

Sigh....
You don't need to hit a constant 144fps.
I really wish people would stop thinking that.

Yep this is true, you just avoid screen tearing up to that frame rate.

 

[enemys]

Sigh....
You don't need to hit a constant 144fps.
I really wish people would stop thinking that.

Well, I never said I need to. But if I want the best from my card and screen, and some futureproofing on top of that, what's wrong with that?

 

[Verrm]

Good article and I would totally agree, but the 1060 3gb version is a weird choice. Though I can understand your reasoning as AMD prices are way through the roof.

 

[R00sT3R]

My 970 is still good enough for the stuff I play right now, and seeing as the 970 is roughly equal to a 1060, I'm glad in the current market with prices as they are, I don't really need to upgrade.

Looking to the games coming in the next 6mths as well, I don't see anything worth spending the money on either, so It's looking more & more likely that I'll hold off for the Volta 1170 (or whatever it's called) in Q1/Q2 2018.

 

[Kenrick]

A landslide for Nvidia cards. AMD should do something about the current prices.

Always check newegg and amazon. Some GTX 1070 and 1080 models are discounted at a very good price and you have to be quick to get them. ALso check EVGA for B stocks.

 

[dirtyferret]

Never pay above MSRP for any peace of tech. Those are made up prices to make sale prices look better.

 

[GreenNova343]

Hmm, so basically, AMD is never a good option?

Nope, not what the article said at all. For 2 of those categories, they specifically said that if the AMD cards weren't currently overpriced, they'd have picked them instead of the nVidia GPUs...& in a 3rd (GTX 1070 vs. Vega 56) they said that if the price matched the MSRP & the partner cards were out they'd pick Vega over the 1070.

 

[OcelotRex]

Hmm, so basically, AMD is never a good option?

Nope, not what the article said at all. For 2 of those categories, they specifically said that if the AMD cards weren't currently overpriced, they'd have picked them instead of the nVidia GPUs...& in a 3rd (GTX 1070 vs. Vega 56) they said that if the price matched the MSRP & the partner cards were out they'd pick Vega over the 1070.

No sure I follow your logic - if the Nvidia cards are cheaper (and they are) wouldn't they be recommended then?

 

[FalconerHG]

So ehm, I am waiting to read up on the best graphics cards. When will this article arrive?

Oh, it's THIS article? No, this is an extended bullet list that drops names.

Why are these the best cards? Just saying "A is the best, B and C are also good" is the level of depth people give on Answers.com or a forum post.

 

[Stingy McDuck]

So ehm, I am waiting to read up on the best graphics cards. When will this article arrive?

Oh, it's THIS article? No, this is an extended bullet list that drops names.

Why are these the best cards? Just saying "A is the best, B and C are also good" is the level of depth people give on Answers.com or a forum post.

Techspot has already posted plenty of benchmarks for these cards. Perhaps what this article is missing are links for said articles.

 

[Vulcanproject]

So basically, buy Nvidia. Lol

 

[EClyde]

Timely, I am looking for a budget GPU for the Sims 3.

 

[OcelotRex]

Timely, I am looking for a budget GPU for the Sims 3.

Won't the Sims 3 run on the iGPU of any recent Intel i3 or better?

 

[EClyde]

Won't the Sims 3 run on the iGPU of any recent Intel i3 or better?

The board is ECS B85H3-M3 (V1.0) 1150 with vanilla Intel HD Graphics running a celeron

 

[GreenNova343]

Hmm, so basically, AMD is never a good option?

Nope, not what the article said at all. For 2 of those categories, they specifically said that if the AMD cards weren't currently overpriced, they'd have picked them instead of the nVidia GPUs...& in a 3rd (GTX 1070 vs. Vega 56) they said that if the price matched the MSRP & the partner cards were out they'd pick Vega over the 1070.

No sure I follow your logic - if the Nvidia cards are cheaper (and they are) wouldn't they be recommended then?

They did for the moment, & only because the AMD cards are costing much, much more than their MSRP. But if the prices weren't artificially high, they said they would be recommending the AMD cards:

Under normal circumstances, instead of the GTX 1050 Ti, we'd opt for the Radeon RX 570 for $170, though sadly due to poor availability that same card is currently selling for an insane $260. Making the GTX 1050 Ti the obvious choice without hesitation

The GTX 1060 3GB is a good value option for those gaming at 1080p and right now at $210 it’s also very affordable. Meanwhile the 6GB model is currently retailing for $280 and it's only marginally faster. The reason for this is that the 3GB model is only $10 above MSRP, while the 6GB version is $30 above because it’s a more desirable card for miners and because of the increased memory pricing.
Then we have the RX 580 which should cost $200 for the 4GB version or $230 for the 8GB model. At those prices, we'd pick the RX 580 8GB every day of the week, but sadly right now the asking price for that card is an eye watering $310, writing it off completely.
This might be shocking to some but given the pricing (we hate to overpay) and performance margins, we're going with the GTX 1060 3GB right now.

For the most part Vega 56 is faster and under certain conditions a lot faster than the GTX 1070. The low level API performance in modern titles is particularly encouraging. So if you don't mind power consumption and if both the GTX 1070 and Vega 56 were selling at the ~$400 MSRP, we’d get the Radeon. However at the current prices the GTX 1070 is the smarter choice.

in each case, their preference based strictly on performance was the AMD card, but because of the high prices they had to recommend the nVidia card instead. And note how they're recommending the 3GB version of the GTX 1060 over the 6GB model, again because the latter's price is currently jacked way up.

 

[Tanstar]

I'm glad I got my 4gb 580 for $160 (after rebate) before this blew up.

 

[OcelotRex]

They did for the moment, & only because the AMD cards are costing much, much more than their MSRP. But if the prices weren't artificially high, they said they would be recommending the AMD cards:

Who cares about MSRP? If you cannot buy the card at MSRP due to market conditions that's a "win on paper" and not in reality.

 

[Steve]

So ehm, I am waiting to read up on the best graphics cards. When will this article arrive?

Oh, it's THIS article? No, this is an extended bullet list that drops names.

Why are these the best cards? Just saying "A is the best, B and C are also good" is the level of depth people give on Answers.com or a forum post.

Once you work it out, feel free to make a retraction post. That'll clear the air nicely.