The Best Graphic Card

What is the best graphics card? Simple, is that hyper-expensive Nvidia GTX Titan X, right? It has all the transistors, all shaders, all regional operational programs and all the failures, so it is the best. Work done. We can all move on to live a rich safety of the big questions are staffed full life.

Except it really is not how it works. It can be a very powerful graphics silicon plate, but performance alone will not make a big padawan, young man. The new GTX Titan X is almost entirely irrelevant as graphics cards go for pretty much anyone with a penchant for PC games and the need to ask exactly how much something costs. It is a luxury GPU, the McLaren 650S graphics card, an aspirational component. There are few who have been made, the cost is prohibitive crazy and I bet there are only a handful of players who bought a titan and thought 'I'm glad I dropped a big envelope that "a year in the line.

For us, what makes the best graphics card so you can purchase at this time is that heady mix of architectural elegance, flawless game performance and excellent value. An expensive card is not necessarily bad value if blazes a trail no one can follow, nor is it a cheap GPU inherently good value - as with all things gaming PC the best graphics card has to do with the perfect balance.

There are so many questions that need answering - What is the best graphics card, graphics card what I have, what I want a graphics card Nvidia or AMD one? Click on the links below to know all the answers.

Best Graphic Card

Nvidia GeForce 1060 GTX

Approx. $ 280 / £ 230. Check Amazon prices in real time.

This is where the price point and performance link is: in the sub- $ 300 graphics card. And best of people right now is Nvidia GTX 1060. It is the direct replacement of the card have been recommending long as the GPU go to the next generation: the GTX 970. Nvidia has reformulated its graphics on the stack this year, changing every level of the GPU to a rung on the ladder of performance. As such, the 1080 has entered the gap 980 Ti, GTX 1070 at the price point 980 and subsequently the 1060 GTX is in the rarefied the GTX 970 position once occupied.

But while the 1060 GTX is effectively replacing the GTX 970 GPU in Nvidia stack, in terms of actual gaming performance that is much closer to the latest generation GTX 980. The card Founders Edition forced reference speed is only once a handful of frames per second on average slower than our serious overclocked version of the GTX 980. This is an impressive showing considering the 980 was the top card Maxwell for a long time, and a $ 550 GPU at launch.

It is not only faster, the 1060 GTX is also one of the most cards around energy efficiency also. The TDP of 120W is just fantastic - lower than any of the 10 cards based on AMD's competing Polaris - and delivers peak power consumption 204W platform on the dyno PCGamesN. The 1060 GTX is also a pretty epic also overclocker; even our reference card with the basic blower Nvidia has a lot of headroom in it, leading to some fast serious versions factory overclocked as the MSI GTX 1060 Games X. That impressively low TDP is also the reason by the latest 16nm architecture is dropped directly into the portable Pascal based on Nvidia also play.

The 1060 GTX does not have everything his own way, however. AMD Radeon Racing RX 480 is generally a bit off pace compared, except when it begins to launch new graphics APIs below its wide pipes. In the benchmark Hitman DX12 even the RX 470 is able to deliver gaming performance on par with 1060 GTX, while the RX 480 sheets trailing in its volumetric powder. The same applies when the Vulkan accumulation Doom, where the RX 480 is more than 50% faster than the GTX 1060 is used.

Overall though Nvidia 1060 GTX card is a good value to offer great performance on current-gen games, although their performance DirectX 12 and Vulkan could do with a little work.

Best graphics card runner

AMD Radeon RX 480

Approx. $ 310 / £ 219. Check Amazon prices in real time.

Something strange is happening with stock levels for the RX 480, in fact, for most of the latest AMD Radeon cards, despite the guarantee of AMD in the launching of this population would not be a problem. In the UK it is not so bad - there is a relatively healthy number of cards available in all initial suggested price of AMD - but in the US they are apparently rare as eggs dogs. And if you find someone with the action you can expect to pay over $ 300 for the privilege. Which is a shame because the RX 480 8 GB GPU should be a great value in their original, suggested ~ $ 200 price tag, especially if you are really in Doom and Hitman or just want to play games based on DX12 Vulkan or high frame rates. If you can find the RX 480 for significantly less than a 1060 GTX then we would be very tempted to opt for the Radeon place.

4K better graphics card

Nvidia GeForce 1080 GTX

Approx. $ 679 / £ 602. Check Amazon prices in real time.

If you want to be playing games on this Ultra HD 4K resolution then you will need some serious graphics power to deal with the 8.3 million pixels to be throwing around your screen. The step up from the 2 million pixel 1080p, or even from 3.7 million 1440p, is huge, so we'll need something with juice 1080 GTX GPU to smooth the edges 4K toothed game.

Pascal inaugural GPU Nvidia engine was built to cope games 3840 x 2160 pixels and is the first GeForce card to really be able to fulfill that promise. The power-Maxwell GTX Titan X, and subsequent GTX 980 Ti, approached the delivery of 4K game, but the 1080 GTX takes only a little more. Although we are not yet talking about nailing 60 fps in all modern games at the best settings here - which is the scope of the new GTX Titan X at all is (was expensive) glory, and then the GTX 1080 Ti you should definitely follow .

Across our test suite 1080 GTX is working mostly in the range between 40fps and 60fps on average. Compulsive serious frame rate can resist such "low" performance, but the results are with post-processing settings and texture pushed almost as high as they will go in the game. When you're paying this amount by the graphics card the idea of ​​compromising image quality can be painful, but with some smart cuts here and there will definitely be able to drive a solid 60 fps.

Playing on a monitor with native 4K resolutions, especially in a sub 30-inch panel, it means it can be a little more relaxed in niceties such as anti-aliasing. The distance between pixels in a tight 4K screen means you should not experience too many teeth saw annoying when running at 2x MSAA, unlike x4 or x8, for example.

Until the 1080 GTX Ti, rocking the same GPU as the last titan GP102 X appears, then this is the go-to 4K graphics card today. And even when the Ti does tilted up going to command a premium price even more appalling than the GTX 1080. Although I guess it all depends on how much you're willing to spend on finding soft games Ultra HD.

Best graphics card 4K runner

Nvidia GeForce 1070 GTX

Approx. $ 430 / £ 390. Check Amazon prices in real time.

The GTX 1070 most reasonable cost makes it an option much more wallet-friendly 4K game, although it still occupies the kind of price point that the upper end graphics cards yesterday used to call their own . Lamenting super-high price of Nvidia leads us nowhere, however, so when this letter is cheaper so close to the performance of 4K GTX 1080 GTX 1070 starts to look like the best value proposition Ultra HD. Still 4K thus very playable frame rates of 1070 GTX but will have to be more aggressive about loyalty cuts when it comes to dial back the graphics settings in the game to hit 60 fps.

Best budget graphics card

2GB AMD Radeon RX 460

Approx. $ 110 / £ 108. Check Amazon prices in real time.

While the 4GB, overclocked version of AMD processor RX 460 did not get a glowing recommendation from us, you can pick up different versions of latest GPU based on AMD Polaris for just a little more than a ton. These cheaper versions are operating with half the memory capacity, but everything else is identical to 4GB strangely expensive cards.

That means they are using the same GPU Polaris 11 with 896 GCN cores and memory bus 128 bits. Which in turn means that the performance of the cheapest cards should be no different masssively when running at 1080p. Okay, you will not be running at the highest settings Full HD with 2GB RX 460, but Redrawing most graphics settings in intensive GPU will still net you great gaming experience without breaking the Bank.

I'm also hoping that as supply increases in the channel, the prices will equal a little more and 4GB versions will not have such a high premium price. That should make a much more interesting for the player budget option. At the moment, although there are few 460 RX few cards actually available at a decent price, so definitely will look carefully.

Nvidia has yet to bring the Pascal GPU architecture at a lower level - there has been no announcement of a GP106 fails with a count cut down cores that could come close to the pricing of RX 460. At this time the GTX 950 is the closest rival and costs a touch more than the base 2 GB RX 460, without providing any tangible increase in performance to speak.

Best budget graphics card runner

AMD Radeon RX 470 4 GB

Approx. $ 200 / £ 165. Check Amazon prices in real time.

AMD has launched a series of 400-series cards recently, but despite its impressive performance over the entire range seems to be in a bit of a disaster at the time of pricing and stock. It is based on the Polaris second floor card was launched as an opportunity for members to table to show, which meant the first card we tested was an overclocked Sapphire RX 470, which costs about the same amount as a 4 GB RX 480. again, once the supply increases, prices are set and when they are priced closer AMD SRP $ 179 (£ 159), the RX 470 will be a truly tempting option. It is almost twice as fast as the RX 460 and drive superior performance 1080p comfortably. You can stretch the definition of "budget" a little, but for the RX 470 SRP GPU is fantastic value.

How to buy a graphics card

As a player of PC graphics card is probably the most important purchase you will do, but that does not mean you can ignore all other components of your computer and expect to get the most out of your new card. I've said it before and I'll say, certainly more or less the same again: the balance is absolutely key to getting the best possible performance of the PC game.

There is no point picking up a 1080 GTX if you're only ever going to run on a 1080p monitor and support with AMD APU ropey. Sure, you will still be able to nail 60 fps, but was hampered by its new expensive GPU processor saddling a poor bottlenecks and low resolution. A processor 1080p choice becomes very important - we are in a time when certain games are each limited to that resolution CPU, and sometimes even 1440p.

Multiplayer Battlefield 4 is one of those games and so is total war: Attila - even with Core i7 6700K our testbed there is no difference in performance between a GTX GTX 1080 and 1070 because it is the CPU that holds the things again. The change to an 8-core 5960X however and push frame rates much further. Intel processors are though still currently the best option to get the most out of your card. CPUs and APUs AMD can not supply enough performance of a single thread to maintain its GPU and significantly fueled the ability to slow down the frame rate of a graphics card. Although fingers crossed that will change once the new AMD CPUs Zen arrive in our banks.

The screen of your chosen - or your next purchase of the panel - is also an important factor as well. You will not want to run their games on a 1080p display if just spent the best part of a large on a new GPU. If you only have a 1080p display makes little sense to spend more than £ 250 on a GPU unless you are also looking to upgrade the monitor over the next 12 months.

What graphics card I have?

Do you know exactly what graphics card you have in your system? If? Well done, gold star for you. But if you have not had the side of your PC for an eon then you probably do not remember what brand or model of GPU you have to chew through the pixels in your favorite games. It's fast and easy to find, though - all you need do is press Win + R to open the Run box and type "dxdiag" then hit enter. Initiating the DirectX diagnostic tool and, once all the necessary data on its platform gathered, you can click on the "Display" tab at the top and get all the details you need about your current GPU.

Do I want a graphics card AMD or Nvidia?

That's the old question: Why buy the red team or the green team? There are positives and negatives of each aspects, but generally speaking if you want the best gaming performance flat, then go for a graphics card Nvidia, but if it is more about price and value, then Radeon AMD they are usually a better bet.

Each has its own technologies, with Nvidia at the forefront in terms of frame synchronization. AMD, although it has FreeSync that is almost as effective as Nvidia G-Sync, but has the advantage of being an open standard and therefore cheaper for when it comes to buying a compatible monitor. Although both are able to create a gaming experience incredibly smooth, without tearing.

Nvidia also has the advantage in terms of software. GeForce Experience program is incredibly useful and Shadowplay is a capture application breathtakingly simple game. That said, the new AMD Radeon Settings software greatly improves on the old Catalyst control center and includes a powerful application for overclocking, Wattman, as standard.

AMD and Nvidia have also made great strides in efficiency stakes in their last generations, with AMD compensate for their poor performance in recent years. Although a bit of a head start Nvidia are still shaking performance per watt game.

Last-gen cards

You'll notice that we've only covered the latest graphics cards in this guide, while there are still many last-gen AMD and Nvidia cards available out there. We have approached this evaluation as products we would recommend that people buy a brand new card, or your next PC build / purchase. For the kind of money we are talking about spending we would always recommend going to the latest technology to give you at least a bit of a chance in the future to provide proof of purchase. Also, it does not necessarily follow that the last-gen cards suddenly going to be super-cheap when a new generation is released - as shares is hit by drops availability, but so does the demand and everything which means that prices generally remain unattractive high. It will not be a rapid decline in prices GTX Series 9, for example, but what you want to buy a GTX 980 Ti for the same price as a 1070 GTX? You will find even older cards full of eBay, but the second-hand market in components can be a bit of a minefield in terms of the way they have been treated previously field.

That said, if you are already sitting on a GTX 970 - my choice of the latest gene-cards - then to a second, slightly less than the money that could fall into a new GTX 1060 could be a good way increase your gaming performance. Recommend an SLI configuration is not something I'm comfortable with though. The vagaries of the multi-GPU gaming means that, as they should be treated to a significant increase in performance with a second card, often find yourself with a new release, which adamantly refuses to recognize the existence of subsequent GPU coming out a letter twirling his thumbs. There are also games that do not access SLI or CrossFire support in your life. In short: the multi-GPU gaming can be a game of chance.

Video Memory

The amount of VRAM what needs to be connected to the graphics card? What used to be a way for manufacturers to seek their were better than they were budget cards, but these days they have a considerable amount of video memory it is becoming more and more important. As quality improves texture and resolutions they get higher and higher more VRAM is extra.

In the middle range of the GTX 1060 and RX 480 are sporting 6GB and 8GB respectively. There RX 480 with half the incoming video memory, though I have yet to see much difference between a version of 4 GB and 8 GB. At the top you have the GTX Titan X with a total of 12 GB of video memory, and for super high-resolution games that will be very useful, especially further down the line.

Further down the order but that makes it more complicated a mite choose between versions 2 and 4 GB card. When it comes to a GPU budget $ 100 (£ 100) you can possibly get away with 2 GB, especially considering the price increase we have seen associated with the options of 4 GB.

cards factory-overclocked

These are my current bete noire, especially when it comes to graphics cards lower order. GPU-factory overclocked come with a boost out of the box to their clock speeds, sometimes as little as 10 MHz, or as potentially high as 100 MHz, but if you are paying the price premium associated with these cards only a performance immediate boost that may well be disappointed. Often, factory overclocked cards will not deliver much better performance than would be obtained with a model stock synchronized.

What they offer, but is the choice for an enthusiast to take the GPU more. If you have a card manufacturer prompted then chances are you have collected the best chips for those more expensive versions, the fries with more headroom available overclocking. That means you are potentially able to push beyond a reference version clocked could go.

But still really only make sense if you're determined to acquire elbow deep in voltage settings and fan-profiles. If you're more of a casual overclocker then you will probably get the small increase in performance you crave a standard version of a GPU. Overclocking is actually easier than it has ever been and as close as possible without risk as modifying a component of PC could be.

factory-overclocked cards but quickly lose relevance lower on the price scale you go. A GPU budget is unlikely to have a lot of headroom for overclocking anyway, it is not going to make a difference in the tangible performance anyway, so the extra expense pushes them useless. The last RX 460 is a good example. 30% additional premium for the overclocked version I tested pushes incredibly close to the coast of April 1 GB RX 470, a GPU that is about twice as fast in the game, so it is a difficult card love .