Best Graphics Card 2021
May 13th, 2021
The best graphics card 2021: the highest quality gaming models
With the best video card, you can get the most out of your computer. Whether you used a computer to play the best PC games or video editing, you need a decent iron in your hood. However, the video card is the heart and soul of every computer.
However, don’t worry, you don’t have to waste your money on the GeForce RTX 3090 to enjoy the best settings . That graphics card costs more than many pay rent, so luckily even with a cheaper investment, you can enjoy top quality. On the other hand, new graphics card models have also been under the rock since their release, so availability to many has been virtually non-existent.
Update your configuration with the best graphics cards of the moment
Despite this, as Nvidia and AMD fight for dominance of graphics cards, new models are always more powerful and often more affordable than the previous ones. In fact, the current range from the RTX 3080 to other RTX 3000s , as well as AMD’s similar offering for the Big Nav , provide numerous options to choose from, if only to get one. The situation is also not expected to improve until the end of summer 2021 .
However, below we have put together the best graphics cards of the moment to make your selection easier. If you’re about to jump into the sticks of Microsoft Flight Simulator or the convincing world of Horizon Zero Dawn , we recommend grabbing one of the options below as your new partner.
The best graphics card:
1. Best graphics card: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080
2. Best Challenger: AMD Radeon RX 5700
3. 4K graphics card: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070
4. Best Challenger, 4K: AMD Radeon RX 6800
5. Best 1080p graphics card: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti
6. Challenger, 1080p graphics card: AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT
7. Video card for creative work: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090
8. Compact graphics card: Zotac GeForce RTX 2060 Super Mini
9. Cheap graphics card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 OC 6G
10. Esports graphics card: PNY GeForce GTX 1660 Ti XLR8 Gaming OC
1. Best graphics card: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080
With the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080, 4K gaming became more achievable. Before the company’s new card, 4K gaming required a card of about a thousand euros for the RTX 2080 Ti, but the new generation of Nvidia graphics cards will drop the price threshold by several hundred. The RTX 3080 brings the biggest cut in performance in a single graphics card history, offering 50-80% better performance compared to the RTX 2080 and 20-30% improvement over the RTX 2080 Ti. Still, it’s priced at the same level as the RTX 2080, making the new model an unbeatable power grinder and an extremely value-for-money model.
SPECIFICATIONS
- • The cores: 8 704
- • Base clock frequency: 1.44 GHz (1.71 GHz boost)
- • Memory: 10 GB GDDR6X
- • Memory speed: 19 Gbit / s
- • Power connector: 2x PCIe 8-pin
- • Connections: HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a
2. Best Challenger: AMD Radeon RX 5700
AMD has succeeded in developing a basic graphics card that washes Intel’s excellent GeForce RTX 2060. The Radeon RX 5700 is a powerful mid-priced graphics card that is easy enough for QHD gaming with ultra or max settings. The price range does cause some concessions, such as the lack of ray tracing, but the RX 5700 still offers tremendous value for your money overall.
SPECIFICATIONS
- • Cores: 2,304
- • Base clock frequency: 1,465 MHz (1,725 MHz boost)
- • Memory: 8 GB GDDR6
- • Memory speed: 14 Gbit / s
- • Power connector: 1 x 8-pin and 1 x 6-pin
- • Connections: 1 x DisplayPort 1.4 (DSC), 1 x HDMI (4K, 60 fps)
3. Best 4K graphics card: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070
The best graphics card for the majority at the moment is the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070, which offers excellent performance and is practically equivalent to the power of the RTX 2080 Ti at a lower price. Before this card, 4K gaming was too expensive for many, so the RTX 3070 brings it to the mainstream for the first time without compromise. The low price and great performance easily raise this model to the top of our list.
SPECIFICATIONS
- • Cores: 5,888
- • Clock frequency: 1.50 GHz (1.73 GHz boost)
- • Memory: 8 GB GDDR6
- • Memory speed: 14 GB / s
- • Power connector: 1x PCIe 8-pin (includes adapter for 1x 12-pin)
- • Connections: HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a
4. Best Challenger, 4K: AMD Radeon RX 6800
If you thought AMD would stay in mid-priced graphics, 2020 proved you wrong. The AMD Radeon RX 6800 is AMD's return to the high-end graphics card market, where the company enters with excellent value for money. The card offers good 4K performance and convincing beam tracking at 1440p resolution, but is still more affordable than its rival RTX 3070, thanks to higher VRAM memory. In addition, AMD's Smart Access Memory technology makes the graphics card even faster.
SPECIFICATIONS
- • Cores: 3,840
- • Clock frequency: 1.82 GHz (2.10 GHz boost)
- • Memory: 16 GB GDDR6
- • Memory speed: 16 GB / sPower connection: 2 x 8-pin
- • Connections: DisplayPort 1.4 w / DSC, HDMI 2.1 VRR and FRL
5. Best 1080p graphics card: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti
AMD has been overtaken as the king of low-cost graphics cards when the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti arrives with its excellent value for money. The latest model in the RTX 3000 series is a significantly higher-quality case with a performance similar to that of the RTX 2080 Super, but is suitable for an ever-widening user base. It also has convincing support for beam tracking, making this a great alternative to 1080p gaming.
SPECIFICATIONS
- • Kernels: 4,864
- • Clock frequency: 1.41 GHz (1.67 GHz boost)
- • Memory: 8 GB GDDR6
- • Memory speed: 14Gbps
- • Connections: HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a
- • Power connector: 1x PCIe 8-pin (includes adapter for 1x 12-pin)
6. Challenger, 1080p graphics card: AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT
Among the good options, standing out is always good. The Acer Spin 5 (2020) perfectly captures its own target audience of students, as it offers a good battery, a versatile stylus and a 3: 2 aspect ratio display at an affordable price. These make it a great option, especially for students, as they are much more successful at recording notes than other hybrid devices.
SPECIFICATIONS
- • The cores: 3 584
- • Base clock frequency: 1,506 MHz
- • Memory: 11 GB GDDR5X
- • Memory speed: 10 Gbit / s
- • Power connectors: 2 x 8-pin
- • Connections: 1.4 with DSC DisplayPort, HDMI 4K60 support
7. The best graphics card for creative work: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 is hard to beat in terms of performance. It has a whopping 24GB of RAM, so no game or, most importantly, a heavy program will cause any problems with it. This model is capable of up to 8K gaming at a frame rate of 60 frames. However, it is at the same time an extremely expensive and bulky model, so the video card is not suitable for everyone. In practice, the RTX 3090 replaces the company’s previous Titan series, making it more geared towards creative users and heavy-duty programming applications such as video rendering and 3D modeling. It’s still vastly cheaper than Titan series cards, though still too far from most of the budget.
SPECIFICATIONS
- • Cores: 10 496
- • Base clock frequency: 1.40 GHz (1.70 GHz boost)
- • Memory: 24 GB GDDR6X
- • Memory speed: 19.5 Gbit / s
- • Power connector: 2x PCIe 8-pin
- • Connections: HDMI 2.1, 3x
- • DisplayPort 1.4a
8. Best compact graphics card: Zotac GeForce RTX 2060 Super Mini
If you are stacking a microATX or mini-ITX gaming machine and want performance for it, Zotac has just the right option for you. The company’s mini version of Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 2060 Super offers beam tracking at a relatively affordable price, but due to its small size, it exhausts some features like SLI support, RGB lighting and VirtualLink for VR. However, if you want good performance, the Zotac GeForce RTX 2060 Super Mini offers it more than enough.
SPECIFICATIONS
- • Cores: 2,176
- • Base clock frequency: 1,650 Mhz
- • Memory: 8 GB GDDR6
- • Memory speed: 14 Gbit / s
- • Power connection: 8-pin
- • Connections: DisplayPort 1.4 x3, HDMI 2.0b
9. Best Affordable Graphics Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 OC 6G
While graphics card prices are rising higher and higher, some of the more budget-friendly options may be receiving less attention. That’s a shame, as graphics cards like the Nvdia GeForce GTX 1660 deserved a much higher incense. Namely, the video card offers excellent 1080p performance at an affordable price. With the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 OC 6G, you also get a factory-run overclocking and so many connections that you're sure to get all your monitors on. It would not be an exaggeration to say that that graphics card offers the best value for money ever.
SPECIFICATIONS
- • Cores: 1,408
- • Base clock frequency: 1,530 MHz
- • Memory: 6 GB GDDR5
- • Memory speed: 8 Gbit / s
- • Power connector: 1 x 8-pinConnections: 3 x DisplayPort 1.4, 1 x HDMI 2.0
### 10. Best esports graphics card: PNY GeForce GTX 1660 Ti XLR8 Gaming OCWhen Nvidia released its new Turing collection, it was downright tricky to find a graphics card that wouldn’t cost a fortune. Fortunately, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti - and especially the PNY XLR8 Gaming OC - meets this need. It’s not enough for 4K gaming at 60 fps, but instead offers an excellent 1080p experience at a reasonable price. With that resolution, it effortlessly spins virtually any top game. Of course, the graphics card doesn't have the new features of RTX, but most of the games don't support them yet, so you're not missing out on very much.
SPECIFICATIONS
- • Cores: 1,536
- • Base clock frequency: 1,500 MHz
- • Memory: 6 GB GDDR6
- • Memory speed: 12 Gbit / s
- • Power connector: 1 x 8-pin
- • Connections: 1 x DisplayPort 1.4, 1 x HDMI 2.0, 1 x DVI
How to Buy a Graphics Card: A Buyer's Guide
Today, graphics cards are just as important as mice or keyboards as the graphic requirements of modern games grow. Many games such as the Call of Duty series or the latest hit Batman Arkham City require computers with a higher graphic ability to produce the graphics needed in the games to add to the fun.
How to Buy a New Graphics Card
But often we have seen that people who buy a brand new computer are often confused about the choice of graphics card . Yes, of course, it is a difficult decision to make, which is why we are here to help you solve this problem.
Although GPU or graphics card technology has been mainly developed by two large companies, namely AMD and NVIDIA, companies that actually manufacture the units, such as Asus, Palit, MSI, Zotac, and so on.
So to confuse your mind, here are a few tips you’ve got:
The first thing you should consider before buying a video card is the chipset . High-end GPUs are very easy to detect. They are usually more visually appealing than anything else that falls under the hood of the CPU and off course can cost you a fortune if you plan to buy. So when buying a card, pay attention to some graphics cards like memory and processor speed . A good GPU has a faster processor and more cache than the others.
Therefore, if you are a normal user, working in Word or Excel, you do not need any graphics card, the built-in graphics acceleration should be sufficient for you. If you’re a casual gamer, a mid-sized one can do well with a mid-range GPU. But if you’re a tough player, kids, these high-end graphics cards are waiting for you.
Card performance is generally measured by the frame rate (frames per second or FPS). It shows how many images the card can display per second. The better the frame rate, the more powerful your graphics card is.
The hardware of the GPU also affects its performance. Here are some parameters that you should check before buying a suitable video card for you.
- • Memory Bus Size (Bits)
- • GPU clock speed (MHz)
- • Available memory (MB / GB)
- • Memory clock speed (MHz)
Now turn towards the price . The same chipset may vary depending on the price of the manufacturing company. This allows you to check the prices of all companies before purchasing yourself. While pricing for the same chipset may vary, quality is likely to remain the same, even if you consider other factors such as the number of years of warranty and the availability of service centers .
All Products