When we are set to praise the picture quality of mostly the smartphones, desktop computers, and the laptops, we are hailing the graphics card they came installed with, because that is purely worthwhile of receiving and grabbing all of the praise. And we can certainly call that the epicenter of its kind!
But despite the quality, what brings them up to receive all the praises and what is used to jot down the design with all the technologies, and terminologies; there is going to be a whole lot stories (and aspects to the first reference to and that would be used to call them and pick them as the best graphics card available to get inserted into your machine.
Mainly, we are after finding the latest and best graphics card and that too, just for the gaming PCs. Each graphics card bear the separate and individual classification too and that depends on for what particular reason you need the graphics card for; is it to run the average or high-end games OR just to power up the PC used for the simple tasks that are not graphics-extensive OR you got to do the graphics word which includes the extensive and robust graphics card and not an ordinary one would do any good to you in this case.
SO and first, let’s analyze and pinpoint your reason to purchase a graphics card you require for your work.
But wait…. We got a few of the reasons already sorted out that are common, and the people often (and commonly) buy the graphics card for), so sit back relax and let us do the job.
But before diving into the list of best graphics cards, why not do an overview of what a graphic card contains (the technologies and terminologies) which complete the graphic card to become available for the customers to use.
Best Graphics Card 2021
- EVGA GeForce GTX 2080 Ti – Best Powerful Graphics Card 2021
- Gigabyte GeForce GTX 2080 – Best Graphics Card For High-end Gaming
- ASUS ROG Strix AMD Radeon RX 5700XT – Best Graphics Card for Video Editing
- MSI Gaming GeForce RTX 2070 – Best $500 Graphics Card
- ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 Ti – Best GPU for 4K Gaming
- XFX AMD Radeon VII – Best GPU For Gaming
- Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 – Best Budget Graphics Card
- MSI GAMING Z GeForce RTX 2060 – Best For Graphic Designing
- XFX AMD Radeon RX 590 – Best Affordable Graphics Card
- ASUS GeForce GTX 1050 Ti – Best 1080p GPU
What Makes The Graphics Card, a Best Graphics Card?
There are specific components that certainly make it possible to complete the design of a graphics card, a.k.a., the GPU (graphics processing unit.)
If you are confident of the reason to purchase a GPU or the graphics card, this whole process would be as intimidating as buying one without knowing the cause as well as the necessary know-how of the graphics card to make you able to understand what would be the card holding for you to meet with your motive.
So, let’s get to find out what usually involves the graphics card AND what you should be looking for a way before purchasing the graphic card.
Memory
It is not the price that you should be worrying and carrying all about, but the real important aspect that you should look for (and which factors on the overall pricing of a GPU) is how bigger the memory amount this graphics card holds. For the avid gaming experience to play at the higher settings for the seamless performance, the memory amount has to be well more elevated in the capacity, and the higher, the better.
Expect to play the games at 1080p display screen, you need nothing but at least the graphics card powering the memory of around 3 GBs to 4 GBs and that is what we call the borderline memory capacity to play the gaming at this kind of display flawlessly. And for 4K for the ultra-HD resolution (and that brings no competition yet due to the exceptional clarity that we cannot sum up in words), you at least got to have the graphics card with the memory of 8 GBs.
Try something lower than the recommended GPU memory capacity; do not think of doing that as all you would get the buffering, slowness, and slug, and you would be cursing your choice rather than enjoying the games. The latest games do need to get supported by high-end graphic cards. And when we say the high-end, this (memory amount) is the first step of the ladder for the ultimate gaming experience.
Size
Quite an essential factor that you should not let it pass without the proper and prior investigation before purchasing the graphics card. Take out first the dimensions and sizes sorted of your case to analyze what size of the graphics card can easily make a room when installed. Many high-end graphics cards are more prominent in size attached with the heatsink and the fan shroud that may take a lot of room with occupying the adjacent slots.
While most GPUs may take up to multiple slots for the installation as they come in different kinds of sizes to adjust in the case while taking up single, dual, or even the triple slots, so the bigger GPU can cause a tremendous amount of problems for the comfortable seating in the case. So, it is advised to do the proper measurements as that solely depends on making use of the graphics card, or else your entire investment is transitioned to be of no use at all.
TDP
That directly relates to thermal design power, though the high-end graphics card would invite a lot of heat building when running even on the optimal settings because ONLY the graphics card is at stake to deliver you the best outcome in the shape of bright, vivid, and high-resolution display.
The higher TDP(thermal design power) should be taken as the more significant and the faster CPUs to open things up quickly but would require more power to operate.
Power
Well, we are not specifically talking about the energy it the GPUs would consume, but the required PCIe slots to sit and sync with the power supply to draw an adequate amount of power.
Some of the GPUs come with one, two. More than six to eight-pin ports, so have your power supply to provide the additional and required supplemental connectors or else get ready to upgrade the power supply or grab an adapter in your possession that draws the power by connecting with the SATA or the Molex connectors to make the graphics card to work.
But the wisest of the option here is just to upgrade your power supply and get rid of the tweaks that do not entirely seem professional and satisfactory.
Ports
And that means the display port to get your monitor connected with the graphics card. Some monitors have different sorts of ports from HDMI, DVI, and DisplayPort, so you must ensure the graphics card does support the monitor ports for the seamless connection.
If it does not, then be ready to invest the right amount to purchase a newer (and the latest) monitor (and that is good enough of the move in case you already have an older monitor.)
Core clocking speed
Considerably important but this clocking speed which the GPU comes with it as it indicates how swiftly the results are rendered but as we said this fact is just considerably important and nothing too fancy to stick to as the high-end graphics are tuned to perform at their higher speeds when it comes to rendering the high-resolution graphics and the motions that are too vivid.
Memory speed
Contrary to the clock speed, which the GPUs come with that relates to the connection of the GPU’s core to catch the momentum. The memory speed of GPU relates to the vRAM and measures in MHz (or Megahertz), bigger the memory speed, and that takes to make the high-resolution of graphics to hold while being loaded in full.
Best Graphics Card Reviews 2021
1. EVGA GeForce GTX 2080 Ti
Bring any kind of the game that you can name in the world, let it be older or the latest ones, and you would not feel regret buying this expensive graphics card because it is too costly in the price but is equally powerful in the specifications to deal with all types of games happily. For the extreme graphics hungry games, this EVGA GeForce GTX 2080 Ti XC Hybrid graphics card acts like a real blessing to upscale the gamers’ expectations to enjoy every single graphical detail.
Play the games even on the highest of the settings (and you would still tempt to bring in more load to it), and it would not give you the issue at least from the performance. It comes with the powerful clocking boost of well above the mark of 1,635 Mhz and the good vRAM, which acts as the RAM to conveniently handle the load through its 11,264 MBs powered by the GDDR6 technology to give the real boost to your avid gaming experience. But here is the one issue you may face. You got to fix up before purchasing this EVGA GeForce GTX 2080 Ti XC Hybrid GPU (and that is important given to the power it holds) to replace the power supply if it does not touch the minimum of 650 watts or else this powerful GPU would not start (may get damaged as well.)
So, be very careful about this fact and do not attempt to give it a try to invite the possible risk. With the ultimate hybrid cooling, AIO and water-based cooling enables the GPU to keep going with the lowest end of the temperature for as much as it could and with the highest of clocking speed for the upscale performance to ensure it does not get to invite higher temperature even if running on the full load. As for overclocking, it comes with the mechanism that tunes down the utility where it keeps monitoring the graphics card while it is playing up your favorite and graphics-rich games to power the highest speed slab of overclock when needed that you can hardly expect from many reputed and high-end graphics cards. This level of overclocking feature is too good to experience once in the real-life what the gamers expect!
- Higher 11GB VRAM
- Higher boost clock of 1,635 MHz
- Hybrid cooling
- 3-years of warranty
- Causes a little noise when operational
2. Gigabyte GeForce GTX 2080
Something specific you are looking for when it comes to the speed to quadruple the performance, then this Gigabyte GeForce GTX 2080 should be your ultimate pick to play the extra-seamless games that are high-enough and seem impossible to play regardless of whatever specifications it got. To do that, this Gigabyte GeForce GTX 2080 with the Super Turbo Edition to ensure not a single frame is delayed, and you are not forced to select through the graphics settings lower than the highest. With this graphics card, you would be tempted to choose even the level of the graphics setting exceeding from the maximum, which is already selected, and you would NOT notice a single bit of lag to play whatever games you got.
Backed by the Nvidia Turning technology used to architect this GPU with the real-time ray tracing comes with the revolutionary performance to beat down all of the graphics to show the entirely realistic shadows, reflections, and the lightings which not many of the competitive GPUs are ever presented with the level of rendering. The games you play, and you would feel like being the part of it just like you perceive with the VR games. So, that is the impressive part of Gigabyte GeForce GTX 2080 that makes it to the top beyond the notable GPUs presented out there in the market that has no match when it comes to feeling the realistic gaming graphics. Having 8GB and 256-bit GDDR6 and that allocates the perfect virtual memory to optimize the most-latest games without needing to optimize the settings as they are well-prepared to run at the highest level of graphics setting that specific games got and that made all possible with the memory bandwidth of 496 GB per second. It got the power requirement of over 650w, so ensure if your power supply got this much of the power to bring this GPU to life.
As with these many of the features, we can undoubtedly expect the performance it would go through and the heat it would produce because that is not entirely possible without touching the limits of specs this GPU got. So to contain this heat, it comes with the turbofan cooling system that is way powerful at the job to keep the GPU super cool to take out all the heat the instant it generates because the temperature is the enemy of GPU’s performance. You would not face it with this GPU. With the G-Sync and the GeForce Experience, get set to enjoy the immersive graphics and the smooth gaming experience with the refresh rate of around 240 Hz that is way beyond the expectations. You are not going to notice any lag or the pixels breaking as well as the whole of the GeForce Experience would streamline you with the multiple options to take the screenshots or record and share the videos with keeping the settings selected and upgrading the drivers with convenience.
- Turbo style fan
- 8GB of memory with GDDR6 memory type
- Comes with Nvidia turing architecture for real-time ray tracing
- Turbofan cooling system
- Creates somewhat louder noise
3. ASUS ROG Strix AMD Radeon RX 5700XT
The style says it all and proves ASUS ROG Strix AMD Radeon RX 5700XT got the power that hardly has a match to tell it is one best graphic card available in the market to make it to become a strong contender out of thousands. Not only support the latest games, but it is effectively utilized for video editing due to its ultimate performance. Powered by the 2nd generation of AMD Radeon and 7nm technology laminated with the overclock boosting to well over 8GBs and backed by the GDDR6 memory type so that you got all of the best and latest technology available at the moment to extract the complete performance out of this tiny but powerful GPU. And the boost clocks to well around 2,035 MHz (on OC mode) and approximately 2,010 MHz (with gaming mode) to enjoy breaking the barriers which NOT many of the ordinary GPUs come included with this level of overclocking functionality.
With up to three exclusive and long-blades coming with odB and the 2.7-slot design brings in the expanded cooling surface as well as the increased amount of air pressure for the instant cooling. At the same time, it keeps the zero noise level for the ultimate silent gaming experience as these triple axial-tech fans would NOT produce any bit of the noise. And how about the connectivity? Well, even if you got the older monitor (but we prefer using the latest one for the enhanced viewing experience) that got the DisplayPort or even HDMI; both types of the monitors seamlessly connection without any tweaks and can connect up to six monitors in a row with utilizing two of the OB ports despite of HDMI and DisplayPort ports.
And not only it stops here. These super-power GPUs is meant to produce the immense heat which NOT only having the powerful fans can take out from the unit but the active heatsink can (without affecting the sensitive ICs and other components) as it got Auto-Extreme backed by the Max-Contact Technology of the heatsink and made with the Super Alloy Power II seamlessly keeps the heat sending out of the unit without leaving the thermal stains around. On top of that, the Aura Sync RGB lighting adds the soothing lights, and if you have caged it into the transparent CPU case, the experience would be a lot different when playing the games in the darkroom.
- Got 8GB of memory
- Best overclocking speeds of 2,560 MHz for boot
- Got to support up to 6 monitors
- Triple axial-tech for 0dB noise
- Gets to the relatively higher temperature
4. MSI Gaming GeForce RTX 2070
If you think you can run down the latest games with any other graphics card and you can just purchase one out of the market by only paying the money, then you are all wrong. The graphics card has to be well-thought and got to go through a whole lot of deep-researching process to find out which one is going to best fit for you. But if you ask us, we can derive the meaning of purchasing a GPU just for one single reason; to play the ultimate and latest games. For that, we picked this MSI Gaming GeForce RTX 2070, which got enough of the required technology to boost through and seamlessly run them without tweaking the settings or compromising the graphics quality.
With having the chipset all powered by NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Super, with the power of boost clock to easily exceed out of its barriers to up to 1,770 MHz with the overall memory clock speed of 14 GHz is known to be the well-performing graphics cards to run down to its maximum levels without degrading the performance as it is backed by the technologies to bear all the pressure the high-end gaming settings can force to meet. And the graphics card interface from PCI-Express x16 that sends out the increased bandwidth with the highest of its concurrent data sending at up to 8 GBs per second, so you would not feel any lag ever occurring at your end to transmit the data out of this tiny but powerful GPU to enjoy every bit of the latest games.
As for the memory part which is indeed the crucial element of the graphics card to be well aware of as it ensures it gives a great space to the games as well as the settings to perform well along with other similar components that need an adequate amount of graphics memory to operate at their best; this MSI Gaming GeForce RTX 2070 comes with the vRAM size of 8 GBs with GDDR6 as the RAM type that your motherboard should support and the bus width for the memory to be 256-bits to transfer and communicating the data back to the CPU as it got eight chips which is the highest end of the latest GPU. With having the dual Torx fan turing to deal with all of the heat this robust GPU from MSI produces, we can expect the overclocked GPU to perform beyond the expectations to help to operate the high-end games without causing a single issue.
- Chipset from NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Super
- Clock boosting to 1,770 MHz with 8GB GDDR6 memory
- 256-bit memory bus width
- Best Nvidia graphics cards in order of performance
- Louder fans spinning at the load
5. ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 Ti
We may disregard the power of many GPUs but not of this one, as this one is the absolute winner in the graphics card rankings. Yeah, this particular graphics processing unit a.k.a., the GPU, named ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 Ti that is designed ONLY and ONLY for the ultimate gaming experience to view through the exceedingly excellent graphics emitting at 5K HD gaming visuals that is the dream even of the gamers to play up using such a remarkable GPU. You guys might be aware of the 4K HD display, but this thing is good to emit the visuals beating that barrier to touch the new highs of the graphics as they are good to reach the level of 5K HD!
Interestingly, we have NOT revealed what sort of technologies this ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 TI got that go beyond the usual HD visuals to touch 5K HD limit so that every single visual is complete, optimized, and finely tuned to show the realistic visuals quality. The first thing that starts with the total and overall vRAM memory that is way beyond the expectation; the useful 11 GBs of it is what you should be enjoying running the high-end games with the full graphics settings checked to ensure you are not forced to compromise on the quality or select the little lower settings than the highest one.
And to fall under more technical readings that this graphics card holds; we got first to start screening of the boost overclocking rate of 1,582 MHz which is considered to be the backbone of a GPU because they are set to operate close to their limits with the increases sometimes to get to overlap the barrier and hence, this overclocking functionality is quite an option to deal with the situation without breaking or lagging the GPU’s performance. The good 11GBs of VRAM from the type of GDDR5X along with 352-bit of the bandwidth speed that is pretty high than the average 256-bit bus speed, the CUDA cores count of 3,584 that is the impressive counts of the overall cores this GPU got to only bring you (the gamers) the rate that is never experienced and never tested. Wrapped with Auto-Extreme technology for the more excellent airflow and made the heatsink with Super Alloy Power II components to quickly take out all the heat off the GPU while the manageable and base clock speed of 1,480 MHz ensures you already got kind of it to run the high-end latest games. And the GPU Tweak II gives you the console to monitor the performance and the streaming to become as seamless as possible to eliminate the chances of lagging and underperforming EVER.
- VR Ready with 5K HD gaming experience
- Got 11GB of memory
- 3,584 CUDA cores with 352-bit memory
- Exclusive GPU Tweak II for easy management
- Calls to be best 4k graphics card
- A bit expensive
6. XFX AMD Radeon VII
Do NOT go by the name because the less-privileged and unpopular brands may get something that is beyond the imagination when it comes to the features’ list. And the same applies here as we got one GPU from XFX AMD Radeon VII, which is, of course, powered by AMD to craft up this simple-at-look but the sturdy GPU and the chipset to out the most and the common GPUs of the league. And serious it does as it got the none ever heard and experienced having the vRAM of well up to 16 GBs and HBM2 with 1 TB per seconds of memory bandwidth to initiate every single of the latest games and giving them much space to load them with the highest graphics settings and they are opened in mere seconds just like the standard applications and software do.
And none of the latest GPUs come without the overclocking functionality, but many fall behind by the speed count as this XFX AMD Radeon VII got the overclocking boost to well up to 1,750 MHz and with the peak overclocking touching toot 1,801 MHz so that if the sudden increase did not manage by the boosted clock threshold, still the peak clock would bear the whole load of the game.
With having triple-fan cooling with the added blades ensure the heat does not stay inside and it is pushed outward with no chance of leaving the thermal strains on the components placed around and the GPU runs with the cooling temperature for all day long making you play any kind of the games you got. And, the latest GPUs should run with the latest software and the first and foremost element of showing you are prone to keeping up with the newest items around, it supports Windows 10 from Microsoft for the best results to perform beyond the expectations.
- 4,096 bits for memory bus width
- Hardware interface form PCI Express x8
- 16GB of high-end vRAM capacity
- Triple fan cooling system
- Impressive overclocking speed
- Flickers the screen with 2D applications
7. Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660
NOT always, the hard-core GPUs have to be from the high-end league of the technologies where the standard but required components to run the latest games. You can better say the GPU that we are going to list here, which is having the borderline of needed technology that would enable us to run the most-latest games for you. For that, Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 Super Mini ITX comes with a whole lot of functionalities like overclocking and other such features and comes with just a single fan to take the heat dissipation out of it.
Got powered by the GeForce GTX 1660 Super, this GPU comes with the integrated memory of 6 GBs GDDR6 and the 192-bit of memory bus to bring in enough power to deal with many latest games while it would run the games even with the high-end graphical settings. However, still, you may experience the lag and slowness anytime, but that would not let you regret what you purchased. It is recommended if you are ultimately facing the indifference occurring most of the time while playing your favorite game, you should switch back to other settings lower than the highest one.
With having the compact GPU to the small size of 170mm, it comes ready with getting installed in any of the motherboards without an issue. And, we might forget something very critical to the state, and that is its overclocking functionality as it comes with the peak power of core clocking to 1,800 MHz that tops the very mediocre GPUs available in the market that relates to such series.
- Backed by the power of GeForce GTX 1660 Super
- 6GB GDDR6 memory
- Significant overclocking at 1,800 MHz
- Suitable for the high-end games but may face some lagging sometimes
8. MSI GAMING Z GeForce RTX 2060
Okay, we tried to keep the GPUs from MSI at bay. Still, we could not as it is the brand that produces the outstanding GPUs and introduces them in the market to turn the gamers to play the only best of the latest games with their highest settings selected to forget about ever needing to switch the settings to lower for a step. Play the games or get done with the graphics design task; it would conveniently work in both conditions. The chipset powered by NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Series, this MSI GAMING Z GeForce RTX 2060, has the required components that complete its unit to run the games on its highest setting. Being of having 6 GBs of memory backed by GDDR6 memory type that would have you perceive it might not get functional with the higher settings active, but it would.
Backed by the standard memory bus width of 192-bit takes the data transmitted back to the CPU with instance, so it is good to be running even with the standard protocol and being backed by the real thing. This ray-tracing turing architecture makes it VR ready to seamlessly play the VR games on your gaming rigs to enjoy the real-alike games involving yourself. So, that is not optimized for the traditional PC games but VR as well that gives a unique satisfaction and peace of mind to play either type of the games.
With the core clocking speed of 1,830 MHz with the data transmission speed, 14 Gbps to keep up syncing with the motherboard for a seamless experience, and that ensures you are not going to face a bit of slowness. These features produce a lot of heat, and so it does, but we got a solution as well. The powerful RX fan 3.0 has the power of aerodynamics to deal with the heat to ensure stable performance by keeping the temperatures to the lowest ground all the time. So, that does not make it a GPU with average components but the powerful one even it falls under the league of ordinary GPUs.
- RGB lighting
- Robust core clocking at 1,830 MHz with 14 Gbps
- Suitable for maximum resolution of 7680 x 4320
- Dual TORX fan 3.0
- Run with the maximum resolution with selecting relatively medium settings
9. XFX AMD Radeon RX 590
Let’s talk about the unknown but the high-end GPUs, and we understand not all of the folks know XFX even if you do, there is the maximum chance of not many do. Thankfully, we got it covered in our extensive research to list up the best graphics card to present to you. Backed by the chipset of the world-renowned AMD Radeon RX 590, this completes the build of this remarkable GPU named XFX AMD Radeon RX 590 with enough power to bring you the excellent gaming experience.
Backed by GDDR5 and 8 GBs of memory has the functional capacity to deal with all of the latest and known games with selecting the highest graphics setting. And that just does not work best with the traditional and latest PC games, but it powers up to become VR Ready that brings a whole lot of games getting you presented to play the different types of games.
With the overclocking speed of 1,565 MHz and the memory clocking speed of 8 GHz takes down all of the pressure dealt evenly with the dynamic 22 blade dual fans ensure the maximum heat is taken out of the unit to keep this GPU operating at its maximum without attracting much of the heat.
- 8GB GDDR5 memory
- Dual 22-long blade fans
- VR ready
- Louder fan at the load
10. ASUS GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
We tried to keep everything top-notch with listing the expensive and feature-rich GPUs for you folks, but we did not force yourself NOT to pick the lower-end GPU, so we deliberately kept this ASUS GeForce GTX 1050 Ti for last. With having the newest Nvidia pascal architecture design, it comes with improvised performance and the efficiency to run the games at the standard HD scale of 1080p resolution with 60 fps that is quite the right level to enjoy playing the games without much sacrificing the performance.
Just get to plug and play the monitor for being time-saving, and take the maximum resolution of 7680 x 4320 that outputs the more magnificent gaming visuals being played with all the details where everything is vivid and open. And the single fan with enough power by equipping the dual ball-bearing to bring the superior airflow and increasing its lifetime to survive for years.
And in the last, the GPU Tweak II enables you to keep monitoring and adjusting the GPU’s setting from your fingertips. The game booster and xsplit Gamecaster operated through this intuitive interface that is easier to manage. All in all, this lower-end ASUS GeForce GTX 1050 Ti comes with all of the high-end technology to top the league. So, if we label it as the best budget graphics card, you should NOT be surprised at all.
- 4GB of VRAM
- CUDA core of 768
- Competent to operate at 60 fps with selecting 1080p HD
- GPU Tweak II
- Best graphics card for 1080p gaming
- Suitable for running the games at borderline of high settings but may face some lag over time
- Produces much heat
Conclusion of Best Graphics Card
So, here we bid adieu to our extensive research where we grabbed up to 10 outstanding, influential, and the high-end best graphics cards listed just for you, the pure gamers, to play all of the latest games available in the world.
From reputed to unknown brands, you have plenty of options to select depending upon your requirements (and the budget, of course!)
Of course, these latest GPUs require the most-latest motherboard to hook up for bringing the complete performance on the table so that even the highest of the in-game settings would not hit you with the deteriorated performance.
So, take advantage of this whole lot of research before planning to lock on the graphics card because when you do, you are going to thank us every time you turn on the PC to play your favorite games!