Overview
The time of year when the best graphics cards might not be the best for very long is quickly approaching. Expect to see some of our favorite GPUs replaced by larger, more powerful GPUs from Nvidia, AMD, and Intel as a result of the upcoming release of new GPUs.
You should look for a graphics card with a higher frame rate at your selected resolution and the highest graphical settings. Oh, and it needs to be within your financial means. Fortunately, the GPUs listed below provide the highest performance for the money when used for PC gaming. What's best? The Great GPU Shortage is abruptly ending, and the majority of these graphics cards are getting more affordable (and moving back toward MSRP).
With some incredibly competitive products, Nvidia and AMD are in an unbeatable position as they compete for the top slot in this generation. However, in this article, let's start with the 16 top-rated Nvidia Graphics Cards, one of the biggest giants in this tech world.
Top Picks
If you're in a rush, take a look at the fast selection of our favorites, or scroll down to read our whole list with in-depth reviews of the best nvidia graphics cards in 2024:
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Best Overall: Gigabyte Aorus GeForce RTX 3080
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Best for 4K gaming: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti
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Best for professionals: MSI RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio
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Best for creative software: Nvidia Quadro RTX 5000
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Best performance: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition
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Best for 1080p gaming: Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti
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Best for Budget 1080p Gaming: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Super
Detail Reviews Of Top 5 Best Nvidia Graphics Cards
1. Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti
Based on Turing's enhanced shaders, unified cache architecture, support for adaptive shading, and a comprehensive set of the video encode/decode acceleration features, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti is a brand-new graphics processor. Similar to the more expensive GeForce RTX 20-series versions, the GPU is coupled with GDDR6 memory. However, the speed is not sufficient to support the addition of RT cores for accelerated ray tracing or Tensor cores for inferencing in games. TU116 is a leaner chip, as a result, with a list of characteristics that prioritizes current top games.
The GTX 1660 Ti should be on the top of your list right now if you're seeking to build a new midrange gaming PC that can run almost every game at 1080p extreme with high framerates. It isn't much more expensive and handily outperforms Nvidia's outdated GTX 1060 GPUs. It offers good performance and excellent efficiency at a cost that is more affordable than the RTX line, making it available to a far wider audience.
Additionally, the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti performs better at maintaining 60 frames per second or more at 1080p extreme, a feat that the RX 570/580 and GTX 1060 GPUs occasionally find challenging, particularly with the most current games. The GTX 1660 Ti has a lot to offer those searching for a long-term solution while we wait for more powerful ray tracing technology to appear (hopefully at a reasonable price).
Pros
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Great price-to-performance ratio at 1920 x 1080.
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Great frame rates at 2560 x 1440.
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Superior on both price and performance axes over older-generation GTX cards.
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Outstanding cooling operation.
Cons
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No RT/Tensor cores
2. Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050
The discrete graphics card RTX 3050 belonged to the GeForce RTX series and was released by Nvidia in 5/2021, designed on the 8nm process and Ampere architecture. Moreover, it includes 2048 CUDA cores, 16 Gen 2 RT cores, and 64 Gen 3 Tensor cores. That's why this series of graphics cards deliver extremely powerful processing performance. It is worth mentioning here that the graphics card performance is extremely high, but the price is only in the mid-range segment.
Nvidia RTX 3050 can meet Full HD games, requiring high ultra settings. Moreover, the latency of this graphics card when playing fighting games has been reduced, making gamers' gaming experience better. With AAA games with speed higher than 40 FPS, users can still play the game even with Ray-Tracing mode enabled. Therefore, thanks to the powerful performance and outstanding features above, the RTX 3050 graphics card has been loved by many people since its launch!
In addition to the above advantages, it can suit many types of work with a cooling fan that always keeps a moderate temperature. From there, the process of working or playing games is enhanced most optimally.
Nvidia also equips this graphics card with super-quality processing technology, so the images are displayed sharp, accurate, and highly vivid. With Ray-Tracing technology, this discrete graphics card can help users identify objects and characters in the game easily and quickly. In addition, the images are displayed impressively and beautifully, so the visual experience is above all.
Moreover, Nvidia DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) technology is integrated into this graphics card, helping to bring AI artificial intelligence power to frame processing. Compared to the previous GTX series, this card has superior processing capabilities. In particular, this graphics card also meets all today's design software such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and AutoCAD.
With a mid-range price, it is difficult to find a GPU card with high performance like this RTX 3050. This is the ideal discrete graphics card for designers and gamers.
Pros
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Compact with 2 fans design.
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Full selection of video ports.
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Excellent price/performance for the segment.
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Full PCIe 4.0 x16 connection.
Cons
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Power usage is relatively high for its class.
3. Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 introduces a whole new universe of image quality to the average PC gamer, doing for 4K gaming what the GeForce GTX 970 did for 1080p gaming back when it debuted.
Ten years ago, 1080p gaming at maximum settings and frame rates was thought to be the purview of elite PC builds. Still, suddenly, the GTX 970 appeared and made the best PC games available to the average player with stunning full HD graphics, offering exceptional performance on games that are still regarded as graphically demanding. With the GTX 970, you can receive high-quality performance without breaking the wallet or making sacrifices.
The Ampere GA104 GPU powers the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070. This GPU, like the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090, is based on the Nvidia Ampere architecture and contains 5,888 CUDA cores distributed among 46 Streaming Multiprocessors. This mid-range graphics card's performance levels are only surpassed by the absolute best graphics card of the previous generation thanks to a ton of advancements to both raw performance and power efficiency.
The two data paths on the Streaming Multiprocessor (SM) now support FP32 workloads, which results in an effective doubling of CUDA cores per SM, and is the most considerable generation-on-generation boost from Turing to Ampere. Because of this, the RTX 2070 only has 2,304 CUDA cores while having 36 SMs. So, even though the RTX 3070 only increases the SM count by 27%, the number of CUDA cores it has more than doubles, greatly enhancing raw rasterization performance.
Nvidia Reflex and RTX IO are two technologies that will directly benefit players. RTX IO is possibly the most significant, especially with the upcoming release of the PS5 and Xbox Series X, which will deliver accurate next-generation data access via their SSD solutions.
With the help of the future Microsoft DirectStorage API, Nvidia's RTX IO will optimize data transfer directly from your SSD to the GPU. When a game needs to access data, that data travels from your storage to your CPU, then to system memory, where it is again passed through your CPU to your graphics card before finally going to your VRAM.
Pros
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Incredible performance for the price.
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Very quiet and cool.
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Beautiful design.
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Great 4K gaming results.
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Solid ray tracing performance.
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Support for HDMI 2.1, AV1 decode.
Cons
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Requires 12-pin power connector.
4. Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080
Finally, a new generation of GeForce graphics cards from Nvidia is available. If the previous series are any indication, the new Ampere line should eventually expand to at least a half-dozen cards, but for the time being, we just have one: the RTX 3080. However, that was with Nvidia picking the titles and quality. Thankfully, it's a cracker. We already released some preliminary data that showed considerable increases to 4K performance over the outgoing RTX 2080. Now that the masks have come off, we can present a more complete view of the RTX 3080's performance across a wider range of resolutions, from 1080p and 1440p to 4K in games.
The die shrink from a 12nm process to an 8nm process, produced by Samsung rather than the normal fab, TSMC, is mainly responsible for Nvidia's claim that it will deliver twice the ray tracing performance and the most significant generational leap yet. As a result, Nvidia can fit in many more transistors than ever before, improving performance and power efficiency.
The card now boasts 10GB of GDDR6X memory, which uses less power than its GDDR6 predecessor and supports faster speeds and wider bandwidth. Additionally, Nvidia is working on next-generation iterations of its ray tracing and tensor cores, which is better for advancing in a field that obviously needs more horsepower. In other words, everything here has been pushed to the absolute limit for speed, with Nvidia doubling down on the hardware that powers RTX and workloads accelerated by AI.
While the RTX 3080 has a lot going on inside, one of the first things you'll notice is its attractive thermal design. As with 20-series cards, we still have two fans, but they're now in a push-pull arrangement with one fan on each side, which Nvidia refers to as "flow-through." If you choose an air cooler rather than an AiO or specialized water cooling, keep in mind that this should boost temperatures at a given fan speed but may also force hot air onto the CPU more than you'd anticipate from a standard design.
The PCB has also significantly decreased in size, with fins and heat pipes taking up the whole rear half of the board. As a result, there is nowhere to attach a power input at the back of the card, which is where you typically find it. Instead, Nvidia inserted it at the farthest ends of the PCB, in the middle of the device. Since there isn't enough area for the typical pair of eight-pin connectors you would expect, the company has substituted a more minor 12-pin port.
Although it's not the cheapest graphics card available, there are several that cost twice as much and are just slightly better. The MSRP pricing is, therefore, quite reasonable given the level of performance you get out of it compared to the rest of this generation, even though the RTX 3080 is really costly compared to its contemporaries and the card it is replacing.
Pros
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Class-leading performance for the price.
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Excellent 4K gaming performance.
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Quiet operation.
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Plenty of useful non-gaming features.
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Gorgeous design.
Cons
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No DLSS 3.0 (yet).
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No USB-C in Founders Edition.
5. Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti
The RTX 3080 Ti is based on the Nvidia Ampere architecture, just like the rest of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3000 series, and it offers the same upgrades as the rest of the portfolio.
Additionally, the core count and memory bandwidth of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti make it significantly more potent than the RTX 3080.
Since the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti has 12GB of GDDR6X instead of the original card's 10GB, it does have more VRAM, but it also has a quicker 384-bit memory bus. This means that the RTX 3080 Ti offers 912 GB/s of memory bandwidth as opposed to the RTX 3080's 760 GB/s. Future versions of the RTX 3080 Ti should be even better at 4K gaming because of quicker VRAM and more memory.
Additionally, the RTX 3080 Ti has a pure increase in power. In contrast to the RTX 3080's 8,704 CUDA cores, the GPU has 10,240 CUDA cores distributed across 80 compute units. Although there has been a 17% increase in core count, don't anticipate a strict 17% performance boost; we'll discuss that later.
Additionally, you will get access to the full range of software features from Nvidia, which go beyond just gaming.
You also have access to DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling). This technology upscales a lower resolution to your native resolution using Tensor cores, of which the RTX 3080 Ti has 320. You shouldn't have to forgo visual quality to achieve a respectable framerate, especially at high resolutions like 4K. DLSS will enable more flashy graphics options.
The Founders Edition Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti that we reviewed is the same design as the other RTX 30-series Founders Edition cards. The graphics card boasts a stylish color scheme of gunmetal gray and black. RTX 3080 Ti and Nvidia branding are also carved into the metal. Even though you won't notice it after the graphics card is installed on your PC, it's a great touch.
The RTX 3080 Ti has two fans, one on the front and one on the rear, just like the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090. This fan setup draws air through the show, the card, and a fan on the back, most likely spewing hot air through the top of your case.
Finally, the 12-pin power connector has, of course, been added by Nvidia. It does imply that using an adapter to power the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is likely necessary, but of course, Nvidia has provided an adapter in the package.
Pros
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Like other Founders Edition cards, this card has an attractive, functional design.
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Excellent performance.
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Quiet operation.
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Good thermal performance.
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Compact profile.
Cons
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Very expensive
FAQs
Do you prefer GTX or RTX ?
RTX cards perform better for both traditional rendering performance and graphics. A 30-series RTX GPU—specifically, an RTX 3090—is what you need if you want the highest gaming performance from an NVIDIA card.
How do I select the best graphics card?
Get a card with at least 6GB, ideally 8GB or more, for 1080p gaming. You'll need additional memory if you play with all the settings set to high or install high-resolution texture packs. Additionally, more than 8GB is preferable if you're gaming at ultra-high resolutions like 4K.
What do the acronyms RTX and GTX mean?
Nvidia introduced the Giga Texel Shader eXtreme (GTX) graphics processing unit for gamers to ensure high-quality gaming experiences. A GTX graphic card called Ray Tracing Texel eXtreme (RTX) is designed to increase ray tracing's performance, video quality, and power.
Final Thought
The top 16 Best Nvidia Graphics Cards has just been introduced to you and are loved and trusted by many people. These are recommendations taken from the expertise of our professionals. Numerous factors, including budgets, wants, and other considerations, an influence which product is best for you. Therefore, think carefully before making a purchase and seek guidance from your loved ones if you are unsure.