NVIDIA Graphics Card Buyers Guide
What is NVIDIA GPU / Graphics Card?
Though many modern CPUs are equipped with integrated graphics, these are only really suitable for basic tasks such as web browsing and office applications. Therefore you should serious consider buying a separate graphics card if you want to play GAMES or edit videos.
The frontrunner in graphics cards is NVIDIA, and its range of GeForce GPUs offer something at every imaginable price point. The key specs to look out for when choosing a GeForce graphics card are the number of cores and amount of memory, with more powerful cards having more of both. A faster and more powerful graphics card will enable your PC to run games at higher quality settings at a smooth frame rate and allow you to take advantage of super sharp high resolution monitors, making everything look better. In this buyers guide we’ll give a recommendation of the optimum monitor resolution for each graphics card.
NVIDIA is constantly updating its product range which could make it confusing to know if you’re buying the latest and greatest version.
The easiest way to tell is to look at what series the graphics card is, this essentially refers to the generation of that product which you’ll always find in the product description. Right now, the latest series of NVIDIA GPUs are from the GeForce GTX 16-series and GeForce RTX 20-series.
The NVIDIA GeForce hierarchy
With prices ranging from as little as £65 right to over £2,000, there’s an NVIDIA GeForce GPU for everyone. To make the selection process a little easier to discern, we’ve split the various choices into entry-level, mid-range, high-end, ultra-high-end and extreme segments.
GeForce GT 1030
NVIDIA’s most affordable graphics card is the GT 1030. It is based on the older GeForce 10-series and has 384 cores and 2GB of memory. While not suited for playing demanding games, the GT 1030 is suitable for casual gaming on less graphically demanding games such as Minecraft and World of Warcraft at lower detail settings.
| Gaming | 1 | |||||||||
| Virtual Reality | 0 | |||||||||
Optimum Resolution1080p
GeForce GTX 1650
The GeForce GTX 1650 is NVIDIA’s most affordable gaming graphics card. It’s based on the same Turing architecture as the RTX 20-series cards but it doesn’t support Real Time Ray Tracing or DLSS. However, as it’s armed with 896 cores and 4GB of memory you end up getting good 1080p performance at an affordable price.
| Gaming | 3 | |||||||||
| Virtual Reality | 3 | |||||||||
Optimum Resolution 1080p
GeForce GTX 1060 3GB
The GeForce GTX 1060 3GB is a previous generation 10-series GPU but is still available at a knock down price. Armed with 1,152 cores and 3GB of memory the GTX 1060 3GB provides good performance at 1080p.
| Gaming | 3 | |||||||||
| Virtual Reality | 3 | |||||||||
Optimum Resolution 1080p
GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
Taking all that is good from the GeForce GTX 1060 3GB card, the 6GB variant does two things: it doubles the amount of memory, which is really useful in the latest games, and also increases performance by upping the cores from 1,152 to 1,280. This gives the GTX 1060 6GB excellent performance in games at 1080p.
| Gaming | 4 | |||||||||
| Virtual Reality | 4 | |||||||||
Optimum Resolution 1080p
GeForce GTX 1660
Like the GeForce GTX 1650 the GTX 1660 is based on the latest Turing architecture and lacks support for Real Time Ray Tracing or DLSS. It’s equipped with 1408 cores and 6GB of memory so is the most affordable graphics card for gaming on a high resolution 1440p monitor.
| Gaming | 5 | |||||||||
| Virtual Reality | 5 | |||||||||
Optimum Resolution 1440p
GeForce GTX 1660 Ti
The GTX 1660 Ti is a more powerful version of the GTX 1660. Although it has the same 6GB of memory, it has more cores, 1536 versus 1408, giving you higher frame rates in games at 1440p.
| Gaming | 6 | |||||||||
| Virtual Reality | 6 | |||||||||
Optimum Resolution 1440p
GeForce GTX 2060
The RTX 2060 is the most affordable 20-series GPU and so features a full implementation of the latest Turing architecture. This adds supports for two new features, DLSS, an AI-enhanced AA (anti-aliasing) effect that smooths out jagged lines and DXR, which enables gorgeous ray traced lighting effects in supported games. Packing in 1920 cores plus 6GB of memory the RTX 2060 is a great choice for gaming at 1440p, though due to the huge complexity of ray tracing it can only play games with ray tracing smoothly at 1080p.
| Gaming | 7 | |||||||||
| Virtual Reality | 7 | |||||||||
Optimum Resolution 1440p
GeForce RTX 2060 Super
The RTX 2060 Super is a new and improved version of the RTX 2060. It supports all the latest Turing features but increases the core count from 1920 to 2176 and the memory from 6GB to 8GB, giving a bit more performance at a similar price, making it a great choice for gaming at 1440p.
| Gaming | 7 | |||||||||
| Virtual Reality | 7 | |||||||||
Optimum Resolution 1440p
GeForce RTX 2070
The next big step up in the NVIDIA 20-series is the RTX 2070, a true high-end GPU that is equipped with 2304 cores and 8GB of memory, giving a substantial performance increase over the lower-spec RTX 2060 and a great choice for gaming at 1440p at the highest quality settings.
| Gaming | 8 | |||||||||
| Virtual Reality | 8 | |||||||||
Optimum Resolution 1440p
GeForce RTX 2070 Super
The RTX 2070 Super is a new and improved version of the RTX 2070. It supports all the latest Turing features but increases the core count from 2304 to 2560, giving a bit more performance at a similar price, making it a great choice for gaming at 1440p.
| Gaming | 8 | |||||||||
| Virtual Reality | 8 | |||||||||
Optimum Resolution 1440p
GeForce RTX 2080
The next big step up in the NVIDIA 20-series is the RTX 2080, which is equipped with 2944 cores and 8GB of memory. Having so much power on tap gives the RTX 2080 the ability to play games on a 4K or UWHD monitor, although if you enable ray tracing you’ll need to drop the resolution to 1440p to get a smooth frame rate.
| Gaming | 9 | |||||||||
| Virtual Reality | 9 | |||||||||
Optimum Resolution 4K or UWHD
GeForce RTX 2080 Super
The RTX 2080 Super is a new and improved version of the RTX 2080. It supports all the latest Turing features but increases the core count from 2944 to 3072, giving a bit more performance at a similar price, making it a great choice for gaming at 4K or UWHD, although like with the RTX 2080 you will need to consider dropping the resolution to 1440p in ray traced games.
| Gaming | 9 | |||||||||
| Virtual Reality | 9 | |||||||||
Optimum Resolution 4K or UWHD
GeForce RTX 2080 Ti
The RTX 2080 Ti is a next-gen graphics card based on a new architecture called Turing. This ultra-powerful high-end graphics card packs in 4352 CUDA cores 11GB of memory and supports Real Time Ray Tracing that makes games look truly stunning.
| Gaming | 10 | |||||||||
| Virtual Reality | 10 | |||||||||
| Value | 2 | |||||||||
Optimum Resolution 4K or UWHD
TITAN RTX
The TITAN RTX is a special edition graphics card based on a same Turing architecture as the RTX 2080 Ti, but enhanced with even more cores and memory. This ultra-fast graphics card packs in 2608 CUDA cores 24GB of memory and supports Real Time Ray Tracing that makes games look truly stunning.
| Gaming | 9 | |||||||||
| Virtual Reality | 9 | |||||||||
| Value | 2 | |||||||||
Optimum Resolution 4K or UWHD
NVIDIA GPU Summary
Still not sure which NVIDIA graphics card is right for you? This table shows the key characteristics, rated out of 10, of the main models.
| GT 1030 | GTX 1650 | GTX 1060 3GB | GTX 1060 6GB | GTX 1660 | GTX 1660 Ti | RTX 2060 | RTX 2060 Super | RTX 2070 | RTX 2070 Super | RTX 2080 | RTX 2080 Super | RTX 2080 Ti | TITAN RTX | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gaming | 1 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 10 |
| Virtual Reality | 0 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 10 |
| Optimum Resolution | 1080p | 1080p | 1080p | 1080p | 1440p | 1440p | 1440p | 1440p | 1440p | 1440p | 4K/UWHD | 4K/UWHD | 4K/UWHD | 4K/UWHD |
We hope you’ve found this buyers guide helpful. Don’t hesitate to speak to one of our friendly advisors for more advice if you still have questions on how to select the perfect graphics card for your needs.
View all NVIDIA Gaming PCs