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.
The NVIDIA GeForce hierarchy
With prices ranging from over £2,000 to as little as £130, there’s an NVIDIA GeForce GPU for every gamer. The range is divided into two product groups, GeForce RTX and GeForce GTX, each with their own set of features and benefits, which we’ll explain in the next section. To make the selection process a little easier to discern, we’ve also divided all the GPUs into four main categories in descending performance: Ultra High-End, High-End, Mid-Range and Entry-Level.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX Graphics Cards
The most powerful and advanced NVIDIA gaming graphics cards belong to the GeForce RTX 20-series. The range comprises over half a dozen models spanning all the way from Mid-Range GPUs costing hundreds of pounds all the way up to Ultra-High-End GPUs that cost over a thousand pounds.
DXR Real Time Ray Tracing
Every GeForce RTX 20-series GPU is based on the Turing architecture. Launched in late 2018, Turing marked a major milestone in PC graphics, for the first time enabling real time ray traced graphics in games. Unlike traditional rasterised graphics, ray tracing simulates how light beams and shadows actually work, providing far more rich and realistic graphics. While ray tracing as a technique has been used for decades in pre-rendered films, what makes Turing GPUs unique is that they are powerful enough to produce ray traced graphics in real time.
The RT cores in GeForce RTX GPUs work with Microsoft DXR to enable stunning ray traced graphics.
GeForce RTX 20-series GPUs also support the latest Microsoft DirectX 12 Ultimate standard, which further improves DXR ray tracing as well as adding three new rendering techniques.
Variable Rate Shading
VRS enables games to dynamically change the rate at which they shade different parts of a scene. For instance, as the human eye can’t pick up as much detail on fast moving objects as slower moving objects, fast moving objects can be shaded at a slower rate than the rest of the scene, freeing up the GPU to render the whole scene faster.
Mesh Shading
Mesh Shading is a similar concept to VRS and is a way of dynamically changing the amount of geometric detail on peripheral objects, freeing up the CPU to focus on other tasks.
Sampler Feedback
Sampler Feedback is a new method of saving the GPU from non-essential rendering. The concept is that rather than rendering every frame from scratch, there are frequently lots of objects that barely change in colour or size between several frames. Sampler Feedback analysis these objects and cuts down how often they are rendered, saving the GPU from rendering them every frame, and enabling it to focus on more visibly beneficial tasks.
TITAN RTX
The TITAN RTX is the flagship NVIDIA gaming graphics card. This ultra-fast graphics card packs in 4608 CUDA cores, 72 RT cores and 24GB of memory and provides stunning gaming experiences at the most demanding resolutions, 4K and UWHD.
| Gaming | 10 | |||||||||
| Virtual Reality | 10 | |||||||||
Optimum Resolution 4K or UWHD
GeForce RTX 2080 Ti
The RTX 2080 Ti is the second most powerful NVIDIA gaming graphics card. This ultra-high-end graphics card packs in 4352 CUDA cores, 68 RT cores and 11GB of memory and while not quite as fast as the TITAN RTX still provides stunning gaming experiences at the most demanding resolutions, 4K and UWHD.
| Gaming | 10 | |||||||||
| Virtual Reality | 10 | |||||||||
Optimum Resolution 4K or UWHD
GeForce RTX 2080 Super
The RTX 2080 Super is the top performing high-end NVIDIA gaming graphics card. This powerful graphics card packs in 3072 CUDA cores, 48 RT cores and 8GB of memory and provides a great gaming experience at 4K and UWHD, although 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 2070 Super
The RTX 2070 Super is the next model down from the RTX 2080 Super. This high-end graphics card packs in 2560 CUDA cores, 40 RT cores and 8GB of memory and provides a great gaming experience at 1440p.
| Gaming | 8 | |||||||||
| Virtual Reality | 8 | |||||||||
Optimum Resolution 1440p
GeForce RTX 2070
The older RTX 2070 is the next model down from the RTX 2070 Super packing in a few less cores. Even so, thanks to its 2304 CUDA cores, 36 RT cores and 8GB of memory the RTX 2070 is still a great choice for gaming at 1440p.
| Gaming | 8 | |||||||||
| Virtual Reality | 8 | |||||||||
Optimum Resolution 1440p
GeForce RTX 2060 Super
The RTX 2060 Super is the next model down from the RTX 2070. This mid-range graphics card packs in 2176 CUDA cores, 34 RT cores and 8GB of memory and still provides a great gaming experience at 1440p.
| Gaming | 7 | |||||||||
| Virtual Reality | 7 | |||||||||
Optimum Resolution 1440p
GeForce RTX 2060
The older RTX 2060 is the next model down from the RTX 2060 Super, packing in a fewer cores and less memory. Thanks to its 1920 CUDA cores, 30 RT cores and 6GB of memory the RTX 2060 is a good choice for gaming at 1440p, but you’ll need to drop the resolution to 1080p in ray traced games.
| Gaming | 7 | |||||||||
| Virtual Reality | 7 | |||||||||
Optimum Resolution 1440p
NVIDIA GeForce GTX Graphics Cards
The current crop of GeForce GTX 16-series cards is based on a cut down version of the Turing architecture. This means they share the same great power efficiency as the GeForce RTX cards, but lack RT cores so don’t support DXR ray tracing or some of the other features from DirectX 12 Ultimate. That said, GeForce GTX graphics cards are excellent value for money thanks to their competitive pricing and some of the more powerful models are even powerful enough to use in VR.
GeForce GTX 1660 Ti
The GTX 1660 Ti is the most powerful GeForce GTX graphics card. This mid-range graphics card packs in 1536 CUDA cores and 6GB of memory and provides a great gaming experience at 1440p.
| Gaming | 6 | |||||||||
| Virtual Reality | 6 | |||||||||
Optimum Resolution 1440p
GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER
The GTX 1660 Super is the most affordable mid-range NVIDIA GeForce graphics card and thanks to its 1408 CUDA cores and 6GB of memory it still packs in quiet a punch when gaming at 1440p.
| Gaming | 5 | |||||||||
| Virtual Reality | 5 | |||||||||
Optimum Resolution 1440p
GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER
The GTX 1650 Super is an affordable entry-level gaming graphics card. It packs in 1280 CUDA cores and 4GB of memory and provides a great gaming experience at 1080p.
| Gaming | 3 | |||||||||
| Virtual Reality | 3 | |||||||||
Optimum Resolution 1080p
GeForce GTX 1650
The GTX 1650 Super is the most affordable NVIDIA gaming graphics card. It packs in 896 CUDA cores and 4GB of memory and provides a good gaming experience at 1080p.
| Gaming | 3 | |||||||||
| Virtual Reality | 3 | |||||||||
Optimum Resolution 1080p
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.
| TITAN RTX | RTX 2080 Ti | RTX 2080 SUPER | RTX 2070 SUPER | RTX 2070 | RTX 2060 SUPER | RTX 2060 | GTX 1660 Ti | GTX 1660 SUPER | GTX 1650 SUPER | GTX 1650 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gaming | 10 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 3 |
| Ray Tracing | Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
No |
| Virtual Reality | 10 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 3 |
| Optimum Resolution | 4K/UWHD | 4K/UWHD | 4K/UWHD | 1440p | 1440p | 1440p | 1440p | 1440p | 1440p | 1080p | 1080p |
There you have it, everything you need to know when choosing a new NVIDIA GeForce graphics card for your gaming PC. We hope you've found this buyer’s guide helpful. Don't hesitate to contact one of our friendly advisors for more advice if you still have questions on how to select the perfect graphics card.