These are the best NVIDIA GPUs for PC gaming

Best NVIDIA GPUs Windows Central 2020

Best Overall: NVIDIA RTX 2080 Ti

The NVIDIA RTX 2080 Ti is one of the best GPUs you can buy right now. It’s a killer piece of kit with plenty of performance available for both VR and 4K setups. And if you happen to be a fan of ray-tracing, this card will be able to push through and handle the additional workload.

Taking full advantage of NVIDIA’s Turing architecture, the ASUS ROG STRIX RTX 2080 Ti comes equipped with a 1,665MHz boost clock speed, 4,352 CUDA cores, and overclocked 11GB GGDR6 RAM. All these specs make it a formidable weapon in PC building. It’s also easy to tweak to get even more performance for your money.

Should you have the available funds, this GPU will last for years. The only issue with ray-tracing is the lack of supported games (as well as the price for most PC gamers). There are more games in the works with ray-tracing, but it’s worth noting if you fancy enjoying this GPU to its limit.

Virtual Reality headsets require a beefy PC to provide content to the two displays at high resolutions. You could get away with less capable cards, but you’d pay the price in quality slightly. This is where the EVGA RTX 2080 Super comes into play. It’s good enough for even 4K gaming, but a little more affordable than the 2080 Ti.

You don’t have to use this GPU for VR either if you fancy using a single screen for a while. It’ll comfortably handle 4K gaming. If you already have an RTX 2080, you may want to look elsewhere for a better value upgrade, since this isn’t much of a performance boost for the asking price.

Don’t overlook more budget-friendly GPUs like the GTX 1660 Super, which will perform exceptionally well at 1080p. Sure, it’s not part of the RTX family of cards, but the 1660 Super is “super” in its own right with Turing enhancements. We’re highlighting the Gigabyte GTX 1660 OC, which will be able to handle Full HD games without much issue.

While you can save money with this GPU, it’s worth noting that it’s using slower GDDR5 RAM. This isn’t a massive dealbreaker but does make an impact on performance. Still, for the price, it offers exceptional value, allowing you to go past 60 FPS at 1080p, making it a killer combo with a first gaming rig.

QHD displays with a resolution of 2560 x 1440 are becoming the sweet spot for gamers, which is where the NVIDIA RTX 2060 Super reigns supreme from Team Green. It’s a mid-tier GPU, and as such won’t break your budget, but packs enough power to run the latest games at the high resolution with ray-tracing.

The MSI Gaming RTX 2060 Super is an excellent example of this card, rocking a boost clock speed of 1,665MHz and 8GB of GDDR6 RAM. If you want extremely high frame rates, you may have to drop the visual settings slightly or roll out a 1080p monitor.

The RTX 2070 Super is in an exciting position. The GTX 1070 and RTX 2070 were mainly suitable for 1440p gaming, and while the same is true for this card, it can also handle some 4K content. You will struggle with the most demanding titles at high frame rates, but if you want a better value card for 4K gaming, this is it.

The ZOTAC Gaming RTX 2070 Super Mini is a unique GPU in that it’s incredibly compact, making it an ideal candidate for a Mini-ITX build. You have ever fancied building a super-powerful gaming rig that’s only slightly larger than your toaster? This GPU allows for that.

Prepare yourself for some killer specifications. 4608 NVIDIA CUDA cores running at 1,770 MHz boost clock, powered by NVIDIA Turing architecture, rocking 72 ray-tracing cores, 576 Tensor Cores for AI, and 24GB of GDDR6 RAM. NVIDIA requires a PSU of at least 650W, but with an equally capable CPU, we’d even go as far as 800W or 1000W.

This card is a monster, and so too is the price. It’s not technically for gaming, and you really shouldn’t buy it for that sort of thing, but if you’re into AI and other intense creative work, this is a card that will laugh at most stuff you throw at it.

Bottom line

When looking at the absolute best GPU from NVIDIA, you’ll want to go for the RTX 2080 Ti. This is the king of NVIDIA GPUs, and the ASUS ROG STRIX RTX 2080 Ti is a gorgeous and powerful gaming machine. Just watch out for the price, which is incredibly high for a GPU.

You don’t have to spend so much on PC gaming, however. If you’re just starting out with your first gaming PC or only need a card for 1080p and some 1440p gaming, the Gigabyte GTX 1660 OC would be an excellent fit at a vastly more affordable price.

Credits — The team that worked on this guide

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