When building a computer platform for gaming or content creation, the most important component to consider besides the CPU and RAM is the graphics card or what we commonly call it a graphics card or GPU.
What is the best graphics card that you can use at the present time that can serve you and meet all your requirements and fit well with your budget?
Best graphics card 2023
The graphics card or screen card is the piece responsible for processing graphics, and the more expensive it is, the more powerful it is.
You need the highest performance power if you're buying a 4K monitor to play games at 2160p. In this case, you definitely need the most powerful graphics card you can afford.
Also read: If you are a fan of games, here it is The best PC games in 2023 Including action titles, adventures, horror and more.
But if you plan or have a 1440p screen, you can suffice with a mid-priced graphics card such as the RTX 3070 Ti or the appropriate AMD cards.
The gist of the idea is that you need to consider several criteria before purchasing a graphics card. Besides determining your budget in the first place and knowing what screen resolution you'll be gaming on, you should know what video quality you can run your games on on your next graphics card.
Some medium-cost graphics cards can run the latest fighting and shooting games and achieve a very high frame rate that may exceed the 300 frame barrier, especially if you are ready to be content with low to medium graphics quality.
This way, you'll be able to get the most out of the high refresh rates your games support.
Currently, newer graphics technologies such as ray tracing, DLSS, and FSR from AMD are also being considered. Unfortunately, these technologies are very resource-hungry, and require the most powerful graphics cards to perform well in games.
If you insist on enjoying these technologies, you must sacrifice to reach the most powerful graphics cards.
But if you are ready to give up these technologies, you can suffice with the mid-range cards.
In any case, in order not to exhaust you in thinking and analyzing the requirements, we have decided to present to you a list that combines the best graphics cards at the present time, and we will show you what their performance is like and what are the requirements for them to get the most benefit from them.
▼ NVIDIA Geforce RTX 4090 Card
This is the indomitable beast of Invidia. You can say that the NVIDIA Geforce RTX 4090 is the best graphics card that NVIDIA has made for the gaming community so far.
The only problem with this card is that it is power hungry, and there are many concerns about its high consumption and what might be reflected in the electricity bills.
The RTX 4090 is built with the ability to run all games at the highest graphical quality at 4K while enjoying the power of modern graphics technologies such as ray tracing.
In some first-person combat games, this card is capable of achieving a very high frame rate that may exceed 500 frames.
This is a very massive frame rate that helps you take advantage of the higher refresh rates of your screen. However, you can still achieve a higher frame rate thanks to DLSS technology that compresses graphics while preserving their original quality.
Not only is the RTX 4090 capable of running all the latest gaming titles at 4K resolution, but it can also fulfill the demands of creative work from high-quality video editing or 3D design.
So, quite simply, you can enjoy exceptional performance with this card as long as you have enough hardware to meet its needs and by that we mean the right CPU and enough power supply.
The only problem is the crazy price of the card, but this has become an imposed reality due to supply chain problems, economic crises facing industrial companies, and the problem of inflation.
If you have an open budget and decide to sacrifice for the very best, then you should not give up on the RTX 4090.
Features of NVIDIA Geforce RTX 4090:
- The most powerful graphics card on earth yet.
- Incredible 4K gaming performance.
- DLSS technology provides a real boost and amazing gaming performance boost.
- An ideal choice for content creators and creatives.
Disadvantages of NVIDIA Geforce RTX 4090:
- Really crazy price.
- The performance of the card may exceed your needs even while gaming at 4K resolution.
- High energy consumption.
▼ NVIDIA Geforce RTX 3080 Card
For the vast majority of users, the RTX 4090 is overkill not only because of its killer performance but also because of its insane price.
Up to this point, previous generation cards can deliver exceptional performance even at 4K resolution.
With the RTX 3080 card, you can play all modern and advanced game titles and achieve a stable and high frame rate at 4K resolution while enabling technologies such as ray tracing and DLSS and benefit from maximum settings for other graphics graphics properties.
Although the RTX 3080 Ti card offers performance, this difference cannot exceed more than 10 frames in the best cases, and yet the price difference is still large between the two cards.
Therefore, the RTX 3080 card is the best value for money.
As for the drawbacks and downsides, the RTX 3080 Ti card heats up excessively while dealing with resource-hungry titles and the card temperature can reach 90 degrees Celsius or higher.
This problem may greatly affect small computer boxes, which may result in the card entering the stage of self-throttling quickly.
Therefore, to avoid these problems, you should be satisfied with the RTX 3080 card for the time being, especially if you have a small computer case.
However, if your budget is available, you can consider the all-new RTX 4080 card, which has more resources and offers much better performance than the RTX 3080 card, making it a smarter investment for future games.
However, the RTX 4080 consumes more power, which is something to bear in mind, and is also larger and requires more space in the box.
But in the end, it is definitely one of the cards worth considering before making the final decision in the purchase process.
Features of NVIDIA Geforce RTX 3080:
- Exceptional 4K performance.
- Great performance while ray tracing is enabled.
- Much cheaper than the RTX 2080 Ti - at least the official selling price.
- Supports HDMI 2.1 standard.
Disadvantages of NVIDIA Geforce RTX 3080:
- High energy consumption.
- Very limited overclocking range.
▼ NVIDIA Geforce RTX 3070 Card
The true value of the RTX 3070 is its ability to run high-end games at 1440p resolution and deliver high frame rates no matter what video quality you prefer to enable in your games.
Although the RTX 3070 card is based on the previous generation architecture, it still shares the power of performance with the current generation architecture.
You may also be interested in knowing how Game recording with NVIDIA ShadowPlay software Which gives you the ability to record gaming sessions without the need to download external software.
The RTX 4070 Ti is definitely still a better option and has the potential to provide greater gains in terms of performance, but the huge price difference between both cards makes the RTX 3070 card the best value for money as it is still able to provide great performance while playing games at a resolution 1440p.
Just note that the RTX 3070 card is aimed at the mid-range gamer community who do not have 4K screens because this resolution is killer for a card like the RTX 3070 but if your screen resolution is 1440p then this is the perfect card that you can buy and you will be very happy with it no matter what kind of games you prefer .
However, note that there are some game titles that are easy to run on the RTX 3070 card even while dealing with 4K resolution, especially those types of games that do not contain advanced or complex graphics.
Thus, the RTX 3070 card guarantees you gains from both worlds and delivers performance at a rate of at least 60 frames even at 4K resolution with some light games that are not resource-hungry. But on 1440p games the card will run more freely.
The problem with the matter is that the performance difference between the RTX 3070 and RTX 3080 card is very large and may exceed the range of 25 frames, which means that in some cases you may not be able to activate the ray tracing technology because, as we mentioned a little while ago, this technology is resource-hungry.
But if you insist on activating it, you may end up not getting a solid 60 FPS in most modern game titles.
Some may think of jumping to the red genie and thinking of purchasing the AMD RX 6700 XT card, which is logical atonement if you want my personal opinion, given that the material difference is in favor of the cheaper AMD card. However, the RTX 3070 card is still the most powerful on the ground by almost 10 frames.
Even if the difference is still very small, the extra 10 frames can work wonders and provide smoother performance and a stable 60 frame rate in the most high-end games.
So, in my personal opinion, the RTX 3070 is still a very valuable option for those people who wouldn't consider enabling ray tracing technology on 4K monitors in order to get 60 stable frames.
But if you have a 1440p screen, this card is definitely more than wonderful and will enable you to activate all modern graphic technologies and play your games at the highest graphic quality.
Features of NVIDIA Geforce RTX 3070:
- Incredible performance at 1080p and 1440p.
- Its size is much smaller than the RTX 3080 card.
- Exceptional value for money.
Disadvantages of NVIDIA Geforce RTX 3070:
- Uses the previous generation of video memory.
- Limited overclocking range.
▼ AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT
The RX 6600 XT is based on the highly efficient RDNA 2 architecture. These are AMD's cheapest cards today that you can rely on to run all the latest games at 1080p and enjoy stable performance and a solid frame rate while gaming at maximum video quality.
Unfortunately, you cannot trust the card while ray tracing is activated, but do not despair completely, as it is still able to handle ray tracing. However, the crux of the story is that the RTX 3060 Ti performs better when ray tracing is enabled, which is common with all NVIDIA cards. However, the RX 6600 XT is cheaper than the RTX 3060 Ti.
Thus, the RX 6600 XT is a smart choice for those users who struggle to afford more expensive cards in the budget, yet wish to take advantage of the latest graphics technologies or run their games at maximum graphics settings and get high frame rates.
read more: Best gaming keyboards for PC
At the same time, you can take advantage of FSR technology that greatly enhances performance with FSR-supported games. Unfortunately, the number of games is very few, but if there are any, then it is one of the features that is worth trying. In my personal opinion, even if the RX 6600 XT card can handle ray tracing technology, you will still have problems with gaming performance.
Therefore, we recommend users who don't care much about ray tracing technology to get the RX 6600 XT card and still be able to run all high-end games at the highest graphic quality at 1080p resolution with a frame rate of at least 60 frames.
AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT Features:
- Excellent performance at 1080p.
- Low energy consumption.
- Many great features for Ryzen owners.
Disadvantages of the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT:
- Unreliable ray tracing performance without FSR activation.
- Underperformance than the RTX 3060 Ti was unexpected.
▼ NVIDIA Geforce RTX 3060 Ti
If you're on a tight budget and own a 1080p monitor but want to enjoy ray tracing technology, we recommend the mid-range RTX 3060 Ti. NVIDIA Geforce RTX 3060 Ti comes as one of the best mid-range graphics cards and is suitable for many uses.
Certainly, it is not the cheapest card from Nvidia, given that there are cheaper cards from Nvidia and AMD.
But if you want to enjoy a stable frame rate at 60 frames per second while activating modern graphics technologies and high video quality, then you should definitely consider the RTX 3060 Ti card.
The RTX 3060 Ti is based on the Ampere architecture, which means it has the same manufacturing technology as the RTX 3070 and RTX 3080 cards, but these latter cards are completely overrated if your monitor is 1080p and they are very power hungry.
So, it depends on various parameters including the resolution of your monitor, the power supply you are using, and above all your current budget range.
The RTX 3060 Ti offers great value for the price and has enough resources to handle ray tracing more than decently as long as your next games are going to be running at 1080p.
This card is absolutely not suitable for 4K monitors, nor is it the right investment for 1440p monitors unless you are willing to make some compromises.
For example, if you have a 1440p screen and your budget is very limited and you can't buy a card more powerful than the RTX 3060 Ti, then there is no problem with it. However, you will not be able to enable ray tracing technology and you will not be able to run high-end games at the highest graphical quality.
You may be able to play at medium or even high quality, but you will get jittery and unstable frame rates which may result in a sloppy gaming experience.
But for FHD 1080p games, this card is an unbeatable beast because not only is it capable of running modern games at the highest graphical quality, but it is also capable of handling ray tracing technology and delivering a stable and playable frame rate.
NVIDIA Geforce RTX 3060 Ti Features:
- Great performance at 1080p, even with ray tracing enabled.
- Significantly lower power consumption compared to its more expensive siblings.
- The cheapest NVIDIA card you can count on right now.
NVIDIA Geforce RTX 3060 Ti:
- Very limited overclocking range.
- The price difference is very close between it and the RTX 3070 card, despite the great performance difference.
Conclusion
This was a list of the best graphics cards that you can get right now. As you have noticed yourself, we did not care much about the new generation cards, except for the RTX 4090 card for those with open budgets. The reason for this is that the previous generation cards still perform great at 4K and 1440p resolution but are much cheaper.
In addition, even with its high energy consumption, it is still lower in consumption than the new architecture. Your choice of the right card depends on many things. Determine your maximum budget, screen resolution, how much you care about ray tracing, and what graphic quality you can choose. In any case, don't compromise on a graphics card with 8GB or more of video memory because future games will be unforgiving in their requirements.
