A graphics card is one of the most important components of a gaming PC, if not the most. But just like most PC components, there’s no single GPU that works for everyone. While some users may want the absolute ultimate gaming experience on PC, others may want something that offers the best value, albeit less powerful. Many are even looking for the best budget graphics cards for a casual 1080p gaming experience.
Fortunately there has never been a better time to buy. The crypto mining phase is over, Nvidia has new cards in the pipeline and long-time competitor AMD will soon be showing off its next-generation hardware. It’s also now officially a three-way battle, as Intel has made its long-awaited arrival with its Arc dedicated graphics line.
This list is going to keep changing in the coming months as new cards hit the market. But right now, these are the best graphics cards for gaming you should consider buying.
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- Best overall graphics card for gaming in 2022: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080
- Best AMD graphics card for gaming: AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT
- Best value graphics card for gaming: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060Ti
- Best 1440p graphics card for gaming: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070
- Absolute best graphics card for gaming enthusiasts: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090
- Best Intel graphics card for gaming: Intel Arc A770 Limited Edition 16GB
- Best entry level graphics card for gaming: Nvidia GTX 1660 Super
Best overall graphics card for gaming in 2022: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080
While the GeForce RTX 3080 may not be the most powerful graphics card but on balance, it’s still the best for gamers. The RTX 3080 is an excellent GPU in the RTX 30-series lineup that’s perfectly capable of handling 4K gaming at 60FPS and above. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 sports Ampere architecture with an overall performance improvement of over 30 percent when compared with its previous-gen counterpart.
Thanks to Ampere, we’re also looking at some other great Nvidia features including DLSS 2.0. It works better than the older version thanks to the improved tensor cores on the RTX 3080. The RTX 3080 also offers impressive ray-tracing performance in conjunction with DLSS. The games look much better now and they offer a massive performance boost, especially when you are working with high-resolutions and RT rendering.
As for specifications, the GeForce RTX 3080 packs 28.3 billion transistors along with 272 Tensor cores and 68 RT cores. We’re looking at a boost clock of 1,710MHz, which is slightly less than both the RTX 2080 Super FE and the RTX 2080 FE’s boost clock speeds of 1,815MHz and 1,800MHz, respectively. The Nvidia RTX 3080 also has 10GB VRAM with a 19GB/s speed.All things considered, we think the GeForce RTX 3080 is still the best graphics card you can buy for gaming right now. The RTX 4080 is coming in November 2022 which may well replace it at the top of the list, but it’s going to give you many years of top class gaming.
- The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 may not be as powerful as the RTX 3090 on paper, but it matches its general performance and we think it's plenty to handle demanding games even at 4K.
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Best AMD graphics card for gaming: AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT
The Radeon RX 6800 XT is one of the most powerful AMD graphics cards to date. It’s right up there on the performance charts along with the RX 6900 XT and it competes with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 in the high-end space. In terms of specifications, the Radeon RX 6800 XT has 72 CUs and as many as 4,608 GPU cores. This GPU has a base clock of 2,015MHz whereas it can hit a boost clock speed of 2,250MHz. The RX 6800 XT also supports Rage mode in which both its game clock and the boost clock speeds can be increased further. Rage Mode is essentially a performance preset for the RX 6800 XT that allows it to operate at higher clock speeds.
Additionally, the Radeon RX 6800 XT also comes with 16GB GDDR6 memory, which is significantly higher than what the RTX 3080 brings to the table. We’re also looking at a 256-bit bus for the memory and a bandwidth of 512GB/s. It is, however falling short in the memory bandwidth department compared to the RTX 3080’s bandwidth of 760GB/s. The RX 6800 XT is rated for 300W TGP and AMD is recommending a 750W PSU to run this GPU optimally besides other components of your PC.
The Radeon RX 6800 XT also supports ray tracing. The RT performance of this GPU, however, isn’t as good as the RTX 3080. FSR, AMD’s upscaling technology, is continuing to improve as well to compete with Nvidia’s DLSS tech. FSR is compatible with a lot of games and the latest version is a big improvement on the first. We think most users will be perfectly happy with an RX 6800 XT for 4K gaming, too, if your preference is for the red team.
- The RX 6800 XT is the best graphics card in the 6000 series. It's identical to the RX 6900 XT except for slightly lower clock speeds.
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Best value graphics card for gaming: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060Ti
While the RTX 3060 Ti may not be as powerful as some other graphics cards in Nvidia’s 30-series lineup, we think it offers a ton of value. It essentially offers the same features as the other GPUs in the series, but for a lower price. The RTX 3060 Ti bridges the performance gap with the RTX 3060 and something more powerful like the RTX 3070. In terms of specifications, the RTX 3060 Ti features the GA104 graphics unit with a total of 4,864 CUDA cores. The RTX 3060 Ti has more CUDA Cores than the RTX 2080 Super, which is the most powerful unit in the 20-series.
The RTX 3060 Ti features a base clock speed of 1,415MHz and a boost clock speed of 1,665MHz. It also supports overclocking that’ll allow you to further enhance the overall experience. The RTX 3060 Ti has 8GB GDDR6 memory with a bandwidth of 448GB/s. This, in case you are wondering, is the same memory bandwidth as the RTX 3070. We also get 38 RT and 152 Tensor cores with the RTX 3060 Ti which means you get support for ray-racing, DLSS, and more as a standard. The RTX 3060 Ti is rated for 200W TGP and it uses a 12-pin connector.
When it comes to gameplay performance, the RTX 3060 Ti excels at 1080p and even delivers a pretty good 1440p gaming experience. It is also capable of handling 4K gaming, although you may have to make some sacrifices in the graphics quality. The RTX 3060 Ti is very similar to the RTX 3070, but since it costs less it’s better value and with DLSS you can make up gains to get you closer to its native performance.
- The RTX 3060 Ti can handle both 1080p as well as 1440p gaming very well. It's the best 30-series GPU for most people that want something better than an RTX 3050.
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Best 1440p graphics card for gaming: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070
We think the RTX 3070 is the one you should buy if you just care about a good 1440p gaming experience. 1440p gaming is the natural upgrade over 1080p and there are plenty of great 1440p gaming monitors available on the market too. In terms of specifications, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 comes with the GA104 GPU and has 5,888 CUDA cores. The RTX 3070 also features 46 RT cores and 184 Tensor cores.
In terms of clock speeds, the RTX 3070 has a boost clock of 1,725MHz. We’re also looking at 8GB VRAM and the RTX 3070 is rated for 220W power. You’ll need at least a 650W PSU for this graphics card. It uses a 12-pin connector, but you’ll get a single 8-pin to 12-pin adapter in the box. As for the general gaming performance, the RTX 3070 is perfectly capable of running games at 4K resolution but it’s more suited for 1440p gaming. But you can tweak some settings to run even some of the most demanding titles including Assasin’s Creed Valhalla and Cyberpunk 2077 at 4K.
The RTX 3070 GPU also handily beats the previous generation RTX 2080 Ti when it comes to gaming. That’s impressive considering how the RTX 3070 is priced at a recommended $499 at retail and it’s going against one of the most expensive and top-tier GPUs from the Turing family. The 40 Series is on its way, however, so the RTX 3070 may well soon find itself replaced by something newer and more powerful for similar money.
- The perfect choice if you're maxing out at 1440p. The 3070 has impressive performance and is significantly more affordable than a 3080.
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Best graphics card for enthusiasts: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090
The Nvidia RTX 4090 is the most powerful consumer graphics card money can buy. It represents the best of what Nvidia has to offer and it easily topples everything else on the market when it comes to raw performance. The chances are that you really don’t need one of these, especially if you’re a gamer. The RTX 4090 is so insanely powerful that neither 4K nor ray tracing in current titles can push it close to its limits. Most of the time it’s running in third gear.
The RTX 4090 makes more sense for content creators and those running applications that will benefit from massive GPU acceleration. It’s the first Nvidia GPU to come with a hardware AV1 encoder, though the NVENC encoder is no slouch either. For example, using the RTX 4090 with DaVinci Resolve, we managed to encode a 4:30 long 4K60 video at 40,000 bitrate using NVENC in just 96 seconds. The massive horsepower also means you get no slowdowns scrubbing timelines and applying edits, even without using proxies or lower-resolution timelines. It is unbelievable.
The RTX 4090 is built on Nvidia’s new Ada Lovelace architecture and houses the colossal AD102 GPU with 16,382 Cuda cores, 24GB GDDR6X VRAM, a base clock of 2.23 GHz, and Nvidia’s 3rd generation ray tracing cores. It’s the first Nvidia GPU to support DLSS 3.0, too, and has HDMI 2.1 outputs on the back. It’s rated at 450w TGP, so it’s thirsty and uses the new 12VHPWR power connector. Nvidia includes a rather necessary, but still unfortunate adapter in the box to use it with your existing power supply. You’ll need a minimum 850W power supply, though we’d recommend at least 1000W to give yourself some headroom.
This goliath is physically massive, too. It does mean you need to be a bit careful with your PC design if you’re wanting one of these.
- The undisputed heavyweight champion of consumer graphics cards, nothing else comes close to the RTX 4090
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Best Intel graphics card for gaming: Intel Arc A770 Limited Edition 16GB
What’s this? A graphics card from Intel?! That’s correct, there is now a third player in the space and it’s actually a lot better than many were expecting. The best of the bunch is Intel’s own Arc A770 “limited edition” which isn’t really limited, but Nvidia already coined the Founders Edition phrase. So Intel needed something different. It isn’t the only A770 on the market, but it’s the only one right now that comes with 16GB of VRAM which is certainly worth the slight price premium. That additional memory comes in handy in more demanding games and if you turn to creative workloads.
This isn’t designed to take on the best from Nvidia, nor even AMD. It’s firmly a mid-range GPU but one that also packs a raft of modern features. It’s made up of 32 Xe cores, 8 render slices, 32 ray tracing units, and 512 XMX engines. In simpler terms, this translates to a graphics card that is perfectly capable of high frame rate gaming at 1440p even with graphical settings turned up. It shouldn’t be the first port of call for ray tracing, but the A770 handles it surprisingly well. In some games that support DirectX 12 ray tracing the A770 can match or surpass some of Nvidia’s older, but high-end RTX GPUs.
Even though it’s a reference design, the A770 Limited Edition runs quiet, even with a fairly high 225w TBP. Out of the box it’ll be set to 190W, and increasing the power limit alongside some simple performance tweaks can unlock a little extra performance. There are some drawbacks, such as no hardware support for DX9, and performance in DX11 games can be inconsistent. But it was promised to deliver RTX 3060-esque performance and it does just that. All while being affordable. This is the most expensive version and it still comes in at $349.
- Intel's first flagship consumer GPU in two decades brings a much needed third-player to the table at an incredible price
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Best entry-level graphics card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super
If you’re building a budget gaming PC then you’re not going to be thinking too much about ray tracing or 4K or maxing out your graphics settings. But that doesn’t mean you have to compromise on having a good experience. Nvidia’s GTX lineup lives on with the 1660 Super, a graphics card without any of the ray tracing goodies you find on the more expensive RTX units. Note that you want the GTX 1660 Super, not the regular 1660, with this version offering added performance you don’t want to miss out on.
The GTX 1660 Super should serve you well with its reliable 1080p gaming performance. It’s also a fantastic option for those looking to get started with Esports titles like CS:GO, LoL, Valorant, and more. The GTX 1660 Super is based on the older Turing architecture. It comes with a base clock of 1,530MHz and a boost clock of up to 1,785MHz. You only get 6GB GDDR5 VRAM, but it should be plenty to run the kind of games it supports. It’s also using the older GDDR5 VRAM type, helping to make it more affordable than the newer GPUs with GDDR6 memory. The GTX 1660 Super carries a 192-bit memory interface to offer total memory bandwidth of 336GB/s.
It is also worth pointing out that Nvidia doesn’t sell a Founders Edition variant for this GPU. You’ll have to rely on the partner cards, which may be more expensive depending on the kind of specs and heatsink we’re looking at. One of the main reasons why we recommend buying the GTX 1660 Super is that it’s affordable and compact and it delivers where it matters. It’s significantly better than integrated graphics, and it even undercuts Intel’s new Arc GPUs on price, even though it’s not quite as powerful. It’s a perfect starter card if you’re just trying to keep your budget to a minimum.
- No ray tracing, but affordable and with plenty of 1080p performance to offer the budget gamers.
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Best graphics card for gaming in 2022: Final Thoughts
The RTX 3080 will soon enough be replaced by the RTX 4080 but until that happens, it’s still the best graphics card for gaming. Regardless of what comes after, it’ll supply incredible performance and visuals in the latest titles for many years to come.
Gamers looking for a good 1440p gaming experience should consider buying the RTX 3070 whereas entry-level PC gamers should check out something less powerful and more affordable like the GTX 1660 Super. Nvidia has a pretty strong grasp on the gaming graphics space, but there is hope for alternatives. AMD has some potent offerings and is due to announce its next generation in November 2022. And Intel has finally joined the party, providing a real alternative in the more affordable portion of the market.
If you are building a new PC and are looking for other components then check out some of our other collections including the best motherboards, best CPU coolers, and more, to help you get everything you need.
The post These are the best graphics cards for gaming in 2022 appeared first on XDA.
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