Whatever your budget, there’s a bewildering array of options when it come to graphics cards. Multiple variations on a thesis from any vendor, joined with inflexible acronyms and an unpronounceable product names can make selecting one a daunting task. But, hang to a few discipline and a whole routine becomes a lot easier.
Best graphics cards: shopping guide
If we wish a high-performance label for gaming you’ll need to be peaceful to spend anything trimming from around £280 to as many as some competence cruise spending on an whole PC. Budget then, will be your initial constraint.
Coming in during a bottom of a fan cost operation during a moment, we have a GeForce GTX 970 from Nvidia and AMD’s somewhat newer Radeon R9 390 GPUs, labelled during around a £280 mark. We don’t have any of a older, though still stream GTX 970 products featuring in a organisation exam this time around though we can check a prior reviews for some-more sum of those. Either of these GPU forms will yield well-spoken gameplay with high peculiarity graphics settings during pretty high resolutions. You competence even get divided with some 4K gaming, nonetheless we wouldn’t advise aiming for a 4K gaming supply during this level.
Increasing your approaching cost by around £70 to £120 will get we a Radeon R9 390X or an Nvidia GTX 980. In this cost joint we would unequivocally advise a Nvidia product. It does come in rather some-more costly than a AMD-based cards, though we feel a opening boost of an R9 390X over a customary R9 390 mostly isn’t adequate to clear a total cost premium. Thankfully R9 390Xs are mostly utterly ignored as a result, so we competence still find a good deal.
Spending £500+ will get we an Nvidia GTX 980 Ti, a unequivocally opposite savage from a customary GTX 980, an AMD Radeon R9 Fury or a some-more absolute liquid-cooled kin a Radeon R9 Fury X. Many gamers won’t need a label with this spin of performance, though High-quality gaming during 4K resolution, 3D, Virtual Reality, high refresh-rate displays and multi-monitor setups can all direct a outrageous volume of estimate power, and in those situations these high-end cards are there to yield a grunt. Don’t worry, there are copiousness of excuses we can use to clear your costly purchase.
Where it gets some-more difficult is that not all graphics cards formed on a sold GPU are total equal. Individual manufacturers will cgange a anxiety designs in a accumulation of ways, adding facilities and boosting opening along a way.
Best graphics cards: overclocking
Most graphics cards can be overclocked to some extent, and a volume of overclocking accessible can be severely increasing by a use of upgraded components and absolute tradition cooling systems. The better-designed graphics cards will come from a bureau pre-overclocked to take advantage of a softened hardware and this is because we start to see differences in opening between graphics cards regulating a same GPU types. Sometimes speed boosts are negligible, though on arise a some-more radical redesign can grasp incomparable speed boosts, holding a graphics label into a same domain as non-overclocked cards from a subsequent tier above. Factory overclocked cards can mostly therefore broach glorious value for money.
Most graphics label vendors have a fixing complement they use for any form of GPU that describes a additional facilities of a boards. For example, MSI refers to a stream dual-fan heatpipe cooler as TwinFrozr V. An fit cooler will concede a underlying components to run faster though overheating, giving we increasing support rates. But it’s also critical to cruise a sound outlay from a fans. The best examples will sojourn still and even spin off altogether until required, definition your gaming PC and be only as useful for listening to exemplary song as it is for first-person shooters.
The choice between AMD or Nvidia-based cards can be tricky, though if we have a good thought of that games we wish to play, we will notice that many of them are optimised improved for on one vendor’s GPUs than a other. This competence be adequate to lean your decision.
How we test
To exam graphics cards, we built a high opening PC designed to discharge any CPU bottlenecks that competence delayed down a opening of a fastest graphics cards.
Testing is carried out underneath Windows 10 Pro 64-bit with a hoop picture that is easy before testing, to safeguard that all cards are regulating a same Windows configuration. We use a latest graphics drivers accessible to safeguard we have a latest optimisations in place.
Graphics benchmarks will change as new games turn accessible and comparison ones tumble out of use, though for now we use.
Alien Isolation, Aliens Vs Predator, Sniper Elite V2, Grand Theft Auto V, Bioshock Infinite and Thief. Each diversion is run during a accumulation of resolutions and peculiarity settings picked as suitable for a difficulty of graphics label underneath test. (We don’t try to exam low-end cards during 4K for example).
In further to a diversion tests, we use FutureMark’s 3DMark apartment that produces 5 particular exam formula during opposite approaching opening levels trimming from low-end inclination adult to a many absolute cards available.
We also magnitude a sum energy expenditure of a PC while waiting during a desktop and with a graphics label entirely installed by regulating FurMark. During this procession we also note a temperatures reached as good as a fan sound constructed along with any GPU throttling that competence occur.
Testing is carried out regulating an AOC U2868PQU guard that allows for arrangement resolutions adult to and including 4K UHD during 3840×2160 pixels.
The exam PC selection is as follows:
Motherboard: Asus X99-A
Processor: Eight-core Intel Core i7-5960X overclocked to 4.2GHz
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i GTX
Power Supply: Corsair RM1000
Memory: 16GB Kingston HyperX Predator DDR4
Storage: Crucial CT500MX
Our interjection go to Asus, Corsair, Crucial, Intel and Kingston for provision a components.
8. MSI Radeon R7 260X OC
Rating:
Reviewed on: 3 Mar 15
RRP: £90 inc. VAT
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The 260X is a higher label for gamers – even if a disproportion isn’t utterly as large as we competence think. We were mostly saying normal increases of 3-4fps. The many we saw was, in Crysis 3, a opening of roughly 7fps. But if we need clever gaming opening for reduction than £100, this is a best product here, and can hoop games even during a comparatively high fortitude of 1920×1200.
Read a MSI Radeon R7 260X OC review.
7. Asus GTX 950 Strix OC Edition
Rating:
Reviewed on: 30 Nov 15
RRP: £149.99 inc VAT
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The Asus Strix GTX 950 Gaming is a low-cost gaming label with fit overclocked opening during 1080p total with glorious build quality, low energy expenditure and unequivocally low fan noise. However, faster cards with some-more memory are substantially financially within strech of anyone who spends a reasonable volume on games and we advise going for a GTX 960 if we can means it.
Read a Asus GTX 950 Strix OC Edition review.
6. Zotac GeForce GTX 960 Amp! Edition
Rating:
Reviewed on: 30 Nov 15
RRP: £169.99 inc VAT
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A lot of a 960’s interest will come down to what we wish a label for. If low energy expenditure is a must, afterwards a 960 is an apparent buy during this cost – it unequivocally is astoundingly fit compared to a competition. However, if you’re some-more meddlesome in tender figures, it’s a harder decision. It’s a bit cheaper than a 280X, though about 2-3fps down on speed. Likewise, it’s a identical volume some-more costly than a 285, this time being 2-3fps faster. At this pricing, there’s unequivocally small to select between them, nonetheless a 960’s reduce energy expenditure will make it rather improved value than possibly once we take regulating costs into account. That, total to HEVC support, creates this marginally a best label during this cost point, in a opinion.
Read a Zotac GeForce GTX 960 Amp! Edition review.
5. XFX Radeon R9 390X Double Dissipation Core Edition
Rating:
Reviewed on: 9 Sep 15
RRP: £309.99 inc VAT
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The Radeon R9 390X isn’t always a good value for income choice when compared to a customary R9 390, though find this label during a right cost and it’s one of a improved examples interjection to a Double Dissipation cooler. But, it’s still noisier and slower than a some-more costly GPUs. Stay next 4K fortitude and this label will offer we well.
Read a XFX Radeon R9 390X Double Dissipation Core Edition review.
4. Club3D Radeon R9 390 royalQueen
Rating:
Reviewed on: 4 Sep 15
RRP: £289 inc VAT
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Noise issues aside, a Club 3D Radeon R9 390 royalQueen creates a good choice for a initial enthusiast-level system. It also serves during a available drop-in opening boost when teamed adult with an existent AMD card, even from a prior generation. Give, a low price, it substantially creates some-more clarity to buy one of these than to step adult to a Radeon R9 390X.
Read a Club3D Radeon R9 390 royalQueen review.
3. MSI GTX 980 Gaming 4G
Rating:
Reviewed on: 7 Sep 15
RRP: £405 inc VAT
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The MSI GTX 980 Gaming 4G is an glorious graphics label for those who wish to run games during a top peculiarity settings, though who don’t want, or can’t means a 4K setup. The bureau overclock, control applications and Twin Frozr V cooler concede for full control over performance, expenditure and sound output.
Read a MSI GTX 980 Gaming 4G review.
2. Zotac GeForce GTX 980 Ti Amp! Edition
Rating:
Reviewed on: 17 Sep 15
RRP: £533 inc VAT
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The Zotac GeForce GTX 980 Ti Amp! Edition performs good and comes during a reasonable price. It’s not as substantial than a Asus Strix GTX 980 Ti, though a Zotac is around £100 cheaper, and has a calming five-year warranty.
Read a Zotac GeForce GTX 980 Ti Amp! Edition review.
1. Asus GeForce GTX 980Ti Strix Gaming
Rating:
Reviewed on: 31 Aug 15
RRP: £639.99 inc VAT
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Despite a high price, a GTX 980Ti Strix Gaming offers substantial value for income to those who can means it. It competence costs over £100 some-more than many other cards formed on a same GPU, though a discernible opening advantages and glorious build peculiarity make it utterly apparent where that additional income is going.
Read a Asus GeForce GTX 980Ti Strix Gaming review.