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6 best gaming graphics cards
Unlimited Games
Author: Vladimir Nyenets
In recent years we have been living in a permanent transitional period, when the good temporarily replaces the best, which comes on the heels of the excellent. Currently, the most popular gaming resolution is still Full HD, but the technical capabilities allow for relatively small money to rebuild their systems to 2560 × 1440/1600 mode, and marketers are beginning to lure us with the beauty of Ultra HD and 4K.
| Category | A place | Name | Rating | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The best gaming graphics cards of the premium category | 1 | GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 980 TI Gaming [GV-N98TG1 GAMING-6GD] | 9.7 / 10 | 950 |
| 2 | ASUS GeForce GTX 980 STRIX OC [STRIX-GTX980-DC2OC-4GD5] | 9.6 / 10 | 21 100 | |
| 3 | SAPPHIRE Tri-X Radeon R9 FURY 4G HBM | 9.5 / 10 | 38 999 | |
| The best gaming graphics card for reasonable money | 1 | MSI Radeon R9 390X GAMING 8G | 9.1 / 10 | 21 900 |
| Best cheap gaming graphics cards | 1 | ASUS GeForce GTX 950 STRIX [STRIX-GTX950-DC2OC-2GD5-GAMING] | 9.3 / 10 | 10 292 |
| 2 | GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 960 [GV-N960WF2OC-4GD] | 9.2 / 10 | 15 970 |
The best gaming graphics cards of the premium category
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950 ($ 698 (eBay))
The flagship video accelerator from the G1 Gaming line from GIGABYTE. The accelerator differs from the majority of its competitors by the good potential of the memory chips used, which normally operate without overclocking. Compared to the reference card, the model from GIGABYTE has a redesigned 8-phase power circuit that ensures the stability of the clock frequency under high load. In the manufacture of the video card used high-quality components, including a large number of solid-state capacitors. On the assurances of the manufacturer, is also made a careful selection of chips. The graphics processor based on the Maxwell core installed in the accelerator is hot enough and, although the advanced cooling system ensures the dissipation of thermal power up to 600 W, its operation cannot be called silent. Under load, the minimum rotational speed of the impeller of the fans is 1000 revolutions per minute, and the nominal speed is 2400, which creates a sound pressure above 40 dBa. Manual overclocking allows you to raise the base frequency of the video card to 1300 MHz, and the memory can accelerate to a record 8.3 GHz.
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 9.7 / 10
Rating
Reviews
One of the best gaming graphics cards. Even on the heaviest modern games, such as GTA5 or Assassin's Creed: Unity, the FPS index does not fall below 35 for this video card at resolutions of 2560 × 1440/1600. In all other cases, its value is at least 50 at maximum settings. Playing in 4K resolution will require a slight decrease in graphics quality. |
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21 100 ($ 520 (eBay))
The youngest representative of the best top-class gaming graphics cards based on ASUS 'Maxwell graphics core. Despite the fact that, compared to other gaming graphics cards of the company, the weakest potential is initially built into the Strix line, this model can accelerate to 1350 MHz at the base frequency (1450 in turbo mode) and up to 7.6 GHz in memory. The graphics accelerator is equipped with a semi-passive cooling system, which uses a modified version of DirectCU II. The massive radiator dissipates heat well when working with a low load, so the fans start to rotate only after the GPU heats up to 65 ° C, and the maximum rotation speed does not exceed 1350 revolutions per minute. When installing a video card in a compact case, one of the heat pipes of the cooling system can be a problem. It is quite strong outside the radiator, which is why the total height of the device is about 135 mm, which is 3.5 cm more than most other models.
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 9.6 / 10
Rating
Reviews
Provides a comfortable frame rate for the vast majority of modern games in the resolution of 2560 × 1440/1600 and below. A slight decrease in image quality in WQHD may be required only in the most severe cases, such as GTA5 or Assassin's Creed: Unity. |
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38 999 ($ 595 (eBay))
The younger brother of the current leader of the company AMD. The accelerator is based on a graphics processor with a slightly reduced (compared to the “x-ray” version) Fiji core. As part of the new micro-architecture, the GPU chip is located on a common silicon substrate with memory chips, which made it possible to simplify the layout and implement an internal communication bus with a width of 4,096 lines. This solution ensured the increase in throughput up to 512 GB / s and a reduction in the overall level of energy consumption, which for a long time was the bottleneck of AMD video processors. The disadvantage is the current technological limitation of the memory size of the new HBM standard. For demanding 4K games (for example, GTA5), four gigabytes is no longer enough. Unlike its older relative, the bezxovaya model FURY is equipped with a traditional cooling system. Nevertheless, it completely copes with its functions and provides a low noise level even at maximum load.
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 9.5 / 10
Rating
Reviews
In normal mode, this gaming graphics card is slightly more productive than the GTX 980 and weaker than the GTX 980 Ti. In case of overclocking, the latter is inferior to both competitors. A feature of the accelerator is its high efficiency when working with high resolutions, such as Ultra HD and 4K. If the graphics accelerator is supposed to be used mainly in Full HD or 2560 × 1440/1600, it is better to opt for solutions from NVIDIA. |
The best gaming graphics card for reasonable money
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21 900 ($ 400 (eBay))
Own version of the gaming accelerator gaming line by MSI. The video card is built on a three-hundred GPU series with the Grenada core, which is not much different from the two-hundredth with the Hawaii micro-architecture. MSI tried to compensate for the lack of a new platform by selecting high-quality components certified for use in army electronics. These include robust solid-state and polymer capacitors, more efficient choke coils and memory chips with a large operating frequency margin. The graphics accelerator is equipped with a semi-passive cooling system, the fans of which turn on when the processor reaches 62 ° C. The minimum rotational speed of the impeller is 550 rpm, and under maximum load it increases to 2400 rpm and creates acoustic noise of about 45 dBa. For easy overclocking, the proprietary utility MSI Afterburner is designed. The potential of the card is not very high: the base frequency can be increased to a maximum of 1200, and the memory speed up to 6,600 MHz.
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 9.1 / 10
Rating
Reviews
The best gaming graphics card, if the computer is used not only for games - in conditions of low and medium load the accelerator is almost not audible. At the same time, the performance of the video card is provided by FPS in the resolution of 2560 × 1440/1600 at the level of GeForce GTX 980, including in the most difficult games, such as Assassin's Creed: Unity. |
Best cheap gaming graphics cards
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10 292 ($ 140 (eBay))
Conventionally, a budget accelerator with an impressive set of supported technologies.It is based on the youngest processor with the Maxwell 2.0 architecture, which has a quarter of the computing blocks of the GTX 960 available. Despite the use of a simplified 4-phase power scheme, the manufacturer equipped it with tantalum-polymer capacitors and sturdy chokes. However, according to ASUS 'assurances, the remaining nodes also use high-quality and durable electronic components. This made it possible to increase the base frequency of the processor by more than 100 MHz (compared to the standard), and in Turbo Boost mode it is able to accelerate by another 200 MHz. Overclocking in manual mode can add little here, but the memory frequency can be further increased by almost gigahertz. The accelerator is equipped with a simplified modification of the proprietary cooling system DirectCU II with two thick heat pipes. Power elements of the power supply circuit and memory chips do not have direct contact with it. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of the cooling system does not cause any complaints and it works almost silently.
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 9.3 / 10
Rating
Reviews
The performance of the card in the overclocked state is comparable to the performance of accelerators on the GTX 960, operating in normal mode. The ideal budget solution for a modern gaming platform, focused on the resolution of Full HD. |
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15 970 ($ 200 (eBay))
Graphic accelerator of the middle class, built on the basis of the youngest member of the processor family with the Maxwell core. Against the background of other proposals from GIGABYTE with the GeForce GTX 960 on board, the GV-N960WF2OC-4GD model stands out for a more balanced combination of the cooling system used, factory overclocking and the amount of RAM. The possibilities of modifying WindForce 2x are quite sufficient for effective heat removal from all the heated components, and it is less overall than the one used in the Gaming lineup. In this case, the cooling system fans rotate and create a weak acoustic noise only under high load. Overclocking in a 128-bit internal bus does not give a big performance boost. Nevertheless, the base frequency of this video card has been increased by almost 100 MHz compared to the reference sample, and this is far from the limit. Using a small increase in the supply voltage, it is quite possible to overclock the accelerator to 1500 MHz in Turbo Boost mode. Increased memory capacity will not be superfluous when switching to higher resolutions, especially when combining two such cards in SLI.
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 9.2 / 10
Rating
Reviews
An excellent choice for any games in Full HD mode with maximum settings. To achieve a comfortable FPS resolution of 2560 × 1440, the quality of drawing will have to be lowered. The performance of the video card is approximately comparable to the solutions on the Radeon R9 380. |
Which gaming graphics card is better?
For normal rendering of any texture in Ultra HD resolution, a gaming graphics card requires at least 4 GB of memory, and 4K mode almost doubles this figure. For a while, accelerators with two gigabytes on board that are focused on Full HD will still be in demand, but if you now buy a game accelerator with a small margin for the future, you should focus on the current premium segment or change this component of the system as often as financial possibilities allow .
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Updated: 09.01.2016
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