The Best Graphics Cards In 2020 For Gamers

No component in your PC matters more for gaming performance than the graphics card. The central processing unit (CPU) plays its part, and slow memory will hamstring your frame rates in its own way, but at almost all settings, the faster your graphics processing unit (GPU) is, the better performance you’ll get. And the best graphics cards offer significant gains over the weaker alternatives — especially when it comes to making the most of your budget.

Upgrading your graphics card can help improve your frame rates, making you a more competitive gamer by reducing input lag and helping you take better advantage of higher refresh-rate monitors; it can help you increase detail settings for more realistic visuals, or even help you run 4K or ultrawide monitors at their native resolutions. Some games have a minimum GPU threshold too, so if your graphics card is old, or you’ve been using an onboard GPU and want to be able to play a new, higher-end game than your existing setup allows, a new graphics card can make a world of difference.

When it comes to picking the best graphics card for you, buy one that’s within your budget, a good value for the cost and lets you do what you want with the hardware you have. Don’t buy a 4K graphics card if you have a 1080p monitor, and see what graphics cards are recommended for the games you want to play before making your purchase.

As a new generation of graphics cards from both AMD and Nvidia approaches, there are some issues with the supply of some models. If you can’t find one at a reasonable price, consider the suggested alternative instead. But don’t be drawn into paying more than you need to — stick to your guns and pick the best graphics cards to improve your gaming experience in the most tangible way.

Best Graphics Card Overall

AMD RX 5700

ASRock RX 5700 Challenger D 8G OC

AMD’s first-generation RDNA graphics cards made a giant leap over their graphics core next (GCN) predecessors with a 50 percent boost to performance per watt. The RX 5700 was the slightly lesser of the two first RDNA GPUs, but that actually makes it a far more attractive buy when both its price and performance are taken into consideration.

Over a year on from its release, the RX 5700 is still one of the top performing cards at both 1080p and 1440p. despite being only around 10-15 percent slower and enjoying many of the same software benefits. It you have a case with good system airflow and don’t mind playing with fan curves to keep temperatures down, most RX 5700s can easily be overclocked to match the stock performance of an RX 5700 XT, too.

You can expect to hit close to 100 FPS in most games at higher detail settings when using 1080p resolution, and close to 60 FPS at 1440p if you’re willing to tweak the settings. 4K is possible on the RX 5700 at lower details, but you can’t expect to hit particularly high frame rates, especially in modern AAA games.

With this AMD card you can take advantage of features like Fidelity FX sharpening, Radeon Anti-Lag for reduced input latency and AMD chill for more efficient GPU usage. There’s also an ongoing promotion that grants any RX 5700 buyer with two free games: Godfall and World of Warcraft: Shadowlands.

Nvidia’s RTX 2060 is a close alternative with a comparable price tag and it does offer entry-level ray tracing support. The RX 5700 is a more powerful card in general, though in games that support Nvidia’s DLSS, you could find that the 2060 pulls ahead.

Best 4K Graphics Card

Nvidia RTX 2080 Super

MSI RTX 2080 Super Ventus OC

RTX 2080 Ti stock all but depleted around the world, if you want a top 4K gaming graphics card, the RTX 2080 Super is your best bet. That’s not a huge sacrifice though, as while the 2080 Ti is without a doubt the more powerful of the two cards, despite being only 20-30 percent more powerful. That was a hard sell, even for those with the deepest of pockets.

What you get with the RTX 2080 Super is a fantastic card for 4K gaming, easily able to handle over 60 FPS in the latest AAA games and well over 100 in most at 1440p at lower detail settings. Besides the 2080 Ti, it’s the most capable GPU for ray tracing in games, and with DLSS support it can even do so without too much of a performance hiccup in compatible games.

Alongside its high performance, the RTX 2080 Super lets you take advantage of Nvidia’s ultra low latency modes, and use the Geforce Experience game streaming to play your games elsewhere in your home — great if you already have a Shield TV or other compatible device.

The RTX 2080 Super is more powerful than anything AMD has available at the time of writing, but the RX 5700 XT is an OK card for 4K gaming if you’re willing to take a hit on the settings and frame rate. A more apt alternative to the 2080 Super is Nvidia’s own RTX 2070 Super.

Best Graphics Card For Hi level Gamer

AMD RX 5600 XT

XFX RX 5600 XT THICC II PRO

The RX 5600 XT was in an odd position at launch, struggling to differentiate itself from the competition from both Nvidia, and AMD’s higher-end RX 5700. It offers performance that sits somewhere between AMD’s last-generation RX Vega 56 and Vega 64, two cards that were at the top of the GPU pile in 2017, and does so far more efficiently.

Able to handle 1080p games at the highest settings at comfortable frame rates and lower detail settings at 1440p, it’s a fantastic mid-range card. Overclocking can take it a little further if you’re willing to play with the power settings and fan curves, and it even offers 8GB of VRAM, so games that want to load up on pretty textures can take full advantage of it — something that the competition from Nvidia can’t do at this price point.

The cooling on the XFX Thicc II Pro version of this card is aimed at keeping noise levels low more than temperatures and it shows in testing. The fans won’t even spin up until the card is loaded and even then you’ll struggle to breach 30 decibels at the worst of times. Cards like the Sapphire Pulse are cooler, but noticeably more expensive, seriously reducing the value proposition of this GPU.

A decent alternative from Nvidia’s camp is the EVGA RTX 2060 KO edition; one of the most affordable Nvidia RTX 2060s available. It’s not quite as powerful as the RX 5600 XT and it’s a little on the loud side, but it does have entry-level ray tracing and offers the most bang for buck of any other 2060 out there.

Best Graphics Card For 1440p

Nvidia RTX 2070 Super

EVGA RTX 2070 Super KO

Sitting just a few percent behind the capabilities of the far more expensive RTX 2080, the RTX 2070 Super is a supremely powerful graphics card, proving even more capable in some games than the last-generation kingpin, the 1080 Ti.

Priced at the same level as the original RTX 2070, buying a Super variant in 2020 is a no brainer. Its 8GB of GDDR6 memory gives it plenty of breathing room for higher resolution textures and visual features, and its raw power makes it more than capable of handling high frame rates at ultra settings at 1440p resolution. It even has the chops for some 4K gaming if you don’t mind restricting your frame rates or detail settings a little.

Like the rest of its RTX brethren, the 2070 Super also enjoys support for hardware accelerated ray tracing in supporting games, even if it does impact performance considerably. Where supported, DLSS (especially version 2.0) can dramatically reduce that effect, making it capable of maintaining decent frame rates at even 1440p. It’s not going to match the 2080 Super or 2080 Ti when it comes to ray tracing, but it’s the next best thing and far outstrips the 2060 Super one step below it.

The EVGA KO edition is a third-party rendition of the Founders Edition with a slightly improved cooler and identical clock speeds. It runs silently while idling and remains cool even when pushed to its limit. It’s not the quietest of cards, but there’s enough cooling headroom to overclock it beyond the stock configuration if you want to push it.

AMD’s RX 5700 XT is a good alternative. Performance lags behind a little — though overclocking and a good cooler can help close that gap —and you’d lose access to ray tracing and DLSS, gaining native Freesync, Fidelity FX and anti-lag features in return.

GTX 1650 Graphics card

Nvidia GTX 1650 Super

MSI GeForce GTX 1650 Super Ventus XS OC

The GTX 1650 Super was a major upgrade over its non-Super counterpart, raising the performance bar at 1080p considerably, whilst remaining affordable for those looking for the best budget graphics card. While its 4GB of VRAM does limit it in some games, performance is strong enough that at 1080p resolution you should have no trouble hitting 60 FPS in most games at medium detail settings.

Ray tracing support is technically there, but without hardware acceleration it won’t be at comfortably playable frame rates. If you’re intrigued, turn it on to see what you’re missing, and then turn it off again until you can upgrade again.

The MSI Super Ventus version of the 1650 Super has a slight factory overclock for a mild uplift in performance, and with its dual fan design should stay relatively cool and quiet during operation, making this a good card for small form-factor builds. You can overclock it a little too, if you want to push a bit more performance from this great budget GPU. It supports both DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI 2.0b, so has plenty of bandwidth for watching 4K movies as well as rendering games at more modest detail settings.

Bapunu Dilwala

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