The Best Graphics Cards 2019

Share.

To RTX or not, that is the question. By josh norem

Note that if you click on one of these links to buy the product, IGN may get a share of the sale. For more, read our Terms of Use.

The GPU market is in a pretty interesting place right now. After what felt like eternity, Nvidia finally launched its highly anticipated RTX GPUs based on the new Turing architecture in September to much fanfare. The GTX 10-series cards? They're going the way of the dinosaurs. Stocks are drying up and Nvidia's CEO said it won't be long until all its 10-series cards are gone.

AMD finally introduced its Radeon VII, shaking things up a bit and giving gamers an alternative to Nvidia's RTX line-up for 4K gaming.

So what's the best graphics card right now? That answer depends on your needs and budget, which is why we put together this guide to the best GPUs on the market.

These are the best graphics cards in 2019:

Best High-End Nvidia Graphics Card – Asus ROG Strix GeForce RTX 2080Ti OC

The Asus ROG Strix GeForce RTX 2080Ti OC GPU is neck-and-neck with the Zotac RTX 2080 Ti we reviewed in terms of performance. But the Asus is a better looking card and its overclocking goes a step further than the Zotac, putting it at the top of our ratings. Seriously, this is an amazing card. If you want to run the latest games at blazing framerates in full 4K on Ultra, look no further.

While this is the absolute best, most powerful consumer GPU you can get, the power increase doesn't march lock-step with its price. You will pay significantly more for a 2080 Ti over a 2080, with only a slight jump in performance. If you absolutely require the best of the best, by all means, but if you don't see the value in it, consider any of the other GPUs on our list.

Best AMD Graphics Card – Radeon VII

The newest GPU from AMD is also its best GPU. The "world's first 7nm gaming GPU" delivers great 4K and stellar 1440p performance, and its list price is unsurprisingly better than a comparable card from Nvidia. You don't get the fancy ray-tracing promised in the new RTX series cards from Nvidia, but given just how few games take advantage of the new technology, it's probably not worth the trouble.

In our Radeon VII review, we called it a "great GPU for both gaming and compute tasks." If you're an AMD diehard, or you're just looking for a great way to dive into the world of 4K gaming without paying the Nvidia tax, the Radeon VII is a great choice and the best AMD card around right now. It's also arguably the best graphics card for the money.

Best Overall Graphics Card for Most Gamers – EVGA RTX 2080 8GB FTW3 Ultra

The EVGA RTX 2080 8GB FTW3 Ultra has an 1860 MHz boost clock, three big, whisper-quiet fans to keep it running cool, but perhaps most importantly, it has the power of RGB lighting. If you're going to spend a bunch of money on a graphics card to make your gaming PC into a 4K powerhouse, you're going to want to show it off, so why settle for anything less than flashy lighting? Beyond the flashy presentation, the FTW3 Ultra comes with EVGA's X1 overclocking software, so you can push it beyond its factory limits. And really, isn't that the true heart of PC gaming? To give you an idea of what the EVGA is capable of, you can check out our RTX 2080 Founder's Edition review, and then imagine it with RGB lights and overclocking.

Best 1440p Graphics Card – Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 Gaming

The RTX 2070 is the creamy middle of the current 20-series family. It has the 8GB DDR6 RAM of the 2080, and beats the performance of last-gen's GTX 1080 GPU. If you don't need to run your games on Ultra at 60fps in 4K, the 2070 can easily run them on Ultra at 60fps in 1440p. But the real promise for the 2070 over last gen's 1080 is the ray-tracing. No matter how great your current 1080 might be at running games at 1440p, it will never have that magical RTX designation.

Best Midrange RTX Graphics Card – ZOTAC Gaming GeForce RTX 2060 AMP

This is another GPU category that is uncontested, and is occupied by the fantastic GeForce RTX 2060. For just a little more than the price of a GTX 1060, you get a much better card. And unlike its 10-series predecessor, there's no 3GB model: the 2060 comes with a standard 6GB GDDR6 video memory.  In our benchmarks, we had no problem getting over 30 fps in 4K with everything turned up in games like Monster Hunter World, and games like Battlefield 1 and Far Cry 5 almost hit 60fps at the same settings. Impressive for a card running near the $350 mark. At 1440p, the RTX 2060 knocks it out of the park, crushing the 60fps mark and surpassing it in our benchmarking.

We reviewed the Nvidia RTX 2060 Founder's Edition, a.k.a. the reference version of this card, and you can expect similar or better performance from one of Nvidia's partner cards.

As always there are several variants of this GPU and they largely perform similarly. The differences between them come down to clock speeds, styling, cooling apparatus, and warranty terms. Below are a few of the best current options:

Best 1080p Graphics Card – XFX RX 590 Fatboy

The RX 590 replaced the RX 570 GPU from AMD, and is a great card for 1080p gaming. The price is good too, coming in under $300 in most cases. With 8GB of memory, it actually out-performs the GTX 1060, and beats it in price and availability, too. If you want a graphics card giving you fantastic full HD gaming experience without breaking the bank, the RX 590 is a superb choice.

GTX to RTX

The remaining 10-series cards in the wild are selling out, and their stocks will not be replenished. That's not the worst thing in the world, but it definitely pushed the price of any remaining 10-series cards back up to the days of the crypto-mining craze. Thankfully, RTX prices aren't facing upward pressure from miners, but they still (not surprisingly) have a higher MSRP than their last-gen cards. We could argue about whether or not it's TOO high, given their benefits, but time will tell.

At CES 2019, AMD announced the Radeon VII GPUs, making them the most recent addition to the AMD family, and one that's long overdue. For the full rundown of what we think of AMD's 7nm graphics card, be sure to check out our Radeon VII review.

For the near future we can expect Turing prices to remain a little high, but if you're lucky you can still find Pascal cards being sold. You can always buy a GPU (which was probably used for mining) on eBay as well, if you're brave enough. If you go the used route, just make sure you can transfer the warranty.

One of the best ways to get yourself into the world of PC gaming without having to spend a lot of time and frustration is to just go ahead and buy yourself a prebuilt gaming PC. Not only do you save yourself from the potential headaches that can accompany a DIY build, you also get a warranty. Prebuilt PCs have come a long way, too. They aren't proprietary machines with randomly soldered-on components. They're mostly as upgradeable as anything you might put together on your own.

Another choice for graphics cards are gaming laptops. In fact, there are still plenty of 10-series gaming laptops out there right now. The new RTX gaming laptops are just starting to hit the streets, so there are some good chances to save on an older GTX-powered gaming laptop.

There are some rumored GTX cards, referred to as the GTX 1660, as well as rumors of a GTX 1060 Ti update, which would give gamers more choice in how they power their PC graphics. The rumored cards remove the ray-tracing features Nvidia cooked into the RTX cards, but keep the Turing architecture of the 20-series. If these rumors pan out, it will be a boon to gamers not yet sold on ray-tracing and its effect on new GPU prices.

More Expert Tech Roundups