We’ve finally entered the 40-Series generation, adding even more options when considering what’s the best Nvidia graphics card to buy.
With so many specs and mind-boggling features to consider, it can be difficult for many people to figure out which is the best graphics card to buy for their specific use case, whether they want an affordable PC or a super-powerful gaming system.
This is where we come in, as our team of experts will test and review all of the Nvidia graphics cards that we can get our hands on. We use numerous benchmarks (including in-game benchmarks) to gauge the performance, as well as measuring the power consumption and testing features such as DLSS and ray tracing.
We’ll be updating this list as soon as we get more Nvidia graphics cards in for testing, with the new Nvidia RTX 4070 Ti, RTX 4060 Ti and RTX 4060 all high on our list.
And if you’re willing to consider graphics cards outside of the Nvidia brand, then check out our Best Graphics Card list for a more expansive round-up.
Best Nvidia graphics card at a glance
- Most powerful graphics card: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 – check price
- Best for 4K gaming: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti – check price
- Best mid-range graphics card: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti – check price
- Best affordable graphics card: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 – check price
How we test
Every graphics card we review is benchmarked in one of our test rigs using a mix of synthetic tests and in-game checks. We use uniform specs in the benches to help us make direct comparisons between the cards based on the data we collect. We also assess thermals to ensure the cards don’t run too hot, and power consumption, too.
- Excellent performance in 4K
- Ray tracing support
- Future-proofed connectivity
- The performance gains you get don’t fully justify how much more expensive it is over the regular RTX 3080
- Solid 1080p Ray Tracing performance
- Lowest power consumption of all Ampere cards
- Cheapest current gen’ card on the market
- Still not massively overclockable
- Only 20% cheaper than an RTX 3070
- Solid 1080p and 1440p performance
- Future-proof with Turing
- Decent value when compared to the 1070
- Ray tracing and DLSS still not widely supported
- Most powerful graphics card yet
- Incredible 4K gaming performance
- DLSS 3 offers substantial boost
- Superb option for content creators
- Absurdly high price
- Overkill for most games, even in 4K
- Very high power consumption
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090
Most powerful Nvidia graphics card
Pros
- Most powerful graphics card yet
- Incredible 4K gaming performance
- DLSS 3 offers substantial boost
- Superb option for content creators
Cons
- Absurdly high price
- Overkill for most games, even in 4K
- Very high power consumption
The Nvidia RTX 4090 was one of the very first graphics cards to launch as part of the new RTX 4000 Series. With the cutting-edge Lovelace architecture, Nvidia has been able to boost the performance to all-new heights, while making high-end features such DLSS and ray tracing even more efficient.
In our gaming tests, we found the RTX 4090 capable of playing virtually any modern game with a 4K resolution at 100fps and beyond. The only occasion where this graphics card failed to do so was with Cyberpunk 2077 with ray tracing activated. But the 44fps average score is still an impressive feat, with the RTX 3090 failing to hit 30fps with the same settings.
The Nvidia RTX 4090 isn’t for everyone, with an eye-watering price, high power consumption and large design. Its 4K performance is also overkill, making an RTX 3080 or the new RTX 4080 a better value option for those who don’t have a bank vault to rival Scrooge McDuck.
But if you’re craving the most powerful graphics card that Nvidia has to offer, then there’s no doubt that the RTX 4090 is the best graphics card option.
Reviewer: Ryan Jones
Full review: Nvidia RTX 4090 review
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti
The best card for 4K gaming
Pros
- Excellent performance in 4K
- Ray tracing support
- Future-proofed connectivity
Cons
- The performance gains you get don’t fully justify how much more expensive it is over the regular RTX 3080
The Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti has now been superseded by RTX 4080, which Nvidia claims is between 2x and 4x faster. But as we haven’t benchmarked and tested the newer GPU just yet, we can’t recommend it at the moment.
For the short-term future, the 3080 Ti is the card we can recommend for high-end 4K gaming – though honestly, we’d suggest waiting and seeing how the 4080 performs before pulling the trigger.
The 3080 Ti was, and remains, a powerhouse graphics card that delivered excellent speeds in all of our tests. Demanding titles, including Cyberpunk 2077, ran with their graphics maxed and ray tracing on in 4K. Online shooters like Call of Duty and Battlefield universally failed to ever drop below 100fps even in their highest settings in our bench, which included 16GB DDR4 memory and a Intel Core i9-9900KF.
The only downside is that, based on our experience, it’s an outright power hog that demands a top-of-the-line PSU. Nvidia also didn’t manage to leave much room for overclocking, with the Founders Edition version we tested generally failing or overheating with even minor clock speed boosts.
Reviewer: Alastair Stevenson
Full review: Nvidia RTX 3080 review
Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti
The best mid-range option
Pros
- Solid 1080p Ray Tracing performance
- Lowest power consumption of all Ampere cards
- Cheapest current gen’ card on the market
Cons
- Still not massively overclockable
- Only 20% cheaper than an RTX 3070
Nvidia recently announced the RTX 4060 and RTX 4060 Ti cards, so they will likely be making an appearance in this list in the coming weeks. But since we haven’t tested those cards just yet, the RTX 3060 Ti remains our best graphics card choice for those who fancy a mid-range GPU.
The card proved to be fantastic value for money offering post-60fps speeds on all the games we tested with graphical settings maxed out in 1080p. This included Control, which is commonly used as the baseline for ray tracing performance. With ray tracing off it also delivered in 1440p with key titles including Borderlands 3 and Horizon playing at over 60fps.
As a final boon, it’s got a much lower power consumption than the RTX 3080 Ti which will let it run on lower capacity PSUs.
It’s still retailing for around £400/$400 at the moment, which marks it as a mid-range card. Its closest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT, is slightly cheaper at the moment making it a valid alternative if you’re not wed to an Nvidia card. But AMD didn’t offer quite as fast performance in our checks.
Reviewer: Alastair Stevenson
Full review: Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti review
Nvidia RTX 2060
The best affordable option
Pros
- Solid 1080p and 1440p performance
- Future-proof with Turing
- Decent value when compared to the 1070
Cons
- Ray tracing and DLSS still not widely supported
If you’re on a budget then you may want to look at the Nvidia RTX 2060. Though it’s now two generations behind Nvidia’s latest Lovelace architecture, the Turing card is still a reliable workhorse.
During our benchmarks, the RTX 2060 could play less demanding titles, like Battlefield 5, with ray tracing on at playable frame rates in 1080p. However, it did struggle to break 40fps on demanding single player titles like Cyberpunk.
But, if you turn ray tracing off, its performance is solid for most titles in 1080p. It’ll run Fortnite, Destiny 2, the Division 2 and most other online games with zero issue over 60fps. This is a key reason we recommend it as a fantastic option for buyers on a very strict budget despite its age.
Reviewer: Alastair Stevenson
Full review: Nvidia RTX 2060 review
We also considered…
FAQs
No, despite being one of the largest desktop GPU makers the company has direct competition in every category and price point via AMD, and its Radeon line of cards.
Nvidia cards constantly test well when we review them and are a regular feature in our best GPU guide offering solid gaming performance.
This depends on what you want to do. If you just want to play Fortnite or do basic editing in PhotoShop you can spend as little as £250/$250 on an entry level card that’ll do the job. For more demanding tasks like 4K gaming you’ll want to spend more on a mid-range or top end card. These tend to cost anywhere between £500/$500 to over £2000/$2000.
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Trusted Reviews test data
You can see a detailed breakdown of the test data we collected reviewing the cards in this list in the table below.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.