Graphic Cards by Nvidia or AMD, which one is for you?
Looking for the right video card these days can be a challenge since there is so much to chose from! AMD has made some serious awesome cards in the past year with their RX 5700 XT series graphics card and the RX 5600 XT which hit the sweet spot for Ultimate 1080p gaming. While their 1080p and 1440p performance is top notch and the aggressive pricing is attractive to buyers, Nvidia has an edge with other features such as RTX support in the latest game titles. Now we have the Radeon RX 6800 and RX 6800 XT available from etailers/retailers and on AMD.com with an SEP of $579 USD and $649 USD, respectively. However, with the latest release of the RTX 3060 Ti for aprox $400 USD that puts it at a optimum price point for the performance it provides (see my review /benchmarks here).
Powered by AMD RDNA 2 architecture, the Radeon RX 6800 Series balances high quality visuals with exceptional performance. RDNA 2 offers a number of innovations, including applying advanced power saving techniques to high-performance compute units to improve energy efficiency by up to 30 percent per cycle per compute unit. It also includes new AMD Infinity Cache technology offering up to 2.4X greater bandwidth-per-watt compared to GDDR6-only RDNA-based architectural designs.
Dont get me wrong, if you want the latest 4K gaming with RTX enabled, look at the GeForce RTX 3070 and up will give you just that if cost is not an issue, but now that AMD has the RX 6800 XT we have a great options.
Here are the specifications for the latest Nvidia RTX Gen 2 30 Series GPU's.
| GeForce RTX 3090 |
GeForce RTX 3080 |
GeForce RTX 3070 |
GeForce RTX 3060 Ti |
||
| GPU Engine Specs: | NVIDIA CUDA Cores | 10496 | 8704 | 5888 | 4864 |
| Boost Clock (GHz) | 1.70 | 1.71 | 1.73 | 1.67 | |
| Memory Specs: | Standard Memory Config | 24 GB GDDR6X | 10 GB GDDR6X | 8 GB GDDR6 | 8 GB GDDR6 |
| Memory Interface Width | 384-bit | 320-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit | |
| Technology Support: | Ray Tracing Cores | 2nd Generation | 2nd Generation | 2nd Generation | 2nd Generation |
| Tensor Cores | 3rd Generation | 3rd Generation | 3rd Generation | 3rd Generation | |
| NVIDIA Architecture | Ampere | Ampere | Ampere | Ampere | |
| Microsoft DirectX 12 Ultimate | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| NVIDIA DLSS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| PCI Express Gen 4 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| NVIDIA GeForce Experience | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| NVIDIA Ansel | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| NVIDIA FreeStyle | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| NVIDIA ShadowPlay | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| NVIDIA Highlights | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| NVIDIA G-SYNC® | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Game Ready Drivers | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| NVIDIA Studio Drivers | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| NVIDIA GPU Boost™ | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| NVIDIA NVLink (SLI-Ready) | Yes | – | – | ||
| Vulkan RT API, OpenGL 4.6 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| HDMI 2.1 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| DisplayPort 1.4a | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| NVIDIA Encoder | 7th Generation | 7th Generation | 7th Generation | 7th Generation | |
| NVIDIA Decoder | 5th Generation | 5th Generation | 5th Generation | 5th Generation | |
| VR Ready | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Display Support: | Maximum Digital Resolution | 7680×4320 | 7680×4320 | 7680×4320 | 7680x4320 |
| Standard Display Connectors | HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a | HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a | HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a | HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a | |
| Multi Monitor | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | |
| HDCP | 2.3 | 2.3 | 2.3 | 2.3 | |
| Founders Edition Card Dimensions: | Length | 12.3″ (313 mm) | 11.2″ (285 mm) | 9.5″ (242 mm) | 9.5" (242 mm) |
| Width | 5.4″ (138 mm) | 4.4″ (112 mm) | 4.4″ (112 mm) | 4.4" (112 mm) | |
| Height | 3-Slot | 2-Slot | 2-Slot | 2-Slot | |
| Founders Edition Thermal Power Specs: | Maximum GPU Temperature (in C) | 93 | 93 | 93 | 93 |
| Graphics Card Power (W) | 350 | 320 | 220 | 200 | |
| Recommended System Power (W) | 750 | 750 | 650 | 600 | |
| Supplementary Power Connectors | 2x PCIe 8-pin | 2x PCIe 8-pin | 1x PCIe 8-pin | 1x PCIe 8-pin |
Below we have a list of video cards PCWizKid has reviewed in the past that you might think about upgrading towards in the near future. While I have used the RTX 2060 to 2080, there is always a sweat spot for each GPU and a and limit of what they each can offer. The range starts from entry level cards first such as the RTX 2060, then mainstream single GPU to high end enthusiast like a RTX 2080 Ti or dual 2080's GPU graphics cards in SLI. Same goes for the NAVI 10 AMD RDNA GPU's, I find that the more we see the 7nm architecture being used the less power requirements are needed to give us even more gaming performance.
This chart shows the latest Desktop PC GPU hierarchy from the most recent 2020-2021 graphics cards. I have here a top 20 list (yes there are many more) but this list contains the most commonly purchased graphics cards for today's home/gaming PC and more.
| Graphics Card Name | GPU | Base/Boost | Memory | Power (Watts) | Latest Deal/Price (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nvidia Geforce RTX 3090 | GA102 | 1395/1695 Mhz | 24GB GDDR6X | 350W | EVGA RTX 3090 FTW3 |
| Nvidia Geforce RTX 3080 | GA102 | 1440/1710 Mhz | 10GB GDDR6X | 320W | EVGA RTX 3080 FTW3 |
| Nvidia Titan RTX | TU102 | 1350/1770 MHz | 24GB GDDR6 | 280W | Titan RTX |
| Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti | TU102 | 1350/1635 MHz | 11GB GDDR6 | 260W | Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti |
| Nvidia Geforce RTX 3070 | GA104 | 1500/1725 Mhz | 8GB GDDR6 | 220W | EVGA RTX 3070 XC3 |
| Nvidia Geforce RTX 3060 Ti | GA104 | 1410/1665 Mhz | 8GB GDDR6 | 200W | EVGA RTX 3060 Ti XC |
| Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super | TU104 | 1650/1815 MHz | 8GB GDDR6 | 250W | GeForce RTX 2080 Super |
| Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 | TU104 | 1515/1800 MHz | 8GB GDDR6 | 225W | GeForce RTX 2080 |
| Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super | TU104 | 1605/1770 MHz | 8GB GDDR6 | 215W | GeForce RTX 2070 Super |
| Nvidia Titan X | GP102 | 1405/1480 MHz | 12GB GDDR5X | 250W | GeForce GTX Titan X |
| Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti | GP102 | 1480/1582 MHz | 11GB GDDR5X | 250W | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti |
| AMD Radeon VII | Vega 20 | 1400/1750 MHz | 16GB HBM2 | 300W | Radeon VII |
| AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT | Navi 10 | 1605/1905 MHz | 8GB GDDR6 | 225W | AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT |
| Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 | TU106 | 1410/1710 MHz | 8GB GDDR6 | 185W | GeForce RTX 2070 |
| Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Super | TU106 | 1470/1650 MHz | 8GB GDDR6 | 175W | GeForce RTX 2060 Super |
| AMD Radeon RX 5700 | Navi 10 | 1465/1725 MHz | 8GB GDDR6 | 185W | AMD Radeon RX 5700 |
| Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 | GP104 | 1607/1733 MHz | 8GB GDDR5X | 180W | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 |
| AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT | Navi 10 | 1560/1620 MHz | 6GB GDDR6 | 150W | Radeon RX 5600 XT |
| AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 | Vega 10 | 1274/1546 MHz | 8GB HBM2 | 295W | |
| Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 | TU106 | 1365/1680 MHz | 6GB GDDR6 | 160W | |
| AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 | Vega 10 | 1156/1471 MHz | 8GB HBM2 | 210W | |
| Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 Ti | GP104 | 1607/1683 MHz | 8GB GDDR5 | 180W | GeForce GTX 1070 Ti |
| Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti | TU116 | 1365/1680 MHz | 6GB GDDR6 | 120W | GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6GB |
| Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 | GP104 | 1506/1683 MHz | 8GB GDDR5 | 150W | Nvidia GTX 1070 |
| Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super | TU116 | 1530/1785 MHz | 6GB GDDR6 | 125W | GeForce GTX 1660 Super |
Below I have a video playlist with recent generations of graphics cards and a variety of older GPU's also to compare against. Make an informative decision by seeing for yourself the benchmarks and performance results PCWizKid has recorded for you.