No other component has such an impact on the performance of your computer in games as the video card. This is the heart of a modern computer, especially a gaming one. Of course, chances are that those who read these lines are mining, working as designers and / or rendering high-quality video, but most buy powerful video cards for games.
Graphics cards eat up a large chunk of your budget to buy or build a new computer. Although after the launch of the new generation cards from Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 and RTX 2080 Ti, the previous generation fell a little in price - there is an opportunity to grab a good and powerful video card at an affordable price. What is better to spend money on - we will give the answer to this in 2018 graphics card performance rating... It was compiled taking into account the opinion of experts from reputable foreign publications - PCGamer and PCWorld.
10.Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 2GB
Average price: 10,000 rubles.
- 2048 MB GDDR5 video memory
- core / memory frequency: 1392/7008 MHz
- connectors DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort
- DirectX 12 support, OpenGL 4.5, Vulkan
- work with 4 monitors
This video card can be safely recommended to those who are just starting to play games and do not want to spend extra money. She will pull easily 20 of the best games in history... An excellent choice for cyber athletes, for whom advanced graphical effects are not important, but performance and high FPS are important. The card can provide both - it easily holds 100 FPS in games like Dota 2, Overwatch, CS: GO, and so on. More demanding "story" games, it will pull at 60 fps at a resolution of 1080 and medium settings. At ultra settings, it will be 30 fps on the strength (which, however, is hardly noticeable to the human eye, so see for yourself).
Another plus of the map is its size. It is small and can be installed in almost any case. And it works very quietly, and under load it heats up to a maximum of 65 degrees.
Cons: poor overclocking potential, small amount of video memory.
9.AMD Radeon RX 560 4GB
Average price: 11,000 rubles.
- 4096 MB GDDR5 VRAM
- core / memory frequency: 1275/7000 MHz
- support for SLI / CrossFire mode
- connectors DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort
- DirectX 12 support, OpenGL 4.5, Vulkan
- work with 3 monitors
The main advantage of the RX 560 is the price. The video card is very budgetary, but it is capable of producing a good picture and at the same time quite fast at 1080 resolution (it is in this segment that various competitive games specialize). If you need a computer for games like CS: GO, Lol, Overwatch and so on, and you don't want to spend a lot of money, then the RX 560 is a good choice. It can easily withstand 60 FPS at medium settings, and you don't need more from a card at this price.
Cons: the fan makes a lot of noise at maximum speed, the video card heats up to 70 degrees under load.
8.AMD Radeon RX 570 4GB
Average price: 15,000 rubles.
- 4096 MB GDDR5 VRAM
- core / memory frequency: 1340/7000 MHz
- support for SLI / CrossFire mode
- connectors DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort x2
- support for DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.5, Vulkan
- work with 5 monitors
The main advantage of budget cards from Radeon over similar Nvidia is slightly higher performance in games that support DirectX 12. On the whole, the card with Polaris architecture differs only slightly from the 1060 with 3 GB of video memory. Unless it consumes a little more electricity, heats up a little more and makes a little more noise.In general, the choice is excellent if you are playing at 1080 resolution - the card is capable of providing a picture of 60 fps at high settings, which in principle is more than enough for most current games.
Alas, cards from AMD are inevitably becoming a thing of the past, especially against the background of recent developments from Nvidia - 2080 and 2080 Ti. The company needs to find something better than Polaris to even catch up with the main GPU maker.
7.Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
Average price: 22,000 rubles.
- 6144 MB GDDR5 VRAM
- core / memory frequency: 1506/8008 MHz
- connectors DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort x2
- support for DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.5, Vulkan
- work with 4 monitors
The main competitor to the Radeon RX 580. The 2GB difference between them often does not have a big impact on gaming performance, especially if the resolution is 1080. It is with this that the seventh and sixth places in the rating show themselves best. Of course, they can stretch 1440, but you have to sacrifice the quality of the textures.
The advantage of 1060 over the competitor is energy consumption; this model uses about 50 watts less than the RX 580. This means that it heats up less and is quieter in operation - these two qualities are clearly worth more than a hundred rubles saved.
Cons: maybe a small radiator. However, no one can call this video card a "stove".
6.AMD Radeon RX 580 8GB
Average price: 19,000 rubles.
- 8192 MB GDDR5 VRAM
- core / memory frequency: 1365/8000 MHz
- support for SLI / CrossFire mode
- connectors DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort x3
- support for DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.5, Vulkan
- work with 5 monitors
The same workhorse that will take everything on itself (although not at maximum settings). Many of us dream of powerful graphics cards capable of delivering impressive numbers and tracking every speck of dust in a column of sunlight, but reality (and budget) makes its own cruel adjustments. So if you're on a budget, opt for the RX 580 with 8GB of VRAM for maximum graphics performance.
In terms of performance, the RX 580 8GB is roughly equal to the GTX 1060 6GB - slightly more performance is atoned for by slightly more power consumption. Which of them wins the market depends primarily on the price. It is worth considering that it is quite difficult for an untrained eye to distinguish ultra-textures from just high-quality textures on a 1080 monitor.
Cons: perhaps power consumption. And then if you really really want to find fault with something.
5.AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 8GB
Average price: 40,000 rubles.
- 8192 MB HBM2 video memory
- core / memory frequency: 1170/1600 MHz
- support for SLI / CrossFire mode
- HDMI connectors, DisplayPort x3
- support for DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.5, Vulkan
- work with 6 monitors
AMD GPUs only managed to get to the fifth place in the top graphics cards of 2018. Once upon a time the release of this card was expected with impatience, but it did not justify the hopes. They hoped for the "Nvidia killer", but got a card comparable to a year ago (then) GTX 1080. However, the RX Vega 56 is about the same in performance, costs a little less, is a little more economical, and is comparable in performance to the GTX 1070 Ti. For the price, it costs about the same or slightly more (depending on the configuration). And in some games that support DirectX 12, it performs even better than alternatives from Nvidia.
Hopefully in the future AMD will push the king - or at least shake the throne well. The more competition in the market, the better for us, ordinary users.
Cons: overpriced, suboptimal BIOS settings.
4.Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 Ti
Average price: 30,000 rubles.
- 8008 MB GDDR5 Video Memory
- core / memory frequency: 1607/8192 MHz
- support for SLI / CrossFire mode
- connectors DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort x3
- DirectX 12 support, OpenGL 4.6, Vulkan
- work with 4 monitors
The best graphics cards aren't necessarily the most powerful or the cheapest. The best ones are those that represent the optimal balance of price / performance / quality. There are many good options in the 2018 graphics card rating. However, if your goal is to find a graphics processor that can easily withstand the next couple of years without changing, and at the same time you do not need to sell a kidney or lay your mother's dacha, then it's time to think about the GTX 1070 Ti. In terms of performance, it is somewhere between 1070 and 1080, but at a price closer to the previous one.
Besides the price, the 1070 Ti also has other advantages. It's easy to overclock, quiet, efficient, and is capable of over 60fps in games at 1080 or even 1440 at ultra settings. After the bitcoin boom, which affected ordinary gamers most of all, prices continue to decline.Plus RTX 2070 is still expected in October, prices may drop even more. It is this video card that can be safely recommended to most gamers.
Cons: noisy and quite hot.
3.Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti
Average price: 57,000 rubles.
- 11264 MB GDDR5X VRAM
- core / memory frequency: 1493/11010 MHz
- support for SLI / CrossFire mode
- connectors DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort x2
- support for DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.5, Vulkan
- work with 4 monitors
The previous flagship from Nvidia is still good, its performance is just as high, but the price (which is important) has decreased. The card works best with a monitor capable of at least 1440 resolution - so it can unleash its full potential. Compared to its competitors, it performs almost at the level of 2080, but it does not have all of its newfangled features - ray tracing and DLSS anti-aliasing. But already 25 new games have vowed to support DLSS, and 11 - ray tracing. In general, it makes no sense to upgrade from 1080 Ti to 2080, but the 2080 Ti is worth thinking about.
Cons: expensive.
2.Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080
Average price: 60,000 rubles.
- 8192 MB GDDR6 Video Memory
- support for SLI / CrossFire mode
- HDMI connectors, DisplayPort x3, USB Type-C
- DirectX 12 support, OpenGL 4.6, Vulkan
- work with 4 monitors
The best graphics card with the most bells and whistles (which gamers may or may not need) is ranked # 1. However, the second place is also worthy of attention, because at the moment it is one of the fastest GPUs. And it costs a little cheaper (although not too much).
If instead of a super-duper-top video card, you just want to buy a 2080 without any additional letters, then you will get excellent performance (it is higher than the previous flagship, the GTX 1080 Ti) and save about 30,000. And at the same time, the RTX 2080 can also trace rays and anti-aliasing in DLSS-mode, like its advanced version. The difference in performance between them is about 10-15%. By the way, the RTX 2080 costs about the same as the 1080 Ti, and in terms of performance in games without ray tracing and DLSS, they are approximately equal.
Cons: like the flagship, the RTX 2080 was ahead of its time, because not many, even most anticipated games boasts ray tracing and DLSS anti-aliasing. Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Battlefield 5 are due out soon - that's where we'll see how the novelty will show itself.
1.Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti
Average price: 100,000 rubles.
- 11264 MB GDDR6 VRAM
- core / memory frequency: 1650/14000 MHz
- support for SLI / CrossFire mode
- HDMI connectors, DisplayPort x3, USB Type-C
- DirectX 12 support, OpenGL 4.6, Vulkan
- work with 4 monitors
The most powerful video card rating. It breaks performance records and takes the honorable first place in the ranking of Nvidia graphics cards and not only. If you are a gamer and want to enjoy the spectacle of the sunlight playing on dewdrops in 4K resolution and on four monitors at once, then this video card is for you.
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti is the company's latest development, interesting in that it is not only the most powerful, but also the largest in size. An additional amount was required to increase the number of CUDA cores, the introduction of tensor cores and the new type of anti-aliasing DLSS provided by them, as well as RT cores needed for improved tracing of sunlight. In addition to the above, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti boasts a number of other innovations - for example, it is the only card that can currently optimally interact with a G-Sync HDR display at 144 Hz and a resolution of 4k.
The card is indispensable for those who want the best, the most powerful and can afford it. If this someone else won the lottery, he can buy a second card, then connect them using the NVLink connector and enjoy the spectacle of FPS values flying into space. Another positive point - it is unlikely that in the next year and a half Nvidia will be born with a new flagship, so this card will last at least that long.
On the negative side, there are not many ray tracing games currently on the market that support DLSS antialiasing. Plus the card has two fans and one vapor chamber, and they all make noise, albeit not too loudly.
Summary table of the rating of video cards by performance in 2018
