Cheapest graphics card deals this week
Finding the cheapest graphics card deal can save you $100s, especially if you’re buying top-end cards like the 2080 or 1080. When you’re building a new rig, or updating the old one, the GPU is what costs the most money, and it can put a serious dent in your budget. Saving a few dollars could mean an extra fan or two, a better CPU, or a bigger SSD. So, it’s vital that you get the best GPU deal possible, and right now, that’s very, very possible. With the release of the new 20 series cards from Nvidia, and a bunch of fresh GPUs from AMD, the market is flooded with cards, so you have loads of options regardless of your budget. What’s more, the new graphics cards have pushed down the prices of the older models, so if you can live without ray-tracing for a few years, you can easily get a bargain on an older Nvidia card. We’ve got the cheapest graphics card deals below, and they’re updated constantly.
XFX Radeon RX 580 8GB | $189.99
There are several 8GB RX 580 cards around this price, but XFX’s Black Edition has great reviews and dual fans. The card also comes with two free games—you can pick from The Division 2, Resident Evil 2, and Devil May Cry 5. Buy at Newegg (Posted: 2/26)
Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti
1. Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti
The fastest graphics card for 4K, ray tracing, and everything else
GPU Cores: 4,352 | Base Clock: 1,350MHz | Boost Clock: 1,545MHz | GFLOPS: 13,448 | Memory: 11GB GDDR6 | Memory Clock: 14 GT/s | Memory Bandwidth: 616GB/s
Fastest graphics card around
Ray tracing and deep learning tech
TItan pricing on GeForce
No ray traced games yet
Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 2080 Ti is the latest and most potent GPU around, and it’s also one of the largest consumer GPUs ever produced. The Turing TU102 is 60 percent larger than the Pascal GP102 in the 1080 Ti, with 55 percent more transistors. Those extra transistors went into more CUDA cores, but Nvidia didn’t stop there, adding in Tensor cores to help accelerate deep learning algorithms like DLSS, plus RT cores to accelerate ray tracing. There are plenty of other enhancements in the Turing architecture as well, but if you want the best, be prepared to shell out: the cheapest 2080 Ti cards start at $999, with many selling for $1,199 and up.
If you’re looking for the best value, forget about the new RTX cards. On the other hand, if you’re eying a 4k 144Hz HDR G-Sync display and you want the absolute fastest graphics card around, this is the card for you. You could even try adding a second card and using an NVLink connector, assuming you just won the lottery. We’re unlikely to see anything substantially faster for at least a year, so you’ll be able to sit comfortably at the top of the pecking order for a while.
2. Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070
Fast and more affordable than the other RTX models
GPU Cores: 2,304 | Base Clock: 1,410MHz | Boost Clock: 1,620MHz | GFLOPS: 7,465 | Memory: 8GB GDDR6 | Memory Clock: 14 GT/s | Memory Bandwidth: 448GB/s
Good performance
Better pricing than other models
Not much faster than GTX 1080
Waiting for DLSS games
The ray tracing future may sound great, but what if you can’t afford $700 or more on a graphics card? That’s where Nvidia’s RTX 2070 enters the picture, the third Turing GPU and the most affordable of the bunch. More importantly, it’s relatively widely available, and there are even a few cards at the base recommended price of $500. That’s still a lot of money for a graphics card, and the 2070 is actually slower than the previous generation 1080 Ti (see below), at least in games that don’t support DLSS—which is everything for the time being, though that should start to change soon.
The RTX 2070 effectively takes over where the GTX 1080 left off. It offers slightly better performance for the same price, and like the other RTX cards it features the new Tensor and RT cores. The Founders Edition wasn’t particularly impressive, given its $100 price premium, but we liked the EVGA 2070 Black quite a bit and it makes for a fine addition to any new gaming PC. The Gigabyte 2070 Windforce and Asus 2070 Turbo are two more options to consider, and all the 2070 GPUs tend to reach similar maximum overclocks.
3. AMD Radeon RX 580 8GB
The best card for mainstream gaming right now
GPU Cores: 2,304 | Base Clock: 1,257MHz | Boost Clock: 1,340MHz | GFLOPS: 6,175 | Memory: 8GB GDDR5 | Memory Clock: 8 GT/s | Memory Bandwidth: 256GB/s
Excellent performance at 1080p
Usually faster in DX12 games
Uses more power than GTX 1060
Many gamers are on a budget, and while faster cards might make you envious, if you’re running a 1080p display they’re often overkill. Mainstream GPUs like the RX 570/580 and GTX 1060 3GB/6GB are close to the original MSRPs, with sales even dropping below MSRP. The RX 580 8GB trades blows with the GTX 1060 6GB, typically winning by a few percent in performance but using more power. The overall victor of the midrange category is largely determined by local pricing, with the US market currently favoring the RX 580.
$200 to $275 is the sweet spot for mainstream gamers, and while the GTX 1060 3GB might seem tempting, the 3GB VRAM is a concern. Most games don’t really need more memory, as the difference between high quality and ultra quality textures is often negligible, particularly on a 1080p display. Still, the RX 580 8GB is only about $30 more and is almost always quite a bit faster. Check for sales and discount codes.
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