Best graphics card for gamers and creatives in 2021 – CNET [CNET]

If AMD, Intel and Nvidia‘s statistics are correct, you’re most likely using a computer and graphics card that are several years old. For PC gaming, animation, video editing and other heavyweight graphics-intensive activities, that short space of time is just about forever. Much has changed in the past few years, so chances are you’re no longer using a modern card — much less the best graphics card out there — with new technologies like ray-tracing acceleration and smart resolution upscaling. And games and software used by creative folks for applications like 3D tools and video editors have only got more demanding.

This is a horrible time to shop for a new video card: They’re harder to find in stock than a PS5. The now-current generation of flagship cards from Nvidia and AMD launched as of October 2020, but are still in the LOL-try-to-get-one stage. You want one, because Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, RTX 3070 and 3080, and AMD’s Radeon RX 6800, 6800 XT and 6900 XT perform noticeably better than the previous generations. But you can’t get one — or anything really — because cryptocurrency mining has once again bogarted the entire available stock, creating shortages and driving up prices. 

Nvidia’s latest entry-level RTX card — the RTX 3060, which was announced in January 2021 — hasn’t begun shipping yet. But you can bet once it does you won’t be able to find that one either, and certainly not for its $329 nominal price.

This list is updated regularly. For the most recent update, I’ve left the price categories in place for reference so you can see where they were before the market went nuts. Since you can’t find them, those prices are kind of moot, anyway.  

Even if you just need the basics for streaming video or surfing the web, the best graphics card can make your system feel snappier by improving the acceleration of video decoding or redrawing your screens faster, especially if you had previously used a budget GPU. With a Thunderbolt 3-equipped laptop or iMac, you can even upgrade the graphics using an external graphics processing unit (an eGPU with its own power supply) or a dedicated graphics card. 

The RTX 3000 series follow on the Super equivalents, and in the case of the 3090, the Titan RTX. The cards use the latest Ampere architecture, with improved algorithms and more processing power dedicated to ray tracing (second-gen Turing core), AI (for more efficient upscaling via DLSS) and programmable shaders. They deliver some big jumps in performance over the 2000 series. 

AMD’s latest GPUs are based on its RDNA 2-gen architecture, used in the Xbox Series X, S and PS5 consoles, and for the first time target 4K gamers (the company previously concentrated on 1080p and 1440p gaming). Hardware performance improvements stem partly from the higher-density on-die Infinity Cache design (all have 128MB) and enhanced design of the compute units (including a new Ray Accelerator core for each compute unit). They combine to improve the memory subsystem by reducing the latency of moving data around, increase bandwidth by up to 2.2x with a narrower path (256 bits) and deliver better energy efficiency. That also allows the processors to hit higher clock frequencies without a substantial increase in power requirements. 

The AMD GPUs have been optimized to achieve peak performance when used in conjunction with the company’s new Ryzen 5000 series of desktop CPUs, though it doesn’t sound like they get much of a boost from it. If every frame counts, though, it’s something to keep in mind. They also support Microsoft’s DirectStorage programming interface, which accelerates SSD access by circumventing the CPU to improve storage-intensive game tasks like load times in games developed with it in mind. 

Read more: Best gaming chairs we’ve sat in for 2021 

The new architectures for ray-tracing acceleration are accompanied by a larger set of technologies that tend to be lumped in with them because they also improve or accelerate rendering in general. These include upscaling algorithms, for example, which render for a higher resolution screen using native-resolution textures (while maintaining frame rates); in other words, using textures for 1080p to render for 1440p. Nvidia’s Deep Learning Super Sampling and AMD’s Radeon Contrast Adaptive Sharpening do this. 

Ready to throw down some cash for a new graphics card for your gaming rig or laptop? Don’t spend a single cent on a graphics card for gaming until you read this buying guide of the best graphics card, wherein we consider everything from video memory, refresh rate and frame rate to power consumption, memory clock and gaming performance. Plus, our general GPU shopping tips at the end will help you make your choice. We update this periodically. 

Read more: Best cheap gaming mice