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AMD Radeon RX 6600 Review: RDNA2 Goes Mainstream at $329

Tom’s Hardware Verdict

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 officially starts at $329, the same price point as Nvidia’s RTX 3060. It uses a harvested Navi 23 chip, delivering lower performance than the RX 6600 XT. It’s decent for 1080p gaming, but struggles at higher resolutions and with ray tracing.

Pros

+
Decent 1080p performance
+
Single 8-pin power connector
+
Supply should be okay (maybe)

Two months back, AMD launched the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT, the first card to use the Navi 23 GPU. Today, AMD follows up with its first truly mainstream priced RX 6000-series card, the Radeon RX 6600. Take the same GPU but with four of the CUs (compute units) disabled, clock it a bit lower and you get the RX 6600 non-XT.

Will it be one of the best graphics cards, or will it come up a bit short? A lot of that will depend on retail pricing and availability, as GPU prices remain inflated, but supply has been a bit better on the RX 6600 XT than on other RDNA2 graphics cards, so hopefully for gamers, AMD can supply a reasonable quantity of GPUs for this launch.

I talked about the lack of a vanilla RX 6700 prior to the Navi 23 launch, and that previously widely rumored card remains MIA. Presumably that’s because any of the Navi 22 chips that aren’t fully functional can be sold as one of the various mobile RX 6000M-series solutions. AMD isn’t taking that same approach with Navi 23, though, and along with trimming off some of the performance, the RX 6600 reduces the power requirement to just 132W and also cuts the official starting price to $329 — the same price as Nvidia’s RTX 3060, though with ‘only’ 8GB VRAM. That’s basically mainstream pricing in today’s market — actually, it’s less than you’ll pay for most actual mainstream GPUs — though we suspect AMD’s partners and the various retail outlets will jack up the price as long as GPUs remain in short supply.

Besides reducing the CU count and reducing the GPU clocks — by a relatively large 315MHz if you look at the Game Clock — AMD also reduced the GDDR6 speed from 16Gbps to 14Gbps. Note that the ‘maximum’ boost clock of 2491MHz (technically the GPU can exceed even the boost clock) is quite a bit higher than the game clock, so we’ll have to see how it all plays out in the benchmarks. But overall we’d expect the RX 6600 to be 10–25 percent slower than the RX 6600 XT, depending on whether a game needs more GPU power (up to 25% slower in theory) or more memory bandwidth (about 12.5% slower). Here’s the rundown of AMD’s latest RX 6000-series GPUs and their specifications.

AMD RX 6000-Series GPU Specifications
Graphics Card	RX 6600	RX 6800 XT	RX 6800	RX 6700 XT	RX 6600 XT
Architecture	Navi 23	Navi 21	Navi 21	Navi 22	Navi 23
Process Technology	TSMC N7	TSMC N7	TSMC N7	TSMC N7	TSMC N7
Transistors (Billion)	11.1	26.8	26.8	17. 2)	237	519	519	336	237
CUs	28	72	60	40	32
GPU Cores	1792	4608	3840	2560	2048
Ray Accelerators	28	72	60	40	32
Infinity Cache (MB)	32	128	96	128	32
Game Clock (MHz)	2044	2250	2105	2424	2359
VRAM Speed (Gbps)	14	16	16	16	16
VRAM (GB)	8	16	16	12	8
VRAM Bus Width	128	256	256	192	128
ROPs	64	128	96	64	64
TMUs	112	288	240	160	128
TFLOPS FP32 (Boost)	7.3	20.7	16. 2	12.4	9.7
Bandwidth (GBps)	224	512	512	384	256
PCIe Slot Interface	x8 Gen4	x16 Gen4	x16 Gen4	x16 Gen4	x8 Gen4
TBP (watts)	132	300	250	230	160
Launch Date	Oct-21	Nov-20	Nov-20	Mar-21	Aug-21
Launch Price	$329	$649	$579	$479	$379

Paper specs don’t always match up with real-world performance, so we’ll have to see how the RX 6600 fares against its main competition — which includes not just the RTX 3060 and RX 6600 XT, but also previous generation cards like the RTX 2060, RTX 2060 Super, and RX 5600 XT. Considering this card replaces the previous generation RX 5600 XT, it’s unfortunate that generational pricing has gone up quite a bit, but then there’s no sense in expecting AMD to launch at a price that few people will ever see. Again, we hope there will actually be a fairly decent supply of RX 6600 cards, both for the initial launch and going forward.

We mentioned the issue with AMD’s game clocks vs. boost clocks already, and we’ve used AMD’s game clocks for the above TFLOPS numbers. However, given the way things have changed with boost clocks on RDNA2 (i.e., RDNA2 GPUs often reach and exceed boost clocks while game), it might be better to compare performance using boost clocks rather than game clocks. If we do that, the RX 6600 can provide about 8.9 TFOPS of compute, while the RX 6600 XT delivers 10.6 TFLOPS of compute. That’s a much lower 16% drop in theoretical performance, and it matches up better with the reduced memory bandwidth.

The Navi 23 architecture uses the same general formula as the other Big Navi and RDNA2 GPUs. It supports DirectX Raytracing (DXR) and implements the full DirectX 12 Ultimate features list, including Variable Rate Shading (VRS), mesh shaders, and sampler feedback. The smaller 32MB Infinity Cache on Navi 23 represents a compromise that mostly benefits 1080p and maybe 1440p, but mainstream GPUs generally aren’t used at higher resolutions so that should be okay.

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AMD Radeon RX 6600 Review Introduction

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Jarred Walton is a senior editor at Tom’s Hardware focusing on everything GPU. He has been working as a tech journalist since 2004, writing for AnandTech, Maximum PC, and PC Gamer. From the first S3 Virge ‘3D decelerators’ to today’s GPUs, Jarred keeps up with all the latest graphics trends and is the one to ask about game performance.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti review

TechRadar Verdict

For the price, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti punches way above its weight class, providing performance that rivals, and sometimes beats, the RTX 2080 Super. At its price, it’s the best graphics cards for most people.

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Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti: two minute review

With the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, you don’t have to break the bank to get access to next-gen graphics performance. And, while you can find the RTX 3060 for even less, the RTX 3060 Ti provides better value, since it offers more performance for the price.

In particular, the 3060 Ti improves upon the 3060’s solid 1080p performance by letting you dive into the latest AAA games at 1440p on ultra settings. And, if you use DLSS, you may even be able to squeeze some 4K gaming out of it.

Jump to

Price and availability
Features and chipset
Performance
Should I buy?
Also consider

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (Black) at Amazon for $611.37

In some instances, it also outperforms the RTX 2080 Super, a GPU that was almost double the price when it came out, showing you the power of the new Nvidia Ampere architecture.

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti may not be the speediest or most robust GPU out there, but it provides excellent performance at a reasonable price. That makes it among the best graphics cards on the market right now.

And, it’s an ideal GPU for those who consider flagship cards like the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 or the pricier Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 too expensive. It is possibly the best Nvidia GeForce graphics card for most gamers and easily holds off the resurgent competition from the best AMD graphics cards in its class.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti: price and availability

(Image credit: Nvidia)

How much is it? MSRP listed at $399 (about £299, AU$540)
When is it out? It was released in December 2020
Where can you get it? You can buy it from retailers in the US, UK, and Australia

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is available starting December 2, 2020, and you can pick it up starting at $399 (about £299, AU$540). This largely falls in line with what we’d expect a graphics card in this segment to cost, especially considering the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Super started at the same $399 (about £315, AU$580) and the RTX 2060 was $349 (about £260, AU$475).

The RTX 3060 Ti falls right around the same price as the RTX 2060 Super, while being as powerful as the RTX 2080 Super, a card that retailed for $699 (about £560, AU$990). That card was a 1440p Ultra machine, and so it follows that the 3060 Ti will be as well, and now it’s way cheaper.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti: features and chipset

(Image credit: Nvidia)

3rd-generation ray tracing cores
More than double the CUDA cores of RTX 2060 Super
Greater power draw (TGP) over RTX 2060 Super

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is based on the same Ampere architecture as the RTX 3080, and gives us a look at what the Ampere lineup will look like in the mid-range and budget segment of the GPU market. This isn’t exactly going to be the graphics card that’ll push Watch Dogs Legion with ray tracing at 4K, but it is definitely up to doing it at 1080p.

With this graphics card, you’re getting 8GB of the same GDDR6 memory found in the RTX 3070, paired with 38 Ampere Streaming Multiprocessors (SM). However, because of changes Nvidia has made to its SM since Turing, each of these now has 128 CUDA cores, double that of the 64 in each Turing SM. That means there are now 4,864 CUDA cores in the RTX 3060 Ti, up from the 2,176 found in the RTX 2060 Super.

Power consumption sees an increase over the RTX 2060 Super, but it’s not as pronounced as other cards in the Nvidia Ampere lineup. The total graphics power (TGP) is 200W for the RTX 3060 Ti, up from the 175W of the RTX 2060 Super. It’s more, but it shouldn’t be so much more that you’ll need to worry about upgrading your power supply to accommodate – assuming you have a competent one in the first place, that is.

Back in Turing, each SM had two datapaths – one dedicated to Floating Point (FP32) workloads, and the other dedicated to Integer. With Ampere, and thus the RTX 3060 Ti, Nvidia was able to engineer the SM to have one of the datapaths essentially able to pull double duty, which is why the amount of CUDA cores has effectively doubled per SM with Ampere.

Outside of CUDA cores, each SM also has Tensor Cores for AI workloads like Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS), and dedicated ray tracing cores. Each SM has one RT core and four Tensor Cores. The dedicated among you might have noticed that’s half the amount of Tensor Cores in each SM than Turing had, but there’s a good reason for that – they’re more than twice as fast this time around.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti key specs

GPU: Nvidia GA104
Streaming multiprocessors: 38 (Ampere)
CUDA Cores: 4,864
Tensor cores: 152
Ray tracing cores: 38
Power Draw (TGP): 200W
Boost clock: 1,665MHz
VRAM: 8GB GDDR6
Memory Speed: 14Gbps
Interface: PCIe 4.0 x16
Power connector: 1 x 12-pin

The RT core is what’s responsible for the ray tracing that everyone is talking about. The whole point is to offload the massive computational load that any kind of ray tracing entails, in order to be able to produce playable framerates.

Basically, when a light ray is cast in a game engine, the SM will send that information over to the RT core, where it will calculate where that ray bounces, and report that back to the SM so it can render the image. This doesn’t make ray tracing computationally free, though, as you’ll see from the massive hit in performance that having RT on in Metro Exodus entails.

However, without these dedicated RT cores, the performance hit would turn the game into a slideshow.

Luckily, the other dedicated type of core, the Tensor Core is the other part of the equation that makes it somewhat sensible to enable ray tracing when playing the best PC games. Through the Tensor Core, developers can integrate DLSS in games, which is essentially an AI-enabled upscaling tech. This helps boost performance by having the SM render a scene in a lower resolution, then having the Tensor Core use data from Nvidia’s Supercomputers to intelligently scale that scene up to full resolution.

With DLSS, you’re able to make up much of the performance difference that ray tracing brings to the table, so you can have the awesome image quality benefits of ray tracing, without sacrificing too much in the way of performance. In fact, without DLSS, ray tracing simply wouldn’t be worth it.

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti also brings a wealth of features to the table too. Esports players are going to love Nvidia Reflex, which aims to cut system latency, RTX IO works alongside Microsoft DirectStorage to load data straight from your system storage to your VRAM and Nvidia Broadcast allows for you to filter out background noise and images while streaming or video chatting, regardless of the software you’re using. And, while it’s definitely true that a lot of software, like Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams all allow for similar functionality, having all the settings in one place is a huge time-saver.

(Image credit: Nvidia)

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition is, well, almost exactly the same as the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition. The two cards are exactly the same size, with the same amount of fans, and the same exposed fins on the back of the card that helps shoot hot air out of the graphics card up and out of the system.

The only core difference here is that it’s a lighter gray color than the RTX 3070. And, just like the rest of the Founders Editions in the Ampere lineup, Nvidia has absolutely delivered some of the best-looking graphics cards we’ve ever seen.

And the best part? The stylish cooler is also effective. Throughout our entire testing suite, we saw temperatures peak at 72C, which is about the same temperature seen by the RTX 2060 Super, but while consuming 10% more power.

It’s not all sunshine and roses though. While the cooler itself is amazing, shrinking down the GPU board to accommodate it brings the same drawback here as the rest of the lineup. Namely, the RTX 3060 Ti is using the same 12-pin power connector. Nvidia does include an adapter in the box, which lets you connect one 8-pin PCIe cable to the 12-pin port, but it does make cable management a little more of a trouble. Luckily, PSU manufacturers have already started working on dedicated 12-pin PCIe cables, so hopefully that problem goes away as time goes on.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti: performance

(Image credit: Nvidia)

Exceptional 1440p performance
Actually enjoyable ray tracing
Not quite capable of full 4K gaming

What we love about new mid-range graphics cards like the RTX 3060 Ti is that they bring the baseline of PC gaming performance up, due to how accessible they are to everyone. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti absolutely blows the RTX 2060 Super out of the water, just like the rest of the Ampere lineup has done to its predecessors.

In 3DMark Time Spy Extreme, for instance, which is a test geared towards 4K gaming performance in DirectX 12 – which current gen games will mostly be using – the RTX 3060 Ti is 38% faster than the 2060 Super. And, in the Port Royal test, which tests raw ray tracing performance, Nvidia’s new GPU is 39% faster than its Turing equivalent.

But what’s more impressive is how the RTX 3060 Ti compares to the RTX 2080 Super. Nvidia is claiming that the RTX 3060 Ti is faster than the RTX 2080 Super, but that’s a little bit of an overstatement. However, the RTX 3060 Ti is around the same level of performance as the RTX 2080 Super, which is still incredibly impressive, given the price of this new card.

Test system specs

This is the system we used to test the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X (16-core, up to 4.9GHz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Masterliquid 360P Silver Edition
RAM: 64GB Corsair Dominator Platinum @ 3,200MHz
Motherboard: ASRock X570 Taichi
SSD: ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro @ 1TB
Power Supply: Corsair AX1000
Case: Praxis Wetbench

In those two synthetic benchmarks we mentioned earlier, the RTX 3060 Ti is 7% and faster and 0.5% faster in Time Spy Extreme and Port Royal, respectively.

In actual games, the RTX 3060 Ti obviously kills it. In Metro Exodus without ray tracing and on the Ultra quality preset at 1440p, the RTX 3060 Ti manages 69 fps to the RTX 2080 Super’s 68 fps – which is within margin of error. When you turn on ray tracing however, the third-generation RT Cores get to stretch their wings, with a wider 8% performance lead.

Throughout most of the games we tested the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti in, the graphics card showed its strength in 1440p gaming, with only Red Dead Redemption 2 and Total War: Three Kingdoms resulting in framerates less than 60 fps at max settings. And, considering just how heavy those two games are, the RTX 3060 Ti’s scores of 55 fps and 59 fps, respectively, is damn impressive.

The Nvidia Geforce RTX 3060 Ti brings game-changing 1440p performance to the mid-range market, and should remain a go-to 1440p card for quite a while, considering how both AMD and Nvidia have set their sights on 4K as the new Flagship battleground.

Image 1 of 31

(Image credit: Infogram; Future)

And, when it comes to straight 1440p performance, the RTX 3060 Ti absolutely stands completely on its own in the marketplace when you consider both the performance and the price. This graphics card is around the same price as the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT, but is around 35% faster throughout our testing.

We’re sure AMD has something in the cards to make this recommendation a little more complicated, but at the time of writing, Team Red has nothing that can touch the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti from a sheer value perspective, which is definitely a weird place to find AMD in.

It’s definitely going to be interesting to see how this graphics card matures over the next generation of gaming, however. With the PS5 and Xbox Series X having just hit the streets, graphics requirements for games are about to become a lot more demanding. Right now the RTX 3060 Ti definitely feels like it’s ready for the big time, but only time will tell how this graphics card handles this next generation of games.

In the here and now, however, anyone looking for a mid-range graphics card to handle 1440p gaming is going to find a lot to love. At that resolution, you’re easily going to be able to just crank settings up to max and forget about them. That’s not something you’ve really been able to do before now in this price segment. The best part? There’s enough performance headroom here to take a peek at what 4K gaming has to offer with the best PC games out there right now – just don’t expect that buttery-smooth 60fps experience that the RTX 3080 can offer.

Should you buy an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti?

(Image credit: Nvidia)

Buy it if…

You’re comfortable staying at 1080p
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is definitely capable of some entry-level 4K gaming, where this graphics card really shines is at the lower 1080p and 1440p resolutions. The RTX 3060 Ti will be able to deliver high-framerate gaming at 1080p for years.

You don’t want to spend a whole lot of money
Because the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is just $399 (about £299, AU$540), you don’t have to worry about emptying your piggy bank just to get the latest graphics card.

You want ray tracing at a reasonable price
At 1080p, the RTX 3060 Ti is an absolute champion at ray tracing, and you don’t have to worry about unplayable frame rates at 1080p, or really even 1440p with DLSS enabled.

Don’t buy it if…

You’re looking for 4K gaming
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti can do a bit of 4K gaming, but if that’s the main resolution you’re going for, you’re better off going for a more capable graphics card, like the RTX 3070 or RTX 3080.

You can afford to move up the product stack
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is a fantastic performer for the price, but if money isn’t really an issue, it still pales in comparison to the RTX 3080.

Also consider

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 might not be as powerful as the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, but it’s still got plenty to offer at a slightly better price. There’s no Founders Edition card, however, so you’ll have to look for third-party board partners for this one.

Read the full Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 review

AMD Radeon RX 6600XT
The AMD Radeon RX 6600XT is a very strong alternative to the RTX 3060 Ti, but only up to a point. It is slightly cheaper, but it is also about 20% to 30% in some tasks, so we’d still recommend you go with the RTX 3060 Ti. But if you can’t find that card anywhere and need something to hold you over, the RX 6600XT isn’t outrageously expensive and will definitely get you solid performance.

Read the full AMD Radeon RX 6600XT review

First reviewed in December 2020

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Jackie Thomas is Deputy Editor at Decisionary. Previously, she was TechRadar’s US computing editor. She is fat, queer and extremely online. Computers are the devil, but she just happens to be a satanist. If you need to know anything about computing components, PC gaming or the best laptop on the market, don’t be afraid to drop her a line on Twitter or through email.

With contributions from

John LoefflerComputing Editor

Where to buy Nvidia RTX 3080: who has stock?

(Image credit: Nvidia)

UPDATE: Things are returning to normal in Australia, with many Aussie retailers now boasting plenty of RTX 3080 stock at decent prices. Scroll down to the AU section below to find out more.

When you want a computer with a ton of graphics muscle, you want the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080. This graphics card has a stunning amount of power thanks to its combination of ample CUDA cores combined with plenty of Tensor and RT cores. It’s enough to drive games at 4K without suffering from abysmal framerates.

Until recently, it was incredibly difficult to find an RTX 3080 to buy without an astronomical mark-up. Thankfully, Even we’re now starting to see a return to something resembling normalcy as 3080 stock becomes more readily available. We see options available from Newegg in the US, Scan and Ebuyer in the UK, and Mwave in Australia, and their prices aren’t too bad, either.

Of course, you always had the option of purchasing a pre-built gaming PC, which was a cost-effective alternative to buying the card alone. That said, we think it’s now possible to buy an RTX 3080 card at a decent price, meaning you no longer have to resort to that option.

Check out our Nvidia RTX 3080 stock tracker to get live Twitter updates
Here’s where to buy Nvidia RTX 3070

Nvidia RTX 3080 stock: try these retailers

US RTX 3080 retailers: Nvidia | Best Buy | Amazon | Micro Center | Adorama | B&H | Newegg
UK RTX 3080 retailers: Nvidia | Scan | Ebuyer
AU RTX 3080 retailers: Scorptec | Mwave | Amazon | Landmark Computers | Kogan | Dick Smith | Computer Alliance

If you want to try your luck at the more powerful card, we show you where to buy the RTX 3090 as well — but it looks like stock is just as scarce with that GPU as well at the moment.

The latest Nvidia RTX 3080 deals available now

We’ll list all the latest Nvidia RTX 3080 stock below as soon as it’s available. Keep returning to this page because we’re going to see inventory come and go from retailers constantly.

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Where to buy RTX 3080 in the US

The RTX 3080 stock situation in the US remains tough, with many retailers unable to meet demand months after the GPU went on sale. Here’s the RTX 3080 stock situation for the major retailers:

Nvidia RTX 3080 deals at Nvidia
Think going direct to the source, Nvidia itself, will get you an RTX 3080? While the company sells the founders edition of the RTX 3080 for $699, it’s currently out of stock.

Nvidia RTX 3080 deals at Amazon
Amazon’s RTX 3080 page shows a variety of third party models from the likes of MSI and PNY, but most are ‘Currently unavailable’. There are a few models in stock, but they are very over-priced, such as the Asus TUF RTX 3080 for $1,999 . We’d recommend waiting.

Nvidia RTX 3080 deals at Newegg
Most of the RTX 3080 cards are out of stock at the moment, but you can choose to ‘Auto notify’ when stock comes back in. There is one model available at the moment for $1720, but you may be better off aiming for a deal in the Newegg Shuffle.

Nvidia RTX 3080 deals at B&H
The B&H website is selling a range of RTX 3080 cards, including the Zotac Gaming RTX 3080 Trinity for $699 , but they are all currently out of stock. You can ask the website to notify you when they are available, however.

Where to buy RTX 3080 in the UK

The Nvidia RTX 3080 is proving to be just as hard to get in the UK as well. Here’s what we’ve found so far:

Nvidia RTX 3080 deals at Nvidia
Think going direct to the source, Nvidia itself, will get you an RTX 3080? While the company sells the founders edition of the RTX 3080 for £649, it’s currently out of stock.

Nvidia RTX 3080 stock at Overclockers
Overclockers UK is a great site for buying components, and it has a range of RTX 3080 GPUs, but they are all out of stock. It is, however, selling pre-built desktop PCs with RTX 3080s, like the Gallium for £2,199.95 .

Nvidia RTX 3080 stock at Ebuyer
Ebuyer has a range of RTX 3080s on offer, and several are currently in stock. The models we see cost over £1,500, but you could just go for a whole computer including the RTX 3080 for £2,000.

Nvidia RTX 3080 stock at Scan
Scan is also supposedly selling RTX 3080 cards, and the website shows several RTX 3080 cards. If you’re quick, you might be able to get the one model that’s actually in stock for £1,139 .

Where to buy RTX 3080 in Australia

Australian stockists are now starting to get RTX 3080 GPUs in stock more readily, meaning we can finally say goodbye to huge mark-ups. Below you’ll find the best RTX 3080 deals we’ve spotted do far, along with a list of the top Aussie retailers to purchase an RTX 3080 from:

Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3080 Eagle OC 10GB — AU$1,299 @ Mwave
Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3080 10GB VISION OC — AU$1399 @ Computer Alliance
Asus ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3080 V2 10GB — AU$1,479 @ Scorptec

Nvidia RTX 3080 stock at PLE Computers
Western Australia-based retailer PLE Computers now has plenty of RTX 3080 GPUs in stock, with models from EVGA, Zotac, Asus, MSI and more now ready for purchase.

Nvidia RTX 3080 stock at Mwave
One of the top retailers in Australia for securing RTX 3080 stock is Mwave, which has models from Asus, Gigabyte, MSI and more on offer right now.

Nvidia RTX 3080 stock at Scorptec
RTX 3080 GPUs are back in stock at Scorptec, with cards from the likes of Zotac, Galax, Asus, MSI and Gigabyte now readily available at acceptable price points.

Nvidia RTX 3080 stock at Computer Alliance
Queensland-based retailer Computer Alliance now has RTX 3080 graphics cards in stock, from brands such as MSI, Asus, Gigabyte and more.

Where to buy RTX 3080 gaming PCs

If you’re desperate for an Nvidia RTX 3080 and are prepared to spend some cash, then you can buy pre-made gaming desktops that come with the GPU installed. If you were going to do a big overhaul of your gaming rig anyway, this may not be a bad way to make sure you get an RTX 3080.

Nvidia RTX 3080 gaming PCs at iBuyPower
iBuyPower has a range of gaming PCs with RTX 3080 GPUs in stock now, with a range of configurations and prices that start at $1,999 with an Intel Core i7-10700KF CPU, 16GB of RAM and an RTX 3080, of course.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 gaming PCs at Novatech
In the UK, Novatech is now selling gaming PCs with the RTX 3080 installed. You can find a handful of options to choose from.

Can’t get an RTX 3080? Here’s some more great graphics card deals:

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These are the best graphics cards of 2021

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Stephen primarily covers phones and entertainment for TechRadar’s Australian team, and has written professionally across the categories of tech, film, television and gaming in both print and online for over a decade. He’s obsessed with smartphones, televisions, consoles and gaming PCs, and has a deep-seated desire to consume all forms of media at the highest quality possible.

He’s also likely to talk a person’s ear off at the mere mention of Android, cats, retro sneaker releases, travelling and physical media, such as vinyl and boutique Blu-ray releases. Right now, he’s most excited about QD-OLED technology, The Batman and Hellblade 2: Senua’s Saga.

The Best Graphics Cards for 1080p Gaming in 2022

Editor’s Note: Before you dive into this guide, as you’ll see from the Amazon prices above, the availability and pricing situation for GPUs is anything but «normal» right now. If you plan to buy a card soon, also see this buying-strategies guide for advice on finding cards at a fair price. If you want to wait it out a bit longer, check out this how-to tutorial on getting the most performance from the GPU you already own.

The Best Graphics Card Deals This Week*

*Deals are selected by our commerce team

MSI Geforce RTX 3090 24GB Graphics Card
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— $979.99

(List Price $2,009.99)
MSI Geforce RTX 3090 Ti 24GB Graphics Card
(Opens in a new window)
— $1,269.60

(List Price $1,400)
EVGA GeForce RTX 3090 FTW3 Ultra Graphics Card
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— $1,126.99

(List Price $1,919.99)
Zotac Gaming RTX 3060 Twin Edge OC 12GB Graphics Card
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— $420.57

(List Price $549.99)
Zotac Gaming RTX 3080 Ti Trinity OC Graphic Card
(Opens in a new window)
— $869. 99

(List Price $1,149.99)

More About Our Picks

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti

4.5 Outstanding

Best Overall Graphics Card for High-Detail, High-Refresh 1080p Gaming

Bottom Line:

If you want the best marriage of price, performance, and features for 1080p and 1440p gaming, Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is matched only by its own step-up RTX 3070 sibling. The $399 MSRP Founders Edition card we tested delivers great value…if you can find one.

Pros

Beats the RTX 2080 Super in most benchmarks
Great price-to-performance ratio
Stable launch drivers
Runs cool
Short PCB, redesigned cooling system make for a compact card

Cons

RTX 3070 gives an extra margin for 4K today and tomorrow

Read Our Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Review

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050

4.0 Excellent

Best Graphics Card for 1080p Play at Top Quality Levels

Bottom Line:

The GeForce RTX 3050 is a strong junior entry into Nvidia’s peerless lineup of «Ampere»-powered RTX 30 Series GPUs, and it’s a corker for 1080p play at a near-budget price. (We tested an EVGA version of the card.)

Pros

Compact, twin-fan design
Full array of video ports in our test sample
Good price-to-performance ratio for its segment
Strong results in ray-tracing benchmarks
High overclock ceiling

Cons

Not as far ahead of AMD’s Radeon RX 6500 XT in some tests as we would have hoped
Relatively high power consumption for its class

Read Our Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Review

AMD Radeon RX 6600

3.5 Good

Best Graphics Card for 1080p Play at Top Quality (AMD Alternative)

Bottom Line:

AMD’s midrange Radeon RX 6600 GPU is an able-enough 1080p-gaming card, but performance with older games add shine to Nvidia’s competing RTX 3050 and 3060 class. (We tested an XFX Speedster SWFT 210 model.)

Pros

Competitive with GeForce RTX 3060 in frame rates and list price
Lower power requirements

Cons

Better with newer games than old
No significant overclocking headroom
Ran hot during our stress testing

Read Our AMD Radeon RX 6600 Review

Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660

4. 0 Excellent

Best Graphics Card for 1080p Play at Medium Quality Settings

Bottom Line:

Nvidia’s mainstream GeForce GTX 1660 aims for gamers who need solid 60fps-plus performance with AAA games at 1080p, and even higher frame rates for esports titles. (Gigabyte’s OC version we tested hits those marks well.)

Pros

Super-solid for 1080p gaming, and robust for some titles at 1440p.
Fine price-to-performance equation versus competing AMD Radeon midrange cards.
Low noise output.

Cons

Ran a little hot in stress tests.
Overclocking the card further was rocky.

Read Our Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Review

AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT

4.0 Excellent

Best Graphics Card for 1080p Play at Medium Quality (AMD Alternative)

Bottom Line:

The AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT is a powerful if bulky graphics card that gives low-end Nvidia GeForce RTX cards a run for their money. (We tested a Sapphire Pulse version.)

Pros

Fast in its price class.
Runs cool.
Good for high-end 1080p gaming or midrange 1440p.
Radeon Boost works as advertised.

Cons

Card is long and bulky.
Almost no overclocking potential with Performance BIOS.

Read Our AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT Review

Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Super

4.0 Excellent

Best Graphics Card for 1080p Gaming at Low Settings

Bottom Line:

The punchy GeForce GTX 1650 Super, markedly better than the non-«Super» GTX 1650, is a solid version of this mainstream GPU. It gives budget-focused 1080p gamers a better option against competing AMD cards in the same price bracket. (We tested a Zotac card.)

Pros

Much faster than original non-Super GeForce GTX 1650 in 1080p and 1440p gaming.
Runs quiet.
Priced competitively.
Impressively small in our Zotac test sample.

Cons

Underperforms on some games.
Runs hotter than the non-Super GTX 1650.

Read Our Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Super Review

Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti

4.0 Excellent

Best Graphics Card for High-Refresh-Rate Esports at 1080p

Bottom Line:

The GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Gaming X 6G is a great moderate-cost GPU option for gamers in search of high refresh rates in 1080p, especially in lower-impact esports games…and with no price-pumping frills like ray-tracing. (We tested an MSI Gaming X version.)

Pros

Great price-to-performance ratio for 1080p gaming.
Beats previous-generation GTX cards on both sides of its price.
Exceptional cooling.
Solid overclocking potential.

Cons

Not great for 4K gaming.
MSI’s upclocked card closer in pricing to RTX 2060 Founders Edition than most GTX 1660 Ti cards.

Read Our Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Review

Zotac GeForce GTX 1660 Super Twin Fan

4. 0 Excellent

Best Compact Graphics Card for High-Refresh-Rate 1080p Gaming

Bottom Line:

The GeForce GTX 1660 Super is a solid-playing, popularly priced waypoint between the GTX 1660 and GTX 1660 Ti with several versions for small PCs. We tested this short-barrel Zotac.

Pros

Solid price-to-performance ratio for 1080p gaming.
Surprisingly good overclocking ceiling.

Cons

Some driver wrinkles in a few test games show scant improvement over GTX 1660.

Read Our Zotac GeForce GTX 1660 Super Twin Fan Review

Zotac GeForce GTX 1650 OC

3.0 Average

A Solid Compact Card Alternative for Basic 1080p Play

Bottom Line:

Zotac’s GeForce GTX 1650 OC offers budget-constrained gamers and compact-PC builders a new low-power alternative in a single-fan, snub-nose design.

Pros

Runs cool, even under stress tests.
Compact size.
No power connection required from PSU.

Cons

Benchmark results below expectations for $149 price.
Overclocking beyond the out-of-the-box settings returned no real gains.
Pricier than cards that beat it in many games.

Read Our Zotac GeForce GTX 1650 OC Review

If you frequent gaming and hardware sites, you’ll see lots of buzz around «4K gaming» on high-end monitors, as well as the rise of more-affordable 1440p (2,560-by-1,440-pixel) displays. Spend long enough in those parts, and you might assume that high-res gaming and expensive, monster video cards rule the PC-gaming world.

Not so! Yes, they are important, and yes, they are the eventual future—when they get cheaper, much cheaper. For the foreseeable future, though, playing at 1,920 by 1,080 pixels (a.k.a. 1080p, or «full HD») will remain the sweet spot for most PC gamers.

Today, 1080p monitors are affordable—you can find plenty of ’em down around $100—and even a midrange video card can run the latest games on one of these displays with a silky-smooth frame rate. In fact, according to the latest Steam Hardware Survey(Opens in a new window) results, 1080p remains by far the most common native display resolution for PC gamers on the service, outranking all other resolutions combined.

The truth is, though most gamers would love to play at the highest resolution possible, buying both a high-res 4K (3,840-by-2,160-pixel) or 1440p display and a video card that can ace gaming at that higher resolution will cost you plenty. (One depends on the other.) Most of us just want our games to look good and run smoothly, and that’s much less expensive to achieve at the mainstream resolution of 1,920 by 1,080.

(Photo: Zlata Ivleva)

This resolution has been the de facto standard for gaming for some time now, and it will stay that way until cheap 1440p monitors become much more common, or 4K-capable graphics cards become reasonably affordable. (At this writing, gaming at 4K resolution with leading PC titles was impossible to achieve with a card costing much less than $400, unless you were willing to dial back on the detail settings. ) So purchasing a video card that can run games at a smooth clip at 1080p is a solid investment, one that should keep you happy for at least a few years, if not longer.

1080p Gaming Cards: A Competitive Field

Just one problem: Since 1080p is such a popular resolution, a boatload of video cards are competing for the top spot in the category. The field of 1080p graphics cards is more granular as 2022 kicks off than it’s ever been, with nearly a dozen different card classes (defined by their different core graphics processors) to choose from. But that’s where we come in. We’ll walk you through the features you need to pay attention to when shopping for a 1080p-ideal video card, and outline the best cards we’ve tested for gaming at this resolution, given your budget.

The good news? Nvidia’s introduction of its «Turing»-generation video cards back in 2018 and 2019, alongside AMD’s «Navi» line of cards, has meant better 1080p power than ever for under $300 MSRP. Nvidia also, in mid-to-late 2018, introduced its first cards in its new GeForce RTX line, including the GeForce RTX 2080 and GeForce RTX 2070, as well as an expensive, elite-class GeForce RTX 2080 Ti. (Most of these were augmented by and, in some cases, replaced by newer, mid-2019 «RTX Super» editions, as well as the newest RTX 30 Series cards like the RTX 3070, RTX 3080, and RTX 3080 Ti) While these high-end cards will run any game very nicely at 1080p, they are mighty, mighty overkill for this resolution, starting at—in theory, anyway—$499 for cards based on the RTX 3070 and around $700 for the RTX 3080 cards. (Those are MSRPs or list prices, and seldom the going rate at the moment; due to silicon shortages and the activities of scalpers, it’s pricing pandemonium out there right now.) But even with higher prices than normal here in 2022, you don’t need to spend anything like that for 1080p play…in most cases.

Buying Basics: What to Look for in a 1080p Card

Most cards that are «good enough» for 1080p gaming ring up at between $100 and $300 (again: MSRP, not current street prices) at this writing. Pricier cards will certainly do the job, too. But the further you get above $300 MSRP, the more into overkill territory you’ve gone for most games. Here are the key factors in play.

How Much Video Memory Is Enough?

The amount of graphics memory (or video RAM) that your video card has onboard directly affects the resolution at which you can game smoothly, as well as the detail settings that are possible. The overall power of the graphics processing unit (commonly called the «GPU») on the card dictates how well you can run a specific game at certain settings, too. But think of the video memory as a freeway that opens up lanes for the GPU to work its magic without getting congested.

(Photo: Zlata Ivleva)

Without enough video memory, the GPU will be constrained, unable to perform at its maximum potential. The reason: The video card actually crunches all the pixels that go onto the screen while they are in memory. So, the more data that’s needed, either for a certain resolution or to display more detail in a game, the more memory is required to handle it efficaciously. That’s why high-end video cards tend to have more on-card memory; more of it is needed to manage all the pixels that render games at higher resolutions and at higher detail settings.

Generally speaking, for 1080p gaming, 2GB of video memory is the absolute bare minimum, while 4GB is the minimum to get for high-detail 1080p play in 2022.

(Photo: Zlata Ivleva)

In cards under $300 (MSRP) nowadays, you’ll see graphics memory ranging from 1GB up to 8GB. A few of the key cards for 1080p gaming come in 3GB/6GB and 4GB/8GB variants. Don’t spend the money on any more RAM or GPU power than you need. For most 1080p play, opting for a 6GB or 8GB card should future-proof you, especially if you intend to upgrade your gaming monitor to a 1440p or 4K screen in the near future. But if that’s the case, you’ll want a card that’s equipped with a more powerful GPU, too.

Which Ports Does My Graphics Card Need?

All the standard outputs on today’s graphics cards (VGA, DVI, HDMI, and DisplayPort) support 1080p resolution, though VGA and DVI ports have practically disappeared from late-model cards worth mentioning. In most cases, you’ll just need to pick a card that has a port matching what’s on your monitor. It’s not until you get into resolutions higher than 1080p that it’s possible to start exceeding the capabilities of some interfaces, such as VGA and older versions of HDMI.

If you’re sticking to 1080p, you shouldn’t have much cause for concern or confusion, since all cards and most monitors these days have multiple ports. Chances are, you’ll be able to just plug in and go; at worst, if you’re upgrading from an old system or card, you may need a new cable or an adapter. So keep these things in mind while you’re shopping.

Both DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI 2.0 can support 1080p resolution up to a 240Hz refresh rate, so if playing games at a high refresh rate is your main concern (more on that in a moment), make sure you pick up a card and a cable that are appropriate for this aim. However neither HDMI 2.0 nor HDMI 2.1 can support 360Hz (only DisplayPort 1.4b and above can handle that job), so make sure if you buy an elite, cutting-edge monitor like the Asus ROG Swift 360Hz PG259QN that you have the right GPU and cable for the job.

(Photo: Zlata Ivleva)

Also realize, if you’re making the move for the first time away from DVI or VGA, that the HDMI and DisplayPort interfaces can carry an audio signal; if your display has built-in speakers (or is an HDTV), that can eliminate some cabling complexity.

How Much Should My Graphics Card Cost (at MSRP)?

Note: We are talking list prices (MSRP) here; see our provisos earlier around the out-of-control video card street prices that have prevailed into 2022.

This is a moving target, but it’s safe to say you can expect to drop between $100 and $300 on a 1080p-appropriate video card here in 2022, depending on whether you want to run games at the very highest settings, or closer to medium ones. If you’re interested in enabling anti-aliasing (AA), which smooths jagged lines from the edges of in-game objects, you’ll need to spend toward the higher end of the range, especially if you want to crank up the AA settings as high as possible. (AA tends to be demanding.)

If you’re content with just average detail settings and frame rates, by all means adhere to a strict budget. But if you want maximum detail and AA at 1080p, you’ll probably need to venture into the $200-to-$300 zone. The pricing on mainstream, 1080p-capable mainstream graphics cards hasn’t gone quite as bananas as it has for the higher-end Nvidia GeForce RTX and AMD Radeon RX 6000 series cards, but you’ll still see a premium over list price, in many cases.

Should I Get an AMD or an Nvidia Graphics Card?

Both AMD and Nvidia have strong offerings, as 2022 kicks into gear, between $100 and $400 MSRP, though we give Nvidia an edge for hitting more price points within the range with solid offerings. But so long as you’re sticking to both companies’ latest-gen cards, it’s hard to pick a bad one for 1080p in that price span.

On the supporting-software front, we also give Nvidia the win, but it’s a near-run thing nowadays. Nvidia’s GeForce Experience software is slick, lets you record in-game video easily with its Shadowplay feature, and updates your drivers for you (only prompting you when they’re ready to install). Nvidia’s software also helps you join co-op games quickly and easily. AMD’s Radeon Software boasts similar capabilities, and the company’s driver software is a clear improvement over the Catalyst app from days of yore. There’s no longer as much daylight between Team Green (Nvidia) and Team Red (AMD) on this score as in previous years.

Also worth considering: the competing image-smoothing technologies, FreeSync (AMD) and G-Sync (Nvidia). If you have a new monitor that supports one or the other, that would be a vital reason to choose one chip company over the another. That said, you can currently find a subset of monitors(Opens in a new window) that are branded as FreeSync, but which Nvidia also supports under its G-Sync image-smoothing tech; these displays are dubbed «G-Sync Compatible.»

Then there’s sharpening tech. This addition to gamers’ arsenals is the perfect way to pinch every bit of performance you can out of a card. What they do, in a nutshell, is downscale the resolution of a game (thereby increasing performance by up to 30% on the same card), without sacrificing visual fidelity in the process. Currently, the two competing technologies from Nvidia and AMD are called Nvidia Image Scaling and Radeon Super Resolution.

Finally, there’s DLSS. As an Nvidia-only feature, the frame-rate gains (averaging anywhere between 5% and 40% in some cases) might seem enticing to anyone trying to get the most out of their card in 1080p gaming. However, DLSS is often optimized and tuned on the engine side for 1440p or 4K resolutions, since those stand the most to gain from the technology. Games rendered in 1080p do see a boost, no doubt about that, but the gains are often far less noticeable in 1080p and often don’t do enough to justify the gap in price between a «GTX»-branded card and an «RTX»-branded card. (The RTXs are the only models that feature the necessary Tensor cores to make all the magic happen.) If you’re a 1080p gamer, we’d recommend going with a high-end GTX model rather than paying extra for a lower-end RTX model in the hopes that Nvidia adds DLSS support for the games you like to play somewhere down the line.

Should I Get an Overclocked Card, or a Reference Card?

In the world of video cards, the manufacturer of a graphics chip (AMD or Nvidia) designs a GPU, as well as (usually) an adequate cooling mechanism for the card. This is known as a «reference design,» the baseline model of the card with nothing too fancy added, running at safe speeds. Once the chip maker designs this basic package, it hands off the design to its partners (say, MSI, EVGA, Asus, Gigabyte, or Sapphire) to use as a «reference» or «stock» design for their own retail cards.

(Photo: Zlata Ivleva)

Often, these companies will offer cards based on this basic design, but also crank out more-expensive, higher-performance versions that are overclocked. The reference design usually will have AMD or Nvidia branding somewhere on the card, and look reserved compared with the more-aggressive designs with bigger fans, exotic shrouds, and the manufacturer’s own branding more prominent than Nvidia’s or AMD’s. With these latter cards, the larger, more complex cooling hardware on the board might allow them to run cooler, too, granting more headroom for overclocking, which can result in a small boost in performance. (Some of these cards are overclocked right out of the box.)

As impressive as these tricked-out cards can be, they can be louder than stock versions, and priced higher. Unless you really like the particular aesthetics of a given model (to show off, say, in a windowed PC case), or you know from a review that one is particularly impressive, we’d suggest doing some shopping research. Most of the time, your money is better spent stepping up to a card with a higher-end GPU, even if it’s a stock design, rather than a similarly priced, snazzier-looking overclocked card based around a lower-end (or previous-generation) graphics chip.

What Is My Monitor’s Refresh Rate, and Why Does It Matter?

Note that all of our 1080p-card advice is based on the assumption that you’ll be using a standard monitor with a refresh rate of 60Hz. If you mean to use (or soon upgrade to) a display panel with a higher refresh rate, such as one of the deluxe 120Hz, 144Hz, 240Hz, or even 360Hz panels now on the monitor market, you’ll likely need a higher-end card than these to get the full benefit of those displays. (See our picks for the best gaming monitors.) Frame rates higher than 60 frames per second (fps) will show up readily on these panels, and you’ll want to look at gaming test results for an idea of the sustained frame rates you will likely get with any given card.

(Photo: Chris Stobing)

Though you can find 4K monitors that can technically push upward of a 144Hz refresh rate at 4K resolution, those displays are analogous to a Ferrari versus your standard gamer’s Subaru. For the vast majority of players, high-refresh-rate gaming lives in the world of 1080p. Whether it’s 144Hz, 165Hz, or 240Hz, the 1080p displays in these categories are priced roughly in the range of $150 to $700, and depending on the game you’re playing, need a greater or lesser GPU that can match their output. In essence, a high-refresh monitor can actually display all the frames per second a card can put out, up to the monitor’s refresh-rate limit, which is a boon for smoothness in many cases and a big step up from the 60Hz limit of most conventional monitors.

Mega-popular online games such as Counter Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends, and DOTA 2 benefit greatly from a 240Hz, 300Hz, or 360Hz refresh rate, and these games are also optimized to the point where you could likely approach that frame rate with an under-$300 (MSRP) video card at 1080p. Similarly, GPUs in the $150-to-$300 MSRP range can push games like Apex Legends, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Rocket League, and Rainbow Six: Siege into the 144Hz 1080p realm without a problem. (See our guide to the best video cards for Apex Legends.)

The point is that if you’re planning on gaming at 1080p competitively, make sure you’ve got a card rated for the game(s) you intend to play at that refresh rate, because the last thing you’d want to end up with is a pricey monitor that doesn’t have a powerful enough GPU to back it up properly. That’s where looking carefully at 1080p test results for a given video card or class of cards makes all the difference.

So, Which Graphics Card to Buy for 1080p Play?

See our deep-dive reviews below of individual cards for a good idea of the kind of frame rates you can expect in games that you might play. We test with demanding new titles and some staple older offerings. Also, for a look at our picks for the best overall video cards, see our roundup of the best graphics cards; for play at 4K (3,840 by 2,160 pixels), check out the best graphics cards for 4K gaming; and if you have a small-form-factor desktop, check out the best graphics cards for compact PCs. (Interested in a fully built gaming system? Also check out our picks for the best gaming laptops and the best gaming desktops, as well as our authoritative guide to the best PC games.)

Best graphics cards 2022: finding the best GPU for gaming

For PC gamers, there isn’t a more important component than your graphics card, but it can be tough to find the best graphics card for you. GPU reviews don’t always tell the full story and tracking down the graphics card that offers the best value between cost and performance isn’t as simple as shopping online.

We dug through our graphics card reviews to bring you a definitive ranking of the best GPUs for gaming. The competitiveness between AMD and Nvidia is hotter than it has been in years, and we have several options from both brands regardless of if you’re looking for a great value GPU or a 4K gaming behemoth.

If you’re new to building PCs, make sure to read our answers to common GPU questions. We also have a full guide on how to install a graphics card so you can upgrade your PC.

Contents

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti
AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti
AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Ti
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 mobile
Frequently Asked Questions

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080

The best GPU for gaming

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Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti

The best midrange graphics card

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AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT

The best GPU for 4K gaming

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