TOP 10 Gaming Graphics Card

2014 Best Graphics Card Comparisons and Reviews

Displaying 1 to 10 of 15

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Rank	#1	#2	#3	#4	#5	#6	#7	#8	#9	#10
10-9  Excellent 8-6    Good 5-4    Average 3-2    Poor 1-0    Bad	AMD Radeon R9 290X	Nvidia GeForce GTX 780	Nvidia GeForce GTX 770	AMD Radeon R9 280X	AMD Radeon HD 7970	Nvidia GeForce GTX 680	Nvidia GeForce GTX 760	Nvidia GeForce GTX 670	AMD Radeon R9 270X	AMD Radeon HD 7870
Reviewer Comments
Lowest Price	$549.99	$520.00	$396.16	$357.14	$549.99	$699.99	$239.99	$425.00	$194.67	$219.99
Ratings	9.38	9.15	8.85	8.65	8.25	7.98	7.95	7.75	7.57	7.53
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Overall Rating Performance GPU Noise and Power Rendering Technologies Supported API
Performance
Real World Average FPS	98.6	88.8	76	73	70.4	72.5	60.9	63.6	56	54.2
Battlefield 4 (FPS)	85.6	71.9	66.6	64.2	61.4	62.6	48.6	49.9	47.7	47.2
Metro: Last Light (FPS)	75.33	64.7	55	53.7	51.7	53.8	44	48	40.7	39.8
Bioshock Infinite (FPS)	93.7	97.3	86.8	73.4	69.5	83.5	70.9	74.4	54.2	52.8
Far Cry 3 (FPS)	86.5	85.5	78.8	70.2	68.2	74.3	64.4	66.8	56.6	54.2
Dirt3 (FPS)	168.4	139.9	114.1	121.7	118.4	107.4	95	97.5	96.5	92.8
Thief (FPS)	69.4	61.1	51.2	52.2	50.1	47.8	40.6	41.9	40.3	39.2
Tomb Raider (FPS)	135.6	117	98.8	96.6	95.5	94.6	78	83	73.4	71.1
Unigine Heaven (FPS)	73.9	72.9	56.9	52.3	48.4	53.2	45.4	47.5	38.5	36.7
3DMark FireStrike (FPS)	10851	9657	7868	8020	7683	6971	7215	5841	5841	5773
GPU
GPU	Hawaii XT	GK110	GK104	Tahiti XT2	Tahiti XT	GK104	GK104	GK104-325	Curacao XT	Tahiti LE
CUDA Cores or Stream Processors	2816	2304	1536	2048	2048	1536	1152	1344	1280	1280
Core Clock (MHz)	1000	863	1046	1000	925	1006	980	915	1000	925
Memory Clock (MHz)	1250	1502	1752	1500	1375	1502	1502	1502	1400	1500
Memory Bus (bit)	512	384	256	384	384	256	256	256	256	256
Memory Bandwidth (GB/s)	320	288.4	223.3	288	264	192.2	192.2	192.2	179.2	192
Memory Capacity (GB)	4	3	2	3	3	2	2	2	2	2
SLI or Crossfire (Cards Supported)	4	3	3	4	4	4	3	3	2	4
Auxiliary Power Connector	6-Pin/8-Pin	8-Pin/6-Pin	8-Pin/6-Pin	6-Pin/8-Pin	6-Pin/8-Pin	6-Pin/6-Pin	8-Pin/6-Pin	6-Pin/6-Pin	6-Pin/6-Pin	6-Pin/8-Pin
Noise and Power
Noise Idle (dB(A))	34.2	31.2	30.9	31.2	31.5	33.3	31.8	33.2	31.8	31.8
Noise Maximum (dB(A))	59.2	41.6	41.3	48.4	48.8	43.2	39.8	39.4	43.9	43.5
Power Consumption Idle (W)	16	10	10	12	11	14	10	14	10	10
Power Consumption Gaming (W)	242	205	175	212	200	172	150	160	109	115
Power Consumption Maximum (W)	305	247	212	244	256	208	157	164	151	153
Rendering Technologies
Max Single Display Resolution	2560 x 1600	2048 x 1536	2048 x 1536	2560 x 1600	2560 x 1600	2048 x 1536	2048 x 1536	2048 x 1536	2560 x 1600	2560 x 1600
Max Multi Display Resolution	7680 x 3200	4096 x 2160	4096 x 2160	7680 x 3200	7680 x 3200	4096 x 2160	4096 x 2160	4096 x 2160	7680 x 3200	7680 x 3200
Max Display Quantity	6	4	4	6	6	4	4	4	6	6
3D Capable
4K Capable
PhysX Capable
Supported API
DirectX v11
Mantle
OpenGL (v4 or higher)
OpenCL (v1 or higher)

 

Graphics Cards Review

 By Kyle Rollins
 July 9th, 2014

 

Whether you're a gamer, a video editor or a graphic designer, you need a computer with powerful graphics capabilities. Unless you upgraded when you bought your computer, its graphics chipset is likely integrated with the CPU or even motherboard. Often called onboard video, such a solution shares system memory and processing power with your computer, which can make graphics-intensive applications work painfully slowly. What you need is a discrete graphics card with ample processing power and video memory. Such cards fit into a slot on your motherboard and connect directly to your monitor.
We've created side-by-side graphics card comparisons and detailed reviews of the best graphics cards, such as the AMD Radeon R9 290X, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 and the Nvidia GeForce GTX 770. You can also read ourarticles on graphics cards and get tips on eking the best video-rendering capabilities out of your computer.

Graphics Cards: What to Look For 

Graphics cards continue to get faster and more powerful, and the options can seem overwhelming. To find the right one, first consider how you'll use it. If you want to play the latest games at ultra-high settings and resolutions higher than 1080p, you'll be happiest with a high-end card. If you just want to edit videos, a midrange card still provides a vast improvement over integrated graphics. This guide will help you choose the right graphics card for your needs.

Performance
Whatever a graphics card looks like or its specifications are, all you really need to know is how it performs. Can it handle your favorite games at the highest settings, and at what resolutions? We created our graphics card comparison by compiling test data across a slew of modern games. We tested all of the games at 1080p with the highest settings and recorded their average frame rates. Higher frame rates are better, as they provide a smoother rendering experience and are a good indication of more power.

GPU
The most important aspect of a graphics card is its graphics processing unit, or GPU. By processing graphics separately, the GPU lightens the load of your computer's CPU, allowing it to function faster. Look for a card with a high core clock speed and memory clock speed. These two factors help determine a card's memory bandwidth, which in turn affects frame rate. Faster frame rates result in smoother scrolling and animation.

Noise and Power
Generally, the more work your graphics card needs to do, the more electricity it consumes and the hotter it runs. Thus, high-end cards usually use more electricity and run hotter, but they provide you with significantly more rendering power. What you want is a balance. Nvidia does a particularly good job of keeping its cards relatively quiet and powerful. AMD graphics cards are notorious for their fans being quite loud.

Rendering Technologies
The two major players in the graphics card world are AMD and Nvidia. Each has developed its own rendering technology for processing graphical data. Nvidia graphics cards use CUDA cores, and AMD uses stream processors. While these technologies are measured differently, their purpose is to accelerate the communication rate between the graphics card's GPU and your computer's CPU. The more CUDA cores or stream processors a card has, the faster it is, and this makes your program or game run smoother and faster. AMD and Nvidia have also made great strides in offering 3D capabilities.

Supported API
The application programming interface (API) – DirectX, Mantle, OpenGL or OpenCL – enables the card to interact with your software. Choose a card that's compatible with the API of the programs you wish to run. For example, if your card supports only DirectX 9 and you buy a game or application that requires DirectX 11, you have to upgrade your card in order to play it.

There's no such thing as a perfect graphics card for all situations, but by determining which key features best suit your needs, you can find one that does exactly what you want it to do. The newest, fastest cards are expensive, but the results can be well worth it.