Choosing a top-end graphics card is akin to buying a sports car – very fast, very expensive, and not particularly practical. But what can you do when you like to drive the fastest? However, the situation with excess power for cards for $ 1000 is now not as clear as before. Playing Full HD is no longer so fashionable, and when switching to 4K, the average FPS melts before our eyes, even with average graphics settings.
It is for such cases that you need video cards of the caliber RX 5700 XT, RTX 2070 SUPER, and RTX 2080, allowing you to forget about any compromises. And we have collected the five Best graphics cards under 1000 for you.
Best graphics cards under 1000
- Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 WINDFORCE OC 8G
- MSI Radeon RX 5700 XT MECH OC
- Asus Radeon RX 5700 XT ROG STRIX OC
- Palit GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER JS
- MSI GeForce RTX 2080 GAMING TRIO
5 Best Graphics Cards Under 1000
Below you will read out pros cons and reviews about best graphics card under 1000 usd.
1. Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 WINDFORCE OC 8G
In the editorial office, we argued for a long time about whether it is appropriate to add an old GTX 1080 to the top of the best of the best. The main arguments against were not so high power as the new cards of the RTX family, and the strange situation with prices. Due to the shortage, it is quite difficult to find the right model, and the difference in price for it can be $ 100, or even $ 200. However, the argument for – well, a very tasty price in the region of $ 450 won. In the end, it is the money factor that always plays a decisive role. Take a look at Best Amd Graphics Card For Gaming 2020.
Gigabyte’s GTX 1080 WINDFORCE delivers virtually the same FPS as the brand new near-rotor RTX 2070. In some games, it bypasses the old man by 5–7%, but it costs $ 100–150 more. Yes, the GTX 1080 does not have support for fashionable graphic chips like hardware ray tracing, but not everyone needs it, and games with high-quality performance of this technology are not enough.
But further more. The Windforce line can be called the middle ground in the Gigabyte assortment, so the manufacturer did not seek to save on anything, but did not spray on the introduction of functions that were of little use. GTX 1080 WINDFORCE offers us factory GPU overclocking, an enhanced power subsystem, a high-quality Ultra Durable VGA element base, a proprietary WINDFORCE 3X cooling system, 16.8 million colors RGB backlighting and a sophisticated Gigabyte Xtreme Engine utility with many different overclocking profiles. True, overclocking here is purely symbolic and jumping above the factory boost even 5% will be a success. And this is our only complaint about this video accelerator.
2. MSI Radeon RX 5700 XT MECH OC
The MSI Radeon RX 5700 XT Gaming X Graphics is the perfect solution for those who want to buy the Radeon RX 5700 XT. It is equipped with a powerful cooling system, a printed circuit board with enhanced power and operates at higher frequencies. Moreover, the initial performance here is close to the level of the overclocked reference version, for which any overclocking turns into hellish noise and heating. The MSI Radeon RX 5700 XT MECH, however, endures acceleration with the composure of a polar explorer – the cooling system is quiet even when operating at the limit, and at low load it is completely silent.
In many games, the Radeon RX 5700 XT Gaming X shows a modest lag behind the Radeon VII or even overtakes the flagship after overclocking. Also, factory acceleration allows MSI Gaming X to look more confident compared to competitors of NVIDIA. In terms of average FPS, it is just in the middle between the RTX 2060 SUPER and 2070 SUPER . Another interesting point is related to the smoothness of the frame change. In the conditional Red Dead Redemption, with a resolution of 2560×1440 and higher, both cards issue approximately the same number of FPS, however, at NVIDIA the frame change is uneven, which sometimes makes the game seem to slow down, although the frame counter per second shows a steady 57 FPS.
Fans of modding may be disappointed with the modest lighting capabilities of this card, although the set of lighting effects is good here. As a plus, it is worth noting the availability of proprietary software (Dragon Center), which makes it easy to change the modes of the card, as well as optimize the settings in games so that you can comfortably play in a particular resolution on a particular video card. Otherwise, this is a great graphics card with a great balance of price and performance.
3. Asus Radeon RX 5700 XT ROG STRIX OC
Asus ROG STRIX video cards are characterized by maximum sophistication and high price tags, and the RX 5700 XT is no exception. This is one of the most expensive and top-end modifications of the new Radeon card, which boasts a branded 3-slot DirectCU III cooler, serious factory overclocking, a redesigned printed circuit board using premium-level elements and a bunch of interesting chips.
Especially for the new cards, the Taiwanese made new Axial-tech coolers with a smaller sleeve and elongated blades that more effectively remove excess heat from the case. Given the fact that the RX 5700 XT turned out to be hot, the redesigned coolers confidently cope with the job, preventing the core from warming above 76 ° C during manual overclocking. At the same time, the blades spin quite loudly, but for some reason selectively. In some games such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, the noise is distinct, in others it is barely audible, although the system monitor shows approximately the same load. In any case, if the noise will interfere, then the cooler can be switched to “Quiet” mode. Around the perimeter, the cooler is surrounded by LED elements with support for Aura Sync backlight synchronization. All this stuff turned out massive and takes up almost 3 slots, which you should definitely pay attention to when buying.
In terms of characteristics, we have a factory overclocking core, which in boost can go up to 2035 MHz, although in most cases it is held at 1965 MHz. You can squeeze out a few additional FPS with the help of manual overclocking, but you won’t be able to jump especially, the card was squeezed like a lemon at the factory. But it’s not a fact that this is necessary, because taking into account the dynamic overclocking of the RX 5700 XT, the ROG STRIX delivers around 40 FPS even in the demanding Metro Exodus at Ultra settings and 4K resolution. In general, the Asus version turned out to be about 13% faster than the reference RX 5700 XT and slightly weaker than the new RTX 2070 SUPER . Although, the price is approximately at the same level with them.
You May Also Like: 5 best graphics card under 200
4. Palit GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER JS
In late summer 2018, NVIDIA presented a new family of GeForce RTX 20xx video cards based on Turing architecture, and six months later it released a line of more affordable GeForce GTX 16xx cards on the same architecture. The novelties turned out to be very successful and in the NVIDIA camp they would rest on their laurels if AMD / Radeon had not announced the new Radeon RX 5700, created on the basis of the advanced 7-nm RDNA microarchitecture. The answer from NVIDIA is the new SUPER line.
These are actually the same RTX 20 cards, but more powerful and in some cases even cheaper. For example, unlike the usual RTX 2070, built on the younger TU106 chip, the SUPER version is based on the older TU104, which was previously used only in the RTX 2080. The transition to the new graphics chip added to the card stream processors, texture filtering units and tensor kernels. At the same time, the volume, type, frequency and video memory bus have not changed – all the same 8 GB GDDR6 with a frequency of 14000 MHz and a 256-bit bus. The frequency of the graphic core has also grown. In the case of the Palit version, the figure is 1815 MHz.
What did all these improvements give? A serious increase in muscle mass, which allowed SUPER cards to almost jump to the next stage of evolution. For example, some RTX 2060 SUPER powerfully overtake the stock versions of the RTX 2070 , and this particular Palit model is only 7 – 8% behind the top RTX 2080. Moreover, this gap can be minimized due to overclocking. In our tests, we managed to raise the dynamic core frequency to 1915 MHz, and the memory to 15304 MHz. The result is an increase of 5% in overall performance (in games this is equivalent to a bonus of 4-14 FPS), increased energy consumption up to 353 W, strong cooler noise and overall performance actually at the RTX 2080 level. And the price is actually $ 200 less. With all that said, the Palit GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER JS can forgive even a rather noisy cooler. In all other respects, this is a well-designed and well-equipped top-level graphics card.
5. MSI GeForce RTX 2080 GAMING TRIO
Advising mid-range cards is not so simple: the choice in the market is extremely rich, prices are jumping, and the situation is changing like in the stock market during a crisis. If you need a top-end graphics card without regard to the price, then the advice will be unambiguous – take the RTX 2080/2080 Ti and play as you like, in anything and on any graphics settings. Even in 4K resolution.
Choosing between a simple 2080 and a model with the Ti index, we would stop at the usual one – the first option in an extremely successful performance from MSI. MSI GeForce RTX 2080 GAMING X TRIO is not without reason ranks first in the sales tops, since at the standard price for this card at $ 900 it offers full functional stuffing (enhanced power subsystem, RGB-backlit with synchronization, improved element base, etc.) , serious factory overclocking (although, it would seem, much more), and a non-standard TORX 3.0 cooling system with fans of various diameters, which with ease ease cools a monstrous, gluttonous and hot chip. This is one of the quietest and coldest RTX 2080 variants that we tested. Read also Best AMD Graphics Card For The Money 2020
Many will reasonably ask why such tricks, if the card is as strong as the Hulk? Here’s the thing: the 4K resolution is now fashionable and kneels even the most powerful video cores. Therefore, even when buying a card for $ 1000, many enthusiasts have to keep in mind how much it will be able to disperse it, how much it will consume energy, and how to cool all this stuff. In the case of the MSI GeForce RTX 2080 GAMING X TRIO, the answers are quite eloquent: in addition to factory overclocking, manually increasing the core frequency to 1855 MHz and memory to 15800 MHz gives an additional 9% power. At the same time, the cooler operates at only 60% of power and practically does not make noise, and the core temperature does not exceed 66 ° С. For a card of a similar level, which was born to be powerful, hot and loud, this is something from the category of science fiction.