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Choosing the best GPUs for 1080p gaming is not an easy task. There are loads of options available on the market. 1080p has been the standard since 2013. Hence, several current gen and older cards support the resolution flawlessly.
On the one hand, we have aging flagships like the GTX 1080 Ti. On the other hand, current-gen offerings like the Geforce RTX 3050 and the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT are also worthy of competitors.
Users might find it challenging to choose among the best GPUs for 1080p gaming. The options vary, and each card is targeted at specific use-case scenarios. This article will summarize some of the most popular options to make the process easier.
A proficient GPU is essential for 1080p gaming in 2022
This includes budget and premium options, cards tailored for playing esports titles, and the possibility of playing titles with ray tracing turned to the highest settings, with RT turned entirely off.
1) Budget 1080p gaming card: AMD RX 6500 XT 4 GB ($180)
The days of the GTX 1650 and the GTX 1050 Ti are over. Gamers need something more potent than these aging cards. Enter the Radeon RX 6500 XT. The card had a pretty controversial launch. It is PCIe Gen 4 for no reason. The card only utilizes half of the x16 connector, reducing it to Gen 3 bus width. However, the pricing gives the 6500 XT an advantage.
The RX 6500 XT starts at $180. The XFX Speedster QICK 210 variant is available at this price. Nvidia has no competitors at this price point. Thus, at entry-level, this GPU is among the best GPUs for 1080p gaming.
AMD recently launched an 8 GB variant of this card. The original model comes with 4GB of video memory, which is not enough for gaming in 2022. The new model fixes the otherwise troubled card to some extent.
2) Premium 1080p gaming card: Nvidia Geforce RTX 3070 ($520)
The Geforce RTX 3070 is not a 1080p gaming card. But, the current pricing scenario is only $50 more than the 1080p gaming king, the RTX 3060 Ti. With around 20% more performance than its minor brother, this card is a behemoth among the best GPUs for 1080p gaming.
RTX 3070 is meant for 1440p gaming in the highest settings. However, titles like Cyberpunk 2077, Watch Dogs: Legion, and Assassin's Creed Valhalla exists.
RTX 3060 Ti does struggle with the highest possible settings in these games. With RTX 3070, these problems are non-existent. Players will not have to use any form of DLSS in 1080p with RTX 3070.
3) 1080p gaming card for esports gamers: AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT ($450)
The RX 6700 XT is an exciting card. It is cheaper than the RTX 3060 Ti but manages to outperform it in every video game. However, its underlying architecture, RDNA 2, has some problems. Ray tracing, being AMD's first-gen implementation, sucks on these cards. This makes the RX 6700 XT the best choice for esports gamers.
Esports requires 120+ FPS in competitive titles, which will be displayed on a high refresh rate FHD gaming monitor. The RX 6700 XT easily delivers these numbers. Esports gamers keep ray tracing turned off, so the disadvantage gets shadowed by the sheer computing power this card can use. The RX 6700 XT is easily one of the best GPUs for 1080p gaming.
4) 1080p gaming card for ray tracing: Nvidia Geforce RTX 3060 Ti ($470)
Nvidia has optimized its hardware-accelerated ray-tracing formula with the RTX 30 series. The RTX 3060 Ti is insanely fast, making it one of the best GPUs for 1080p gaming. It manages to outperform the last-gen RTX 2080 Super in several titles. This card can be up to 35% faster than the much more capable GTX 1080 Ti 11 GB.
The RTX 3060 Ti is a decent 1440p gaming card as well. It packs 4,864 third-generation CUDA cores. If the card struggles at the highest settings in any title, you can flick DLSS on and not think about latency problems. The low CUDA core count has hurt DLSS performance on the RTX 3050 Mobile GPU.
5) 1080p gaming card to play without ray tracing: Nvidia Geforce RTX 3060 ($410)
With ray tracing turned off, games get a lot less demanding. This puts RTX 3060 at the forefront of recommendations. The card packs 3,584 CUDA cores, 112 Texture Mapping Units (TMUs), 48 Render Output Units (ROPs), and 12 GB of GDDR6 memory. All of this makes the card overly capable at 1080p. It even pulls off 1440p without a hiccup.
The RTX 3060 is the most popular RTX 30 series card. With over 2.6% market share in last month's Steam Hardware Survey, the desktop variant of this card is currently the 8th most popular GPU out there. With almost 3% market share, the laptop variant of this GPU sits a couple of positions ahead.
The list includes the best GPUs for 1080p gaming. All of the cards mentioned have different target audiences. However, every GPU is capable of FHD resolution. Laymen will not face significant problems with either of these GPUs for 1080p.
Disclaimer: This article reflects the opinions of the writer.
