The best graphics cards for mining and gaming

In search of the best video card, each of us starts from our personal preferences and selection criteria. For some, it is important to find a decent board that can speed up the mining of cryptocurrency, for others, the speed and performance of the device is important when launching the most modern games at ultra-high settings, while others are looking for a budget option, since they cannot afford an expensive computer upgrade.

Our rating of the best graphics cards in 2020 includes the most worthy representatives of graphics adapters from companies "Nvidia" and "AMD" that meet these selection criteria: in it you will find the best offers that are suitable both for efficient mining of cryptocurrency and for comfortable playing any game projects that have already been released for PC.

The best graphics cards for mining cryptocurrency

1st place. "Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070"

Nvidia's GTX 1070 is not just a great graphics card for gaming, but also a card with an excellent GPU. It provides high speed data transfer without consuming a lot of power. Remember, the more power your GPU requires, the more expensive it will be to run, which will directly impact your bottom line. Like any new product, this GPU is expensive, so you should only buy it if you plan to mine in the long term.

Advantages:

• Balance of power and energy consumption;
• Large amount of memory.

Disadvantages:

• High price.

2nd place. AMD Radeon RX 580

AMD Radeon RX 580 is one of the best GPUs for mining computer "minerals". This video card can be considered a victim of its own success: due to its popularity, its best options in terms of price / quality ratio are very quickly disassembled, so it is sometimes difficult to find it. However, its popularity is justified as it provides excellent processing speed while consuming a moderate amount of power. Besides, it is cheaper, "GeForce GTX 1070", which can also be considered a plus.

Advantages:

• Great price
• High quality cooling system;

Disadvantages:

• Disassembled very quickly, so it can often only be found at inflated prices.

3rd place. AMD Radeon RX 480

If a low cost of a video card and, at the same time, good mining performance are important to you, then AMD RX 480 is an excellent choice. The card is slightly older in terms of release date than AMD Radeon RX 580, so prices are also lower. This is true if you find it on sale at all. Yes, this is another AMD card that is difficult to find due to its cryptocurrency mining ability. It is produced in two versions: with 4 and 8 GB of memory, the first is more economical in price, the second is more profitable due to the increased bandwidth.

Advantages:

• Inexpensive;
• Good performance

Disadvantages:

• Really hard to find.

4th place. AMD Radeon RX Vega 56

AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 is one of the best high value graphics cards for cryptocurrency mining. Tests prove it is faster than the "Nvidia GTX 1070". Unfortunately, it is much more "voracious" in terms of consumption, which cuts to the root of its effectiveness. Another reason why it is not in the top three is its high price: after all, this graphics processor belongs to the best cards in the upper price segment.

Advantages:

• Very good performance;

Disadvantages:

• "Eats" a breakthrough of electricity;
• Heats up quickly and strongly.

The best gaming graphics cards from Nvidia

1st place. "GeForce GTX 1080 Ti" (high-end segment)

It is practically the fastest and most powerful graphics card on the planet. Better only "Titan Xp" from the same company. However, according to the results of objective tests, it is only 5% better in performance, and it costs twice as much. In testing, the "GTX 1080 Ti" was about 30 percent faster than the GTX 1080 and more than twice as fast as the GTX 970.Bottom line: the video card "GeForce GTX 1080 Ti" will allow you to play anything at the highest graphics settings.

Advantages:

• Fastest GPU (excluding Titan Xp)
• Excellent efficiency.

Disadvantages:

• Costs the same as a full budget PC.

2nd place. "GeForce GTX 1060" (midrange segment)

Balanced graphics card priced at $ 200-275 with excellent price / performance ratio. Available in two versions - with three or six gigabytes of memory. At the same time, the younger version with reduced memory is inferior in performance to the six gigabyte version by about 10-15%, and costs $ 50-75 cheaper. For those who don't see much difference between high-quality and ultra-quality textures, the 3 gigabyte option is best.

Advantages:

• One of the best video cards in terms of price / performance / power consumption ratio;
• Works quietly;
• Does not overheat.

Disadvantages:

• Not found.

3rd place. "GeForce GTX 1050" (the best graphics card in the lower price segment)

With the launch of the GTX 1050 Ti and GTX 1050, Nvidia has completed the rollout of the GTX 10 series products in the lower-end series of graphics cards. All cards use the new Pascal architecture, differing from each other in the number of cores, the number of VRAM and the clock speed. The performance of video adapters from the “1050 ​​Ti” series is, of course, higher, but the cost is not comparable - you can buy the “GeForce GTX 1050” at a price that slightly exceeds the $ 100 mark.

Advantages:

• Adequate price;
• Ideal for gaming at high to medium graphics settings;
• Does not heat up;
• Practically silent.

Disadvantages:

• Some games have software and hardware bugs;
• 2 GB of onboard memory is still not enough: you cannot buy such a card for growth.

The best gaming graphics cards from AMD

1st place. AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 (high-end segment)

After many months of waiting, AMD has finally released its Radeon RX Vega series of graphics cards to the general public. They are distinguished by excellent performance, give a high-quality frame rate when using 4K resolution, in general, "AMD Radeon RX Vega 64" is practically no different from its main competitor "GeForce GTX 1080 Ti". The only benefit is support for additional features that developers use to create the latest PC games.

Advantages:

• Overall performance is similar to the "GeForce GTX 1080";
• Excellent 1440p and 4K performance
• A set of software functions for future game projects.

Disadvantages:

• The cooling system is noisy as always
• "GTX 1080" launched 15 months earlier and performance is the same;
• Consumes a lot of electricity.

2nd place. AMD Radeon RX 460 (Best Budget Graphics)

The Radeon RX 560 is not much superior to its predecessors. However, it is a cool, fairly quiet card that maintains normal frame rates at 1920 × 1080 resolution. Direct competitor of the GeForce GTX 1050 model, while being cheaper.

Advantages:

• Decent performance
• Possibility of manual control of heating and power supply to the board;
• Adequate price.

Disadvantages:

• High energy consumption;
• Heats up.

3rd place. AMD Radeon RX 550 (Best Ultra Budget Graphics)

The best option for people who need a temporary "plug" instead of a burnt-out video card. In the west, it can be purchased for as little as $ 90; here it costs a little more, but not much. With its help, it will be possible to play almost all new games with constant changeable frames (30 per second). True, only at low graphics settings.

Advantages:

• Consumes little electricity;
• Heats up slightly;
• Compact in size;
• Best price.

Disadvantages:

• For the lower price segment - not found.

What is the best graphics card to buy?

It only depends on your financial capabilities. If you are not constrained in funds, then you should take the flagship from Nvidia, if money is not enough, then budget cards from AMD. It is worth mentioning additionally another video card - "Nvidia GeForce GTX 10300", which is almost identical in parameters with the "AMD Radeon RX 550". It costs 20 dollars less, but the performance is 20 percent worse.