Consider your priorities—if ray tracing isn’t crucial, focus on performance and value rather than brand names.
Consider your priorities—if ray tracing isn’t crucial, focus on performance and value rather than brand names.
In my view, older GPUs such as the 16-series Nvidia cards remain quite powerful, and even the 10-series models offer solid performance. Some are still reasonably affordable. I’m currently using a Titan X (Maxwell) and this card exceeds my expectations. If you’re not aiming for ray tracing, streaming at 4K with 144Hz or more, or doing heavy gaming simultaneously, it’s worth saving a few dollars and upgrading to a GTX 1660 Super. But ultimately, it depends on your intended use. This is just my perspective—please share your thoughts too.
When choosing a graphics card, keep in mind that DLSS depends on Tensor cores while GTX cards lack them, making DLSS unsupported on GTX. For long-term use beyond 2-3 years, opt for an RTX model to ensure better performance and future compatibility. For instance, in 2023 if you want smooth 1080p gameplay at high quality, DLSS lets you maintain stable frames without sacrificing clarity. With an RTX card, upscaling to 1080p becomes possible without major drops in FPS or visual quality. On the other hand, using a GTX card usually means lowering settings or resolution. You might have heard of FSR, AMD’s alternative to DLSS. It also upscales images but works across both AMD and Nvidia hardware. While AMD claims significant FPS gains with FSR, real-world independent tests are limited, and visual results often fall short compared to DLSS. DLSS uses machine learning and specialized hardware for performance gains without noticeable quality loss. FSR is essentially a spatial upscaling technique, which differs fundamentally from DLSS’s approach. In short, resizing photos in Photoshop with FSR versus using Gigapixel AI (DLSS) both boost performance, but DLSS consistently delivers better visual outcomes regardless of AMD’s FSR implementation.
If you don’t mind skipping ray tracing, a solid GTX will suffice. But if you’re aiming for smooth performance and high frame rates, a 2070 or higher is likely necessary. My setup uses a 2060, but enabling ray tracing drops my FPS to around 30 frames per second at most. It’s quite demanding, so it might be worth exploring further. For now, I’d recommend a 20-series card—it offers flexibility for the future and supports DLSS, which is a big plus. However, you can definitely get by with a GTX series if ray tracing or DLSS isn’t a priority.
RT isn't the main highlight of RTX cards—it's DLSS 2.0. If you're choosing between a GTX 1660 Super for $500 and an RTX 2060 for $600, I'd go with the RTX 2060 for DLSS. It would be a shame to pay an extra $70 for the RTX 2060 instead of the GTX 1660 Super I got two summers ago.
Also depends on how long you imagine using and storing the card. If you think about keeping it around a year or so, GTX is definitely a great budget-friendly option. But if you plan to hold onto it for 3 to 5 years... well, ray tracing isn't as popular right now, though it will definitely become more important soon.
GTX remains a solid choice if you don’t mind RT cards, while RTX still offers strong rasterization if you plan to use it for a while. DLSS provides a significant performance jump and shouldn’t be ignored. If the cost gap between 16th and 20th generation cards isn’t huge, opting for the 20th would be better for DLSS support. I avoid calling it future-proof, but spending a bit more now can extend card longevity in my view.