Adark and threateningly swelling nanostorm is brewing over the city. But you have no choice – your plane quickly needs firm ground under the wheels. A spectacular emergency landing follows in Jericho City – a city in which armored soldiers enforce martial law to keep robots that have run amok in check. It’s about life and death. And the struggle for survival intensifies when the PC shows up-to-date game cracks like ” The Surge 2 ” only in a slide show instead of with smooth game scenes. At the latest now it is clear: a new graphics card is needed. But which? TechByLight has tested new graphics cards available from 250 to 850 $.

Graphics Card Comparison: Duel AMD Against Nvidia

But what’s new? With the RX 5700 and RX 5700 XT computing units, AMD has launched two completely renewed graphics processors; Nvidia is holding back with revised Turing chips. So far there were only reference cards from both chip manufacturers, now finished graphics cards are finally coming onto the market.

Graphics Card Test: Monster Cards in the PC

If you are planning to purchase a graphics card, you must first take stock and check the following on your PC:

Graphics card test: All models in the test overview

Graphics Card Comparison: Ray Tracing is not a Requirement

But what can the new cards do better than their predecessors? Nvidia provides its RTX models (2060, 2070 and 2080) with special ray tracing units for the accelerated calculation of effects. This includes, for example, the dynamic display of soft shadows and light effects. Shortcoming: There are only a few titles that use ray tracing; currently these are games like ” Battlefield 5 ” or ” Shadow of the Tomb Raider “. But more are coming. However, whether ray tracing will actually prevail and become the standard for all games remains questionable – that will be shown in the next three or four years at the earliest.

Graphics card test: data express without connection

The situation is similar with PCI Express 4.0: Graphics cards with AMD’s RX 5700 and RX 5700 XT graphics chips have a fast PCI Express 4.0 connection. To use the full speed, a mainboard with the X570 chipset from AMD is required (from 170 USD); there is no (yet) suitable chipset for PCs with Intel processors. Another shortcoming: The test did not reveal any speed advantage for the AMD graphics cards with PCI Express 4.0; currently only SSDs with PCI Express 4.0 work faster.

This is not about power consumption or how quiet the fans work, but only about the speed. Result: Regardless of whether gaming in simple Full HD resolution with 1920×1080 pixels or in a 4K megapixel thunderstorm with 3840×2160 pixels, graphics cards with Nvidia’s RTX-2080-Super and RTX-2070-Super-Chip delivered the highest speed values ​​in this comparison test ,

Graphics Card Comparison: Manufacturing Process

AMD is also using a new manufacturing process: Circuits and conductor tracks in the RX 5700 series are only 7 nanometers wide. Nvidia still uses the older 12-nanometer process. Advantage of AMD technology: more circuits can be accommodated in the same area, which are also much closer together in graphics chips with 7-nanometer structures. Side effect: The graphics chip develops more heat. AMD seems to have got a grip on this – at least no excessive temperatures were measurable in the test. Nvidia is still facing the complex changeover to the new manufacturing process – it is only with the contract manufacturers TSMC and Samsung that Nvidia wants the cards of the upcoming “Ampere” series (2100 series; sales to start in 2020) to be produced with 7 nanometers.

Graphics Card Test: Playing in 4K is Cheaper

But are current graphics cards really fast? But yes: Even those who play demanding games like “The Surge 2” do not need a sinfully expensive graphics card, at least not for Full HD with 1920×1080 pixels. All models tested in the test show current games in this resolution reasonably smoothly. Even affordable models like the Asus TUF Geforce GTX 1660 OC Edition, which is only € 250tackle this without gamers having to reduce the level of detail in the game. The test also showed that this card only delivers 28 frames per second when gaming in 4K (3840×2160 pixels). The playback then jerky so much that titles like “Rise of the Tomb Raider” are unplayable in 4K. If you want to play finely drawn games in 4K with full detail reproduction, you have to dig deeper into your pocket. The 400 USD Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 5700 graphics cardFor example, exceeded the limit of 40 frames per second, which guarantees smooth playback of 4K games. But gaming in 4K also requires a corresponding monitor. The good news: decent 28-inch models are available from just 250 USD. Two years ago, a 4K-capable graphics card and a 4K monitor together cost 1,500 USD, today it is not even half as much.

Graphics Card Comparison: A lot of Heat and Noise

Graphics cards generate a lot of heat, especially in 4K playback, which often has to remove up to three fans from the case. Astonishing: In 13 of the 14 models tested, the noise level was nevertheless at an acceptable level; only the MSI Geforce RTX 2060 Super Ventus OC made a bit of a stir. Also good: With five of the 14 tested graphics cards, the fans stand still in office mode and during video playback – a blessing for the player if he wants to tinker with his PowerPoint presentation in peace.

Graphics Card Comparison: Conclusion

As always with graphics cards: if you want a lot of performance, you have to invest a lot. If you don’t have to turn every $ twice, you should go for the 830 $ MSI Geforce RTX 2080 Super Gaming X Trio . No matter whether Full HD or 4K games – the test winner brings all games smoothly to the monitor. If you don’t have a 4K screen and want to spend less, the price-performance winner Asus TUF Geforce GTX 1660 OC Edition is ideal for 250 USD.