Although many users still use lower resolutions, we can say that playing in 1080p has become the new standard or, to put it in other way, the main goal of most of the PC gaming community.
One of the main reasons lies in the good quality-value relation that implies mounting a computer that allows you to enjoy these resolutions with acceptable performance, in addition to the large drop in prices that high quality monitors have experienced, coming in large sizes and Full HD resolutions.
In this regard, one of the key elements that will determine whether you can really properly enjoy a good gaming experience with this graphics card resolution, a component that currently has great offers from AMD and NVIDIA, and recently It has undergone a major renovation with the arrival of new solutions.
Therefore we have made this guide, which will help you choose the best graphics cards in the market to play in 1080p, seeking always the best value for your money and covering different budgets, because, fortunately, the 1080p resolution is no longer exclusive of high end graphics.
The Best choices for tight budgets
The arrival of the GTX 950 has had a positive impact within NVIDIA’s medium range, as they have allowed a drop in prices that has affected the GTX 750 Ti till making them very palatable.
These graphics cards, the GTX 750 Ti, are ideal for anyone who wants to upgrade an old computer or mount a new low cost one, but at the same time aspiring to play in 1080p with high qualities, even the maximum quality in some models, and the reasons are the following:
- High efficiency, as they consume little and generate very little heat, which means that they work without problems with small power supplies.
- They get along well with modest processors; it is difficult for them to suffer a bottleneck.
- We can find them in very compact sizes.
- Currently they have the best quality-price value in its range market.
- They have a performance of 14% more on average in 1080p than the R7 260X, their direct rival, and consume almost 50% less at full load.
What can we expect from it in games? Here we leave you an example:
- Crysis 3 1080p highest quality with 4x AA: 23 FPS.
- Battlefield 4 1080p highest quality with 4x AA: 29 FPS.
- GTA V 1080p high quality and MSAA off: 27 FPS.
- The Witcher 3 medium quality 1080p, postprocessing high: 33 FPS.
Intermediate option
For a little more money we have the R9 270 as the best option, a solution that has kept since its first appearance under the name of Radeon HD 7870, as it is definitely one of the best price-performance graphics cards in history.
They still continue offering an excellent level of performance and they have a very good price, so if you can spend a little more and you have a power source that meets the minimum required (500W), then this is undoubtedly the best option, since there is nothing today that offers the same value for the money.
These are its main key features:
- A design more efficient than the Radeon HD 7870.
- A very balanced architecture in which the 256-bit bus is highlighted.
- Acceptable consumption and temperatures.
- In some games its performance is close to that of the much more expensive models.
- They render on average 25% more in 1080p than the GTX 750 Ti.
Here we show you some actual performance results:
- Crysis 3 1080p highest quality with 4x AA: 26 FPS.
- Battlefield 4 1080p highest quality with 4x AA: 41 FPS.
- GTA V 1080p high quality and MSAA off: 27 FPS.
- The Witcher 3 medium quality 1080p, postprocessing high: 42 FPS.
The best option for a 200 dollars budget
You have seen already that you don’t need to make a huge expense to get a powerful graphics card that is capable of running games in 1080 smoothly, though we still have a third alternative for those that have a larger budget.
The choice is complicated because in this price range there are interesting options from NVIDIA and AMD, but what takes the cake is the GTX 960 of the green guys.
These are the important points that lead us to highly suggest it:
- Efficient operation with maximum consumption of 129W compared to 250W consumption peaks of the R9 285.
- Advanced technologies such as color compression, which reduce bandwidth consumption and improve overall performance of the card, though it has a 128-bit bus.
- Excellent price-performance-consumption value.
- Compact designs, it scales pretty well with overclocking.
We ended up with some performance data:
- Crysis 3 1080p highest quality with 4x AA: 29 FPS.
- Battlefield 4 1080p highest quality with 4x AA: 52 FPS.
- GTA V 1080p high quality and MSAA off: 43 FPS.
- The Witcher 3 medium quality 1080p, postprocessing high: 55 FPS.
Some Endnotes
As you see, the difference in price between these three graphics cards is fully justified, as there is a considerable difference in performance between them, so the choice of either depends heavily on your budget and certain aspects of your computer, for example the capacity of your power supply.
Personally I think it’s worth spending a little more on the GeForce GTX 960 and I would choose it directly, not only because of the difference in performance, but also because it has confirmed DirectX 12.1 support.