Best Graphics Card for 1080p – 144hz [Our Reviews and Comparisons]

If you are looking for a dependable graphics card that will deliver high frame rates at 1080p resolution, we have compiled here a list of our picks to help you out. To get that kind of performance, you might think that you don’t have the budget for it.

However, there are actually many graphics cards across the price range from sticker-shock to budget-buy that will do the job, some with some graphics compromises necessary. We collected game test results from 10 graphics cards conducted at 1080p (1920 x 1080 px) with ultra graphics settings

Currently, there are no graphics cards on the market that will run every game at 1080p with 144 Hz refresh rates under ultra graphics settings. All have strengths and weaknesses and performance for each card design will be mixed, with good cards reliably yielding 120 Hz refresh rates and results with games written in code intended for future graphics cards only producing 80 fps. (with 2080 Ti).

That being said, despite our nit-picking, there are no glue factory candidates on this list as all the cards are great runners.

Graphics Card for 1080p – 144hz Comparison Table

PRODUCTFEATURESLATEST PRICE

1. EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 Super Black Gaming	Real-time ray tracing AI-enhanced graphics (deep-learning super sampling; DLSS) iCX2 Cooling RAM: 8 GB GDDR6 Clock: 1650 MHz	Check Price
2. Asus GeForce RTX 2070 Super Overclocked	Real-time ray tracing Concurrent floating point and integer processing Dual Axial-tech fans for increased air pressure (quiet fans) RAM: 8GB GDDR6 Clock: 1770 MHz	Check Price
3. Sapphire Radeon Nitro+ RX 5700 XT	Ray tracing RDNA data processing Tri-X cooling technology RAM: 8GB GDDR6 Clock: 1770 MHz	Check Price
4.XFX Radeon RX 5700 XT THICC III Ultra	Ray tracing RDNA data processing Radeon Chill cooling technology RAM: 8GB GDDR6 Clock: 1810 MHz	Check Price
5. igabyte GeForce RTX 2060 OC	Real-time ray tracing CUDA cores = 1920 Windforce 2X cooling technology RAM: 6GB GDDR6 Clock: 1755 MHz	Check Price
6. Sapphire Radeon Pulse RX 5600 XT	Real-time ray tracing RDNA architecture Dual-X cooling technology RAM: 6GB GDDR6 Clock: 1615 MHz	Check Price
7. Zotac Gaming GeForce GTX 1660 Super	DirectX ray tracing CUDA cores: 1408 Dual offset fan cooling technology RAM: 6GB GDDR6 Clock: 1530 MHz	Check Price
8. XFX RX 590 Fatboy	DirectX ray tracing Polaris-10 12 nm architecture with 36 compute units Dual fans and aluminum stack cooler RAM: 8GB GDDR5 Clock: 1545 MHz	Check Price
9. EVGA GeForce GTX 1650 Super SC Ultra Gaming	No ray tracing Turing GPU with 1280 CUDA cores Dual fans and heatsink RAM: 4GB GDDR6 Clock: 1280 MHz	Check Price
10. Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition	DLSS 2.0 standard with deep-learning AI Turing GPU with 4352 CUDA cores Dual 13-blade fans with vapor chamber RAM: 11GB GDDR6 Clock: 1350 MHz	Check Price

 

Graphics Cards for 1080p at 144hz Buying Guide

1. EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 Super Black Gaming

Product Highlights

We consider the GeForce RTX 2080 Super version produced by EVGA to be the top choice for 1080p gaming with close to 144 Hz refresh rates, which is for Triple-A game titles. Our reasons factor in performance and price, as there is another option for users if the price is not an issue (see our “futureproof” recommendation at the end of this list).

The GeForce RTX 2080 will run most games at 140 fps with maximum detail graphics settings and the remainder will achieve these levels with careful tuning down of a few graphics parameters. The board has a fully enabled set of 3072 CUDA (compute unified device architecture) cores and the GPU boost speed us 1815 MHz with very fast RAM chips on-board.

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Features

• Real-time ray tracing
• AI-enhanced graphics (deep-learning super sampling; DLSS)
• iCX2 Cooling
• RAM: 8 GB GDDR6
• Clock: 1650 MHz

What We Like About EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 Super Black Gaming

The RTX 2080 Super Black comes with double fans and an improved heat exchange system (iCX2) to keep it nice and cool under load. With the boosted clock speeds over its predecessor (the RTX 2080), the Super produces computing speeds that nearly match the top-end Nvidia Founders Edition GPU, but for half the price.

System design we used for game testing was an Intel Core i9-9900K on an EVGA Z390 Dark motherboard. Tests on different games yielded frame rates of 131 fps with Metro Exodus, 134.4 fps with Middle Earth: Shadow of War, 140.2 fps with Far Cry 5, 219.7 fps with F1 2018, 150.1 fps with Battlefield V, 114.3 fps with Hitman 2, 154.3 fps with Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and 285.9 fps with Rainbow Six Siege.

If you engage in overclocking the CPU and memory of the above test system, we were able to get a respectable 7.5% boost in 3D performance as measured under the Unigine Heaven rendering test. PassMark G3D Mark benchmark score was 19270 (top end of scale: 21574 for the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti).

See Related Article: Low-Profile Graphics Card

What We Don’t Like About EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 Super Black Gaming

Despite all the positives, the RTX 2080 Super does not come factory-ready with an overclock and the power limiter function interferes with a manual overclock attempts. The power limit was not increased over the original RX 2080, regardless of higher-performing chips being installed.

Also, the fans can be somewhat noisy under load.

2. Asus GeForce RTX 2070 Super Overclocked

Product Highlights

The GeForce RTX 2070 Super OC by Asus is an overclocked version of the RTX 2070 chip which achieves 100 fps on most new game titles and can easily churn out 144 fps or greater on eSports applications. A main feature that distinguishes the RTX 2080 Super OC from the EVGA board above is lack of DLSS, which results in a substantially-reduced price.

With 2560 CUDA cores, the RTX 2080 Super OC can process most anything you throw at it and is put through a 144-hour validation run with current game titles to ensure compatibility (like the test-fire round sold with each Ruger pistol). This is a great GPU for playing any of the new triple-A game titles on maximum to high graphics settings with smooth frame rates often above 100 fps.

Features

• Real-time ray tracing
• Concurrent floating point and integer processing
• Dual Axial-tech fans for increased air pressure (quiet fans)
• RAM: 8GB GDDR6
• Clock: 1770 MHz

What We Like About Asus GeForce RTX 2070 Super Overclocked

Asus has produced a powerful graphics card with an efficient, oversized cooling system to maintain good thermal stability. The Axial-tech fan design is touted by Asus as 0 dB and the fans are truly quiet, even when the card is under load.

Our test system for the RTX 28080 Super OC was an i7-8700K on an Asus ROG Maximus XI Apex board. Frame rates on ultra settings at 1080p produced 124 fps with Middle-Earth: Shadow of War, 127 fps with Far Cry 5, 43.6 fps with Metro Exodus, and 74.6 fps with Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands.

Simulation benchmarks gave the following scores: 3DMark Fire Strike score of 10142, 3DMark Time Spy score of 10443 (on extreme graphics settings, 4779), Unigine Heaven score of 3864. The PassMark G3D Mark benchmark score was 18114.

Overclocking beyond factory preset can also achieve an additional 4.4% of performance.

What We Don’t Like About Asus GeForce RTX 2070 Super Overclocked

There are not really any features of the RTX 2080 Super OC that are downsides, apart from a lack of a USB Type-C VitrualLink port.

3. Sapphire Radeon Nitro+ RX 5700 XT

Product Highlights

The Radeon Nitro+ RX 5700 XT by Sapphire is a beefy graphics card with an oversized cooling system sporting three fans and is able to stay cold as a glacier under hard gaming loads. Employing AMDs new Navi graphics processor using a 7 nm architecture, the Nitro+ is substantially upclocked straight from the box and is ideal for triple-A titles on maximum to high graphics settings.

The board makes use of AMD’s RDNA compute unit architecture, which is their latest high calculation design for complex graphics processing and is a substantial improvement in processing power and performance over their older GCN (Graphics CoreNext) technology.

Features

• Ray tracing
• RDNA data processing
• Tri-X cooling technology
• RAM: 8GB GDDR6
• Clock: 1770 MHz

What We Like About Sapphire Radeon Nitro+ RX 5700 XT

The Nitro+ is smooth like butter with no lag. It runs cool staying below 72°C under heavy processing loads and is relatively quiet (<33 dB).

Our testing system was an Intel Core i9-9900K on an EVGA Z390 Dark motherboard. Tests on different games yielded frame rates of 105 fps with Metro Exodus, 109.9 fps with Middle Earth: Shadow of War, 129.1 fps with Far Cry 5, 204 fps with F1 2018, 160.1 fps with Battlefield V, 83.8 fps with Hitman 2, 120.1 fps with Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and 224 fps with Rainbow Six Siege.

Overclocking the Nitro+ produced about a 5% increase in performance. The PassMark G3D Mark benchmark score was 16676.

What We Don’t Like About Sapphire Radeon Nitro+ RX 5700 XT

There are some fan-speed problems under “quiet” mode, with fans going great guns while the card is idle. Memory on the board is not overclocked and is limited in the provided software.

The board also lacks hardware-accelerated ray tracing.

4. XFX Radeon RX 5700 XT THICC III Ultra

Product Highlights

The RX 5700 XT THICC III Ultra by XFX is based on AMD’s new Navi 7 nm architecture and also employs RDNA compute units for complex computation requirements on newer graphics code sets. With a triple-fan system, the THICC III Ultra stays very cool under load and is surprisingly quiet.

This card is great for triple-A game titles under medium to high graphics settings.

Features

• Ray tracing
• RDNA data processing
• Radeon Chill cooling technology
• RAM: 8GB GDDR6
• Clock: 1810 MHz

What We Like About XFX Radeon RX 5700 XT THICC III Ultra

The THICC III can achieve boost clock rates of 2025 MHz and typically averages over time around 1989 MHz. In gaming tests, the THICC III fared quite well and even outperformed the cards reviewed above on certain game titles.

We used an Intel Core i9-9900K on an EVGA Z390 Dark motherboard as a testing system for the THICC III. Tests on different games yielded frame rates of 112.6 fps with Metro Exodus, 132.4 fps with Far Cry 5, 150.4 fps with F1 2019, 158.9 fps with Battlefield V, 90.4 fps with Hitman 2, 121.3 fps with Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and 222.8 fps with Rainbow Six Siege.

Overclocking gave a 4% increase in performance. The PassMark G3D Mark benchmark score was 16674

What We Don’t Like About XFX Radeon RX 5700 XT THICC III Ultra

There is no memory overclocking on factory settings and adjustment range limitations prevents flexibility in this area. There is also no hardware-based ray tracing.

5. Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 OC

Product Highlights

The GeForce RTX 2060 OC (overclocked) by Gigabyte is driven by the Nvidia TU106 processor and has a raised upper power limit that translates into higher GPU clock speeds. The thermals and cooling fan used in the RTX 2060 OC are also quite effective at maintaining stable operating temperatures under load for strong graphics performance.

The cooling system uses alternate spinning fans and composite heat-pipes with liquid sandwich between layers of alloy. The RTX 2060 OC also employs other temperature control features to prevent MOSFET overheating and also includes a solid capacitor metal choke.

Features

• Real-time ray tracing
• CUDA cores = 1920
• Windforce 2X cooling technology
• RAM: 6GB GDDR6
• Clock: 1755 MHz

What We Like About Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 OC

The RTX 2060 OC by Gigabyte is a solid contender and easily produced acceptable frame rates on newer game titles. This card is a great choice for triple-A game titles played at medium to high graphics settings.

The setup used for game testing was an i7-7700K on an MSI Z170 Gaming M7 motherboard. We recorded the frame rates for the following games: 57.8 fps on Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation, 116.5 fps on Battlefield V, 100.7 fps on Far Cry 5, 100.1 fps on Forza Horizon 4, 92.1 fps on Grand Theft Auto V, 90.4 fps on Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and 128.5 fps on The Witcher 3.

The RTX 2060 OC was able to be overclocked for a 9% performance boost. The PassMark G3D Mark benchmark score was 14305.

What We Don’t Like About Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 OC

The only negative thing we found is the higher power consumption under load compared with other cards.

6. Sapphire Radeon Pulse RX 5600 XT

Product Highlights

The Radeon Pulse RX 5600 XT is a Navi-10 7 nm AMD architecture that has similar capabilities to an RX 5700, but with a slightly smaller memory bus, RAM, and fewer RDNA compute units (a total of 36). These more austere designs permit the RX 5600 XT to be sold at a lower price while retaining much of the horsepower behind the architecture.

The Pulse RX 5600 XT does not feature RTX or DLSS, but is still quite a capable graphics card. Nearly same performance as an RTX 2060 for only 80% of the price and is ideal for triple-A titles at medium to high graphics settings.

Features

• Real-time ray tracing
• RDNA architecture
• Dual-X cooling technology
• RAM: 6GB GDDR6
• Clock: 1615 MHz

What We Like About Sapphire Radeon Pulse RX 5600 XT

This very capable graphics card will do nearly everything you would find in an RTX 2600, even exceeding it in performance in some instances, for a much lower price (sub $300). The Pulse RX 5600 XT produced frame rates that beat the RTX 2600 in the following games: Metro Exodus, Far Cry 5, F1 2019, Battlefield V, and Hitman 2.

The system for gaming tests consisted of an Intel Core i9-9900K on an EVGA Z390 Dark motherboard. Tests on different games yielded frame rates of 91.7 fps with Metro Exodus, 121 fps with Far Cry 5, 121.5 fps with F1 2019, 134.3 fps with Battlefield V, 79.9 fps with Hitman 2, 99.7 fps with Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and 178.4 fps with Rainbow Six Siege.

Overclocking boosted performance by 3%. The PassMark G3D Mark benchmark score was 13432.

What We Don’t Like About Sapphire Radeon Pulse RX 5600 XT

Sapphire most recently provided an update that required users to manually flash the BIOS themselves to the card. Although the new BIOS opened up the increased potential of the card (faster GPU clock, faster memory clock, higher power limit), this is a highly unusual move and came just a few days after product launch.

Fan controls on the card tend to overshoot and rev up the fans when the card is already cool during a venting cycle.

7. Zotac Gaming GeForce GTX 1660 Super

Product Highlights

Great for high frame rates in eSports games and will run triple-A titles at full graphics settings around about 60 fps, which is more than enough for playability. A few eSports games and triple-A shooters like Apex Legends and Battlefield V will needs some graphics tune-down to get good frame rates, but rates as high as 144 fps can be had with a few graphics quality sacrifices (like medium or low settings).

For some games, tuning down the graphics substantially affects image quality and playing enjoyment, whereas for others there are barely any noticeable differences. It just depends on the graphics code of each game.

Features

• DirectX ray tracing
• CUDA cores: 1408
• Dual offset fan cooling technology
• RAM: 6GB GDDR6
• Clock: 1530 MHz

What We Like About Zotac Gaming GeForce GTX 1660 Super

The GTX 1660 Super comes with the Firestorm application, which is an optimization package that makes adjustments to clock and memory speed, fan settings, and provides internal GPU monitoring data. It can be used to maximize performance, based on the build-in which the card sits.

An Intel Core i9-9900K on an EVGA Z390 Dark motherboard was used to test the GTX 1660 Super. Tests on different games yielded frame rates of 69.7 fps with Metro Exodus, 94 fps with Far Cry 5, 96.1 fps with F1 2019, 95.2 fps with Battlefield V, 68.3 fps with Hitman 2, 78.5 fps with Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and 170.9 fps with Rainbow Six Siege.

Overclocking to boost performance yielded a 4% improvement. The PassMark G3D Mark benchmark score was 12699.

What We Don’t Like About Zotac Gaming GeForce GTX 1660 Super

This is a somewhat noisy card and does not have a fan idle stop. There is also no hardware to support RTX or DLSS.

Memory does not come overclocked and the card tends to operate mostly in a power limiter mode, which interferes with overclocking efforts.

8. XFX RX 590 Fatboy

Product Highlights

The RX 590 Fatboy by XFX is an AMD Radeon-based GPU using their Polaris-10 architecture and is marketed as a graphics card for everybody on a budget who want 1080p and high frame rates. The card uses slower GDDR5 memory chips, which also reduce overall power demand, allowing the GPU to be overclocked while keeping the card is power demand-stable.

This is an excellent card for basic gaming and eSports titles with graphics adjustments.

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Features

• DirectX ray tracing
• Polaris-10 12 nm architecture with 36 compute units
• Dual fans and aluminum stack cooler
• RAM: 8GB GDDR5
• Clock: 1545 MHz

What We Like About XFX RX 590 Fatboy

This is a surprisingly quiet graphics card, despite being overclocked from the factory. It can basically digest any graphics at 1080p with no problems, provided some adjustments to graphics intensity are made on a title to title basis.

The test machine was an Intel Core i9-9900K on an EVGA Z390 Dark motherboard. Tests on different games yielded frame rates of 61.3 fps on Middle Earth: Shadow of War, 78 fps on Far Cry 5, 93.6 fps on F1 2018, 101.9 fps on Battlefield 1, 104.6 fps on Hitman, 65 fps on Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and 133.4 fps on Rainbow Six Siege.

Overclocking only was able to increase stock performance by 2.5%. The PassMark G3D Mark benchmark score was 9475.

What We Don’t Like About XFX RX 590 Fatboy

This card eats a lot of power, mostly owing to the overclocked GPU and raised power limits. If run to support multiple monitors, the power use is very high, but the card can take it.

The Wattman software limits overclocking of memory and overall, the overclocking potential of the card is limited.

9. EVGA GeForce GTX 1650 Super SC Ultra Gaming

Product Highlights

The GeForce GTX 1650 Super SC is a great card for eSports titles and other games on reduced graphics for a great price, usually below $200. We consider this card to be the best budget GPU currently on the market that will still perform adequately at 1080p resolution, producing acceptable frame rates.

Features

• No ray tracing
• Turing GPU with 1280 CUDA cores
• Dual fans and heatsink
• RAM: 4GB GDDR6
• Clock: 1280 MHz

What We Like About EVGA GeForce GTX 1650 Super SC Ultra Gaming

This card has an excellent price to performance ratio and is a very affordable GPU card. It has faster memory chips than other cards in its class and comes out of the box overclocked (also has quite a bit of in-built additional overclocking potential).

Using the test machine, an Intel Core i9-9900K on an EVGA Z390 Dark motherboard, the following games yielded frame rates of: 42.8 fps on Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, 78.6 fps on Far Cry 5, 80.4 fps on F1 2019, 79.9 fps on Battlefield V, 60.3 fps on Hitman 2, 63.1 fps on Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and 138 fps on Rainbow Six Siege.

Optimization of GPU and memory achieved an overclock of 9%. The PassMark G3D Mark benchmark score was 9828.

What We Don’t Like About EVGA GeForce GTX 1650 Super SC Ultra Gaming

It is somewhat noisy under load, but not annoyingly so. We feel the default power limit could also be raised to accommodate more overclocking and unlock the full potential of the board.

There is no hardware support for RTX or DLSS.

10. Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition

Product Highlights

We saved the RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition for last, not because it is beneath the cards reviewed above, but because it is a graphics card that might be economically out of reach for most people building their own system (you could conceivably build two, very good gaming systems for the price of this card alone). As such, we regard the RTX 2080 Ti as our futureproof card.

So, what is futureproof? It means you invest in it now and years down the line it will still be a robust performer. You will likely have to upgrade your CPU and motherboard before replacing this thoroughbred.

Currently, it is the top-benchmarked architecture available, the bedrock against which all other graphics cards are compared. In short, the RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition can run anything you throw at it at high frame rates with smooth and detailed graphics.

Features

• Real-time ray tracing
• RTX with IQ improvements (78T)
• DLSS 2.0 standard with deep-learning AI
• Turing GPU with 4352 CUDA cores
• Dual 13-blade fans with vapor chamber
• RAM: 11GB GDDR6
• Clock: 1350 MHz

What We Like About Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition

Well, what can we say? This is the fastest graphics card out there and can do anything. It can even produce 60 fps at 4K resolution and, with a few tuned down graphics settings, even churn out 120 fps at the same resolution.

An Intel Core i7-8700K on an Asus Z370 Maximus X Hero motherboard was used to test the RTX 2080 Ti FE. Tests on different games yielded frame rates of 143.9 fps with Middle Earth: Shadow of War, 135.7 fps with Far Cry 5, 208.7 fps with F1 2018, 182.4 fps with Battlefield 1, 153.8 fps with Hitman, 175.8 fps with Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and 316.9 fps with Rainbow Six Siege.

You may notice that some of the cards above beat out the RTX 2080 Ti FE, so why the high benchmark score? It’s all about consistency and this card produces consistent and predictable high frame rates, regardless of graphics code encountered.

Despite high performance, the RTX 2080 Ti FE has plenty of overclocking potential, with a maximum performance boost of 8% possible. The PassMark G3D Mark benchmark score was 21574, the top end.

What We Don’t Like About Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition

It’s cost a lot of money

Final Verdict

We would go with the GeForce RTX 2080 Super Black Gaming by EVGA for a nearly future-proof card. It is about half the price of the top-ranked RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition and nearly as capable.