By Rich Edmonds
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Full HD was all the rave back in the early 2010s. TVs, laptops, and monitors were all leaving the 720p resolution behind, in favor of 1080p. It's hard to fathom how quickly display tech advanced as we're now seeing graphics cards capable of displaying images to screens with four times as many pixels (2160p or 4K). Still, 1080p is a common resolution today as it is less demanding on PC hardware, allowing those who primarily play competitively and value high frame rates above visual fidelity to enjoy excellent experiences. Here are the best 1080p GPUs for gaming.
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Source: Asus
Asus Dual GeForce RTX 4060
Best 1080p GPU
$310 at Amazon
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MSI Ventus 3X OC GeForce RTX 4060 Ti
Runner-up best 1080p GPU
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Source: Gigabyte
AMD Radeon RX 7600
Best value 1080p GPU
$270 at Amazon
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Source: 51RISC
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Super
Best budget 1080p GPU
$230 at Amazon
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AMD Radeon RX 6600
Best last-gen 1080p GPU
$210 at Amazon
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Source: AMD
AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT
Best performance 1080p GPU
$600 at Amazon
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Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4070 WINDFORCE OC
Best ray tracing 1080p GPU
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Best 1080p GPU
Asus Dual GeForce RTX 4060
This is from Nvidia's RTX 40 series of GPUs and comes rocking newer DLSS technology as well as next-gen cores for enhanced performance.
$310 at Amazon$310 at Newegg$310 at Best Buy
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Runner-up best 1080p GPU
MSI Ventus 3X OC GeForce RTX 4060 Ti
A more powerful version of the 4060 with better support for 1440p gaming, should you happen to upgrade the monitor down the road.
$410 at Newegg$410 at Amazon
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Best value 1080p GPU
AMD Radeon RX 7600
AMD made some strides with its RDNA 3 graphics cards, bringing the fight back to Nvidia. This is one of the more affordable 1080p GPUs here.
$270 at Amazon$270 at Best Buy
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Best Intel 1080p GPU
ASRock Phantom Gaming Intel Arc A770
Intel is in the dedicated GPU business and its Arc A770 is the most powerful graphics card right now, perfect for 1080p and 1440p gaming.
$395 at Amazon$330 at Newegg
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Best budget 1080p GPU
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Super
While this may be one of the weaker-performing graphics cards in our collection, the GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER will save you the most money.
$230 at Amazon$230 at Newegg
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Best last-gen 1080p GPU
AMD Radeon RX 6600
This AMD Radeon RX 6600 isn't the newest and flashiest GPU out there, but it'll still comfortably play all your favorite games at Full HD.
$210 at Amazon$210 at Newegg
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Best performance 1080p GPU
AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT
This GPU is overkill for 1080p, but it will maximize the number of frames possible with high-refresh displays. It'll destroy the rest of our recommendations.
$600 at Amazon$600 at Newegg
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Best ray tracing 1080p GPU
Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4070 WINDFORCE OC
Want to push your PC a little further? We'd recommend the impressively powerful RTX 4070 for ray tracing at 1080p.
$600 at Amazon$550 at Walmart$550 at Best Buy
Choosing the best graphics card for 1080p gaming
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is still the very best 1080p graphics card available. It has since been replaced by the considerably more expensive RTX 4060 Ti, but we'd still go with the older generation GPU if you can find it at a reasonable price. We'd also pick this GPU for 1440p gaming, allowing you to upgrade your monitor from Full HD sometime down the road without forking out on a new GPU. It's one of the best gaming GPUs for playing competitive online games or single-player stories.
If you want something slightly newer from Nvidia, we'd go for the RTX 4060. It's priced at $300 and offers decent performance for the price, especially at 1080p and with DLSS configured. Then there's the impressive AMD Radeon RX 7600, which is part of its RDNA 3 family of GPUs. Being a newer generation graphics card, the RX 7600 has a few tricks over the RTX 3060 Ti, though when it comes to ray tracing, nothing beats Nvidia's DLSS and RT cores. Regardless of which GPU you choose from our collection, you'll enjoy smooth 1080p gaming.
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