PC Gamer Presents - PC Hardware Handbook - May 2018

AS THE BATTLE LINES WIDEN,

OUR IDEA OF WHAT A MID-

RANGE CARD INCLUDES HAS

INEVITABLY INCREASED

GRAPHICS CARDS

Once upon a time, the card to have was

the GTX 660 Ti. It was cost-effective,

powerful for its day, and clocked like a

champ. However, as the battle lines

widen, and GPU prices extend ever

upward, our idea of what a mid-range

card actually includes has inevitably

increased, too.

The GTX 1070 is a prime example.

With performance matching the height

of Maxwell’s frame-rendering

capabilities, it’s a card that makes the

once-premium 9 series Titan X

affordable, cutting the price by 66 per

cent. MSI’s Gaming X variant provides a

fine balance between noise reduction

and thermal management. There’s no

superfluous RGB lighting here apart

from a hint of background colour.

Couple that with a powerful stack of

8GB GDDR5X and its bunker-busting

Pascal GPU, and the GTX 1070

dominates 1440p with ease, providing

average frame rates well into the 60fps

range that every enthusiast with a

gaming habit covets.

MSI GTX 1070 GAMING X 8G

http://www.msi.com

GRAPHICS CARD BENCHMARKS

High-End 4K GPUs (Over £550)

Nvidia Titan Xp

Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti Reference

AMD Radeon RX Vega 64

PNY GTX 1080 XLR8 OC

Asus ROG Strix GTX 1080

Mid-Range 1440p GPUs (£300–£550)

AMD Radeon RX Vega 56

Nvidia GTX 1080 Reference

MSI GTX 1070 Gaming X 8G

Nvidia GTX 1070 Reference

Sapphire Radeon RX 580 8GB

Budget 1080p GPUs (£120–£300)

Gigabyte Aorus RX 570 4GB

Zotac GTX 1060 AMP Edition

EVGA GTX 1060 3GB SC Gaming

Asus ROG Strix GTX 1050 Ti 4GB

EVGA GTX 1050 Ti SC Gaming 4GB

TOTAL

£549

MID_RANGE

TOTAL

£679

ADVANCED

FEATURE

Today’s best upgrades

NVIDIA GTX 1080 TI

http://www.nvidia.com

Graphics cards are in a bit of an odd

state right now. Nvidia has been left

unchallenged, with AMD only

providing any hint of competition in the

mid-range. The RX 500 refresh was

little more than a badge swap, and Vega

a dud – a disappointing high-end

solution, overhyped to its own

detriment (although it struts its stuff

nicely when it comes to cryptocurrency

mining, annoyingly).

So, how does the land lie if you’re

looking to invest in a high-end GPU?

How do you power a 4K gaming rig in

today’s market? Well, fortunately,

Nvidia hasn’t been resting on its laurels,

and is still focused on trying to capture

as much of that market share as it can.

Recently it dropped the bombshell that

is the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti.

Think of it as a cut-down Titan Xp, a

warhorse of a GPU focused solely on

gaming, but coming in at a far more

attractive price point. The differences

are slim, with its 1GB of GDDR5X being

one of the few things cut. The Titan Xp

is slightly more powerful – about 15 per

cent or so – but it also costs £500 more,

making it a superfluous product aimed

solely at the affluent, or those who need

the Titan’s very specific developer skill

set, as limited as it is.