Video Card Guide 2024 – first half

In this article we will update our guide to recommending the best graphics cards for gaming. We will help you build your gaming PC with the best advice we can provide. We use our performance tests, gameplays and current market prices as references. It is always important to remember that prices in Brazil vary a lot, so check that the reality of costs has not changed much in relation to what we are going to describe in this article, before making your choice.

The main news compared to our guide for the second half of 2023 include the arrival of new mid-range models from AMD, such as the Radeon RX 7700 XT, 7800 XT and 7900 GRE and the introduction of the GeForce RTX 40 Super line, making the upper mid-range segment more diverse and with more options.

Time to update our video card recommendations, using the price and performance of products available on the market today as a reference.

🤑 Adrenaline offer groups 💵
❯ Telegram: https://t.me/ofertasadrenaline
❯ Whatsapp: https://linktr.ee/adrenaline_oficial

An important benefit of this article is the price comparison chart for people to see the progression of the costs of these plates, in addition to comparing the value of different products. Our cut will cover the costs in 2024, until April 21st. You can use this graphic below at will, and once again we would like to thank Edno Silva for his excellent work on PC Build Wizard (@pcbuildwizard), which makes it possible for us to generate this content:

As a performance reference, we have this general graph, using 3DMark Fire Strike, to get an idea of ​​how the cards align. This graph is not representative of all performance scenarios, as different uses, graphics engines and applications can cause these relative positions to change:

We will use price levels to divide our suggestions, with different budgets. You can see all the cards that fit into each range in this interactive chart below. It uses the average prices of models in the last 30 days as a reference.

And speaking of this division, we took the opportunity to make a selection: compare the average price of these cards versus the average price of these models in the guide for the second half of 2023.

Enough introductions and methodology descriptions, it’s time to start talking about our recommendations!

Video card up to R$1 thousand

The entry-level segment of video cards continues to have a strong recommendation: not to get any of them. You should only limit yourself here if you really can’t make an additional investment and move up to the next level.

If that’s not the case, cards like the Radeon RX 6500 XT already run lighter games at 1080p and should handle many Esports, but remember: it doesn’t support hardware-accelerated recording, an absence we’ve already picked on in the past. If you want to record your gameplay and stream it, the GeForce GTX 1650 will do that, but remember: it doesn’t have much performance, and it won’t handle heavier games.

These graphics include the RX 6600 and the RTX 2060 6GB, which are outside this price range, but which serve to give an insight into the leap in performance that may be possible in some games. That’s if you can spend about 20 to 30% money on purchasing your next graphics card.

Board and video between R$1 thousand and R$1.5 thousand

Now we have arrived at the place we recommend you assemble your machine. The R$1,000 to R$1,500 range will house the two models with which we recommend starting your gaming machine, the Radeon RX 6600 and the GeForce RTX 2060 6GB.

As happens a lot in our battery of benchmarks, there will be times when the tests greatly favor the Radeon RX 6600, when it even “bothers” the RTX 3060 and RTX 4060, while some games run better on GeForce, especially if you enable it o Ray Tracing. A favorable factor for the RX 6600 is its 8GB of VRAM.

We have not yet seen the RTX 2060 “give PT” seriously in any game, but its 6GB involves careful configuration of texture quality and is under a red flag, as games are increasingly demanding more VRAM.

And what will you be able to play with these cards? It will handle any game in Full HD resolutionmaking graphical adjustments in heavier games to the high setting or perhaps even the medium setting.

Plates between R$ 1.5 and 2 thousand

When we get to models above R$1,500, we already have the most consolidated cards to handle Full HD with more advanced configurations. The RTX 3060 and RTX 4060 stand out here, in addition to competitors from the ARC A700 line. For AMD, its horses in the race are the RX 7600 and eventual RX 6650 XT

Despite the very interesting results in benchmarks for the Intel ARC A750 and A770, it is important to highlight that Intel has not yet reached the level of GeForces and Radeons in the maturity of its drivers, especially at launch. One example is the performance of Horzion Zero Dawn, which ran well on practically all the cards we tested… except the ARC A750.

Considering how pricey they are, I believe the best option is the RTX 4060. Despite being about 100 reais above the RTX 3060 and RX 7600, it has an increase in performance over the latter, and is significantly better in Ray Tracing than the former. . And even with FSR 3 gaining traction, DLSS 3 and its frame generator are still more present, as well as the upscaler is still superior.

Plates between R$2 and 3 thousand

It seemed like it would never happen, but finally that day arrived. The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is no longer relevant in our graphics card recommendations article. The card was discontinued last year, and the end of its stocks finally brings hegemony and our recommendations to an end.

And now? The GeForce RTX 4060 Ti takes its place, not for much merit. As we’ve already pointed out, it’s not much better than its predecessor, but costing less, it’s definitely a good choice. Its main advantage is bringing the DLSS 3 frame generator, compared to the RTX 3060 Ti.

In this price segment we also have the drop of the RX 6700/6750 XT as strong value for money products. Unfortunately, this makes this entire segment seem less relevant, something that the RTX 4060 bar getting tangled up in the middle of some models of these graphics makes clear. It costs significantly less than many of the cards here, but it’s not far off.

Plates between R$ 3 thousand and 4 thousand

The two most expensive segments are where things have changed the most since our last recommendations article. This is where launches such as the RX 7700 XT, RX 7800 XT and RX 7900GRE come into play.

The three main cards in this segment are the Radeon RX 7700 XT, the RX 7800 XT and the GeForce RTX 4070. All three are valid options, as they bring a respectable gain in performance over the previous segment, and even come close to the next one, depending on of the tested game. They are cards that deliver competent gameplay at 1440p and high quality.

Between Radeon, whatever. They deliver a similar level of performance and price, with the cost increase proportional to the performance gain. The RX 7700 XT already performs well, but if you have money to invest, the 7800 XT also makes sense.

The RTX 4070 is the most versatile indication, as it does not do well in games focused only on rasterization, a scenario where the Radeon 7000 does better, but it does well in games that start to use filters with Ray Tracing, in addition to having support to the DLSS 3 frame generator.

Plates worth R$4,000 or more

As we go up, it becomes more complicated to defend the concept of “cost x benefit”. Here are cards for those who want to enable the most powerful technologies at the highest frame rates and resolutions such as 1440p and 4K. But the cost skyrockets.

So where to go with so many options? Still trying not to lose our hand completely in terms of cost, we have the GeForce RTX 4070 Super and the RTX 4070 Ti Super as viable options to have a high level of performance, but still not need to auction organs.

Above that, if you are really looking for the best in hardware, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX has an impressive result in games that involve only rasterization, being close to the RTX 4090 but costing half its price.

The RTX 4080/4080 Super are already more interesting options than at launch. Not that the performance has changed, but its price today is almost half that charged for the RTX 4090, so they can be a viable “middle of the road” in this enthusiast segment.

And the GeForce RTX 4090 is unbeatable. It has a level of performance that sometimes seems to clash with the rest of this generation, especially with Ray Tracing enabled. For those who want the limit of available computer graphics, and are willing to pay a lot, it remains a very impressive product.

This concludes another guide for choosing video cards. As is traditional, now we go to the processor guide, doing this same analysis but now with the CPUs on the market, and finally the recommendation for complete machines. Until the next article!