Buying a graphics card can be a daunting task, especially if you're looking for a powerful enough rig to support gaming at 1440p resolution. While for most, 1080p monitors and 4K gaming are enough to call it a day, 1440p represents a satisfying improvement to visual fidelity over the standard 1080p crowd, and it can cost you less overall than snagging a more expensive display.
Since choosing the best 1440p graphics card can be difficult, we've done the work for you here. We've put together several options to help you decide what's important to you so that you can supplement your own personal rig. Without further ado, take a look at our list and peruse the best graphics cards for your own custom build.
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super is the best 1440p graphics card available right now for most people. For $500, you get roughly the power of a GTX 1080 Ti and ray tracing capability. For most gamers, this card strikes the right balance between price and performance. It may not be quite as future proof as the RTX 2080 Super, but for many, the savings will make this the more attractive card.
If you want to play games at 1440p and 60fps, the RTX 2070 Super is the perfect card to buy. With this GPU, you can crank those settings to ultra and still get buttery-smooth gameplay. Not having to compromise when it comes to 1440p gaming makes this card worth the extra $150 or so over the RTX 2060 Super or Radeon 5700 XT.
Read the full review: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super
The GeForce RTX 2060 Super brings performance roughly equivalent to the original RTX 2070 for around $399. The 2060 Super might not be able to hang with its big brothers when it comes to ray tracing, but it's surprisingly versatile when it comes to 1440p gaming.
If you're only worried about hitting 60fps while gaming at 1440p, then there's no real reason to pay for a more powerful card than the RTX 2060 Super. This card can handle 95% of PC games on ultra and hit that benchmark. If you want to game at 120Hz, 144Hz, or higher, you'll probably want to go with a more expensive card, but as a gateway to 1440p gaming, you can't beat the value of the RTX 2060 Super.
Read the full review: Nvidia GeForce GTX 2060 Super
While AMD has been making great strides with its CPU lineup, its GPUs have lagged behind competitor Nvidia. The AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT continues the company's strategy of targeting the low-mid range enthusiast market, and it matches up nicely to Nvidia's offerings. Performance-wise, the 5700 XT sits close to the 2060 Super, and with similar pricing, offers an alternative for those who are on the fence about which company they want to support.
The Radeon RX 5700 XT compares favorably to the original RTX 2070 and the RTX 2060 Super in 1440p gaming. However, this card does have a disadvantage that might be a dealbreaker for some: it doesn't support ray tracing. Given that you can get similar performance from an RTX 2060 Super for roughly the same price, the RX 5700 XT isn't quite the market disruptor it was intended to be. However, if ray tracing isn't a concern, the RX 5700 XT is a competitive alternative to Nvidia's mid range lineup.
Read the full review: AMD Radeon 5700 XT
The RTX 2080 Super replaced the original RTX 2080 in Nvidia's lineup in summer 2019. While the Super's performance increase over the original is marginal, it does retail for around $200 less than its predecessor. That means for about $700, you can get a card that has approximately 70% of the performance of the 2080 Ti for only half the price.
It's a tough call on which card presents the best value for someone who primarily wants to game at 1440p. It's a close race between the 2080 Super and 2070 Super, but we think the former wins out. The extra power means you can play many titles (especially those with DLSS) with RTX on at 1440p without the game becoming a slideshow. This card will also put you more at ease when it comes to futureproofing. With big, presumably GPU intensive games like Cyberpunk 2077 coming, it's wise to invest in a card that has the power to stay relevant for a few years.
Read the full review: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti by Nvidia is the best consumer-grade video card you can get right now for gaming. While the Titan RTX surpasses the 2080 Ti in raw power, the Titan retails for $1,500 more for not even a 20% performance increase in gaming. That being said, the RTX 2080 Ti is still a costly video card, and the RTX Super line has diminished the value of the 2080 Ti even further. This is the card to get when money isn't a problem, as you can almost buy two 2080 Supers for the same price.
If you're looking to game at 1440p and hope to surpass 100 fps with ray tracing enabled regularly, the 2080 Ti is the only card on the market right now that can deliver high frame rate gaming with RTX on. Even on the RTX series, which have dedicated cores for raytracing, the effect is incredibly GPU intensive. The extra RAM and horsepower of the 2080 Ti make a lot of difference even when compared to 2080 Super. If one of your big reasons for moving up to a new GPU is ray tracing, the 2080 Ti is the best choice if you're planning to play at 1440p – and it’s even good for moving up to 4K.
Read the full review: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti
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