The best video cards costing up to 15,000 hryvnia

The GeForce RTX 4060 video card is a relatively new model of the popular video card from NVIDIA, which replaced the RTX 3060 model from the year before last. Unlike its older, much more powerful brothers in the Ada Lovelace series, the RTX 4060 is focused on games in Full HD resolution and, according to NVIDIA, is a direct replacement for mid-class GPUs from 4-5 years ago, which can no longer cope with current games.

The modification from MSI is part of the 2023 MSI Ventus line, made according to the principle of “reliable cooling and nothing superfluous.” Like most of its brothers, it is equipped with a massive enhanced cooling system TORX FAN 4.0 with a pair of enlarged fans with a curved impeller and a massive backplate. There is no backlight here, but there is a silent Zero Frozr operating mode. The heart of the MSI GeForce RTX 4060 VENTUS 2X BLACK 8G OC is the AD 107 (5 nm) graphics processor operating at 2505 MHz, 8 GB of GDDR6 video memory, and the total power of the device is 15 teraflops. At the same time, a very modest 115 W is enough to power the card.

In the most popular games of this year (BG3, Hogwarts Legacy, Phantom Liberty) in Full HD resolution, the test RTX 4060 works without blinking and produces a more than comfortable 80+ FPS with the graphics settings sliders at maximum. This is almost 15% faster than the predecessor RTX 3060. At the same time, in games with higher resolutions and especially memory-sensitive projects like RE4 Remake, Hogwarts Legacy and Forspoken, 12 GB is preferable to a more powerful graphics chip, as a result of which the RTX 4060 inferior to its predecessor. Exactly how much lag depends on the specific game. At the same time, NVIDIA’s 4000 series has a significant advantage over its predecessors - a pumped-up version of the DLSS “improver”, which, using neural networks, has learned to complete missing frames.

Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3060 GAMING OC LHR 12G is an extremely popular mid-level video card from the NVIDIA Ampere family, replacing the entry-level hits GeForce RTX 1660 and 2060. The accelerator is based on a powerful GA106 graphics processor with 3584 stream processors, factory overclocking to 1837 MHz and DirectX 12 Ultimate support.

Unlike most standard modifications of the RTX 3060, this model has an expanded memory subsystem - instead of 8 GB GDDR6, 12 GB is installed, and a 192-bit bus is used for data exchange, which is quite important considering how much VRAM requirements have increased in modern games. In fact, in terms of memory, our test RTX 3060 is ahead of even the older model GeForce RTX 3080, which has 10 GB on board. This allows her to feel much more confident when increasing the game resolution from 1080p to 1440p. Although the number of frames per second in the corner Cyberpunk 2077 and RDR2 will drop somewhere from 70 to 45 FPS, the game will not crash, and the gameplay will remain relatively smooth and comfortable. If it sags more, you can always turn on DLSS.

An increase in memory capacity has led to an increase in the printed circuit board, so instead of a standard cooling system with a pair of turntables, we have an advanced version of the Windforce CO with three fans, a massive radiator and a pack of heat-conducting pipes, which is more common to see in older modifications of video cards from Gigabyte. The video card looks monumental - a molded casing, a strong frame and a wide backplate give it the necessary rigidity - but its length reaches almost 30 cm, so it will require some free space in the case.

Radeon RX 6700 XT is a rather interesting mid-level video card based on the AMD Navi 22 chip, which did not have a very successful start in 2021, but due to lower prices 2 years later it found a second wind. When compared to competitors online, the RX 6700 XT is most often pitted against the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti. Both cards demonstrate plus or minus similar performance in 1080 and 1440p resolutions, and the gap in one direction or another usually does not exceed 5 - 6%.

The RX 6700 XT has 4 GB more video memory and a wider data bus (192 versus 128 bits) than the GeForce RTX 4060. This factor is already felt in some games, and in the future it will play an even more important role. At the same time, the GeForce RTX 4060 can get ahead in games with high-quality ray tracing implementations and can get a good boost in FPS through the use of DLSS 3.0 with a built-in frame generation system, which on paper, in fact, gives a significant increase in FPS, especially with using ray tracing. Considering that the Radeon RX 6700 XT now costs much less than the recommended $479 and is almost 30% cheaper than the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti, we would recommend it for a mid-range gaming build.

The version from PowerColor should be especially praised for its cooling system. The reference Radeon sample quickly warmed up the chip, and the fans were even louder than the older Radeon RX 6800 model. In this case, we have a more compact and at the same time quieter version with a pair of active turntables and a slightly increased power consumption limit, which allowed the video accelerator breathe deeply. At the same time, the card is devoid of backlighting and other minor things that are unnecessary for many users, which do not affect performance in any way. And its modest length of 23 cm makes it easy to install in compact PCs.

The 6000th line of video accelerators from Radeon returned the red ones to the game and did not allow them to drown under the onslaught of “green” ray tracing technologies and DLSS with a frame generation system built into it. In order not to get lost on the radar of gamers in 2022, Radeon released an updated version of the popular RX 6700 XT video accelerator called 6750 XT. The new product is based on the same Navi 22 chip (7 nm, RDNA 2 microarchitecture) and is equipped with the same 12 GB of GDDR6 memory (192-bit bus).

However, due to the acceleration of the core and memory (2638 MHz and 18000 MHz, respectively), the Radeon RX 6750 XT is ahead of its predecessor in games by an average of 4 - 5%. In modern games it is much faster than previous generation video cards and can be a good option for upgrading the video subsystem. When compared with competitors from the green camp, the first one that comes to mind is the GeForce RTX 3070. Both devices are capable of providing comfortable gameplay in 2023 blockbusters at maximum graphics quality settings and resolutions up to QHD. At the same time, the RTX 3070 costs a little more due to the auxiliary cores for hardware ray tracing. And Radeon, according to the classics, has more video memory - 12 GB versus 8 GB.

The Radeon RX 6750 XT is designed for owners of 2K monitors who would like to enjoy maximum graphics settings, while being able to enable ray tracing without being horrified by the number of frames per second dropping to zero. It is also quite possible to play with it in 4K, but here, most likely, you will have to use FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) technology, which is a free analogue of NVIDIA DLSS. If you plan to play at 1080p, then in our opinion its performance is excessive and the younger models such as the RX 6600 or RX 6700 will be sufficient for these tasks.

The NVIDIA RTX 3060 is still an extremely popular mid-range graphics card with ray tracing support, built-in DLSS 2.0 image anti-aliasing/scaling and other features of the progressive Ampere microarchitecture. Despite almost two years of age and the release of the new RTX 4000 family, the GeForce RTX 3060 remains an extremely popular option among gamers.

This accelerator has found an optimal balance between price, performance and support for new technologies. As practice has shown, most gamers are not willing to overpay for the 10% increase in power and DLSS 3.0 support that the newer RTX 4060 provides. At the same time, there is no point in saving on matches and buying something cheaper either, since the younger RTX 3050 turns out to be much slower and has difficulty coping with AAA blockbusters of 2023 even at 1080p.

ZOTAC GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Twin Edge is equipped with a compact second-generation IceStorm cooling system, consisting of a pair of fans and a radiator with heat pipes, which was adapted to the features of the Ada Lovelace architecture. IceStorm cooling supports 2 alternative operating modes, one of which is designed to create optimal acoustic comfort during work, while the second provides maximum speed in games. Both modes are built into the BIOS and can be switched on the fly without rebooting the system.