Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 vs. AMD Radeon RX 590: Which Mainstream Graphics Card to Buy. What is the nvidia 1660

The GeForce NVIDIA SUPER series of cards has hit a total of five, thanks to the recent introduction of two GTX variants. We’re looking at 1660 SUPER here, focusing on 1080p in most of our tests, and up to 4K for esports titles with high frame rates. Let’s see how the extra memory bandwidth is used!

Nvidia GTX 1660 Super vs. GTX 1660 Ti vs. GTX 1660

While something like the Nvidia RTX 3080 makes a serious impression, it’s not the right graphics card for every gamer. The GTX 16 series cards offer solid performance at a much lower price, which is great for 1080p gamers or those interested in esports – especially now that they also benefit from FSR support. The GTX 1660 is the best in the range, but there are many variants available. How to choose between GTX 1660 Super, GTX 1660 Ti and GTX 1660?

We tossed all three cards into the ring to see how they hold up. There are many differences between these cards, some larger and some smaller. Regardless, one thing is clear: not all are equal.

If you want to consider other GPUs, check out our guide to the best graphics cards, whatever your budget. It might be a good idea if you’re in the market right now to build a PC as a shortage of stock has pushed many Nvidia 16 series cards off the shelves.

Pricing and availability

The Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti was the first in the Nvidia GTX 16 series – an entry-level alternative to the RTX graphics range and a replacement for the more modest GTX 10 series cards. It lacked more CUDA cores, RT and Tensor cores, and extensive RTX card feature sets, but was based on this the Turing 12nm architecture itself. It debuted on February 22, 2019, and the GTX 1660, a card with fewer CUDA cores and slower memory, appeared shortly after March 14, 2019.

The Nvidia GTX 1660 Super card was launched on October 29, 2019 and is designed to sit between the two existing 1660 cards in terms of both price and performance.

All three cards are unavailable from retailers due to constant GPU shortage. There are several ways to get a card with MSRP, including the EVGA queue system and the Newegg Shuffle. However, neither of these programs have options for any 1660 model. If you choose any of the 1660 variants, your best bet is to contact local retailers such as Micro Center and Best Buy, or pay in the aftermarket.

The EVGA Queuing System and Newegg Shuffle may not include the 1660 models, but they have much more powerful graphics cards in the RTX 30 series. If you’re lucky, you can get the RTX 3060 with one of these programs for less than the second-hand 1660 price, and the 3060 will work much better.

Thanks to these additions, the 3050 will be more efficient than previous generation Nvidia GPUs in terms of DLSS and ray tracing performance. In fact, the RTX 3050 is one of the cheapest graphics cards that support ray tracing, which is not found in the GTX 1660 Ti.

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 OC 6G

• Super solid for 1080p games and solid for some titles at 1440p.
• Excellent price-performance comparison with competing mid-tier AMD Radeon cards.
• Low noise level.

• Double-digit performance increase over GeForce GTX 1060.
• Good for high frame rate games at 1080p and 1440p.
• Quiet cooling.
• Includes three free AAA games (at the moment).
• Reasonable overclocking options.

• A bit hot in stress tests.
• Further overclocking the card was difficult.

• High power requirements.
• Physically large for a mid-range graphics card.
• The Radeon RX 580 is much cheaper and not much slower.

Nvidia’s newest mainstream graphics processor, the GeForce GTX 1660, is designed for gamers who need solid performance above 60fps in AAA games at 1080p and even higher frames per second in esports titles. The Gigabyte OC version hits well with these results.

If you ignore power consumption, the Radeon RX 590 is the best mid-range card you can buy (tested on this XFX model), showing double-digit gains over the GeForce GTX 1060. However, the current Radeon RX 580 has an economic edge.

With graphics cards based on the new GeForce GTX 1660 GPU, which hit the shelves this week, we come back with another, the essence of the card comparison. Here we juxtapose the latest budget Nvidia GPU with the slightly more expensive Radeon RX 590 from AMD.)

Like the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti that came out a few weeks ago, the GeForce GTX 1660 is another GPU in which Nvidia suppresses ray tracing / RTX aspirations to bolster AMD’s main foothold in graphics cards today: A multiplayer focused player that he doesn’t have a ton of extra coin to put in for the next GPU upgrade. GTX 1660 cards start at $ 219; The RX 590 has an MSRP of $ 279, but has dropped below that amount on some models.

How well does the GeForce GTX 1660 compare to the Radeon RX 590 in 1-to-1 gaming and other benchmarks? Let’s break it down.

The Specs: A GeForce GTX 1660 and Radeon RX 590 Face-Off

As with the launch of the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, the GeForce GTX 1660 cards are exclusively offered by Nvidia partners such as Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, PNY and Zotac. Since the GeForce GTX 1660 is not available in the reference or official Nvidia “Founders Edition” version, we will use the card we just tested and reviewed (for $ 219 Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 OC 6G) as a representative GTX card. 1660.

It will pair here with the single Radeon RX 590 we tested, the XFX Radeon RX 590 Fatboy. The same applies to the Radeon RX 590 line. All cards that use this GPU are creations from AMD partners such as ASRock, PowerColor, Sapphire, XFX and others.

Here are the basic specs for the two.

Note the difference in video memory; will appear later. Also keep in mind that the RX 590 is a relative power mooocher. Keep in mind that there will be some slight variation in base / boost clock speed between the different GTX 1660 and RX 590 cards depending on how aggressively the provider overclocks. So, the results will have some advantage depending on the specific card you are looking at, but the overall trends should continue.

If you want to consider other GPUs, check out our guide to the best graphics cards, whatever your budget. It might be a good idea if you’re in the market right now to build a PC as a shortage of stock has pushed many Nvidia 16 series cards off the shelves.

Nvidia GTX 1660 Super vs 1660 Ti: 1080p benchmarks

Right now, the GTX 1660 Ti is my best recommended 1080p gaphic card, while the regular GTX 1660 is what I consider to be “should buy” if you are less concerned with playing at 60fps at maximum settings. That’s because the GTX 1660 can still hit 60fps at high settings on almost any of today’s big hits, which is great if you want to save some cash. Meanwhile, the GTX 1660 Ti is much better equipped to deal with these higher quality settings.

Compared to the GTX 1660 Super, the 1660 Ti is a faster card overall, but as you can see below, the 1660 Super comes close to hitting 60fps on the Ultra settings in a surprisingly high number of times. In fact, in Forza Horizon 4 it even pushes 1660 Ti to the post, ranking first with an average of 106fps compared to just 100fps.

Moreover, the differences between some of these frame rates are actually quite small. For example, I’m not sure if I would be able to tell the difference between say 48fps and 52fps in Total War: Three Kingdoms, nor would I be able to tell if the 42fps average for the Supers in Metro Exodus was necessarily smoother than the 45fps Ti average. Likewise, anyone with a regular 60Hz monitor will not appreciate Final Fantasy XV’s ability to run at an average of 66fps compared to 62fps, and I’m pretty sure Shadow of the Tomb Raider’s performance will look and feel pretty pretty identical.

In this light, the GTX 1660 Super seems to be a pretty decent way to get near Ti-like power at a cheap cost, which is even worse when we push the quality setting to High. Here we’re dealing with a high refresh rate area for both cards (that is, outside of the old Metro Exodus), and once again I don’t think the human eye can tell the difference between 70 or 75fps in their minute-by-minute gameplay.

As a 1080p card, the GTX 1660 Super can recommend it compared to the more expensive Ti counterpart which costs around £ 250 / $ 260 at the time of this writing. The GTX 1660 Super, on the other hand, can be purchased for £ 220 / $ 230.

Nvidia GTX 1660 Super vs 1660 Ti: 1440p benchmarks

However, I think the extra £ 30 / $ 30 for the GTX 1660 Ti is probably worth the extra money when you consider the performance of each 1440p card. Again, the GTX 1660 Ti isn’t really an Ultra graphics card at this resolution, but the extra 5-7 frames per second in games like The Witcher III and Monster Hunter: World are big enough to register. After all, when you’re dealing with such a sensitive 35-50fps zone, even small spikes in performance can make a noticeable impact on your overall perception of game speed. Elsewhere, of course, the difference of 1-3 fps won’t make much difference.

However, at this resolution, the GTX 1660 Ti has always felt most comfortable at that resolution (which is why I believe it’s also a “must-buy” card for 1440p) and I think it still has enough of an edge to justify spending just a little more.

In the end, this maintains the significant performance boost in both Monster Hunter: World and The Witcher III, as well as Final Fantasy XV, there was enough leap for me to conclude that the GTX 1660 Ti was noticeably superior. Indeed, while the Super dropped to 41fps in FFXV on High, the 1660 Ti never went below 46fps, making it appear smoother overall.

That gap started closing as I moved to medium settings, admittedly both cards successfully leveled in Final Fantasy XV as well as Metro Exodus, but having spent a lot of time playing the former, I’d rather suffer the lower FPS a bit and play FFXV at a higher level than settle for close to 60fps at the medium quality setting. This is obviously just my personal preference and there will no doubt be some who don’t think the extra £ 30 / $ 30 is really worth the solution.

And that’s okay. However, when it comes to securing your PC for the future, I believe the GTX 1660 Ti is still a card to buy. It may not be much faster than the GTX 1660 Super at the moment, but as games get more challenging, it is the Ti, not the Super, that will be the card that will keep you playing at these higher quality settings for longer.

After all, the new Nvidia RTX 3050 offers 1080p performance comparable to the Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti at an equally attractive price. The 3050 also uses additional features such as ray tracing and DLSS to improve visuals and provide smoother performance.

Ray tracing and DLSS

While the RTX 2060 supports hardware ray tracing acceleration, other cards do as well, albeit with limited capacity. Thanks to the driver update from Nvidia, all GTX 16 and 10 series cards can render ray tracing in-game, but without hardware acceleration using RT cores, performance is not great, even on the latest generation of high-end cards such as the GTX 1080 Ti.

The problem with ray traced lighting effects is that it requires an excessive amount of GPU to render. This is why RT cores are required and they make such a difference to RTX cards; especially the high-end ones. If you want to play ray tracing games at a comfortable frame rate, the RTX 2060 is the only card you can opt for in this case, though it will still be limited to 1080p in most games. The GTX 16 series cards will let you see what ray tracing looks like, but won’t be able to play many ray traced games at anything close to your comfortable frame rate.

With that in mind, it’s a shame that deep learning super sampling (DLSS) support is limited to RTX graphics cards. It requires Tensor cores to run, and the GTX 1660, 1660 Super, and 1660 Ti just don’t have them, so they won’t be able to use DLSS. The RTX 2060 may and may give it an extra edge when it comes to ray tracing, although the very limited number of games supported make it a bit negligible. Moreover, our experience with the combination of both functions has not been great so far.

You get what you pay for

If $ 300- $ 350 is too expensive for you, the GTX 1660 Super is the best option in this group. 1660 Ti is only a worthwhile investment if you can find it at a comparable price. The level of performance is so close between the two cards that the Super, with typical savings of $ 50 to $ 100, is a much better buy. This almost invalidates the RX 590 from AMD, although we sometimes see a heavily discounted RX 590 making it an attractive alternative.

While the GTX 1660 is a good choice, we wouldn’t put it at the top of our list. We believe that for the same price, AMD offers great performance. That said, the GTX 1660 has improved significantly over the previous GTX 1060 model. The RX 580 and RX 590 are viable alternatives. In some cases, they can also be significantly cheaper, especially when you consider AMD’s amazing game packs. This is where availability and packaging options can enter into or terminate the contract. Packages are almost always a smarter option (and a better deal) than standalone cards. Note that availability (and retail) can also affect the equation and affect prices. If you’re looking for something a bit cheaper with a similar speed, check out the RX 5500 XT.

We don’t recommend spring factory overclock these days. Factory overclocked items and stock items now work the same, so overclocked items can no longer boast the superiority they had in previous generations. The price difference between the factory overclocked products and the 1660 Super is too close to be worth it.

Overall, the RTX 2060 is the best buy of the three because of its impressive capabilities. It also received the most five-star reviews. It’s the type of high-quality product you’ll have to pay a lot for, and we know it can be out of your reach if you’re on a shoestring budget. It continues to blow Turing’s competition out of the water and provide significantly better value for money. Over time, the RTX 2060 is worth investing in – even if you have to spend some time purchasing it.

Let’s move on to some background. When the GeForce RTX line of cards was announced last year (along with their, say, “revolutionary high” prices), AMD must have been equally intimidated and happy: the latter, as AMD might have thought it was finally having an opening in the GPU market.

At a Glance

Expert’s Rating

• Great gaming performance at 1080p / 60Hz
• Silence under load
• Very quiet
• Accessible
• The EVGA Precision X1 overclocking software is GREAT

• No fancy extra features
• The reasonable $ 30 premium brings it closer to the entry-level GTX 1660 Ti GPUs
• Only 1 DisplayPort and HDMI

Our Verdict

Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1660 and the superb custom EVGA XC Ultra design make it a new mainstream gaming champion. This is the graphics card you need to play 1080p at 60fps.

Best Prices Today

Greetings to the new master of the “sweet place” graphics card. The $ 220 GeForce GTX 1660 from Nvidia usurps the award for AMD’s Radeon RX 580, which has held that title for years, and makes even the recently released Radeon RX 590 obsolete. And while Nvidia’s latest GPU technically replaces the not-so-impressive 3GB GTX 1060 at $ 200, it actually manages to outperform the more powerful (and more expensive) GTX 1060 at 6GB while addressing its predecessor’s most glaring weaknesses.

Not too shabby, Nvidia. Not too shabby at all.

Mentioned in this article

GeForce GTX 1660 Ti XC Ultra

Nvidia is not making the Founders Edition for the GPU, but its partners on the board will release various GTX 1660 models on Thursday. Today we take a look at the $ 250 EVGA GeForce GTX 1660 XC Ultra, the more affordable cousin of the specially cooled, heavily overclocked EVGA GTX 1660 Ti XC The $ 310 Ultra we loved so much. Let’s go!

Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 specs, features, and price

Under the hood of the GTX 1660, you won’t find many surprises, as it uses a stripped-down version of the Turing TU116 GPU found in the mighty GTX 1660 Ti. This gives you all the performance benefits of modern Nvidia for traditional gaming, which we’ve covered in detail in our in-depth Turing GPU overview. However, as a GTX model rather than an RTX GPU, the GTX 1660 lacks the dedicated hardware that enables ray tracing and AI features so heavily promoted in Nvidia’s more expensive graphics cards.

As you can see in the chart above, the new GTX 1660 equals or exceeds both the 3GB and the 6GB GTX 1060 in all relevant specs, from the number of CUDA cores to raw clock speeds, with the same 120W TDP. It’s a stunning testament to the excellent energy efficiency of Nvidia’s architecture that makes competing Radeon GPUs look energy-intensive by comparison.

Speaking of comparisons, it’s worth taking a moment to discuss the memory configuration of the GTX 1660. The new Nvidia graphics card fixes the most noticeable shortcoming of the 3 GB GTX 1060: the paltry 3 GB of RAM mentioned in the name. When the 3GB GTX 1060 was launched in 2016, this small memory capacity caused occasional performance issues when playing some 1080p games with all the eye on it. The cap has been all the more worrisome over time, essentially leaving the $ 200 market in favor of the better-equipped RX 570 and RX 580 from AMD.

Nvidia has fixed this by giving the GeForce GTX 1660 a full 6GB of VRAM, but remember that it uses traditional GDDR5 memory instead of the ultra-fast (and state-of-the-art) GDDR6 variation found in GTX 1660 Ti and RTX 20 series graphics cards. It’s a smart move to save money in the ruthless mainstream market. The GDDR5 offers significantly lower memory clock speeds and thus significantly lower overall memory bandwidth than the GDDR6, but is fast enough for 1080p gaming and provides an adequate price (although the GTX 1660 still costs $ 20 more than the 3GB GTX 1060 at launch).

You won’t find many surprises in implementing EVGA either, but you will find many that you can be impressed with. The $ 250 GTX 1660 XC Ultra uses the same custom cooler as its GTX 1660 Ti counterpart. It’s also overclocked out of the box, reaching 1845 MHz instead of 1785 MHz in the GTX 1660. In practice, the card works much faster, hovering around the 2GHz range depending on the application.

The efficient EVGA cooling solution enables Nvidia’s GPU Boost algorithms to push the clocks so hard. Here’s what we said about it in our EVGA GTX 1660 Ti XC Ultra review and spoiler alert: The radiator even runs, well, cooler in combination with the less powerful GTX 1660.

“The GeForce GTX 1660 Ti XC Ultra features an enhanced, custom cooling design found on many RTX 20 series EVGA GPUs. Axial fans with Dual Dynamic Hydraulic Bearing (HDB) adorned with the tiny letters” E “sit atop a deep, dense heatsink, and EVGA says combining HDB fans in lower case results in a 19 percent reduction in noise compared to fans competing with sleeve bearing fan designs.”

EVGA

The EVGA GTX 1660 XC Ultra also mirrors its larger sibling’s port selection by providing one HDMI, DVI and DisplayPort. That’s fairly limited, but most gamers buying graphics cards in this price range probably only have one or two monitors anyway. The inclusion of DVI is a very welcome surprise – it is becoming rare. The card follows the standard dual-slot design and only needs one 8-pin power connector, so upgrading from a different GPU shouldn’t be a hassle.

But how does it compare to the GTX 1660 Ti, a graphics card that Trusted Reviews and game editor Ryan Jones called “Budget King?

A SUPER Sweet Spot? NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER Review

The GeForce NVIDIA SUPER series of cards has hit a total of five, thanks to the recent introduction of two GTX variants. We’re looking at 1660 SUPER here, focusing on 1080p in most of our tests, and up to 4K for esports titles with high frame rates. Let’s see how the extra memory bandwidth is used!

When NVIDIA launched its Turing architecture last fall, who could have predicted it would become SUPER? This summer we saw the original GeForce RTX 2070 and RTX 2080 get replaced with faster SUPER updates, while the original RTX 2060 got a SUPER refill rather than a replacement – one that gives you a fifty dollar bonus.

Since then, we’ve seen NVIDIA spread SUPER butter on even more, landing on the 1650 as well as the 1660 model this article is focusing on. Based on previous SUPER models, it was safe to assume that these GTX Variants would add some cores, but in fact, this only applies to one of them: the GTX 1650 SUPER.

The GTX 1660 SUPER is a bit quirky as it doesn’t increase the cores or even the peak frequencies. The upgrade comes down to the memory where you can see the jump from GDDR5 to GDDR6, in other words an increase in bandwidth from 192 GB / s to 336 GB / s.

GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1660 and GTX 1660 SUPER

Before we proceed, here’s the full NVIDIA GeForce lineup for easier comparison:

The line of NVIDIA GeForce GPUs for gamers
Cores	Base MHz	FP32 peak	Memory	Band	TDP	SRP
TITAN RTX	4608	1770	16.3 TFLOPS	24 GB 1	672 GB / s	280W	3500,499
RTX 2080 Ti	4352	1350	13.4 TFLOPS	11 GB 1	616 GB / s	250W	$ 999
RTX 2080S	3072	1650	11.1 TFLOPS	8 GB 1	496 GB / s	250W	699
RTX 2070S	2560	1605	9.1 TFLOPS	8 GB 1	448 GB / s	215W	$ 499
RTX 2060S	2176	1470	7.2 TFLOPS	8 GB 1	448 GB / s	175W	$ 399
RTX 2060	1920	1680	6.4 TFLOPS	6 GB 1	336 GB / s	160W	pLN 349
GTX 1660 Ti	1536	1500	5.5 TFLOPS	6 GB 1	288 GB / s	120W	$ 279
GTX 1660S	1408	1530	5.0 TFLOPS	6 GB 1	336 GB / s	125W	229
GTX 1660	1408	1530	5.0 TFLOPS	6GB 3	192 GB / s	120W	219
GTX 1650S	1280	1530	4.4 TFLOPS	4 GB 1	128 GB / s	75W	$.
GTX 1650	896	1485	3.0 TFLOPS	4 GB 1	128 GB / s	75W	$ 149
Comments	1 GDDR6; 2 GDDR5X; 3 GDDR5; 4 HBM2 Architecture: GTX & TITAN = Pascal; RTX = Turing

A Look At Test Methodology

Techgage Gaming GPU Test PC
Editor	Intel Core i9-9900KS (4.0 GHz base, 5.0 GHz turbo, 8C / 16T)
Motherboard	ASUS ROG STRIX Z390-E GAMING CPU tested with BIOS 1302 (September 20, 2019)
Memory	G.SKILL TridentZ Royal (F4-3600C16-8GTRG) 8 GB x 2 Works on DDR4-3600 16-16-16 (1.35V)
AMD Graphics	AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT (8 GB; adrenaline 19.11.3) AMD Radeon RX 5700 (8 GB; adrenaline 19.11.3) AMD Radeon RX 590 (8 GB; adrenaline 19.11.3)
NVIDIA graphics	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER (8 GB; GeForce 441.34) NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (6 GB; GeForce 441.34) NVIDIA GeForce RTX 1660 Ti (6 GB; GeForce 441.34) NVIDIA GeForce RTX 1660 SUPER (6 GB; GeForce 441.34) NVIDIA GeForce RTX 1660 (6 GB; GeForce 441.34)
Storage	Graphics: WD Blue 3D NAND 1 TB (SATA 6 Gb / s) Radeon: Kingston SSDNow V310 960 GB (SATA 6 Gb / s)
Charger	Corsair RM650x (650W)
Chassis	NZXT S340 Elite Mid-tower
Cooling	Corsair Hydro H100i V2 AIO liquid cooler (240 mm)
And so on	Windows 10 Pro (64-bit; 1909)

All GPUs have been tested with up-to-date (at the time of the test round commencement) drivers and with an up-to-date Windows 10 (1909) operating system. Our operating system is kept clean and optimized to reduce distortions in benchmarks, ensuring accurate results. V-Sync, G-SYNC, and FreeSync are disabled at the monitor and driver level. Both the Intel chipset driver and the management engine (ME) have been updated to the latest versions.

Games Tested & Vendor Neutrality

Our current test suite includes a total of ten games. These include Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive for esports testing with very high FPS, as well as Far Cry 5, F1 2019, Monster Hunter: World, Metro Exodus, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, The Division 2 and Total War: Three Kingdoms.

We skipped Battlefield V this round because we had sluggish performance on the first GPU we tested (not the 1660 SUPER), so due to the timing we just described it as a loss and moved on. In addition to our game suite, the end of the review was completed with some synthetic benchmarks.

Thanks to these additions, the 3050 will be more efficient than previous generation Nvidia GPUs in terms of DLSS and ray tracing performance. In fact, the RTX 3050 is one of the cheapest graphics cards that support ray tracing, which is not found in the GTX 1660 Ti.

performance

The Nvidia RTX 3050 and GTX 1660 Ti offer very similar 1080p performance.

As mentioned in the review, with no ray tracing or DLSS, the RTX3050 is not much more powerful than the GTX1660Ti. This makes the latter the best choice if you don’t care about these features or if you don’t plan or play games that support ray tracing.

For example, Borderlands 3 at 1080p showed roughly the same performance on both graphics cards, with a result of 3050 at 53 fps and 1660 Ti of 51 fps. Meanwhile, Dart Larry found that the 1660Ti actually had 100fps, better than 85fps at 1080p 3050.

We also ran a 3DMark Time Spy Extreme synthesis test to examine the raw performance of the graphics card and found that the RTX 3050 scored 2991 points, while the 1660 Ti scored a score of 3017, a slight advantage over the 1660 Ti had.

These GPUs have equivalent functionality if performance, not functionality, is your main concern.

However, remember how important DLSS technology is for improving performance. Playing the controls with the RTX 3050 in 4K allowed me to go from 16fps where I couldn’t reproduce the frame rate, to a smoother 30fps performance. Of course, DLSS only works with certain games, so you should re-check the compatibility of your favorite titles before diving in.

verdict

After all, the new Nvidia RTX 3050 offers 1080p performance comparable to the Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti at an equally attractive price. The 3050 also uses additional features such as ray tracing and DLSS to improve visuals and provide smoother performance.

The addition of DLSS and ray tracing means we recommend the RTX 3050 over the GTX 1660 Ti, especially as the prices are very close.

However, prices for many graphics cards continue to rise due to shortages, so choosing a graphics card to buy can ultimately reduce availability. The decision is further complicated by the difficulty of finding any of the GPUs at the original retail price.