GPUs for cheap: the best graphics card deals this week

<<NOTE: I suggest following the link to the original article, as the formatting is better and may be updated. I'm just passing this info along as I thought would be of interest to the community.>>

The first mainstream ray-tracing graphics cards are here—Nvidia's RTX 2080 Ti, RTX 2080, and RTX 2070. While there's not much of a benefit to these high-end cards, unless you absolutely have to have the latest and greatest, Nvidia's older models can now be found for great prices. With the GPU mining craze over, you can also finally get AMD graphics cards at or below MSRP.

Our guide to the best graphics card will tell you all you need to know about which video card is best for your needs. Here, we'll keep you updated on the best graphics card deals this week. 

In our guide to the best graphics card we’ve detailed the best GPUs for a variety of users. While we regularly update the deals above with big discounts and flash sales as we find them, not all cards are on sale at any given moment. Whether they're on sale or not, here's the real-time pricing for all of our favorite GPUs: 

 

1. AMD Radeon RX 580 8GB

GPU Cores: 2,304 | Base Clock: 1,257MHz | Boost Clock: 1,340MHz | GFLOPS: 6,175 | Memory: 8GB GDDR5 | Memory Clock: 8 GT/s | Memory Bandwidth: 256GB/s

Many gamers are on a budget, and while faster cards might make you envious, if you're running a 1080p display they're often overkill. $200 to $300 is the sweet spot for mainstream gamers, and at that price point, the RX 580 8GB trades blows with the GTX 1060 6GB, typically winning by a few percent in performance but using more power.  The GTX 1060 3GB might seem tempting, the 3GB VRAM is a concern. The RX 580 8GB is only about $30 more and is almost always faster. 

2. Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB

GPU Cores: 1,280 | Base Clock: 1,506MHz | Boost Clock: 1,708MHz | GFLOPS: 4,372 | Memory: 6GB GDDR5 | Memory Clock: 8Gbps | Memory Bandwidth: 192GB/s

The Nvidia alternative to the above RX 580 is the GTX 1060 6GB. The loss of 2GB VRAM isn't really a concern in most games, especially at 1080p, which is where these cards do best. 1440p is possible, but only at sometimes significantly lower quality settings. The biggest benefit of the GTX 1060 is that is uses about 50W less power than the RX 580. That's less heat and a quieter build.

3. Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 Ti

GPU Cores: 2,432 | Base Clock: 1,607MHz | Boost Clock: 1,683MHz | GFLOPS: 8,873 | Memory: 8GB GDDR5 | Memory Clock: 8Gbps | Memory Bandwidth: 256GB/s

If you want to play games at 1440p, or at 1080p on a 144Hz display, the 1070 Ti has the chops to handle most games at close to maximum quality. Depending on price, the GTX 1070 might be worth the small step down in performance, or the GTX 1080 might be worth the small step up.

4. Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti

GPU Cores: 3,584 | Base Clock: 1,480MHz | Boost Clock: 1,582MHz | GFLOPS: 11,340 | Memory: 11GB GDDR5X | Memory Clock: 11Gbps | Memory Bandwidth: 484GB/s

If you want the fastest graphics card on the planet, it's a no-brainer: the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti wins, hands down. In our testing, the GTX 1080 Ti is about 30 percent faster than the GTX 1080, and more than twice as fast as a GTX 970. The only caveat is that you really need a 1440p or 4k display before this level of performance is even necessary.

5. AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 8GB

GPU Cores: 3,584 | Base Clock: 1,156MHz | Boost Clock: 1,471MHz | GFLOPS: 10,544 | Memory: 8GB HBM2 | Memory Clock: 1.6Gbps | Memory Bandwidth: 410GB/s

We had high hopes for Vega prior to its launch, and ultimately it couldn't live up to the hype. Instead of being the Titan-killer we hoped for, the Vega 64 failed to take down even Nvidia's year-old GTX 1080. But the RX Vega 56 is nearly as fast and costs less, all while drawing less power, effectively matching the GTX 1070 Ti on paper.

6. AMD Radeon RX 570 4GB

GPU Cores: 2,048 | Base Clock: 1,168MHz | Boost Clock: 1,244MHz | GFLOPS: 5,095 | Memory: 4GB GDDR5 | Memory Clock: 7Gbps | Memory Bandwidth: 224GB/s

Overall, the RX 570 4GB comes out slightly ahead of or slightly behind the GTX 1060 3GB, with DirectX 12 games usually favoring AMD. The 570 does use a bit more power, but most desktops are more than capable of running this 150W card without any difficulty.

7. AMD Radeon RX 560 4GB

GPU Cores: 1,024 | Base Clock: 1,175MHz | Boost Clock: 1,275MHz | GFLOPS: 2,611 | Memory: 2GB GDDR5 | Memory Clock: 7Gbps | Memory Bandwidth: 112GB/s

The RX 560 4GB is great for lighter esports games, including CS:GO, LoL, Overwatch, and more. It can easily hit 60fps at 1080p in most games at low to medium quality, which is about as much as we can ask of a sub-$150 graphics card.