Best Graphics Cards of June 2014

The big news this month is the release and commercial availability of Nvidia's dual-GPU flagship, the GeForce GTX Titan Z. We'll start with the good stuff: this board boasts two fully-functional GK110 GPUs with a total 5760 CUDA cores, 480 texture units, 96 ROPs, and 12 GB of RAM between the pair of processors. The bad news is that this triple-slot (technically, two and a half slot) monster employs a 705 MHz base and 876 typical GPU Boost frequency, which lands well behind Nvidia's GeForce GTX Titan Black. Two of those, then, are going to be faster, occupying four total expansion slots. Worse, while the Titan Blacks sell for $1100, you'd pay $3000 for Titan Z (or twice as much as AMD's competing Radeon R9 295X2).

Nvidia cools the Titan Z with a large heat sink and fans; we have no real indication of the card's thermals or acoustics, though, because the company chose not to send any of them out. In comparison, we've had our hands on a few Radeon R9 295X2s. And although AMD chose to implement a closed-loop liquid cooling-based solution with its own installation prerequisites, its engineers did a solid job ensuring that two Hawaii GPUs remain cool, quietly. Better still, one Radeon R9 295X2 is roughly as fast as two R9 290Xes; no performance sacrifice is made putting a pair of processors on one PCB.

As it turns out, then, the tables are turned. Nvidia usually surprises us with the more elegant dual-GPU cards. This time, we're told the card isn't really intended for gamers, and its price tag almost assures its relegation to extremely niche applications. Perhaps the only plausible scenario I can come up with is a small form factor build. And as it turns out, we hear you can get Falcon Northwest's Tiki with a Titan Z and SilverStone 600 W power supply inside. I suppose a case could be made for processionals requiring lots of double-precision compute performance, too. Regardless, don't expect the Titan Z to fly off of shelves.

Back to earth. How about price changes on graphics cards that matter more to real gamers? There were some surprising drops in AMD's line-up this month. Of course, we're not complaining, though the moves seems strange after the gouging we suffered earlier in 2014. The Radeon R9 290X is down $50 to $500, making the card quite a bit more attractive than the GeForce GTX 780 Ti. The Radeon R9 280 and 280X fall $20 to $250 and $280, respectively. Incidentally, this forces us to reconsider the Radeon R9 280 and GeForce GTX 760 as recommendations; they're simply too close to the superior R9 280X. At the same time, we're removing the GeForce GTX 770's recommendation, since it offers similar performance at a $70 premium. The Radeon R7 260X, 265, and R9 270X are all $10 cheaper than last month at $120, $150, and $190, solidifying our endorsements and booting the $180 Radeon R9 270 from our list. 

Finally, we're glad to see Adaptive-Sync added to VESA's DisplayPort 1.2 standard. For those of you unfamiliar with it, Adaptive-Sync is the open alternative to Nvidia's proprietary G-Sync technology, which matches a monitor's refresh cycle to the output of a PC's graphics card, providing a smoother visual experience. It remains to be seen how VESA's option works or is adopted, but we will look forward to testing it. We're told to expect compatible hardware in the next six to 12 months.

Some Notes About Our Recommendations

A few simple guidelines to keep in mind when reading this list:

• This list is for gamers who want to get the most for their money. If you don’t play games, the cards on this list are more expensive than what you really need. We've added a reference page at the end of the column covering integrated graphics processors, which is likely more apropos for home, office, and basic multimedia usage models.
• Recommendations for multiple video cards, such as two Radeon cards in CrossFire mode or two GeForce cards in SLI, typically require a motherboard that supports CrossFire/SLI and possibly a chassis with plenty of space to install multiple graphics cards. These setups also usually call for a beefier power supply than what a single card needs, and will almost certainly produce more heat than a single card. Keep these factors in mind when making your purchasing decision. In most cases, if we have recommended a multiple-card solution, we try to recommend a single-card honorable mention at a comparable price point for those who find multi-card setups undesirable.
• Prices and availability change on a daily basis. We can’t base our decisions on always-changing pricing information, but we can list some good cards that you probably won’t regret buying at the price ranges we suggest, along with real-time prices from our PriceGrabber engine, for your reference.
• The list is based on some of the best U.S. prices from online retailers. In other countries or at retail stores, your mileage will almost certainly vary.
• These are new card prices. No used or open-box cards are in the list. While these offers might represent a good deal, it’s simply outside the scope of what we’re trying to do.