Gaming Graphics Card Tier List

[lightcloud]

Hello. Welcome to the Gaming Graphics Card Tier List thread/discussion. 😀



As many of you have read or heard about the Power Supply Unit tier list by dottorrent or Don Woligroski's Graphics Card Performance Hierarchy Chart. Therefore, I have also decided to create a tier similar to Don’s but with tiers. Hopefully this will assist you to purchase a graphics card.


NOTE:This list excludes PRO Graphics Card (e.g. Nvidia Quadro and AMD Firepro).




Facts:
•If you are looking for a graphics card for gaming, you will want to stay away from GDDR3 and buy a GDDR5, mainly because GDDR5 has faster memory bandwidth.


•PCI Express x16 3.0 graphics card will be compatible with previous PCI Express x16 series (e.g. 1.0 and 2.0). Performance differnce between a PCI Express 3.0 x16 graphics card in a PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot or PCI Express 1.0 x16 slot will be as identical as a PCI Express x16 3.0 graphics card in a PCI Express x16 3.0slot.




Useful Links
•Graphics Card Power Supply Requirements
•The Power Supply Unit tier list by dottorrent
•Who Makes Which Power Supply?
•Are Graphics Cards Backward Compatible?
•Impact of PCI-E Speed on Gaming Performance




Future Update(s):
We will update you when graphics card support DirectX12.




P.S. I will do my best to update the list when a member identifies it or disagrees with it. And to put forth, I am not here to discuss if Nvidia is better than AMD or vice versa, on this thread.




Your time is highly appreciated,
Joeteoh99 (Aussie Aussie Aussie!!)
MeteorsRaining (contributed to its finished product)
Don Woligroski
LukaBoki (corrected my English errors)



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Graphics Card Tier List



Key:
Up-down: These graphics cards are ranked from best to substandard.
Left-right: These graphics cards are ranked from latest to oldest in its tier.
Underline: These graphics card are dual chips.
Italics: These graphics card do not support DX11.
(Mobile): These are laptop graphics cards.



NOTE:These graphics card are running at stock levels, not overclocked.



Tier One— Enthusiast:

Class One
GeForce: GTX Titan Z
Radeon: R9 295x2


Class Two
GeForce: GTX 690
Radeon: HD 7990


Class Three
GeForce:GTX 980, GTX 780Ti, GTX Titan Black
Radeon:-




Tier Two— High End:

Class One
GeForce: GTX 970, GTX 780, Titan
Radeon: R9 290, R9 290X


Class Two
GeForce: GTX 770, GTX 680, GTX 590, GTX 980M (mobile)
Radeon:R9 280X, HD 7970 GHz Edition, HD 6990


Class Three
GeForce: GTX 760, GTX 670, GTX 580, GTX 970M (mobile)
Radeon: R9 285, R9 280, HD 7950HD, HD 7870 LE (XT), HD 5970




Tier Three— High-mid range/Mid-range/Low-mid range:

Class One
GeForce: GTX 660 Ti, GTX 880M (mobile)
Radeon: R9 270, R9 270X, HD 7870


Class Two
GeForce: GTX 660, GTX 570, GTX 480, GTX 295, GTX 780M (mobile), GTX 680M (mobile)
Radeon: R7 265, HD 7850, HD 6970, HD 7970M (mobile)


Class Three
GeForce: GTX 750 Ti, GTX 560 Ti 448 Core, GTX 560 Ti, GTX 650 Ti Boost, GTX 470
Radeon: R7 260X, HD 6950, HD 5870, HD 7950M (mobile)




Tier Four— Entry level:

Class One
GeForce: GTX 650 Ti, GTX 560, GTX 750, GTX 675M (mobile), GTX 580M (mobile)
Radeon: HD 7790, HD 6870, HD 5850, HD 6990M (mobile)


Class Two
GeForce: GTX 460 256-bit, GTX 465, GTX 285
Radeon: R7 260, HD 7770, HD 6850, HD 6900M (mobile)


Class Three
GeForce: GT 740 (GDDR5), GTX 650, GTX 560 SE, GTX 550 Ti, GTX 460 SE, GTX 460 192-bit, GTX 275, GTX 280, GTX 260, GTX 670M (mobile), GTX 570M (mobile)
Radeon:R7 250 (GDDR5), HD 7750(GDDR5), HD 6790, HD 6770, HD 5830, HD 5770, HD 4890, HD 4870, HD 6800M (mobile), HD 5870 (mobile)


Class Four
GeForce:9800 GTX+, 9800 GTX, 8800 Ultra, GTS 450, GTS 250, GTX 660M (mobile), GTX 560M (mobile)
Radeon:R7 250 (GDDR3), HD 7750 (GDDR3), HD 6750, HD 5750, HD 4850, HD 7870M (mobile), HD 5850 (mobile), HD 4850 (mobile)




Tier Five— Basic Level/Starter Level

Class One
GeForce: GT 730 64-bit (GDDR5), GT 545 (GDDR5), 8800 GTS 512 MB, 8800 GTX,
GT 555M (GDDR5) (mobile), GTX 280M (mobile), GTX 285M (mobile)
Radeon: R7 240 (GDDR3), HD 4770HD, 7850M (mobile), HD 7770M (mobile), HD 4860M (mobile)


Class Two
GeForce: GT 740 (GDDR3), GT 640 (GDDR3), GT 545 (GDDR3), 9800 GT, 8800 GT 512 MB, GT 555M (GDDR3) (mobile), 9800M GTX (mobile), GTS 360M (GDDR5), GTX 260M (112)
Radeon:HD 7730 (GDDR5), HD 6670 (GDDR5), HD 5670, HD 4830, 7750M (mobile), 6600M/6700M (GDDR5) (mobile), HD 5750 (mobile), HD 5770 (mobile)





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Gaming Performance:



Key:

Definitions (more FPS is better):
Excellent— 60+ FPS

Comfortable— 50+ FPS

Decent— 40+ FPS


Note:
Benchmarks will depend on the system you have, due to factors such as bottlenecking, overclocked CPU/GPU, etc



The benchmarks are based on latest titles (e.g., Battlefield 4, Call of Duty Advanced Warfare, FarCry 4, etc) at 1080p resolution (excluding some Tier Five graphics card) with low to moderate anti-aliasing settings. High textures preferably when playing.



Enabling anti aliasing (AA, FXAA, MSAA, etc) on maximum usually takes a heavy toll on FPS/ graphic settings. Texture loading is also subject to VRAM size in some games.




Tier One (applies to all the classes)— recommended for excellent




Tier Two— recommended settings for comfortable FPS:

Class One: Ultra-maxed out

Class Two: High ultra

Class Three: High



Tier Three— recommended settings for decent FPS:

Class One: High

Class two: Medium-high

Class three: Medium



Tier Four— recommended for settings for decent FPS:

Class One: Medium

Class Two: Low-medium

Class Three: Low, low-medium (may struggle)

Class Four: Low



Tier Five— recommended settings for playable gameplay (resolution may need to be lowered)

Class One: Low

Class Two: Low



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[MeteorsRaining]

Good list, some suggestions:

-The tiers are fine, but naming is not that great. HD 7770 or R7 260 are purely gaming cards, albiet weak or entry level. I've not looked at all cards and their tiers but you shouldn't name the mentioned ones, along with their counterparts in same tiers, as 'not for gaming'.

-All the cards you mentioned CAN game. Their powers differ. So I'd rather name it like this from tier 7:

7: High-mid range

8:mid range

9: low-mid range

10: High-end entry level

11: mid-end entry level

12: low-end entry level

13: very low-end entry level

14: basic level

15: starter level

-Don't include SLI/ CFX in the list, I see a couple of them, so you've put some and missed many, keep it even with single GPUs.


-Use different color combos for single chip and dual chip cards. Space the list out more. Put a note on bottom that these are for stock levels, not OCed, as then GTX 970 can compete with stock 780 Ti.

-This is probaly asking too much, but if you can (I can help you out), put a similar list of professional cards. I'm talking about Quadros and Firepros here.

Good luck

 

[lightcloud]

Noted.

 

[Undying89]

How can GTX460 and HD 7770 are not designed for gaming? Its almost equal to GTX560 and my friend is still using using 7770 for latest games at lower resolution, works fine.

 

[lightcloud]

Noted. It is a mid-entry level card now.

 

[LukaBoki]

Seems like a nice tier.
This will be able to help a lot of people that don't know a lot about components,but they would like to start learning.
I would also like to add that there is a GT 650M,but no GT 650,only GTX 650. (Tier Twelve)

 

[lightcloud]

Thanks, will add tommorow as soon as I am free.

 

[Thaisnang]

This is a good list. But I think there is too many tiers on list. Some people might get confused. You should make one tier for each grade and then sub-divide it into Class A, B,C,D etc.

 

[lightcloud]

Noted. It is a good idea and I will try to work on that when I am free.

 

[Agera One]

Good job indeed for beginners to understand about GPU performance. But I don't know why Tier two has class 4, 5, 6 but all other tiers has 1, 2, 3, 4..

 

[lightcloud]

Thanks for pointing that out. Will change immediately.

 

[Agera One]

How about adding R7 240? Still people in my country buy that level cards. (Those who play old games at for few hours a day)..

 

[lightcloud]

Noted will add that soon.

 

[RobCrezz]

Might be worth mentioning that some of the older cards dont support DX11.

 

[lightcloud]

Noted. Should I have a separate list that has all the cards not supporting DX11 in it?

OR

Should I put a parenthesis with DX11 supported in it? (DX 11 supported)

 

[MeteorsRaining]

Instead put the cards which DO NOT support DX11 in italics.

 

[Agera One]

With DirectX 12 upcoming, it's better to categorize cards under Direct X version.

 

[lightcloud]

Thanks for the recommendations. Will change when I am free.

 

[LukaBoki]

Noted a tiny mistake.
At the beginning,it should say:
Left-right: These graphics cards are ranked from latest to oldest in its tier.
This is true only if my English(which is a foreign language for me)serves me well. 😀

 

[LukaBoki]

You can also put a * next to cards that support DirectX 12.
Just an opinion,no need to put it if you don't want to or if others disagree.

 

[lightcloud]

Noted for my English error. 😉

As far as I know, no cards support DX 12 yet. I have heard it will be announced next year with.

 

[MeteorsRaining]

Read this:
http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/178904-directx-12-detailed-backwards-compatible-with-all-recent-nvidia-gpus-will-deliver-mantle-like-capabilities

GTX 400 series and up will be supported. HD 7000/8000/Rx 200 series will be supported. No news about HD 5k/6k series support yet. I'd wait till it is officially announced by Nvidia and AMD.

 

[lightcloud]

Thanks for the useful information MeteorsRaining. And I agree with you too, we will wait for official news by Nvidia and AMD first before jumping into conclusion.

 

[LukaBoki]

Isn't it that GTX 970 and 980 are compatible with it?
It may not have been launched yet,but when it is,they will support it.
At least that's what nVidia claims.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-geforce-gtx-980-970-maxwell,3941-2.html

 

[lightcloud]

Like mentioned in the article, we shall wait till the launch of DX 12.