GTX VS RTX? Which GPU should you choose to support laptops and PCs in 2023. For example, you are going to assemble a computer or want to upgrade your GPU because it is no longer usable.
So, there are two types of GPUs that are most sought after in the market, including GTX and RTX, so if you don't understand what these two mean, in this article we will help guide you in knowing the two types of GPUs, and determine which product is right for you.
The two types of GPUs come from Nvidia processors, so let's get straight to it, without further ado, hehe.
What is GTX?
GTX stands for Giga Texel Sheder eXtreme, it is a variant under the GeForce brand which is owned by NVIDIA. They were first introduced in 2008 with the 200 series, codenamed Tesla. The first product in this series is the GTX 260 and GTX 280 for the highest series.
Nvidia GPUs use a naming scheme that has GTX/GT as the prefix followed by their model number. With every other major release in the series, Nvidia changes its microarchitecture on which its cards are based i.e. the 200 & 300 series are based on the Tesla architecture, the 400 & 500 series are based on the Fermi architecture and so on.
The new GTX 16 series, consisting of the GTX 1650, GTX 1660, GTX 1660Ti and their Super counterparts. It is based on the Turing architecture and was introduced in 2019.
What is RTX?
RTX stands for Ray Tracing Texel eXtreme and is also a variant under GeForce. RTX cards are specially designed to support real-time light tracing which makes videos look more beautiful.
They were first announced in 2018 and use the Turing architecture. These RTX cards include the RTX 2060, RTX 2070, RTX 2080, RTX 2080Ti, and their Super 2060 and 2070 counterparts. These cards support the DXR extension in Microsoft's DirectX12 as well as DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling).
The difference between GTX and RTX
GeForce is a GPU brand designed by Nvidia and under it there are variants like GTX and RTX but before GTX and RTX appeared terms like GT and GS were popular among GPUs but nowadays they only provide entry-level graphics processing capabilities and to use more graphics intensive applications, you should have a GTX or RTX card that is specifically designed for graphic intensive applications such as games, graphics engines, and more.
Recent entries in the GTX series include the 16XX series but for the sake of simplicity and commonality, we will consider the differences between the GTX 1080Ti (introduced in 2016) and the RTX 2080 (introduced in 2019) as they are very similar with very few differences.
GTX stands for Giga Texel Shader eXtreme and RTX stands for Ray Tracing Texel eXtreme, it is not a simple technology to understand by any means but the most fundamental difference between the two is that RTX is specifically designed to do Real-Time Ray Tracing. In simpler terms, it is used to plot the paths of light in video games as they interact (reflect or refract) with the environment in real-time. This results in more beautiful and stunning looking environments, textures and materials in the game.
These are some of the basic differences between the two cards. The RTX 2080 is capable of beating the GTX 1080Ti in 4K games. The 2080 uses faster GDDR6 memory which results in better resolution. It also offers additional rendering enhancements to a Turing architecture card and also supports Real-Time Ray Tracing and DLSS, plus it's cheaper when compared to its counterparts.
While this stuff may sound very impressive, there's no real reason to go with an RTX card if you don't really care about the visuals. Since 4K monitors are very expensive and enabling ray tracing can reduce the frame rate on the monitor, the GTX 1080Ti provides better performance in some games when compared to the RTX 2080.
The newest feature on RTX
- There is a hardware component that is equipped with special ray tracing to track light in real time, as a result it will display accurate visuals as well, this component is called RT Cores
- There is artificial intelligence technology, also known as AI
- There is Variable Rate Shading which will perform high for very stunning details
So, Which One Should You Choose?
The two series have significant differences however the Nvidia GTX 1080Ti will provide better performance in some games but it is not worth the amount of extra cost and since the RTX card comes with the additional features of Ray tracing and DLSS it is a good choice for a mid range PC to the top and because more and more games support ray tracing, this is a good choice now and in the future.
