Want to have the best GPU possible to support your gaming and streaming activities on Twitch? We’ve got you covered with the 5 best graphics cards that are more than fit for purpose.
If you’re a gaming enthusiast who loves to stream your adventures on Twitch, then you know the importance of having the right graphics card. You don’t want any slow-downs while streaming, or worse yet lag and stuttering that can put off your viewers.
With so many available cards on the market, it can be tricky to choose the right one for your needs.
Don’t worry though – we’ve done all the hard work for you and rounded up our top five picks for the best graphics cards for streaming on Twitch.
I’d also highly recommend that you buy a decent webcam too. All the best Twitch streamers use them, so if you want to create compelling, engaging content you will need to as well.
Read ahead to find out which graphics card will give you crystal-clear visuals, no lagging and uninterrupted performance when it matters most – during your gaming streams.
Best Graphics Cards for Streaming on Twitch
5. MSI AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT
The RX 6600 XT, like the RX 5700 XT before it and any rival graphics card costing approximately $400 from any generation in the previous five years, is an outstanding 1080p GPU for streaming. In reality, it ought to be a given, and we need to at least be hoping to push high refresh rate displays at 1440p when spending this much on a GPU.
If you’re looking to get your hands on this fairly budget yet impressive graphics card, you’ll be looking at spending around $400.
4. MSI GeForce RTX 3060
The GeForce RTX 3060 is fantastic for casual gamers if it can be purchased for under $350. However, in the current market, even with lowered mining performance, that is quite improbable, since its performance falls in between that of the RTX 2060 Super and 2070 Super, which you could well actually be trying to upgrade from.
This particular graphics card also sits at around the $400 price tag. You need to look at what you need in particular from your card when weighing up whether the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 or the MSI AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT is the right option for you.
3. ZOTAC GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Trinity OC
ZOTAC is always eager to try something new with their custom GeForce graphics cards, and that willingness is reflected in the design of this card, which has a triple-fan cooler. The ZOTAC GeForce RTX 3070 Ti AMP Holo is a great graphics card for 1080p and 1440p gaming and can handle 4K at 60 frames per second with ease.
Gaming at 4K at 60FPS+ is now a realistic goal, while 120FPS+ is possible in a wide variety of games at 1080p and 1440p thanks to NVIDIA’s miraculous DLSS technology.
Like what you hear? Well, you’ll be looking at around $650 for the privilege of adding this component to your latest PC build. We can’t stress enough how great this price is value-wise, though.
2. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition
With respectable 8K gaming performance and mind-blowing 3D rendering and transcoding capabilities, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 is the most powerful graphics card currently available. This kind of might comes at a heavy cost, however. The RTX 3090 is a steal for those working in the creative industries, but not for the overwhelming majority of consumers.
$1,500 and this beautiful piece of technology can be yours. It’s far from cheap, but if you’re serious about making a career out of streaming your favourite games or content, you need to see this as an investment for your future.
1. Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090
The RTX 4090 is a technical and performance powerhouse that much outclasses its predecessors. The new standard has been set very high, with considerable improvements to all the core hardware and much faster clock speeds, as well as forward-looking technology like DLSS 3, which comes at a hefty price.
The ultimate graphics card for streaming on Twitch comes at the ultimate price. While you could be lucky and find it a little cheaper in a flash sale, you’re most likely looking at just short of $2,000 to add this to your streaming arsenal.
GTX Vs. RTX
GTX is great for budget games, but RTX has so much more to offer content makers, broadcasters, and gamers. While RTX is most impressive in games, it also performs well on video editing PCs, graphic design workstations, and other creative devices.
The Ray Tracing capabilities of RTX GPUs are the most appreciated part of these features. Developers may accelerate ray tracing in games using APIs like NVIDIA OptiX, Microsoft DXR, and Vulkan.
In addition to Ray Tracing, RTX includes access to NVIDIA’s AI capabilities through the NGX Software Development Kit. Using AI, studios may improve their games’ speed, reducing the load on the GPU and making it easier to calculate very complex images.
Specialized cores called Tensor Cores effectively perform complex computations, allowing for greater framerates and resolution increases from lower-quality input images. The anti-aliasing of the computed pictures is what Super Sampling is all about, and it’s responsible for the silky smooth visuals and the increased fps.
Best Graphics Card For Gaming
If you’re thinking about running a dual-PC setup like most of today’s top streamers, you might be in the market for a separate gaming graphics card as well.
Again, there are plenty of options to look at, but there is one in particular that we always recommend based on value as well as the power you get that is perfectly suited to today’s technology:
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080
The RTX 3080, powered by the Ampere architecture, gives you all the tools of a professional-grade home studio, including an NVIDIA broadcast and NVENC encoder.
If you use an RTX 3080 to stream your gameplay, you can count on frame rates in the triple digits while your spectators enjoy a smooth 60 frames per second or more on Twitch or any other streaming platform.
