What is the difference between GTX and RTX graphics cards

When it comes to choosing a graphics card, there are a lot of features and specs to consider. Nvidia is the market leader when it comes to graphics cards, and their latest RTX cards offer some great benefits such as Ray-tracing and DLSS. But what exactly is the difference between GTX and RTX? And which one should you get?

Here, we break down the key differences between the two cards and tell you why we think they’re both worth your time. Read on to find out more!

Table of contents

Section 1: What is the difference between RTX and GTX?

Subsection 1.1: What is a GTX graphics card(detail)?

Subsection 1.2: What is an RTX graphics card?

Subsection 1.3: What is Ray tracing and DLSS, and what are their advantages?

Section 2: Which one should you get?

Subsection 2.1: Which GTX or RTX Graphics cards are good?

Section 3: Conclusion

What is the difference between RTX and GTX?

The Nvidia GTX graphics card are the old graphics card by Nvidia, and the RTX graphics card are the newest in the market. The two are very similar, with one main difference. The GTX use older technology, but on the other hand, the RTX uses the latest and fastest technology. Simply put, Nvidia RTX is a newer, faster, and better graphics card for gaming than Nvidia GTX. Both GTX and RTX are variants under GeForce. But let’s discuss both GTX and RTX in detail.

What is a GTX graphics card?

The Full form or the meaning of the word GTX is Giga Texel Shader eXtreme (GTX). The first GTX series graphics card (GTX 200 series) was released in 2008, and the last GTX series graphics card (GTX 16 Series) in 2019. The GTX graphics cards are the older series by Nvidia. They may be based on the Maxwell 2.0, Pascal, or the Turing architecture etc. There are different GTX series like the GeForce 900 Series, 10 series or 16 series. Each series is based on a different architecture. For example, the GeForce 900 series is based on the Maxwell 2.0 architecture, the GeForce 10 series is based on Pascal architecture, and the 16 Series is based on Turing architecture. The latest is the Turing architecture.

Here word “older” doesn’t mean that they are slower; tons of GTX graphics cards are very powerful. The GTX 900 series, GTX 10 series, 16 Series have powerful cards. There are many different graphics cards in each series, like in the GTX 16 series; there are Nvidia GTX 1650, GTX 1660 or GTX 1660 Ti. The fastest is GTX 1660 Ti. The fastest in GTX 10 Series is the GTX 1080 Ti, which is much faster than many RTX graphics cards.

There is one major difference between this series: GTX does not support Ray-tracing and DLSS.

What is an RTX graphics card?

The RTX graphics cards are the graphics card that supports Ray-tracing and DLSS. The full form or the meaning of RTX is Ray Tracing Texel eXtreme. The RTX graphics cards were released after the GTX series in 2018. There are many RTX graphics cards like the RTX 2060 Super, 2080 Ti and the latest RTX 30 Series graphics cards like RTX 3060 Ti, RTX 3070 Ti etc. Almost every RTX graphics card is faster and can efficiently run every latest game.

You might be thinking, what is Ray tracing and DLSS, and what are their advantages?

Ray tracing produces realistic light effects in games, or you can say it drastically improves the lighting effects and reflections. With Ray tracing enabled, you can see objects much clearer. Not every game supports Ray tracing, but now many games have Ray tracing features.

DLSS is actually Deep Learning Super Sampling. It is an excellent feature only in the RTX graphics card. The main advantage of DLSS is that it increases FPS in games once turned on. Not every latest game support DLSS, but now almost every latest game has Ray-tracing and DLSS support. DLSS not only improves FPS but also makes game graphics look better.

Which one should you get?

Well, there is no straightforward answer for that. If you want a very powerful graphics card, then RTX graphics cards are an excellent option. With the release of the RTX 3000 series, the RTX graphics cards became much affordable. The Nvidia RTX 3070 can easily run every latest game at 1440p and 4K resolution and was released for only USD 499. On the other hand, GTX 1080 Ti was released with a price tag of 699$ and is much slower than RTX 3070.

If you want to do intense gaming, then RTX graphics cards are recommended. If you are an average gamer and don’t need Ray-tracing & DLSS features, or if your budget is limited, GTX graphics cards are recommended.

Which GTX and RTX graphics cards are good?

There are hundreds of GTX and RTX graphics cards, but there are some best options. The GTX series’s best budget option is GTX 1660 Super, and the most powerful GTX graphics card is the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti.

In the RTX series, the best budget option is Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, and the most powerful RTX graphics card is the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090.

Conclusion

GTX and RTX graphics cards differ in that GTX cards were released earlier, whereas RTX cards are the latest. The RTX graphics cards support Raytracing and DLSS, but the GTX graphics cards don’t.

The RTX graphics cards are generally more powerful than GTX graphics cards. The Latest RTX graphics cards provide a much better price to performance than GTX graphics cards.