Best Graphics Cards for VR (GPU for VR) in the UK

Virtual reality or high-end gaming, there's nothing that the RTX 2070S cannot handle. This card is a beast, delivering top-notch performance in the most demanding titles and at the highest graphics settings. With real-time ray tracing, the GPU reproduces lifelike lighting, stunning reflections, and deep shadows, making the picture much more realistic than what traditional rendering techniques can give you.

Plus, with the Turing™ architecture, the card fuses the above-mentioned real-time ray tracing with artificial intelligence and programmable shading. The "S" in the GPU's name takes the 2,304 CUDA cores that the generic RTX 2070 is packing and bumps the count up to 2,560. Likewise, the model delivers a 1,830 MHz boost clock rate.

But, before we keep unpacking its performance, let's discuss the card's appearance. Between the black and gunmetal grey combination atop the classy but also flashy brushed metal backplate, the GPU looks awesome, even without taking into account the smooth RGBs on the outside that gaming hardware is seldom complete without.

Cooling-wise, the card adopts TORX FAN 3.0. With double ball bearings, the dispersion fan blade with its steep curves accelerates the airflow, while the traditional fan blade delivers a steady stream to the sizable heatsink beneath. Improving its aerodynamics, the 'sink ensures excellent heat dissipation, keeping the card's temperature low and performance high.

The PowerColor Radeon RX 5700 XT Red Devil looks naughty even before revealing its specs. With RGB lighting both on the sides and on the card's back, the new-and-improved Red Devil makes quite an impression, matching the gamiest rigs' RGB schemes.

Featuring triple 90-mm fans and a beefy 300-mm cooler, the updated PCB design integrates 10 VRMs using DrMos and high-polymer caps. Meanwhile, the 1.5-mm metal backplate makes sure the card is strengthened and its heat dissipation is on point. The cooler's pretty cool as well though. Employing 5 heat pipes and 30% more heat sink surface area, this bad boy keeps the card running cool and quiet.

Borrowing inspiration from the previous Red Devil iteration, the cooling fans adopt two ball bearings which ensure 4X longevity. To add more, the card comes equipped with PowerColor's staple Mute Fan tech, turning the fan off below 60 degrees Celcius so that the system remains silent during low- and medium-load moments.

Likewise, the GPU's vertical design and its increased aluminum fin array spreads the heat across the entire card, while the massive fins collect it and dissipate the heat with improved efficiency. Contributing to the same cause, there are also hollow areas on the card that dissipate the heat from the graphics card and its heatsink.

The EVGA GeForce RTX 2060 Super SC Ultra Gaming is not just an excellent video card for VR gaming. No, this is the card that hits in the middle, the card that most people will appreciate and can benefit from, including casuals and prosumers. First things first, the card utilises the same cutting-edge Turing architecture that its 2000 series predecessors have used before. However, this time around, you're offered improvements across the board, including VRAM and core counts.

Featuring 2,176 CUDA cores, the card processes more data and performs more game graphic calculations than the generic RTX 2060. Between the increased CUDA core count and the 1680 MHz base clock rate, the GPU's raw output pushes 7.2 TFLOPs, which is nothing to sneeze at considering the model's mid-range seat at the graphics card table. Likewise, with the GDDR6 VRAM count reaching 8 GB, the card is futureproofed, making 140p gaming more feasible.

Physically, however, the model's almost indistinguishable from the RTX 2060 Founders Edition version. The one appearance difference between the two is that the Founders Edition card has a chrome stripe below the logo, making the card more reflective. Of course, without a see-through case, you won't even notice this difference, so this is nothing to be jealous of.

The MSI GTX 1660 SUPER VENTUS XS is a small card that will have no issues fitting even mini-ITX cases. But, reducing its size, the card also reduces its VRAM count, stopping at 6 GB. Today, 6GB is plenty, but there's a decent chance you'll start finding the card's VRAM package insufficient a few years down the road. What will remain sufficient in the foreseeable future is the GPU's respectable budget performance.

In Time Spy, the card is almost as fast as GTX 1660 Ti, its much more expensive step-up stablemate. In the same game, the GPU is a whopping 14% more responsive than the generIC RTX 1660 version that the card replaces. Running Fire Strike, the difference between this card and GTX 1660 Ti becomes even more negligible. Sure, these are not the most hardware-demanding titles. But, judging on the usual Metro Exodus scale, the card averages above 40 fps at 1080p, which is not bad at all. In the less strenuous Middle Earth: Shadow of War, the subject graphics card dominates the game, averaging almost 80 fps at 1080p on the Ultra quality settings. Because Metro Exodus is an outlier even among AAA titles, more often than not, the card will give you excellent (~60-70 fps) framerates in most games.

The GPU can even somewhat handle 1440p gaming, but a few cracks here and there will start showing up. In the same LOTR-based game, this graphics card stands tall, pushing almost 55 fps on average. But, with games that are not quite as well-optimised (like the aforementioned Metro Exodus), the card will seldom scrape up more than 35 fps, which is 100% playable. But, as far as PC gaming is concerned, where 60 fps remains the name of the game, the card's 1440p performance remains inconsistent.

The Sapphire Radeon RX 580 Pulse might be a rebadge but we would advise against grouping this GPU with pushovers that most rebadges are. No, considering the low-end price tag that the card carries, its performance is commendable. But before we discuss what this graphics card is bringing to the performance table, let's review its design.

To start with, the card integrates Sapphire's trademark Intelligent Fan Control tech. Updated, this tech makes sure that, when the workload is light, the fans do not spin at all, keeping the card silent. At the same time, they will automatically restart the moment you fire up any system-intensive app.

Before that, the card's sleek and elegant contours will suit casual builds and expensive gaming rigs alike. The black-and-white finish with a single clean blue LED logo makes the card look polished and subtle. The all-aluminum backplate behind these contours delivers additional rigidity, making sure that the GPU does not bend and that the dust stays out. To add more, the backplate increases the card's heat dissipation, preventing its circuitry from overheating.

Aside from the backplate and the internal circuitry the 'plate covers, this graphics card incorporates high-polymer capacitors. Made from the same high-strength aluminum that the backplate is made from, these capacitors should last ~200,000 hours, so there's almost no chance they will give you before you replace the card.