Gaming in 4K is a much more approachable topic for users on a stricter budget in 2024 than it used to be. This was in most part due to the release of the RTX 3000 series from Nvidia coinciding with a crypto-centric mining boom that saw relentless demand for GPUs. With the RTX 4000 series initially being positioned at the highest pricing tiers possible as Nvidia and its AIB partners waited for last-generation inventories to clear out, most users looking for a 4K-capable GPU upgrade were on the fence for a very long time.
ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super OC
A TUF Value-Centric Competitor
The ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super OC is a factory-overclocked RTX 4070 Ti SUPER GPU offering an excellent tri-fan cooler with a vapor chamber.With a 10% bump in CUDA cores over its predecessor, high boost clocks, and the TUF gaming lineup’s penchant for reliability in tow, the ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super OC is the complete package for gamers looking to play games in 2K at a high refresh and occasionally dabble with 4K in some titles with ease.
For gamers looking to play at a 4K or similar resolution in 2024, there are plenty of options at the sub-$1000 mark or even higher when it comes to GPUs. While it would be wrong to call the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER’s prowess something that was overlooked, most users might discount the added 4GB of VRAM that enables it to become a far more viable contender when it comes to gaming at 4K without making compromises.
This, coupled with the fact that the SUPER offering is a bit faster than the RTX 4070 Ti that it replaces at the same price point, makes it a no-brainer for users who were previously on the fence about the latter. The ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super OC offers all of this in a well-built package that further strengthens the value-centric approach that the AIB has taken when it comes to building performant, silent, and cool GPUs, especially at the higher tier.
The GPU comes with a smidge of RGB lighting, which could mean that users wanting a more aesthetic build could end up wanting more than what the TUF has to offer. At the same time, the TUF is significantly larger than most mid-range GPUs, which can limit its use in most smaller cases, something that users might want to check up on before getting what is otherwise an uncompromising GPU for gamers and productivity professionals in 2024.
Sapphire AMD Radeon NITRO+ RX 7900 XTX Vapor-X
AMD’s Best To Date
The Sapphire Nitro lineup is synonymous with the highest-end AMD 3rd-party GPU offerings in the market. The Nitro+ doubles down on this with the highest-in-market clocks and a vapor chamber that outperforms the stock design considerably while trading at a significant premium over competing 7900XTX-based products.
Users looking for the fastest AMD CPU available don’t have to look much further than the Sapphire AMD Radeon NITRO+ RX 7900 XTX Vapor-X. It packs impressive boost clocks, a powerful cooler, and build quality that eclipses the competition considerably. It also offers 24GB of GDDR6 RAM, 8GB more than its nearest competition, the RTX 4080 SUPER, while holding its own in benchmarks versus the same.
While the RX 7900 XTX does do noticeably worse in ray-tracing performance versus its Nvidia counterparts, it delivers excellent value for money where it counts. The 24GB of fast GDDR6 memory holds its own against most of its competition that clocks in at 16GB of GDDR6 or GDDR6X memory currently. It keeps up where it counts for most gamers looking for a brute of a GPU that can easily handle gaming at 4K: rasterization. Plus, it offers better RT performance than its predecessors from AMD.
The Sapphire Nitro+ is a premium take on the RX 7900XTXwhich can be found for as low as $900 from other AIB players. However, it’s one that users could say makes up for the $100 premium it charges versus the competition as it offers a superior version of AMD’s finest GPU that can handle 4K games quite well.
ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090 OC Edition
ROG Superiority Galore
The ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090 OC Edition may be one of its largest GPUs ever, but the patented design supports the most potent overclocking potential out of its peers.With a vapor chamber in tow, the ROG Strix comes in both black and white and does not disappoint in either looks or power. It is easily the most powerful 4090 out there, clocking at a stable 3120 MHz in Game Rant’s in-house testing.
Users wanting to game at 4K while turning up all the settings to max can turn to one of the best RTX 4090 GPUs in the business. The ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090 OC holds its own against the competition while offering significant power under the hood. Plus, it has overclocking headroom for modders due to a powerful cooler, excellent power delivery, and one of the most well-built designs when it comes to Nvidia’s RTX 4000 series GPUs.
The RTX 4090 itself comes with a whopping 24GB of GDDR6X memory that can do over 1TB/s in bandwidth on offer as well as 16,384 CUDA cores that keep it head and shoulders above the competition. ASUS’s offering throws in a higher boost clock than any of its competition in addition to a massive cooler that should appease some of the most ardent modders and overclockers out there.
The ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090 OC is more than just a number-crunching behemoth. It offers one of the best aesthetic upgrades generation-on-generation versus the older RTX 3090 from ASUS. With a unique design in play and a massive heatsink covering its vapor chamber, it is one of the chunkiest players in the business, albeit one that can justify its significantly higher ask versus the competition in a price bracket where people pay top dollar for relatively minute performance gains between SKUs.
MSI RTX 4070 SUPER 12G Gaming X Slim
Tri-Fan Juggernaut
The MSI RTX 4070 SUPER 12G Gaming X Slim is an excellent tri-fan take on Nvidia’s newest RTX 4070 GPU that offers a high boost overclock, the new Tri-Frozr 3 cooler to keep temperatures low and a metal backplate.It also features a dual-slot design, making it an excellent GPU for gamers looking to fit one in their PC without covering the bulk of their motherboard or case area in addition to keeping temperatures low thanks to its tri-fan offerings.
For users needing a more entry-level GPU for gaming at 4K, one does need to consider that it is an oxymoron given that 4K gaming itself can bring most modern PCs down to their knees relatively easily. Looking at an option closer to $500 than $1000 does have limitations, but the MSI RTX 4070 SUPER 12G Gaming X Slim does an excellent job, packing in significantly more power than the RTX 4070 SKU it replaces while retaining the same price quote with a $50 premium intact when it comes to entry-level RTX 4070 SUPER SKUs.
For the added money, MSI offers an excellent tri-fan cooler along with better build quality than most of its peers. This contributes to a GPU that, despite its slimmer profile than most of its competition, runs relatively cooler and quieter than most of those in the same price bracket. While the 12GB of VRAM could be an issue for future games if 4K gaming with high-resolution textures is what users demand, the RTX 4070 SUPER does do a decent job for most titles currently, and with a bit of smart tweaking on the settings front, users should be able to play a multitude of titles at either 2K/QHD or 4K/UHD resolutions with ease.
XFX Speedster MERC310 RX 7900 XT Black
A Tweaker’s Paradise
The XFX Speedster MERC310 is a no-frills performer that offers great value and non-nonsense cooling thanks to its custom MERC Triple Fan Cooling Solution that performs better than the stock SKU while keeping temperatures low thanks to its built-in vapor chamber as part of the thermal solution.
AMD’s penultimate GPU, the RX 7900XT, is arguably a better value-for-money purchase than its more expensive XTX alternative currently with a sub-$200 discount for a small performance cut along with 20GB (versus 24GB) of fast GDDR6 VRAM on offer. As a result, the XFX Speedster MERC310 RX 7900 XT Black does offer better value for money than many of its peers on both the AMD as well as the Nvidia end of the spectrum when it comes to rasterization.
It also comes with a surprisingly large amount of overclocking headroom as it leverages a large cooler that functions well in general. Users might, however, find the fan curve to be too aggressive, resulting in a noisier GPU than its peers, but there are guides out there that help with tweaking its settings to be more acceptable in most situations.
The RX 7900XT does have somewhat inferior ray-tracing performance on offer versus its Nvidia counterparts but does deliver an excellent option overall for gamers thanks to a mix of excellent rasterization performance and extra VRAM on offer, both of which make it a potent option for gamers looking to play the latest games in 4K.
GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER AERO OC 16G
All All-White GPU Power Broker
The GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER AERO OC 16G is a premium, factory-overclocked, white-themed variant of the RTX 4080 SUPER that carries the high-end AERO moniker.With an excellent tri-fan air cooler supporting a vapor chamber and a decent boost clock speed offering in tow, the all-white Gigabyte AERO OC offers much more than the competition at a premium.
For users looking for one of the most powerful 4K experiences out there but with a focus on aesthetics, the white-themed GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER AERO OC 16G is one of the best options out there. It comes with all of the perks that the RTX 4080 SUPER offers as Nvidia’s penultimate GPU, including the ability to handle 4K content exceptionally well.
The large cooler offers excellent cooling and low noise levels even as Gigabyte backs its offering with up to four years of warranty cover for peace of mind. Gigabyte’s offering does come in with a somewhat high $150 premium, even as its larger size might be a limiting factor for gamers looking to fit one in their existing older medium-sized cases.
With 16GB of fast GDDR6X VRAM and a lower price than the outgoing RTX 4080, the RTX 4080 SUPER needs little introduction even as it bumps up its performance offering slightly to make it a more viable alternative to its predecessor. The RTX 4080 SUPER’s AERO OC take provides an excellent factory overclock along with build quality that holds its own versus some of the best in the business with ease in 2024. This makes it uniquely poised to be both a great looker and one of the fastest 4K GPUs money can buy to crank things up to the maximum with Nvidia’s DLSS tech simply adding more leeway when it comes to performance in the future.
Gaming on PC At 4K In 2024: Why Is It More Viable?
Nvidia’s more recent announcement of the RTX 4070 SUPER, RTX 4070 Ti SUPER, and the RTX 4080 SUPER means that gamers now have a viable option for gaming at higher resolutions and enjoy better performance at multiple pricing tiers. This is due to a multitude of factors including:
AMD on the other hand has responded with a series of price cuts, especially at the higher end of its product spectrum, along with more “budget-centric” high-end options, such as the RX 7900 GRE (“Golden Rabbit Edition”) that clocks in at just $550. This makes for exciting times for gamers looking to grab a 4K-capable GPU for gaming in 2024 with plenty of options, competition, and AIB players emerging since the start of the year.
FAQ
Q: How Much VRAM Do I Need To Run Games At 4K?
While this will vary from game to game, running titles at 4K is demanding for titles which also come with high-resolution textures. Users should ideally aim for 16GB of VRAM, if not more to avoid memory-related bottlenecks.
Q: What Is The Fastest GPU For Gaming In 4K In 2024?
The fastest GPU to game on in 4K or similar resolutions is the Nvidia RTX 4090. The ASUS Strix 4090 OC is one of the fastest RTX 4090 SKUs out there currently making it arguably the fastest choice out of the box for gaming in 4K.
