For years, conventional wisdom when getting a new graphics card was to go with NVIDIA.
Following this advice, you probably encountered both the RTX and GTX classifications. If you’re uncertain about which of these you should purchase, you’ve come to the right place.
In contrast to those years, in 2025, AMD now offers some truly exceptional alternatives to NVIDIA with its latest generation of graphics cards. Even so, NVIDIA is still generally the preferable option.
This is largely due to its longevity as the market leader and because the enormous majority of cards released by NVIDIA in the past five years are superior to what AMD had to offer.
Let’s explore what each prefix indicates and why they have been employed. As GTX came originally, we’ll start there.
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Giga Texel Shader eXtreme (GTX)
Since the release of the GeForce 7000 series in 2005, NVIDIA has assigned the GTX suffix to its premium parts.
It would be misleading to say that this trend endured up to the release of the RTX cards, as NVIDIA gradually increased the number of GTX-branded cards. Following the release of the 900 series cards in 2014, nearly all GeForce cards had the GTX suffix.
As cards that predate the 900 series are no longer beneficial for much in 2025, we will only discuss the 900, 1000, and 1600 series cards in this section. It’s also a sensible idea to divide this discussion clearly, as AMD wasn’t on par with NVIDIA from the release of the 900 series cards until the release of the 6000 series in 2020.
Although the 1600 series cards technically belong with the GTX cards, it’s worth noting that they were released in 2019, a year after the launch of the initial RTX cards.
Although the performance margin isn’t extreme, the price gap is simply too enormous to ignore. If you want a GTX card, the GTX 1600 series should be a no-brainer. However, there are some significant drawbacks to it in comparison to the RTX cards.
Ray Tracing Texel eXtreme (RTX)
The notable aspect of the RTX cards is that they have beam tracing, a technology that generates ultra-realistic lighting effects by executing real-time particle simulations. Whether or not this advanced feature is sufficient to justify the extra cost is up to the individual user.
DLSS 2.0 is another remarkable feature that substantially increases the gap between RTX and GTX cards.
Furthermore, with the release of the RTX 3000 series cards, the accessibility of ray tracing has expanded.
Here is a demonstration of NVIDIA’s sophisticated ray tracing technology, showcased through their robust cards.
Even though it was launched in September 2020, the current availability of RTX 3000 series cards during the 2020 holiday period remains uncertain.
However, at some point, likely in Q1 2022, we’re bound to see these things level out and have much easier access to these cards. At this point, the RTX 3000 series cards will likely be available for the same price as the top GTX 1600 series cards while also being far more advanced.
The RTX 3000 series cards were not the initial RTX cards launched. In 2018, we witnessed the RTX 2000 series, which entirely transformed the landscape of video game graphics.
However, these cards are on the expensive side. If you’re interested in buying an RTX card (and have the requisite patience), you should hold out for the RTX 3060 Ti or an RTX 3070.
