EVGA GTX 1060 3GB SC Gaming $226

SO, WHERE IS AMD in all of this? The sad reality is that AMD isn’t providing any competitive solutions at any of the right price points. Vega’s lack of availability and sub-par performance has left the upper echelons empty, while the midrange and budget solutions suffer from cryptocurrency fever. Unless you absolutely cannot live without FreeSync, there is no justifiable reason to run with an AMD card, either as an upgrade or in a fresh build.

At the budget end, there’s only one choice: the GTX 1060 3GB. We’ve recommended it all year, and for good reason: It’s at the price and performance sweet spot, even up against Nvidia’s own GTX 1050 Ti. Look at the figures—for $40 more, you get a card that’s 50 percent faster than the next step down, gives the GTX 980 a run for its money, and masticates 1080p. Because Nvidia’s GTX 1050 Ti is so unattractive, seemingly nothing more than a die shrink, and spec for spec almost identical to the 950, the 1060 3GB is incredibly appealing.