RTX vs GTX Graphics Card

GTX and RTX aren’t two competing brands, they’re two generations of the same Nvidia lineup. GTX cards topped out with the GTX 16-series (1650, 1660), while RTX started with the 2000-series in 2018 and continues through the current 4000 and 5000-series cards. If you’re shopping today, this is really a question of old stock versus current hardware, and what features you’re willing to pay extra for.

What actually changed between GTX and RTX

The headline difference is dedicated hardware. RTX cards added two things GTX never had: RT cores for real-time ray tracing (realistic lighting, reflections, shadows) and Tensor cores for AI-accelerated upscaling, which Nvidia markets as DLSS. GTX cards can run modern games, but they’re doing everything with brute-force shader power and no AI assist.

In practice, ray tracing on a GTX card isn’t really an option, it tanks frame rates to unplayable levels on the rare game that even lets you enable it. DLSS is the bigger loss for GTX owners. It’s not just a visual gimmick, it lets a mid-range card render at a lower internal resolution and upscale with minimal quality loss, often recovering 30-50% of your frame rate. Without it, GTX cards have to rely on lowering native resolution or settings instead, which looks worse than DLSS at the same performance cost.

Performance, generation for generation

People assume “RTX” automatically means faster, but that’s not guaranteed when you compare across generations. An old RTX 2060 isn’t dramatically ahead of a GTX 1660 Super in raw rasterized performance, the gap only opens up once you turn on ray tracing or DLSS, things the GTX card can’t do at all. Where RTX pulls ahead consistently is in newer generations: a current RTX 4060 or 5060-class card beats any GTX card in every metric, because it’s also several architecture jumps newer.

When buying a GTX card still makes sense

If you’re building a budget PC strictly for esports titles like CS2, Valorant, or League of Legends at 1080p, a used GTX 1660 or 1660 Super is still a legitimate option, provided the price is low enough. These games don’t need ray tracing, and at high frame rates on a budget monitor, DLSS matters less too. The failure mode here is paying GTX-adjacent prices for a card that’s now five-plus years old with no warranty and a used-silicon lottery attached. If a used GTX 1660 Super costs within $20-30 of a new RTX 3050 or entry-level RTX 4060, skip it, the RTX card gives you a feature path forward and actual support.

GTX also makes sense in office or workstation builds where 3D rendering isn’t happening and you just need multiple display outputs and basic acceleration. Don’t buy new GTX stock for a gaming build in 2024 onward, it’s increasingly hard to find, often overpriced relative to entry RTX cards, and Nvidia’s driver and feature attention is clearly moving on.

When RTX is worth the premium

Any game released in the last three years is being built with DLSS and ray tracing in mind, even if those features are optional. That means an RTX card ages better: when a new game runs rough, you have a toggle (DLSS, Frame Generation) that a GTX owner doesn’t have. For 1440p gaming or anything touching ray tracing, modern RTX cards like the RTX 4060 series are the realistic entry point now, not the older 2000 or 3000-series cards, which are increasingly hard to find new and don’t support the latest DLSS Frame Generation.

If you’re on a tighter budget but still want ray tracing and upscaling as options rather than hard requirements, last-gen cards like the RTX 3060 are often the better value than stretching for current-gen, especially if you find one discounted. The trade-off is you lose the newest DLSS Frame Generation features and get noticeably lower ray tracing performance, so don’t buy one specifically to play ray-traced games at good frame rates.

For anyone building a new system from scratch with a budget around $300-400 for the GPU alone, it’s worth comparing current RTX graphics cards directly rather than chasing GTX nostalgia, the price gap has narrowed enough that GTX rarely wins on pure value anymore.

Who should buy what

Esports-only gamer on a strict budget, buying used: GTX 1660 Super is fine if the price is genuinely low. Anyone building new, even on a budget: buy entry RTX, not GTX, the price difference is usually too small to justify losing DLSS. Anyone touching 1440p or wanting to play newer AAA titles with decent settings: RTX 4000-series or newer, don’t settle for older RTX cards unless the discount is substantial. Office or non-gaming workstation: either works, buy whichever is cheaper and has the display outputs you need.

FAQ

Can a GTX card run ray tracing at all?

No, GTX cards have no RT cores, so ray tracing either isn’t offered as an option in-game or runs at single-digit frame rates if forced on through workarounds. Treat GTX as a non-ray-tracing card entirely.

Is DLSS only available on RTX cards?

Yes, DLSS requires Tensor cores, which only RTX cards have. GTX cards can sometimes use FSR, AMD’s alternative upscaler, in games that support it, but image quality and availability are generally a step behind DLSS.

Should I upgrade from an older RTX card to a newer one?

Only if you’re hitting real performance walls in games you actually play, or you want current-gen DLSS Frame Generation. Jumping from an RTX 3070 to an RTX 4060, for example, isn’t a clear upgrade in raw performance, check specific benchmarks for your card pair before spending money.

Is a used GTX card ever worth buying today?

Only at a genuinely low price for a budget esports-focused build. Factor in no warranty and aging hardware, if a new entry-level RTX card is within $30-40, it’s usually the smarter buy long-term.