In The List
| Preview | Product | Rating | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ZOTAC Gaming GeForce RTX™ 3060 Ti Twin Edge OC... | Order On Amazon | ||
| XFX Speedster QICK319 AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT Black... | $599.99 | Order On Amazon | |
| ZOTAC GeForce RTX™ 3070 Ti Trinity OC 8GB GDDR6X... | $1,172.15 | Order On Amazon | |
| GIGABYTE AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT GAMING OC 16G... | $929.99 $599.99 | Order On Amazon |
Thankfully, you can finally afford a GPU at a reasonable price, and with a lot of options available right now, it’s a great time to buy a GPU if you own an i5 12600K or are planning to buy one.
No doubt, this processor is a beast and with 10 cores and 16 threads, it is an absolute future-proof chip that will do other CPU-intensive tasks as well. The i5 12600K, however, needs a worthy GPU to be used with as it is simply not just a 1080p gaming processor.
Core i5 12600K has the capability of handling any graphics card on the planet but at the same time considering your target fps, resolution, and graphical settings along with your budget should determine what you should buy. So, here are the top 4 GPUs I recommend going with the i5 12600K.
Nvidia Geforce RTX 3060 Ti
- NVIDIA Ampere architecture, 2nd Gen Ray Tracing...
- Boost Clock 1695 MHz, 8GB 256-bit GDDR6, 14 Gbps,...
- White LED Logo Lighting, IceStorm 2.0 Advanced...
- 8K Ready, 4 Display Ready, HDCP 2.3, VR...
The first choice, if you want to play all the AAA titles on the highest settings at 1440p, should be the RTX 3060 Ti. This GPU is a beast with it, you easily achieve 60+ fps on ultra settings. Performance-wise, it is faster than the GTX 1080 Ti which although is a 5-year-old card but as I still own it, I know how powerful it is.
The advantage over the 1080 Ti, however, is that the RTX 3060 Ti can do ray tracing and you will also have the support for DLSS. These two factors will make gaming performance better and visuals to the next level. It comes with 4864 Cuda Cores and a VRAM of 8GB GDDR6 clocked at 15Gbps. These specs are ideal for 1440p gaming and at 1080p, you can kill any esports games with 200+ fps.
Compared to its competitor from the Red Team, it is superior to the RX 6600 XT in gaming as well as in Ray Tracing and delivers exceptional performance without losing the beautiful visuals. The only disadvantage currently, is that it is way more expensive than the 6600 XT and due to this, I would prefer the RX 6600 XT until the GPU prices come to normal.
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT
- Memory Speed:16 Gbps
- Chipset: AMD RX 6700 XT
- Memory: 12GB GDDR6 AMD RDNA 2 architecture...
- Boost Clock: Up To 2622MHz
At a price much lower than that of the RTX 3070 and even the 3060 Ti right now, the RX 6700 XT is an excellent choice and will further increase the fps numbers on your screen. It is an excellent 1440p gaming card that will require no compromises in graphics settings from your side.
It comes with 2560 Stream Processors and 12GB of VRAM featuring GDDR6 memory. It beats the RTX 3060 Ti in most games with up to 5% gains in performance and therefore, the current pricing makes it a great competitor to the RTX 3060 Ti and a perfect card to use with the i5 12600K.
Nvidia Geforce RTX 3070 Ti
- Memory Speed:19 Gbps.Digital Max...
- NVIDIA Ampere architecture, 2nd Gen Ray Tracing...
- 8GB 256-bit GDDR6X, 19 Gbps, PCIE 4.0; Boost Clock...
- SPECTRA 2.0 RGB Lighting, IceStorm 2.0 Advanced...
Geforce RTX 3070 Ti is a completely different story. The GPU is an upgrade over the RTX 3070 with more Cuda Cores and an upgrade over the GDDR6 memory. RTX 3070 Ti comes with GDDR6X memory, however, it is the same size as the non-Ti version i.e., 8GB. This card beats the RX 6700 XT in most titles with up to 10% more fps, however, in some, it ties with the latter.
It is more powerful in Ray-Tracing and can possibly play a lot of games on high to ultra settings at 4K resolution. While I don’t recommend going for 4K, in case you want to, then you can achieve close to 60 fps by tweaking some settings.
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT
- Digital Max Resolution:7680x4320.Form Factor:ATX
- Powered by RDNA2 Radeon RX 6800 XT
- Integrated with 16GB GDDR6 256-bit memory...
- WINDFORCE 3X Cooling System with alternate...
AMD RX 6800 XT is a few percent faster than the RTX 3070 Ti and currently, costs the same on most retail sites. The RX 6800 XT, however, has an advantage over the RTX 3070 Ti in memory. It comes with double the memory size which is more than enough for maxing out any game even at 4K resolution.
It comes with 4608 Stream Processors and significantly better Ray Tracing features than the 6700 XT. The Compute Units and Ray Accelerators of RX 6800 XT are almost double that of the RX 6700 XT making it an ideal GPU for Ray Tracing in games but make no mistake, the RTX 3070 Ti is still superior in Ray Tracing.
But when it comes to value for money, RX 6800 XT is as good as the RTX 3070 Ti.
Final Words
There are a few more choices that could have been made to the list but based on different factors, I only listed the top ones for the i5 12600K. If you have any questions regarding the GPU selection or related to any PC hardware, let me know in the comments section below.
