Intel’s mainstream desktop processors have dominated the gaming market for years. Even though AMD is very tough on Intel nowadays, Intel sometimes manages to beat them in gaming. Though it’s true that some AMD processors provide better value for the price but in case you are just focused on gaming performance, then Intel Core processors are still a great choice.
In this post, we are talking about the Intel Core i5 9600K which is currently a bit older now but still a gaming killer. i5’s have always been the fastest mid-range gaming processors that provide better performance at a lower price than compared to the i7’s. This makes it an excellent choice for a mid to high-end gaming PC that can max out any game if a good graphics card is chosen. I have compiled the following list of Graphics cards that will perform absolutely at their max if they are combined with this processor.
Specifications
- Architecture- Nvidia Turing
- VRAM- 6GB GDDR6
- Cuda Cores- 1536
- TDP- 120W
Even after a couple of years, Nvidia’s GTX 16 series is still kicking ass. The GTX 1660 Ti is still very popular for being a great value card. For a processor like i5 9600K, the Nvidia Geforce GTX 1660 Ti is a perfect match as it can max out any game at 1080p and also at 1440p.
This card possesses powerful specs such as 6GB of VRAM and is faster than the VRAM used in previous-gen cards. It uses GDDR6 memory that runs at an impressive 12Gbps memory speed which makes it faster in games and its 1536 Cuda Cores sit between a mid-end and a high-end GPU.
Though it is not as powerful as the RTX 2060, but surely its price makes it an attractive choice which sits at $280. This is a sweet spot for gamers and will be ideal for playing games on ultra at 1080p as well as 1440p. i5 9600K will maximize its full potential and will in no way bottleneck it.
Specifications
- Architecture- Nvidia Ampere
- VRAM- 12GB GDDR6
- Cuda Cores- 3584
- TDP- 170W
RTX graphics cards are much more powerful than the previous gen 10 series graphics cards. With the launch of RTX 30 series cards, now even Ray Tracing is possible without much compromise. However, I still don’t recommend doing that with mid-end cards like the RTX 3060 but it can surely deliver significantly higher performance than the GTX 1660 Ti.
It comes with 3584 Cuda Cores that is more than double of GTX 1660 Ti and that already makes it a beast in processing a huge amount of graphical data. With 12GB of fast GDDR6 memory, it is capable of maxing out textures as well as other intensive graphical settings for great picture quality. Compared to the previous-gen RTX 2060, it is as much as 20% faster on average in most gaming titles that makes it a perfect beast even for 1440p resolution.
Specifications
- Architecture- AMD Navi 23
- VRAM- 8GB GDDR6
- Stream Processors- 1792
- TDP- 132W
AMD’s RX 6000 series is as good as the RTX 3000 series from Nvidia except in a few cases. Yes, AMD cards face some driver issues frequently than Nvidia cards but things have changed a lot. The latest addition to the RX 6000 series is the RX 6600 which is currently the greatest rival to the RTX 3060.
In most games, both these GPUs collide with each other and in some games, the RTX 3060 wins by a little margin while in some games, things look good with the RX 6600. Overall, both are great performers at 1080p and 1440p resolution and especially when the RX 6600 is now able to provide real-time ray-tracing effects in games, you cannot go wrong with this card.
It features the AMD Navi 23 architecture and features 8GB VRAM that will be enough to max out every game. Moreover, its TDP is much lower than the RTX 3060 making it more power-efficient and will require a lower wattage PSU.
Specifications
- Architecture- Nvidia Ampere
- VRAM- 8GB GDDR6
- Stream Processors- 4864
- TDP- 200W
While in most cases, the ‘Ti’ editions of Nvidia GPUs are roughly 3-5% faster than the non-Ti editions, this time things are much different for the RTX 3060 Ti. RTX 3060 Ti is not a small upgrade from the RTX 3060 but rather brings several significant improvements in its specs that make it a beast for 1440p gaming.
It comes with 4864 Cuda Cores that is roughly 1.3 times that of RTX 3060. The memory bandwidth is also larger with 256-bit compared to 192-bit on 3060. However, the VRAM size is 4GB less sitting at 8GB which I believe is still good as it should be. It won’t pose any bottlenecks whatsoever and will take your graphical settings to the ultra.
According to the benchmarks in gaming, it is roughly 15-20% faster than the RTX 3060 and RX 6600 as well.
Specifications
- Architecture- AMD Navi 23
- VRAM- 8GB GDDR6
- Stream Processors- 2048
- TDP- 160W
Just as the RTX 3060 Ti is to RTX 3060, the RX 6600 XT is to RX 6600. Both the RTX 3060 Ti and RX 6600 XT are great competitors from green and red teams that are perfect for 60 fps gameplay at 1440p. The RX 6600 XT brings higher stream processors than the non-XT version i.e., 2048 compared to 1792.
Also, the clock speeds and memory bandwidth are noticeably higher that helps it to achieve those 10-30 fps higher in games depending upon what game you are playing and what are the graphical settings. This card too will be perfect to combine with the i5 9600K and your PC can potentially last for a couple of years easily.
