It’s been an interesting year for PC hardware enthusiasts, with the release of two brand-new GPU architectures based on different manufacturing processes.

The graphics card market has been shaken up by the release of these next-gen cards, with previous-generation hardware being heavily discounted to compete with new products.

Nvidia and AMD released high-end and budget-oriented graphics card lineups respectively, with Nvidia filling out its low-end card lineup near the end of the year.

Deciding on the best graphics cards of the year is dependent on certain factors, mainly performance and pricing.

Due to the large amount of graphics cards released this year and their superior efficiency, we have not accounted for previous-generation cards.

We have used benchmarks from the same source for all graphics cards in order to provide a fair comparison.

Additionally, we used prices from the same retailer for all products, along with the same cooler and partner board design – Asus ROG Strix.

Check out the best graphics cards of 2016 below:

High-end Performance – Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080

The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 is a no-brainer for the high-end performance bracket.

Boasting an unprecedented amount of graphics processing power with a relatively low price, the GTX 1080 is the prime choice for high-end gamers and hardware enthusiasts.

Another great high-performance card is the GeForce GTX 1070, which can be found at a very low price depending on which partner card you buy.

Mid-Range Performance – Radeon RX 470

AMD’s Radeon RX 470 is in an interesting position, placed squarely between the Radeon RX 480 and RX 460, but boasting performance close to that of its full-sized upgrade.

The RX 470 provides good value and has enough performance to power any 1080p gaming rig sufficiently at a great price.

Other great mid-range cards include the GeForce GTX 1060 6GB, which is a good VR-Ready solution that dominates its competition.

Best Value – Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050

It is important to note that the only graphics cards not available in a ROG Strix model were the GTX 1050 and 1050 Ti, and prices for the Asus Expedition cards have been reflected in lieu of a ROG Strix product.

The following table includes FireStrike 2013 scores taken from Guru3D, which are then compared to Wootware’s pricing in order to arrive at a comparatively accurate performance-per-rand value score.

This data shows that the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 is the best value-for-money graphics card on the South African market right now.

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