Best GPU For Streaming

Thinking about becoming a streamer? If you want your stream to stand out from the 7 million other streamers on Twitch, you’ll need a good GPU for streaming. In order to attract viewers, your stream should run smoothly and not lag which is why choosing the right GPU is essential.

Choosing the right GPU is essential to ensure that your stream runs smoothly without any lag or buffering. We’ll explore the best GPUs for streaming, including specific products and their specs.

But before we get into specific products – what exactly makes a GPU good for streaming? Firstly, you want a GPU with a high core count and clock speed. This will ensure that it can handle streaming, which is very resource intensive, without any performance issues. You’d also want a GPU with more VRAM, as this will allow for better texture and rendering performance.

What do the different naming schemes mean?

You might be a little curious about the GPU naming convention so it might be helpful to learn a little bit more about the naming schemes used by Nvidia and AMD.

For Nvidia, you have the RTX 4000 and RTX 3000 series, with the two-digit number at the end indicating the card’s power. The higher the number, the more powerful the card. Nvidia also has a Ti designation on some cards, which is a middle ground between the non-Ti version and the next number.

AMD’s naming system is similar, with the RX 7000 and 6000 series, and a three-digit number at the end indicating the card’s power. AMD also has an XT designation, which boosts the performance of the non-XT version of the card.

Now, let’s take a look at some of the best GPUs for streaming:

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is an extremely powerful GPU that’s well-suited for streamers who want both high-quality graphics and smooth gameplay. Here’s what makes the RTX 3080 Ti an excellent choice for streaming:

High Performance: The RTX 3080 Ti is built on NVIDIA’s Ampere architecture, which provides a significant performance boost over previous generations. This card features 10,240 CUDA cores, a base clock speed of 1,365 MHz, and a boost clock speed of 1,695 MHz. It also has 12GB of GDDR6X memory, which provides ample memory for even the most demanding applications.

Ray Tracing: Ray tracing technology allows for realistic lighting and shadows in games. The RTX 3080 Ti has dedicated hardware for ray tracing, making it one of the best GPUs for this technology. If you want to showcase the visual aspect of video games, you will want a GPU with ray tracing.

DLSS: Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) is another technology that is supported by the RTX 3080 Ti. DLSS uses artificial intelligence to upscale lower-resolution images to higher resolutions, which can improve performance while maintaining high image quality. If you’re a streamer who wants to run your game at a high resolution while maintaining a smooth frame rate, DLSS is pretty useful.

NVENC Encoder: NVIDIA’s NVENC encoder allows for high-quality video encoding while using fewer system resources, enabling you to produce high-quality streams without impacting performance. With the RTX 3080 Ti, streamers can easily record and stream their gameplay in high resolution without any lag or stuttering.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is an excellent choice for streamers who don’t want to compromise between high-performance graphics and smooth gameplay. It features some of the best ray tracing capabilities on the market, making it a great choice for showcasing games with stunning visuals. The NVENC encoder also ensures that you will be able to produce high-quality streams without impacting your gaming performance.

AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT

The AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT is the most powerful graphics card in the Radeon RX 6000 series. It’s a great option for streamers looking for high-quality performance. Here’s why:

High-End Performance: The Radeon RX 6900 XT is equipped with 80 compute units, 5120 stream processors, and 16GB of GDDR6 memory, making it capable of delivering exceptional performance in games and other GPU-intensive tasks. It features a base clock speed of 1,950 MHz and a boost clock speed of 2,365 MHz. This level of performance allows for smooth gameplay while streaming and enables streamers to show high-quality video without performance drops.

Ray Tracing: The Radeon RX 6900 XT is capable of hardware-accelerated ray tracing, increasingly important in modern games. It allows for more realistic lighting and shadows, which can make a significant difference in the quality of the stream. With the Radeon RX 6900 XT, streamers can enjoy ray-traced games without sacrificing performance.

AMD Encoder: The Radeon RX 6900 XT comes with AMD’s hardware encoder, which can be used for video encoding and streaming. By using AMD’s hardware encoder instead of your CPU, you can stream high-quality video to your viewers without sacrificing gameplay.

AMD Smart Access Memory: AMD Smart Access Memory allows the CPU to access the entire graphics card’s memory at once. This can improve performance in games and other GPU-intensive tasks, allowing for smoother gameplay and improved streaming quality.

The AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT is an excellent option for streamers who require top-of-the-line performance and features. Its high-end specs, ray tracing capabilities, AMD encoder, Smart Access Memory make it a powerful choice for professional streamers.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 is an excellent GPU for streaming, and it’s not hard to see why. With its powerful Ampere architecture and dedicated hardware for video encoding, the RTX 3070 delivers outstanding performance for streamers. It features a base clock speed of 1,500 MHz and a boost clock speed of 1,750 MHz.

One of the standout features of the RTX 3070 is its ability to handle real-time ray tracing. As mentioned before, ray tracing puts a lot of strain on your GPU. The RTX 3070, however, is specifically designed to handle ray tracing. You can use ray tracing for your games and stream the content to your viewers without worrying about performance issues.

The RTX 3070 also has dedicated hardware for video encoding. It is designed to offload the video encoding process from your CPU to your GPU. By freeing up your CPU to handle other tasks, it can result in better video quality and smoother streaming.

The RTX 3070 comes with 8GB of GDDR6 memory – more than enough for most streaming applications. More memory means that you can play games and stream content at the same time without any issues. It also allows you to use higher quality settings for your games and streaming content.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 is a relatively affordable GPU for streamers. It’s got dedicated hardware for video encoding and real-time ray tracing capabilities along with decent 8 GB memory.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Super

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Super is a solid option for budget conscious streamers who don’t want to break the bank. Here’s why we think it’s worth considering:

Good Performance: The GTX 1660 Super is a powerful graphics card that’s capable of running most games at 1080p with high settings. It has 1408 CUDA cores, 6 GB of RAM, a base clock speed of 1530MHz, and a boost clock speed of 1785MHz. This means that it can deliver smooth and consistent frame rates while you’re streaming.

Affordable Price: Compared to the options listed above, the GTX 1660 Super is much more affordable. If you’re just starting out with streaming and not sure whether to invest a lot of money into it at the start, think of the GTX 1660 Super as a good entry-level GPU.

Efficient Encoding: Like the other NVIDIA GPUs mentioned, the NVENC encoder in the GTX 1660 Super can handle hardware-accelerated encoding for streaming platforms like Twitch and YouTube. This relieves the stress on your CPU and leads to better overall performance.

Low Power Consumption: The GTX 1660 Super is very efficient with a power consumption of only 125W. It won’t generate too much heat or put too much strain on your power supply. This is especially important if you’re building a budget streaming PC and don’t want to spend a lot on you power supply unit, cooling fan and motherboard.

Good Memory: Even though it is very affordable, The GTX 1660 Super comes with 6GB of GDDR6 memory, plenty for most games at 1080p resolution. The last thing you’d want is to run out of memory while playing and streaming.

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Super is a great entry-level GPU for streamers who want to get good performance without breaking the bank. It offers efficient encoding, low power consumption, and good memory at an affordable price.

AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT

The AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT is another graphics card that offers excellent performance for streamers on a budget.

The AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT is based on AMD’s 7nm RDNA architecture and is equipped with 8GB of GDDR6 memory and features a clock speed of up to 1925 MHz. It also features 2560 stream processors, which helps with fast and smooth streaming.

One of the key features of the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT is its efficient power consumption. It has a TDP (thermal design power) of only 225 watts, so it doesn’t require as much power as the high-end graphics cards on the market. This makes it a great option for streamers who want a powerful graphics card without having to upgrade their power supply.

In terms of streaming performance, the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT offers excellent quality for both video and audio. It supports H.264 and H.265 encoding, so your stream will look great and won’t have any lag or stuttering. The card also supports multiple monitor setups, which is great for streamers who like to have multiple displays for their streaming software, chat, and gameplay. Like the GeForce GTX 1660 Super, the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT is a good choice for budget conscious streamers. It is relatively affordable yet powerful enough for streamers who want to display powerful graphics.