Let’s say you’re going to build a computer or you want to change the graphics processing unit (GPU) of an existing PC, because it’s outdated, you’re going to go to the market to find a new PC, and in front of the PC there are two variants for you – GTX and RTX. You don’t know what it all means and make bad decisions. This article aims to help you in this situation and attempts to provide a basic distinction between the two terms.
Although there are many competitors in the GPU market (mainly Nvidia and AMD), we will only talk about Nvidia processors, since they are the most common and the terms GTX and RTX belong to them.
What is GTX?
GTX stands for Giga Texel Shader eXtreme and is a variant of Nvidia’s GeForce brand. They were first introduced in 2008 under the codename Tesla’s 200 series. The first in the series was the GTX 260 and the more expensive GTX280. The introduction of these cards also affected the naming scheme, and from the release of these cards, Nvidia GPUs used a naming scheme prefixed with GTX/GT. their model number. In all the other major versions of the series, Nvidia has changed its microarchitecture, and its cards are based on the following architecture: that is, the 200 and 300 series are based on the Tesla architecture, the 400 and 500 series are based on the Fermi architecture, and so on.
The latest GTX Series 16 consists of the GTX 1650, GTX 1660, GTX 1660Ti and their super versions. These are based on the Turing architecture and were introduced in 2019.
What is RTX?
RTX stands for Ray Tracing Texel eXtreme, which is also a variant of GeForce. RTX cards are specially designed to support real-time ray tracing, making videos look more polished. They were first released in 2018 and use the Turing architecture. These RTX cards include the RTX 2060, RTX 2070, RTX 2080, RTX 2080Ti, and the Super counterparts of the 2060 and 2070. These cards support DXR extensions in Microsoft DirectX12 as well as DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling).
Difference Between GTX and RTX
GeForce is a brand of GPUs designed by Nvidia and under it there are variants like GTX and RTX, but before GTX and RTX were used or existed, terms such as GTX and GS were popular in GPUs, but nowadays they only offer entry-level graphics processing power and when using more graphics-intensive applications, you should have GTX or RTX cards, which are specifically designed for graphics-intensive applications such as games, graphics engines, etc.
The latest additions to the GTX series include the 16XX series, but for the sake of simplicity and similarity, we will consider the differences between the GTX 1080Ti (launched in 2016) and the RTX 2080 (launched in 2019), since they are not very different.
GTX stands for Giga Texel Shader eXtreme, while RTX stands for Ray Tracing Texel eXtreme, and in any case, it’s not a simple technology that’s easy to understand, but the most basic difference between the two is that RTX is specifically designed to perform real-time ray tracing. In short, it is used to map the path of light in video games that interacts (reflected or refracted) with its surroundings in real time. It can provide more beautiful and beautiful environments, textures and materials in the game.
As you can see, the RTX card provides incredibly detailed lighting effects and rendering. But a better appearance doesn’t guarantee a better frame rate. And there aren’t a lot of games on the market that support ray tracing. So, let’s look at the differences between the GTX 1080Ti and the RTX 2080.
GTX 1080Ti and RTX 2080
| GTX 1080Ti | RTX 2080 | |
|---|---|---|
| GPU architecture | pascal | Turing |
| Frame buffer | 11 GB GDDR5X | 8 GB GDDR6 |
| Memory speed | 11 Gbps | 14 Gbps |
| Boost the clock | 1582 MHz | 1710 MHz |
| Ray tracing | Not supported | Supported |
| DLSS | Not supported | Supported |
| price | $ 1000 | $ 700 |
These are some of the basic differences between the two cards. The RTX 2080 is capable of beating the GTX 1080Ti in 4K gaming. The 2080 uses faster GDDR6 memory, resulting in better resolution. As a Turing architecture card, it also offers other rendering improvements, as well as support for real-time ray tracing and DLSS, and it’s less expensive than its peers.
As impressive as these features sound, there’s no real reason to use an RTX card if you don’t care too much about the visuals. Since 4K displays are very expensive, and enabling ray tracing may reduce the frame rate, the GTX 1080Ti has better performance in some games compared to the RTX 2080.
Verdict: Nvidia’s GTX 1080Ti will offer better performance in some games, but it’s not worth the extra money, and since the RTX card has the added features of ray tracing and DLSS, it’s a good choice for mid-to-high-end PCs, and more and more games that support ray tracing, it’s a great choice both now and in the future.
References:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_20_series
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_RTX
