Like turbochargers or superchargers are to car engines, video cards are to computers. They help give you an indication of a system’s overall graphics capabilities. You still need a powerful processor to get most tasks done, but when it comes to pushing polygons or crunching numbers, a dedicated GPU is the way to go. So how have business computers been supercharged for the past half year? We take a look at the top-selling video cards of 2015 so far.
For this list, we took the top five desktop video cards (GeForce and Radeon) and the top five workstation video cards (Quadro and FirePro). Unfortunately, the Radeon and FirePro did not crack the top five in their respective categories. We ranked both desktop and workstation video cards together how everything stacks up. Check out our guide to workstation graphics cards to see what separates them from desktop video cards.
Combing through the data, we found a few interesting tidbits about performance and the overall GPU landscape.
- No AMD to be found, only NVIDIA.
- Manufacturer-wise, there are three PNY cards, four EVGA cards, and three reference NVIDIA cards. However, please note that PNY manufacturers cards for NVIDIA. So really it breaks down as six PNY and four EVGA cards.
- Of the ten GPUs, seven are Maxwell based and only three are Kepler. It seems companies are finally ready to give Kepler das boot.
- Between 3 GB to 4 GB seems to be the average for onboard memory, only one card has two, and one has 12 GB (you know which one).
As for pricing trends, here’s how the list breaks down.
- Average price: $529
- $700+ cards: 3
- $400 – $699 cards: 4
- $200 – $399 cards: 2
- Under $199 cards: 1
The Great List
| GPU | Kepler GK104GL |
| Clock Speed | 780 MHz |
| Cores | 1344 |
| Ports | 2 × DisplayPort 1 × DVI-I |
| Rating | 4/5 Eggs |
| Price | $789.00 |
A Quadro leads the list. The K4200 is a Kepler-based GPU that offers plenty of graphics and processing power. It comes with two DisplayPort 1.2 connectors, a DVI-D connector, and VGA adapter. No annoyingly loud fan, which make it great for offices.
| GPU | Maxwell GM200 |
| Clock Speed | 1127 MHz (1216 MHz Boost Clock) |
| Cores | 3072 |
| Ports | 1 × HDMI3 × DisplayPort 1 × DVI-I |
| Rating | 5/5 Eggs |
| Price | $1,029.99 |
NVIDIA’s newest flagship, the Titan X rears its fat head at second place. Surprisingly, this $1000+ graphics card outsells four of the five Quadro cards on this list. Either professionals are gaming at work or the Titan X has many features that make it fit for production work. Just be sure to have a power supply that can meet its needs.
| GPU | Maxwell GM200 |
| Clock Speed | 1266 MHz (1367 MHz Boost Clock) |
| Cores | 2048 |
| Ports | 1 × HDMI3 × DisplayPort 1 × DVI-I |
| Rating | 5/5 Eggs |
| Price | $507.99 |
This GTX 980 is not a reference card. It comes factory overclocked by EVGA and sports the ACX 2.0 active cooler, which makes it quieter, cooler, and more energy efficient. At five out of five eggs, users love the 980.
| GPU | Maxwell GM107GL |
| Clock Speed | 1266 MHz |
| Cores | 640 |
| Ports | 2 × DisplayPort 1 × DVI |
| Rating | 5/5 Eggs |
| Price | $429.00 |
The second Quadro card to appear so far, the K2200 occupies a lower market segment than the K4200. But while it has fewer CUDA cores, it sports a Maxwell GPU and features a faster core clock.
| GPU | Maxwell GM204 |
| Clock Speed | 1165 MHz (1317 MHz Boost Clock) |
| Cores | 1664 |
| Ports | 1 × HDMI1 × DisplayPort 1 × DVI-I1 × DVI-D |
| Rating | 4/5 Eggs |
| Price | $337.99 |
This is the third EVGA Superclocked graphics card to appear on this list. As much as professionals are saying overclocking has no place in the office, their video card purchases are saying otherwise.
| GPU | Maxwell GM204 |
| Clock Speed | 1216 MHz (1367 MHz Boost Clock) |
| Cores | 1664 |
| Ports | 1 × HDMI1 × DisplayPort 1 × DVI-I1 × DVI-D |
| Rating | 4/5 Eggs |
| Price | $359.99 |
Yet another factory overclocked video card, and even more so! EVGA’s FTW models have more aggressive clock speeds than the Superclocked cards and often feature extra power phases to allow for additional overclocking by users.
| GPU | Maxwell GM200 |
| Clock Speed | 1126 MHz (1216 MHz Boost Clock) |
| Cores | 2048 |
| Ports | 1 × HDMI3 × DisplayPort 1 × DVI |
| Rating | 5/5 Eggs |
| Price | $549.99 |
This GTX 980 from PNY is close NVIDIA’s reference design, with the standard cooler and baseline core and boost clock speeds. If NVIDIA’s default clock speeds aren’t fast enough for you, a few short minutes with EVGA’s PrecisionX 16 overclocking software.
| GPU | Kepler GK106GL |
| Clock Speed | 800 MHz |
| Cores | 768 |
| Ports | 2 × DisplayPort 1 × DVI |
| Rating | 4/5 Eggs |
| Price | $724.99 |
The K4000 is fairly middle-of-the-road for a Quadro card and features “only” 3 GB of video memory. It features more CUDA cores than the K2200 but with a slower clock speed.
| GPU | Kepler GK107GL |
| Clock Speed | 950 MHz |
| Cores | 384 |
| Ports | 2 × DisplayPort 1 × DVI |
| Rating | 4/5 Eggs |
| Price | $399.99 |
The previous generation version of the K2200, the K2000 features a Kepler GPU instead of a Maxwell and only 2 GB of video RAM.
| GPU | Maxwell GM107GL |
| Clock Speed | 1000 MHz |
| Cores | 384 |
| Ports | 1 × DisplayPort 1 × DVI |
| Rating | 5/5 Eggs |
| Price | $159.99 |
The Quadro K620 is about as baseline as you get with the Quadro line, with only 2 GB of DDR2 memory, two video outputs, and 284 CUDA cores.
Those are your best selling video cards of 2015 so far, both desktop and workstation. Did any of them surprise you? Let us know what you think are the top video cards of 2015 in the comments below.
