Best Graphics Cards for Half-Life Alyx
Half-Life: Alyx is a VR, first-person shooter game by Valve which offers the best shooting experience. It is a very resource-hungry game and you can’t play it with ordinary graphic cards.
What's Required For Half-Life Alyx
The Minimum requirement of Half-Life: Alyx mentions the GTX 1060 6 GB which shows that Half-Life: Alyx requires a powerful GPU. That’s why have done some research and handpicked the best GPUs for you. In this comprehensive guide, we will share Best Graphics Cards for Half-Life: Alyx. Let’s get started.
Table of Contents
Quick Compare Table
Best High-end Graphics Cards for Half-Life Alyx
In this section, we will share the premium graphics cards which will be able to handle the Half-Life: Alyx at the highest settings.
NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2080 Ti 11GB Founders Edition
If you want to enjoy the Half-Life: Alyx at ultra-settings and price isn’t a problem for you then you can’t go wrong with the RTX 2080 Ti. It is one of the most powerful graphics cards in the market and it can easily handle any modern game at the highest settings at 4k resolution.
In the case of Half-Life: Alyx, you will be able to get the 120 fps required for 120Hz headsets on ultra-settings. You can also push it to 144 fps for 144Hz headsets like the valve index provided that you have the premium CPU as well. If you are willing to spend more than a thousand bucks on a graphics card then you can go for RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition.
You can also go for any variant of the RTX 2080 Ti as some of these from companies such as gigabyte and MSI have more features like better cooling and faster clockspeeds. The founders edition does feature USB-C VirtualLink which makes it very easy to connect to a VR headset.
| Positives | Negatives |
|---|---|
| Can handle Half-Life: Alyx at ultra-settings | Very Expensive |
| Ideal for high-end Gaming | Not overclocked and doesnt have the features some other versions of the RTX 2080 Ti have |
| Comes with dedicated RT Cores & DLSS 2.0 AI-Enhanced Graphics | |
| 11 GB GDDR6 VRAM | |
| Has USB-C VirtualLink |
Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING OC 8G
If you are looking for something more affordable but still want to play the Half-Life: Alyx at high settings then you can go for the RTX 2070 Super GPU. The best thing about RTX 2070 Super is that it obliterates its competition in terms of pricing and performance. It offers the almost same performance as RTX 2080 without spending a lot of money.
The Gigabyte version ups this with higher clock speeds, RGB lighting in addition to 3 windforce fans. You can also go for the Founders edition RTX 2070 Super but it won’t be as good as the Gigabyte version.
It can easily handle the Half-Life: Alyx on high settings without any compromise. It can also work well at the ultra-settings provided than you stick with the 90 Hz or less. The overall performance and price of the RTX 2070 Super make it an ideal GPU for Half-Life: Alyx for most of the people.
There are 2 versions of this card. One features USB-C VirtualLink and one doesn’t so you can decide if you need USB-C or not. USB-C VirtualLink is great for VR headsets as it can send video and power through one cable.
| Positives | Negatives |
|---|---|
| Great Gaming Performance | Requires more power than regular RTX 2070 |
| Can handle Half-Life: Alyx at high settings | Still quite expensive |
| Great Design | Doesn't have USB-C VirtualLink. The Founders edition does and the GV-N207SGAMING OC-8GC does. |
| Great Value for Money | |
| 8 GB GDDR6 Memory |
XFX RX 5700 Xt Thicc III Ultra 8GB
The Radeon RX 5700 XT is one of the most powerful graphics cards in the market right now by AMD. It comes with 8GB GDDR6 Memory and top of the line features which help you get the best gaming performance.
The XFX RX 5700 XT can also handle Half-Life: Alyx at medium-high settings without any problem.
The recommended settings for 5700 XT are medium but if you want you can also go for the high settings but you will surely have to stick with 90 Hz on the headset as the fps won’t be high enough.
The overall gaming performance of RX 5700 XT is also good and it can throw the competitors such as RTX 2060 out of the park. However, the problem with RX 5700 XT is that it doesn’t come with advanced features such as Ray tracing which can be a deal-breaker for some people.
| Positives | Negatives |
|---|---|
| Great Gaming Performance | No Idle fan stop |
| Can handle Half-Life: Alyx at medium-high settings | No Real-time ray tracing and AI |
| Great for 1440p gaming | No USB-C VirtualLink |
| Good Design |
Best Mid-range Graphics Cards for Half-Life Alyx
Half-Life: Alyx is a resource-hungry game and we usually recommend using the premium GPU for it. However, you can also use the mid-range GPUs to play the Half-Life: Alyx at low-medium settings.
EVGA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER SC ULTRA GAMING 6GB
If you are looking for a graphics card that can handle Half-Life: Alyx at low settings then you can go for the GTX 1660 Super. It is not as powerful as the other GPUs on this list but it can handle the Half-Life: Alyx on low-medium settings at 90 fps for 90Hz refresh rate.
The EVGA GeForce GTX 1660 Super comes with the Turning Architecture which improves the overall performance but it lacks the dedicated RT Cores which can be a deal-breaker for some people. GTX 1660 Super can also handle most of the modern games on high settings at 1080p resolution.
| Positives | Negatives |
|---|---|
| Can handle the Half-Life: Alyx at low-medium settings | No RTX Features |
| Great for 1080p gaming | No USB-C VirtualLink |
| Great Value for Money | |
| Good Thermal Performance |
Gigabyte Radeon RX 5600 XT WINDFORCE OC 6G
The Gigabyte Radeon RX 5600 XT is a very popular graphics card which is known for its great value for money. It comes with AMD’s new RDNA gaming architecture which ensures that you get a smooth gaming performance. It also comes 6 GB GDDR6 Memory which allows the RX 5600 XT to handle the Half-Life: Alyx on low-medium settings.
The overall gaming performance of RX 5600 XT is also good and it beats the 1660 ti in many titles and can be on par with the RTX 2060 in some. However, it lacks the RTX features such as Ray Tracing which can be a deal-breaker. Furthermore, it does not feature USB-C VirtualLink which can be very useful for VR.
| Positives | Negatives |
|---|---|
| Good for 1080p Gaming | No ray tracing |
| Can handle Half-Life: Alyx at low-medium settings | Does not have USB-C VirtualLink |
| Power-efficient | No RTX Features |
| Good value for money |
Conclusion
These are the Best Graphics cards for Half-Life: Alyx. If you want to enjoy the game at the ultra or high settings then we would recommend you should go with the High-end GPUs.
If you just want to enjoy Half-Life: Alyx and willing to compromise on some visual aspects then you can go with the Mid-range GPUs.
Let us know your thoughts on Half-Life: Alyx in the comment section below. Also, visit our website for more useful guides.
Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING OC 8G
The Best Graphics Cards for Half-Life: Alyx in our opinion
We chose the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 Super as it is a solid performer without breaking the bank.
It can provide 120 fps in high – ultra for 120 Hz headsets. It features very good normal gaming performance as well and has a great price to performance ratio.
Last update on 2024-04-18 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
