After a 7-year corporate stint, Tanveer found his love for writing and tech too much to resist. An MBA in Marketing and the owner of a PC building business, he writes on PC hardware, technology, and Windows. When not scouring the web for ideas, he can be found building PCs, watching anime, or playing Smash Karts on his RTX 3080 (sigh).
GPU longevity is a touchy subject with gamers, since everyone has a different definition of what's "good enough." In a market where GPU pricing has gone off the rails, advocating an upgrade is not easy, but we sometimes have to admit the obvious. Every GPU reaches the end of the line sooner or later, no longer able to deliver a gaming experience that can be termed acceptable.
My definition of "too old" is a graphics card that is incompatible with or can't consistently pump out 60+ FPS at 1080p in the latest AAA titles even with all the software trickery supporting it. Many gamers even consider 1080p a relic of the past, but we can't argue against the Steam Hardware & Software Survey. Based on this definition, the following five GPUs (or series of GPUs) have finally been left behind by modern gaming.
The GTX 1660 series was good while it lasted
It was a decent replacement for Pascal
I have a personal connection with Nvidia's GTX 1660 lineup, having used a GTX 1660 Ti for three years before cutting its lifecycle short by upgrading to an RTX 3080. For me, it was a significant upgrade over the GTX 1050 Ti, offering double the performance and even sustaining 1440p gaming for a while. The base GTX 1660 was a great budget card with 6GB of GDDR5 VRAM, with the GTX 1660 Super and 1660 Ti upgrading that to 6GB of GDDR6 memory.
Launched in 2019, the GTX 1660 Super/Ti was "going strong" till perhaps 2021–2022, delivering playable framerates at 1080p and even 1440p in some titles. However, once newer titles started mandating technologies like ray tracing and Resizable BAR (ReBAR), the GTX 1660 series had nothing to say. Granted, not every game justifies turning ray tracing on, but the GTX 1660 series fares poorly on performance, too.
You may argue that the GTX 1660 Super can still deliver 60+ FPS at 1080p in Cyberpunk 2077 or other years-old titles, but when considering the latest games, it's hard to argue in favor of the card. You can see it dip into the 40s even in slightly older titles like Alan Wake 2, Silent Hill f, or Dying Light: The Beast, even on optimized settings with FSR upscaling turned on at 1080p. So, it's time to leave the GTX 1660 series in the past.
The GTX 1070 series didn't age as well as some people think
The 8GB Pascal card stopped being powerful years ago
While Nvidia's GTX 1060 remained a fan-favorite GPU for several years after its launch, the GTX 1070 was poised to age far better than the 60-class card. The value for money of the GTX 1060 made it irresistible to the majority, but the GTX 1070 was significantly faster, had more VRAM, and was decidedly one of the higher-end SKUs of the Pascal lineup. And it did remain a powerful card for quite long, but after a decade, it doesn't rank any better than the GTX 1660 series.
You don't even need to look at the latest titles to see how the GTX 1070 isn't "going strong" anymore. Whether it's 2024's Ghost of Tsushima, 2023's Alan Wake 2, or even 2019's Red Dead Redemption 2, the GTX 1070 can't sustain 60+ FPS in these titles. Even in games where it delivers 60+ FPS on average, such as Cyberpunk 2077, you have to drop down to 1080p Medium settings.
The experience in games like Alan Wake 2, which demand mesh shaders, is terrible, since the Pascal series doesn't support the technology. Moreover, ray tracing and ReABR are absent as well, further limiting the GTX 1070's scope in 2026. Its 8GB VRAM isn't totally obsolete, but its PCIe 3.0 bus can tank your framerates if you run out of VRAM.
Even the GTX 1080 Ti has earned its rest
Let the old man go
The GTX 1080 Ti was naturally the last holdout of the Pascal lineup, allowing gamers to avoid an upgrade until just a few years ago. The fact that it rivals the RTX 3060 and RTX 2070 Super in rasterized performance just goes to show its longevity. And the 11GB VRAM easily allows the GTX 1080 Ti to punch above its weight. Alas, none of this can prevent the Pascal flagship from joining its siblings in the history books.
The same lack of mesh shader support and ray tracing that has aged several other GPUs on this list has stopped the GTX 1080 Ti in its tracks. When newer titles stop looking and performing like they're supposed to, you have to admit that your GPU has reached its end. While you may be able to enjoy some relatively modern games at 1080p at smooth framerates, the GTX 1080 Ti cannot be relied on for the latest titles in 2026.
It doesn't matter if you're running a newer title like Dying Light: The Beast or older ones like Ghost of Tsushima and Red Dead Redemption 2 — the GTX 1080 Ti isn't a consistent 1080p 60+ FPS card anymore.
The RX 5700 series can't keep up
RDNA 1.0 is old news
AMD deserves a spot on this list, even though we've seen them really rival Nvidia only recently. The RX 5700 and 5700 XT cards weren't bad at all; in fact, they were not much slower than the GTX 1080 Ti. The RX 5700 XT gave you 90% of the performance of the Pascal flagship. The RX 5700 series aged splendidly as owners refused to upgrade to expensive RX 6000 or RX 7000 models.
Seven years after launch, however, AMD's best RDNA 1 GPUs are far from what they used to be. Even at 1080p, you can't expect 60+ FPS in most of the latest titles. Games like The Last of Us Part 2 or Clair Obscur Expedition 33 can manage only around 50–55 FPS on average. With no mesh shaders or ray tracing hardware and disappointing FSR 3 support only, the RX 5700 and 5700 XT can safely be classified as "too old" in 2026.
The RTX 2060 series doesn't cut it in 2026
The cheapest RT cards aren't worth the branding
The Turing series is known for bringing real-time ray tracing to games in 2018, but it's also infamous for overpriced cards that offered little incentive for people to upgrade. The list of ray tracing titles was slim at launch, but it certainly grew over the years. This made GPUs like the RTX 2070 Super and RTX 2080 Ti fantastic buys, considering they're still pretty powerful in modern games. However, the same can't be said for the RTX 2060 and RTX 2060 Super.
The RTX 2060 was the cheapest card with the "RTX" branding, but eight years later, you can't really expect its first-gen ray tracing hardware to do anything impressive. Even highly optimized RT titles like Doom: The Dark Ages, and older ones like Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition, can't breach 50 FPS on average at 1080p settings with DLSS turned on. The RTX 2060 Super doesn't fare much better.
With RT settings turned off, some titles, such as Cyberpunk 2077, run without issues, but others like Alan Wake 2 are still too heavy for the RTX 2060, even with graphics settings turned all the way down and upscaling turned on. Of course, non-RT titles run smoothly even now on the RTX 2060 series cards, but they can't be termed "good enough" for modern 2026 gaming.
"Too old" doesn't mean you need to upgrade right now
While the GPUs on this list (and weaker models) may not be enough for an enjoyable experience in the latest AAA titles, they're still more than enough for esports and other lightweight games. Many people don't just play graphically intensive games all the time, so retaining your old GPU still has merit, especially in this market. That said, we still need to establish a definition for which GPUs have finally reached the end of the line.