Updated on August 14, 2022
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The finest graphics cards are the lifeblood of your gaming PC, pumping blood, oxygen, and possibly even brain matter to your monitor. We’re here to separate the contenders from the pretenders, because no single solution will work for everyone. The best graphics card for your money doesn’t matter if you’re looking for the quickest or the best value. Your gaming experience depends on the graphics card, and no other component has as big of an impact on that experience as the graphics card.
In contrast to our GPU benchmarks hierarchy, our ranking of the top graphics cards takes a more holistic approach. Availability, performance, features and efficiency are all significant considerations to assess in the decision-making process. While we’re not out of the woods just yet, GPU prices on eBay have dropped by around 30% since the beginning of the year due to a decline in cryptocurrency mining profitability. In addition, many online retailers have stock of graphics cards, which means that the cost of a graphics card has dropped 40% to 50% in the last four months. While more price reductions are possible, reasonable graphics cards are now within reach.
The RTX 3090 Ti has been added to our testing results in our most recent update, and while the price is outrageous, it easily displaces the RTX 3090 as the fastest graphics card available. For those on a tight budget, the Radeon RX 6500 XT is a good option. It costs less than $200, which is far less than rival cards like the GTX 1650 Super. GeForce RTX 3050 is 50% more expensive than the RTX 2050, putting this card in the midrange. Intel Arc Alchemist, which has been available on laptops since March but hasn’t arrived on desktops until June, is still a few months away.
Graphics Card Deals
Please check out our RTX 3080 bargains and 3070 deals and 3060 deals pages for some methods to save money on a new graphics card, respectively. If you’re looking for the best prices, you should expect to pay between 15 and 25 percent more than the advertised price. You might also consider buying a pre-built PC if you’re looking for a complete system upgrade, as often those have better prices on the GPU.
| GPU | Performance Rank | DXR Rank | Value Rank – online (MSRP) |
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| Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Ti | 1 – 132.4 fps | 1 – 84.4 fps | 13 – $2,000 ($1,999) |
| Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 | 4 – 116.3 fps | 2 – 66.3 fps | 12 – $949 ($699) |
| AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT | 2 – 130.6 fps | 3 – 49.8 fps | 11 – $1,020 ($999) |
| AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT | 3 – 124.5 fps | 4 – 46.1 fps | 10 – $920 ($649) |
| AMD Radeon RX 6800 | 5 – 111.7 fps | 6 – 39.3 fps | 9 – $800 ($579) |
| Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti | 7 – 91.5 fps | 5 – 43.3 fps | 7 – $580 ($399) |
| AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT | 6 – 96.0 fps | 8 – 30.5 fps | 6 – $515 ($489) |
| Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 | 9 – 70.2 fps | 7 – 32.3 fps | 5 – $390 ($329) |
| AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT | 8 – 78.2 fps | 9 – 23.6 fps | 4 – $410 ($379) |
| AMD Radeon RX 6600 | 10 – 66.7 fps | 11 – 19.7 fps | 3 – $325 ($329) |
| Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 | 11 – 51.4 fps | 10 – 22.8 fps | 2 – $300 ($249) |
| AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT | 12 – 30.4 fps | 12 – 5.6 fps | 1 – $210 ($199) |
Graphics card prices have begun to fall significantly despite the fact that most cards remain above MSRP. In the past, we used average eBay costs because it was the only location where you could buy a large number of GPUs. In addition to the official launch MSRPs, we can now locate any GPU for cheaper money via an internet shop (usually Newegg).
As you can see, the above list has been updated to only include cards from the most recent generation. As a result, they’ve become some of the best bargains out there, as many older models have been overpriced. As an example, a GTX 1650 Super sells for $335 on the company’s website, but you can find one on eBay for as little as $200. The RTX 3050, on the other hand, has a starting price of $300 and delivers significantly superior performance and features.
However, the order of the cards listed below is dependent on more than just performance (regarding both regular and DXR). Performance, pricing, power, and other attributes are all part of our overall subjective assessment. Even if someone else has a slightly different opinion, all the cards on this list should be considered.
Best Graphics Cards for Gaming 2022
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All of Nvidia’s new GeForce RTX 3080 cards are based on the company’s newest Ampere design. The new 2080 Ti is faster by over 30% and reportedly costs $500 less than the previous generation. Due to the much higher price of the new RTX 3080 Ti, it was unable to displace the incumbent in our testing. Watch out for the RTX 3080 12GB cards, which seem to be selling for roughly $50 more than the 8GB models right now.
If you’re serious about playing at 4K or 1440p, this is the best graphics card for you. Unless you’re running the latest ray tracing games, in which case DLSS support should also improve performance, it’s overkill for 1080p gaming. The RTX 30-series may finally get you on board the ray tracing train if you bypassed the initial generation of RTX GPUs. The RTX 3080 is your best bet if you want to experience ray tracing in all its glory without breaking the budget, thanks to titles like Cyberpunk 2077, which use even more ray tracing effects.
With the elimination of the need for in-game training by a supercomputer thanks to Ampere, we should expect to see greater use of DLSS in the future. To get it running in Unreal Engine and Unity you just need to toggle and change the UI. This has led to an increase in the number of games using DLSS 2.0. Additionally, Nvidia’s RT and DLSS performance is far faster than AMD’s new RX 6000 cards, which is helpful because Nvidia can fall behind AMD when it comes to traditional rasterization.
Finding an RTX 3080 in stock at a decent price will be the most difficult challenge with this card. In comparison, we’ve seen the 3080 sell for over $1,500 for much of the past year, so the current sub-$1,000 prices are fantastic, but it’s still around 35% over the MSRP. Even though the 3080 Ti and 3090 are more expensive, this remains our top selection for a high-performance GPU at this time.
Read: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Review
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Team Red’s greatest card is AMD’s Radeon RX 6800 XT. While the RX Radeon 6900 XT performed better in our tests, it costs 54% more than the RX Radeon 6900. With no more VRAM or bonuses, this isn’t a fantastic value at all. The 6900 costs only approximately $100 more than the 6800, so if you shop around, you just might save some money. The RX 6800 XT is a major improvement over the previous generation RX 5700 XT in terms of performance and functionality. With DirectX Raytracing or VulkanRT support, it’s up to 70-90 percent quicker in our tests.
Before its release, the enthusiast community dubbed the Navi 21 GPU ‘Big Navi,’ and we got precisely what we wanted. With double the shader cores and RAM, it’s a whopping two times the size of the previous generation Navi 10. The fastest clock speeds we’ve ever observed from a reference GPU are now in the 2.1-2.3 GHz range (depending on the card model), which is around 300 MHz higher than the previous record. The RX 6800 XT has a TBP of 300W, which is somewhat lower than the RTX 3080’s 320W TBP. AMD managed all this without significantly raising the power needs.
One of the most important factors contributing to AMD’s performance is the system’s 128MB Infinity Cache. According to AMD, it boosts bandwidth by 119 percent. The 6800 XT is in a strong position because we believe that very few games will require more than 16GB in the near future.
Is there anything not to like about this? In terms of performance, it’s not quite up to par. DXR games are more likely to be tuned for Nvidia RTX GPUs, although overall the 6800 XT is somewhat behind the RTX 3070 when it comes to ray tracing performance, and there are several games where it falls behind by as much as 25%. Without DLSS, which even in Quality mode can increase the performance of RTX cards by 20% to 40%. (sometimes more). In some cases, AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution can be helpful, but it’s less common and doesn’t offer the same level of performance or reliability as DLSS offers. FSR 2.0, which hasn’t been released yet, could potentially alter this.
As with many contemporary GPUs, the price and availability aren’t ideal. If you’re looking for a budget option, the RX 6800 XT can now be purchased online for less than $1,000, although it’s only $30 less than the RTX 3080. In addition, there are rumours of an upcoming “6×50 XT” upgrade of the RDNA2, which could be worth the wait due to the inclusion of 18 Gbps GDDR6 memory.
Read: AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT Review
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For some, the best credit card is the one that is the fastest, regardless of the cost. These people will benefit from Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3090 Ti. Performance is only somewhat better (20-30 percent) than the RTX 3080 at nearly thrice the official price. Only 5–10% quicker compared to the previous RTX 3090, and with a higher MSRP to boot. It appears that the 3090 Ti is only a few hundred dollars more expensive than the 3090, but who are we kidding? Anyone really contemplating either of these models is unlikely to care about a few hundred dollars anyhow.
Until the Ada Lovelace GPUs of the next generation come, the RTX 3090 Ti will be Nvidia’s top GPU. There’s no place or time for a new Titan card because it has a GA102 chip with 84 SMs. According to Nvidia, the 3090 Ti adds Titan-class performance and features (especially the 24GB VRAM) to the GeForce brand. Only this fall will RTX 3090 Ti’s performance be eclipsed by a newer, faster graphics card.
Of course, it’s not just about video games. Professional applications and GPU computations may benefit more from using NVLink than SLI. Various multimedia creation apps benefit from the 24GB of GDDR6X memory. When comparing the 3080 to the Titan RTX, Blender regularly showed a 35% increase in performance, and more than twice as much performance. In some SPECviewperf programmes, Titan RTX has additional capabilities activated on in its drivers that aren’t turned on for GeForce cards. Nvidia RTX A6000 is required for the entire professional driver package, which costs much more.)
Rivals the Nvidia GTX 3090 Ti in some benchmarks, but AMD’s RX 6900XT comes out on top in others. But if you’re looking for the fastest graphics card on the market right now, Nvidia is the clear winner. However, the Ada AD102 GPU, which is expected to replace GA102, is speculated to contain up to 144 SMs, meaning that Nvidia’s next-generation extreme graphics card might deliver up to 70% more performance.
Read: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Ti Review
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AMD’s Navi 22 and the RX 6700 XT are the result of starting with the Navi 21 GPU and reducing the numerous functional parts in order to make a smaller die that can be sold for a lower price. With the same number of GPU cores, but slightly higher clock rates and additional cache, it improves performance by around 25% over the previous generation RX 5700 XT (at higher settings and resolutions, at least).
AMD’s RX 6700 XT, which we tested at stock, clocked in at more than 2.5GHz throughout our gaming sessions. We were able to get rates of 2.7-2.8GHz with some tweaking and overclocking, all without overheating the GPU. Those clocks are incredible, and factory overclocked cards can go even higher.
The RX 6700 XT went head-to-head with the RTX 3070 and RTX 3060 Ti in our performance testing. The initial price of $479 is acceptable, given that it’s faster than the latter but slower than the former. In games that use DLSS or ray tracing, however, the 6700 XT falls well short of the 3060 Ti and appears to be a serious threat to the 3060 in several situations.
Even better, the RX 6700 XT is currently available at costs similar to the MSRP, which is why it has risen in our overall rankings. The MSI RX 6700 XT Mech 2X is presently on sale for $515 after a $15 rebate, which is just 7% more expensive than AMD’s recommended starting price for the card. For the same performance, you can get an RTX 3060 Ti for $75 less and an RTX 3070 for over $100 less.
Read: AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT review
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It’s possible that Nvidia’s desktop Ampere lineup’s processor power savings have gone too far as we approach the lowest price and performance rung. An improvement over RTX 3050 in terms of memory interface and 12GB VRAM, this is the first GA106 card. It is still a significant step down from GA104 in terms of memory interface and 12GB VRAM. Only the RTX 2070 can match the 3060 Ti in terms of total performance, with 26% less GPU cores and 26% less memory bandwidth. As a result, two and a half years later, a $330 graphics card can now compete with a $500 graphics card.
In theory, at least. The demand for RTX 3060 is still outpacing supply, but at least the price has dropped to $390. Although the card is listed as backordered, we’ve seen the RTX 3060 go in and out of stock for $400 or less over the last several weeks. The RTX 3060 is the best overall value for ray tracing and DLSS performance, based on our testing results.
Despite the fact that the 3060 lacks a significant amount of VRAM, there are a few cases in which the 3060 Ti begins to catch up. Even if you can locate a 3060 Ti at an affordable price, the 3060 isn’t nearly good enough. The 3060 Ti is currently $200 more expensive than the 3060, making this or one of AMD’s offers a better deal.
The RTX 3060, on the other hand, is nearly the same performance as AMD’s RX 5700 XT 18 months later, excluding ray tracing and DLSS. Typical of mainstream parts, this isn’t going to set the world on fire. However, the 3060’s DXR and DLSS capabilities allow it to compete head-to-head with AMD’s RX 6800.
Read: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Review
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The Navi 23 architecture is AMD’s solution to the RTX 3060. AMD reduced the number of CUs, the width of the memory interface, and the size of the Infinity Cache in order to provide a smaller, less expensive chip that performs just as well as the RX 6700 non-XT.
Performance ends up slightly above the previous gen RX 5700 XT, which is impressive considering the memory bus has been cut in half to just 128 bits. However, the 8GB of VRAM is a legitimate problem, and in some circumstances, the RTX 3060 is a better option. When you consider the memory bandwidth, it’s still astonishing how much even a 32MB Infinity Cache seems to improve performance. At 1080p, this is essentially a smaller version of Navi 10, built on the same TSMC N7 node, and it produces 10–15 percent greater framerates.
However, ray tracing is one of the areas where it has difficulty. DXR (DirectX Raytracing) supported games couldn’t even reach 20 fps at 1080p. Without DLSS, the RTX 3060 from Nvidia was nearly two times as quick (where available). Neither AMD nor Nvidia — or even Intel — GPUs benefit from FSR’s performance improvement, so it doesn’t fix the problem. The RX 6600 XT is a letdown after the other Big Navi chips delivered tremendous levels of VRAM.
The $379 price tag for a GPU that is supposed to be a replacement for the previous generation RX 5600 XT ($279 launch price) does not inspire confidence. The Radeon RX 6600 XT now starts at $390, which is a bargain in today’s market of exorbitantly priced graphics cards (after rebate). MSRP? You bet your bottom dollar it is!
Read: AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT Review
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We thought the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti was the greatest of Nvidia’s Ampere GPUs when we tested it. If you’re looking for the same functionality as other 30-series GPUs at a lower price, this one is for you. As a matter of fact, as all the other new graphics cards sold out rapidly. This MSI RTX 3060 Ti Ventus is now selling for $590, which is approximately half of the nominal MSRP. <Sigh>
In our tests, the 3060 Ti defeated the previous-generation 2080 Super and came out on top in every game. The RTX 3060 is only 9% slower than the RTX 3070, but it’s 20% less expensive. When compared to the GTX 1070 or RX Vega 56, the 3060 Ti is up to twice as quick — and sometimes more — in the latest games.
The absence of VRAM is the only serious issue. While 8GB is generally sufficient, some games are beginning to test the limit. You can, of course, lower the quality of the texture, but deep down you’ll feel remorse for doing so. (It’s not really a difference, because high and ultra settings are typically indistinguishable in appearance.)
The 3060 Ti faces severe competition from AMD’s RX 6600 and RX 6600 XT. While Nvidia’s RX 3060 Ti is still faster in ray tracing games, the RX 6600 XT is now $180 cheaper. Our list of the top graphics cards includes it because of that. The GTX 1070 had 8GB of RAM five years ago, and even the lower-tier RTX 3060 from Nvidia today boasts 12GB.
Read: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Review
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The Radeon RX 6600 incorporates the best features of the Radeon 6600 XT and reduces them just a bit. In terms of performance, it’s around 15% slower than the RTX 3060 and 30% faster than the RTX 3050 in our tests. Starting at $325 for MSI RX 6600 Mech 2X (after a $15 rebate), we’re seeing the cards in stock and on sale.
Actually, this is a lower price than AMD’s stated MSRP of $329, which felt a touch excessive at launch – not that we’ve ever seen those prices in meaningful numbers until now, of course. With some cards delivering at or below MSRP, this is currently AMD’s finest value, and some may even consider it superior to the RTX 3060.
As a budget to midrange graphics card, the RX 6600 faces competition from both the RTX 30-series and the RTX 20-series from earlier this year. At least in non-ray tracing scenarios, it was close to the performance of the RTX 2070. Despite this, the DXR test suite at 1080p medium averaged just 30 fps with ray tracing enabled.
However, if you’re not concerned about ray tracing, the RX 6600 is well worth considering. AMD’s Infinity Cache saves a GPU that would otherwise be considered underpowered, and the card only consumes 130W of power, which is far less than the power consumption of competitors.
Read: AMD Radeon RX 6600 Review
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We expect an RX 6950 XT to be released soon after the RX 6900 XT, which would represent the pinnacle of the RDNA2 architecture. AMD set the MSRP at a rather high $999 at launch, which then ended up being much lower than street prices for the past 18 months. However, prices have dropped to the point where only a few cards cost somewhat more than that, and this trend is expected to continue.
With slightly more GPU cores, the RX 6900 XT offers a small performance boost for the price of an RX 6900 XT upgrade. AMD’s top card is $100 cheaper than Team Red’s last product, thus you can make the case for AMD over the latter.
The same warning flags, such as inadequate ray tracing performance and the lack of a direct alternative to DLSS, are still present. Basically, FSR works on everything, but DLSS only runs on Nvidia and has a three year head start on getting game developers to use it. In short, if you want the best RT experience right now, Nvidia still wins (not that you need RT to enjoy games).
The 6900 XT is still a good choice for those who just want the fastest AMD GPU. Refreshes are expected in the next month or two, coupling all XT models with 18Gbps GDDR6 RAM and increasing clock speeds, perhaps at the cost of power consumption, for an RX 6000 refresh. Waiting to see how much the speculated RX 6950 XT costs and performs makes sense if you haven’t previously purchased an AMD card.
Read: AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT review
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Take everything great about the new Navi 21 GPU that powers the 6800 XT (above), then trim it by about 10–15% and you get the vanilla RX 6800. You still get the full 16GB GDDR6 and 128MB Infinity Cache, but only 96 ROPs, fewer GPU cores, and lower clock speeds. It’s a reasonable compromise, but we think the 6800 XT is the better option all things considered.
Right now the RX 6800 starts at $800 online, about $120 less than the 6800 XT and a bit more than the RTX 3070 Ti. The RX 6800 puts up a good showing against Nvidia’s RTX 3070 Ti, winning the non-ray tracing benchmark suite in our testing. However, the Nvidia GPU was 35% faster in our ray tracing benchmarks, not even accounting for the additional 20–50% DLSS quality mode can prove.
AMD’s FSR 2.0 as a DLSS alternative could help long-term, but the current FSR implementation is more about improving performance than image quality. (Hint: Run at a lower resolution, or use Nvidia Image Scaling, and you get comparable performance gains and quality.)
We’d grab an RX 6800 more for the rasterization prowess and not worry so much about ray tracing. But really, we’d wait for prices to get down to reasonable levels, like $600 or less for this particular card. Hopefully that will happen before the end of 2022, but the future RDNA 3 and Ada architectures will likely arrive by then.
Read: AMD Radeon RX 6800 review
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Despite Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3050’s $250 suggested retail price, the company attempted to build a “affordable” RTX 30-series card. If you want to get your hands on an RTX 2080 for $300 or more, you’ll have to wait a little longer than you might like, as it’s 7 percent slower than the previous generation’s 2060. A GeForce GTX 1660 Super or 8GB version of the RX 5500XT 8GB can be had for the same price on eBay, but we’d prefer buy an RTX card than buy a used version of those cards.
The RTX 3050 was roughly 15% faster than a GTX 1660 Super in our tests (see the results below), and it also supports ray tracing and DLSS. What we can say about AMD’s RX 6500 XT is that it should have bypassed RT support in favour of higher VRAM and bandwidth.
There’s still a lot of room for prices to fall, and we wouldn’t be surprised to see them drop another 20% or so by the end of the summer (provided that supply doesn’t get derailed). If ray tracing isn’t important to you, consider the RX 6600, which is only slightly more expensive but achieves 30 percent better performance in our usual test suite at 1080p extreme.
Read: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050
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In the domain of affordable graphics cards, AMD’s RDNA 2 GPU is used in the Radeon RX 6500 XT. It’s just that the Navi 24 chipsets were severely pared down, with only a 64-bit memory interface, 16MB of Infinity Cache, and an x4 PCIe link remaining. A lot of nice features were snatched away.
Even yet, the RX 6500 XT’s starting price of $210 is less expensive than most other options. For the vast majority of gamers, we recommend saving up for the RTX 3050 or RX 6600 in favour of the 6500 XT, whose performance falls short of that of the GTX 1650 Super. eBay is currently the only way to acquire a 1650 Super without overpaying.
The RX 6500 XT is our affordable choice by default because to the lack of improvement in supply and prior generation GPUs. However, buying old graphics cards is risky because many miners are likely to be selling cards that have been worked hard for the past two years. We would want a GTX 1660 series card, or possibly an RX 5500 XT 8GB.
RTX 6500 XT Review by AMD is a good place to start
How We Test the Best Graphics Cards
As much as possible, it is best to eliminate all extraneous bottlenecks when determining the pure performance of a graphics card. Core i9-12900K, MSI Z690 DDR4 motherboard, 32GB Corsair DDR4-3600 CL16 memory, and Crucial P5 Plus 2TB SSD are the components of our 2022 graphics card testbed.
For the three most common gaming resolutions, 1080p, 1440p, and 4K, we used “medium” and “extreme” settings. In most of our tests, we use’reference’ cards, such as Nvidia Founders Edition models and AMD’s reference designs, if possible, However, reference versions are rare for GPUs in the midrange and lower price range, and in some situations, we can only use factory overclocked cards for testing. Where possible, we try to stick with cards that are as near to the reference sizing as possible.
Each graphics card is tested in the same way. In order to “warm up” the GPU, we conduct at least two passes of each benchmark at each setting/resolution combination. Where there is just a 5% difference in the two runs’ times, the quicker one is used. At a minimum, we repeat the test at least twice if the difference is more than a few percentage points.
This means that RTX 3070 Ti is roughly 5% faster than 3070 Ti, which is about 5% faster than RTX 3060 Ti. However, we also look at all the data and look for abnormalities, so these cards will all normally perform within the same tight range. As a rule of thumb, we’ll retest any cards that appear to be outliers (i.e., performance is more than 10% higher for the cards previously listed) if we notice any anomalies.
Updated drivers and game patches are inevitable because of the amount of time necessary to test each GPU. We retest a few sample cards every few months to make sure our results are still accurate, and if they aren’t, we retest the affected games and GPUs (s). Our test suite may also include games in the following year if one is popular and amenable to testing – read our selection criteria for what constitutes a good game benchmark.
Choosing Among the Best Graphics Cards
For the top graphics cards, we’ve included a dozen possibilities, knowing that there is a lot of overlap. Nvidia’s Ampere architecture cards, AMD’s RDNA2 architecture chips, and Intel Arc Alchemist GPUs are all part of the newest generation of graphics processing units (GPUs). DirectX 12 Ultimate and Raytracing are supported by Arc Alchemist, RDNA2, and Ampere; the only difference is that Arc and RTX cards include additional Tensor Core technology.
Here are the greatest graphics cards currently on the market, as well as their current internet costs, which we keep track of in our GPU price guide. . There are a lot of individuals ready to upgrade, and supply appears to be improving, since several cards are currently only 25% more expensive than their MSRPs. Until the next generation of GPUs arrive, we don’t know if that will continue.
Our recommendation: Don’t overpay for hardware that you can get for less now. In the long run, patience will pay off and you’ll be able to pick up an RTX 30-series or RX 6000-series graphics card at a reasonable price. Wait for Ada and RDNA3 instead of Ampere and RDNA2 at this stage.
It’s impossible to ignore the CPU if your primary purpose is gaming. With an outdated or underpowered CPU, no amount of money spent on the highest-quality gaming graphics cards will make much difference. Check out our CPU Benchmark hierarchy and the Best CPUs for Gaming page to make sure you have the correct CPU for the level of gaming you’re aiming to accomplish.
As a result of taking all of the foregoing information into account, we’ve updated our GPU buying recommendations for 2019. According to our subjective rankings, which consider performance, price and features in addition to the card’s power consumption and energy efficiency, some of the slower cards may be higher on our list than others.
Additional Shopping Tips
Consider the following when purchasing a graphics card:
A higher resolution means you’ll require more processing power. Gaming at 1080p doesn’t necessitate a high-end graphics card.
• PSU: Make sure your power supply has adequate juice and the correct 6- and 8-pin connectors for your motherboard (s). According to Nvidia, you’ll need to have at least an 8-pin and perhaps 6-pin PEG connectors for the RTX 3060.
Currently, a 4GB video card is the minimum need, however 6GB and 8GB ones are preferable. In recent years, a few games have been able to take advantage of 12GB of VRAM, but they’re rare.
• G-Sync or FreeSync? It is possible to synchronise your GPU’s frame rate with the refresh rate of your screen using either variable-refresh rate technology. AMD’s FreeSync works with Radeon cards, whereas Nvidia’s G-Sync works with G-Sync Compatible displays (for recommendations, see our Best Gaming Monitors list).
Graphics cards with the most recent generation support ray tracing, which can be utilised to improve images. DLS delivers intelligent upscaling and antialiasing to enhance performance while maintaining the same image quality, but only on Nvidia RTX card. A different selection of games benefit from AMD’s FSR, which works on any GPU and provides upscaling and improvement.
Graphics Cards Performance Results
There are currently eight games in our testing library. The following charts are based on data gathered during the past few months. Aside with 1440p and 4K, we try to test all cards at 1080p medium and ultra resolutions.
For a few months now, AMD’s FSR, FidelityFX Super Resolution, and Nvidia’s DLSS have been available, but none of the titles in our benchmark suite support FSR. This signifies that all of these tests are being done at their native resolution. If you’re interested in learning more about how DLSS and FSR differ in terms of performance and image quality, you can check out our dedicated article on the subject.
There are currently no non-RT cards that are capable of running our DXR tests in the charts below, so we’ve included the current generation RTX 30-series and RX 6000-series, as well as earlier generation GPUs, where relevant. In addition to our 2020-2021 suite performance tests on a Core i9-9900K, we have additional data in our GPU benchmarks hierarchy for those who are interested. To make things easier to understand, the graphs have been colour coded to show AMD in red/grey and Nvidia in blue/black.
Charts are current as of the 15th of April, 2022. All current and previous generation graphics processing units are included in the package.
Best Graphics Cards — 1080p Medium
Best Graphics Cards — 1080p Ultra
Best Graphics Cards — 1440p Ultra
Best Graphics Cards — 4K Ultra
Besides performance, we also test graphics card power consumption. We tested all current GPUs using Powenetics equipment and software, and while Nvidia generally had an efficiency lead on previous generation parts, AMD’s RDNA2 GPUs now rate as the most efficient options in most cases. Here are the main power charts from our testing, along with clock speeds, temperatures, and fan speeds — and we’ve retested the GTX 1650 Super to get correct data now.
Best Graphics Cards — Power Consumption
All GPUs Ranked
Our full GPU Benchmarks hierarchy ranks all current in previous generation GPUs by performance, using aggregate data from the gaming test suite. Below is the abbreviated hierarchy with all the cards you can still buy (plus a few extras) ranked in order of performance, from best to worst. The score represents aggregate performance, scaled relative to the fastest card, the RTX 3090 Ti.
| Graphics Card | 1080p Ultra | 1080p Medium | 1440p Ultra | 4K Ultra | Specifications |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GeForce RTX 3090 Ti | 100.0% (132.4fps) | 100.0% (180.1fps) | 100.0% (113.9fps) | 100.0% (75.7fps) | GA102, 10752 shaders, 1860MHz, 24GB [email protected], 1008GB/s, 450W |
| Radeon RX 6900 XT | 98.6% (130.6fps) | 103.4% (186.2fps) | 94.0% (107.0fps) | 83.1% (62.9fps) | Navi 21, 5120 shaders, 2250MHz, 16GB [email protected], 512GB/s, 300W |
| GeForce RTX 3090 | 95.6% (126.6fps) | 98.9% (178.1fps) | 93.6% (106.5fps) | 90.9% (68.8fps) | GA102, 10496 shaders, 1695MHz, 24GB [email protected], 936GB/s, 350W |
| GeForce RTX 3080 12GB | 94.0% (124.5fps) | 99.0% (178.2fps) | 91.3% (104.0fps) | 87.6% (66.3fps) | GA102, 8960 shaders, 1845MHz, 12GB [email protected], 912GB/s, 400W |
| Radeon RX 6800 XT | 94.0% (124.5fps) | 100.3% (180.7fps) | 88.9% (101.2fps) | 77.3% (58.5fps) | Navi 21, 4608 shaders, 2250MHz, 16GB [email protected], 512GB/s, 300W |
| GeForce RTX 3080 Ti | 93.2% (123.4fps) | 97.1% (174.9fps) | 90.8% (103.4fps) | 87.8% (66.5fps) | GA102, 10240 shaders, 1665MHz, 12GB [email protected], 912GB/s, 350W |
| GeForce RTX 3080 | 87.8% (116.3fps) | 96.3% (173.4fps) | 83.9% (95.5fps) | 80.1% (60.6fps) | GA102, 8704 shaders, 1710MHz, 10GB [email protected], 760GB/s, 320W |
| Radeon RX 6800 | 84.3% (111.7fps) | 96.8% (174.3fps) | 76.9% (87.5fps) | 66.7% (50.5fps) | Navi 21, 3840 shaders, 2105MHz, 16GB [email protected], 512GB/s, 250W |
| GeForce RTX 3070 Ti | 78.6% (104.1fps) | 90.2% (162.4fps) | 72.5% (82.6fps) | 61.9% (46.8fps) | GA104, 6144 shaders, 1770MHz, 8GB [email protected], 608GB/s, 290W |
| Titan RTX | 75.6% (100.1fps) | 87.9% (158.2fps) | 70.7% (80.5fps) | 63.8% (48.3fps) | TU102, 4608 shaders, 1770MHz, 24GB [email protected], 672GB/s, 280W |
| GeForce RTX 3070 | 75.3% (99.8fps) | 87.5% (157.7fps) | 68.0% (77.5fps) | 57.0% (43.2fps) | GA104, 5888 shaders, 1725MHz, 8GB [email protected], 448GB/s, 220W |
| Radeon RX 6700 XT | 72.5% (96.0fps) | 88.7% (159.8fps) | 61.9% (70.4fps) | 50.9% (38.5fps) | Navi 22, 2560 shaders, 2581MHz, 12GB [email protected], 384GB/s, 230W |
| GeForce RTX 2080 Ti | 72.5% (96.0fps) | 84.2% (151.6fps) | 66.1% (75.3fps) | 58.9% (44.6fps) | TU102, 4352 shaders, 1545MHz, 11GB [email protected], 616GB/s, 250W |
| GeForce RTX 3060 Ti | 69.1% (91.5fps) | 83.1% (149.7fps) | 61.2% (69.7fps) | GA104, 4864 shaders, 1665MHz, 8GB [email protected], 448GB/s, 200W | |
| GeForce RTX 2080 Super | 64.1% (84.9fps) | 76.5% (137.8fps) | 57.0% (64.9fps) | 45.6% (34.5fps) | TU104, 3072 shaders, 1815MHz, 8GB [email protected], 496GB/s, 250W |
| GeForce RTX 2080 | 62.1% (82.2fps) | 73.9% (133.1fps) | 54.8% (62.4fps) | TU104, 2944 shaders, 1710MHz, 8GB [email protected], 448GB/s, 215W | |
| Radeon RX 6600 XT | 59.1% (78.2fps) | 76.0% (136.8fps) | 48.2% (54.9fps) | Navi 23, 2048 shaders, 2589MHz, 8GB [email protected], 256GB/s, 160W | |
| GeForce RTX 2070 Super | 57.7% (76.4fps) | 68.9% (124.1fps) | 50.4% (57.4fps) | TU104, 2560 shaders, 1770MHz, 8GB [email protected], 448GB/s, 215W | |
| Radeon RX 5700 XT | 55.7% (73.7fps) | 69.9% (125.8fps) | 46.8% (53.3fps) | 38.6% (29.3fps) | Navi 10, 2560 shaders, 1905MHz, 8GB [email protected], 448GB/s, 225W |
| GeForce RTX 3060 | 53.0% (70.2fps) | 66.0% (118.8fps) | 46.2% (52.6fps) | GA106, 3584 shaders, 1777MHz, 12GB [email protected], 360GB/s, 170W | |
| GeForce RTX 2070 | 51.3% (67.9fps) | 61.5% (110.7fps) | 44.8% (51.0fps) | TU106, 2304 shaders, 1620MHz, 8GB [email protected], 448GB/s, 175W | |
| Radeon RX 6600 | 50.4% (66.7fps) | 65.4% (117.8fps) | 40.5% (46.1fps) | Navi 23, 1792 shaders, 2491MHz, 8GB [email protected], 224GB/s, 132W | |
| GeForce RTX 2060 Super | 49.1% (65.1fps) | 58.8% (105.9fps) | 42.4% (48.2fps) | TU106, 2176 shaders, 1650MHz, 8GB [email protected], 448GB/s, 175W | |
| GeForce RTX 2060 | 41.7% (55.2fps) | 53.8% (96.8fps) | 34.0% (38.7fps) | TU106, 1920 shaders, 1680MHz, 6GB [email protected], 336GB/s, 160W | |
| GeForce RTX 3050 | 38.8% (51.4fps) | 49.6% (89.4fps) | 33.0% (37.6fps) | GA106, 2560 shaders, 1777MHz, 8GB [email protected], 224GB/s, 130W | |
| GeForce GTX 1660 Super | 33.6% (44.4fps) | 46.0% (82.8fps) | 27.6% (31.5fps) | TU116, 1408 shaders, 1785MHz, 6GB [email protected], 336GB/s, 125W | |
| GeForce GTX 1660 Ti | 33.1% (43.9fps) | 45.4% (81.9fps) | 27.7% (31.6fps) | TU116, 1536 shaders, 1770MHz, 6GB [email protected], 288GB/s, 120W | |
| GeForce GTX 1660 | 30.1% (39.9fps) | 41.7% (75.1fps) | 25.0% (28.5fps) | TU116, 1408 shaders, 1785MHz, 6GB [email protected], 192GB/s, 120W | |
| Radeon RX 5500 XT 8GB | 30.1% (39.8fps) | 40.3% (72.6fps) | 25.0% (28.5fps) | Navi 14, 1408 shaders, 1845MHz, 8GB [email protected], 224GB/s, 130W | |
| Radeon RX 5500 XT 4GB | 25.3% (33.5fps) | 37.2% (66.9fps) | Navi 14, 1408 shaders, 1845MHz, 4GB [email protected], 224GB/s, 130W | ||
| GeForce GTX 1650 Super | 25.1% (33.2fps) | 37.7% (67.9fps) | 20.2% (23.0fps) | TU116, 1280 shaders, 1725MHz, 4GB [email protected], 192GB/s, 100W | |
| Radeon RX 6500 XT | 23.0% (30.4fps) | 36.3% (65.4fps) | 15.8% (18.0fps) | Navi 24, 1024 shaders, 2815MHz, 4GB [email protected], 144GB/s, 107W | |
| GeForce GTX 1650 | 20.1% (26.6fps) | 28.4% (51.1fps) | TU117, 896 shaders, 1665MHz, 4GB [email protected], 128GB/s, 75W |
| Graphics Card | 1080p Medium | 1080p Ultra | 1440p Ultra | 4K Ultra | Specifications |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GeForce RTX 3090 Ti | 100.0% (118.2fps) | 100.0% (84.4fps) | 100.0% (57.2fps) | 100.0% (29.1fps) | GA102, 10752 shaders, 1860MHz, 24GB [email protected], 1008GB/s, 450W |
| GeForce RTX 3090 | 91.7% (108.4fps) | 89.7% (75.7fps) | 88.7% (50.8fps) | 87.2% (25.4fps) | GA102, 10496 shaders, 1695MHz, 24GB [email protected], 936GB/s, 350W |
| GeForce RTX 3080 Ti | 89.3% (105.6fps) | 87.6% (73.9fps) | 86.0% (49.2fps) | 84.6% (24.7fps) | GA102, 10240 shaders, 1665MHz, 12GB [email protected], 912GB/s, 350W |
| GeForce RTX 3080 12GB | 88.5% (104.7fps) | 85.8% (72.4fps) | 83.7% (47.9fps) | 81.4% (23.7fps) | GA102, 8960 shaders, 1845MHz, 12GB [email protected], 912GB/s, 400W |
| GeForce RTX 3080 | 81.5% (96.3fps) | 78.5% (66.3fps) | 76.3% (43.7fps) | 72.2% (21.0fps) | GA102, 8704 shaders, 1710MHz, 10GB [email protected], 760GB/s, 320W |
| GeForce RTX 3070 Ti | 66.3% (78.4fps) | 63.0% (53.1fps) | 59.2% (33.9fps) | GA104, 6144 shaders, 1770MHz, 8GB [email protected], 608GB/s, 290W | |
| Radeon RX 6900 XT | 63.0% (74.5fps) | 59.0% (49.8fps) | 55.2% (31.6fps) | 51.7% (15.1fps) | Navi 21, 5120 shaders, 2250MHz, 16GB [email protected], 512GB/s, 300W |
| Titan RTX | 62.5% (73.9fps) | 58.2% (49.1fps) | 55.4% (31.7fps) | 52.5% (15.3fps) | TU102, 4608 shaders, 1770MHz, 24GB [email protected], 672GB/s, 280W |
| GeForce RTX 3070 | 62.1% (73.4fps) | 58.7% (49.6fps) | 54.9% (31.4fps) | GA104, 5888 shaders, 1725MHz, 8GB [email protected], 448GB/s, 220W | |
| GeForce RTX 2080 Ti | 59.2% (70.0fps) | 55.1% (46.5fps) | 52.0% (29.7fps) | TU102, 4352 shaders, 1545MHz, 11GB [email protected], 616GB/s, 250W | |
| Radeon RX 6800 XT | 59.0% (69.7fps) | 54.6% (46.1fps) | 51.3% (29.4fps) | 48.2% (14.0fps) | Navi 21, 4608 shaders, 2250MHz, 16GB [email protected], 512GB/s, 300W |
| GeForce RTX 3060 Ti | 55.2% (65.3fps) | 51.3% (43.3fps) | 47.8% (27.4fps) | GA104, 4864 shaders, 1665MHz, 8GB [email protected], 448GB/s, 200W | |
| Radeon RX 6800 | 50.4% (59.6fps) | 46.6% (39.3fps) | 43.6% (24.9fps) | Navi 21, 3840 shaders, 2105MHz, 16GB [email protected], 512GB/s, 250W | |
| GeForce RTX 2080 Super | 49.6% (58.6fps) | 45.0% (37.9fps) | 41.6% (23.8fps) | TU104, 3072 shaders, 1815MHz, 8GB [email protected], 496GB/s, 250W | |
| GeForce RTX 2080 | 47.5% (56.2fps) | 42.5% (35.9fps) | 39.1% (22.4fps) | TU104, 2944 shaders, 1710MHz, 8GB [email protected], 448GB/s, 215W | |
| GeForce RTX 2070 Super | 43.6% (51.5fps) | 39.2% (33.1fps) | 35.5% (20.3fps) | TU104, 2560 shaders, 1770MHz, 8GB [email protected], 448GB/s, 215W | |
| GeForce RTX 3060 | 41.2% (48.7fps) | 38.3% (32.3fps) | 35.1% (20.1fps) | GA106, 3584 shaders, 1777MHz, 12GB [email protected], 360GB/s, 170W | |
| Radeon RX 6700 XT | 38.8% (45.9fps) | 36.1% (30.5fps) | 32.6% (18.7fps) | Navi 22, 2560 shaders, 2581MHz, 12GB [email protected], 384GB/s, 230W | |
| GeForce RTX 2070 | 38.5% (45.5fps) | 34.9% (29.4fps) | 31.6% (18.1fps) | TU106, 2304 shaders, 1620MHz, 8GB [email protected], 448GB/s, 175W | |
| GeForce RTX 2060 Super | 36.9% (43.6fps) | 33.0% (27.9fps) | 29.9% (17.1fps) | TU106, 2176 shaders, 1650MHz, 8GB [email protected], 448GB/s, 175W | |
| GeForce RTX 2060 | 31.8% (37.6fps) | 26.7% (22.5fps) | TU106, 1920 shaders, 1680MHz, 6GB [email protected], 336GB/s, 160W | ||
| Radeon RX 6600 XT | 30.8% (36.4fps) | 28.0% (23.6fps) | Navi 23, 2048 shaders, 2589MHz, 8GB [email protected], 256GB/s, 160W | ||
| GeForce RTX 3050 | 29.4% (34.8fps) | 27.0% (22.8fps) | GA106, 2560 shaders, 1777MHz, 8GB [email protected], 224GB/s, 130W | ||
| Radeon RX 6600 | 25.8% (30.5fps) | 23.3% (19.6fps) | Navi 23, 1792 shaders, 2491MHz, 8GB [email protected], 224GB/s, 132W | ||
| Radeon RX 6500 XT | 7.9% (9.4fps) | Navi 24, 1024 shaders, 2815MHz, 4GB [email protected], 144GB/s, 107W |
Finding Discounts on the Best Graphics Cards
Check for Newegg promo codes, Best Buy promo codes and Micro Center coupon codes if you’re looking for a good deal on a graphics card, but don’t expect a massive discount.
Do you have anything to add to our list of the best gaming graphics cards? The Tom’s Hardware Forums are a great place to share your thoughts.
