Updated on August 14, 2022
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Graphics cards are the heart of your gaming PC, flowing blood, oxygen and perhaps even brain matter to your display. No single method will work for everyone when it comes to weeding out the true rivals from the pretenders. That is the reason for our presence. We have a recommendation for every price range and every type of user when it comes to graphics cards. The graphics card is the single most important component in your gaming experience, and no other component has as great an impact.
Our ranking of the best graphics cards, in contrast to our GPU benchmarks, uses a more comprehensive approach. While these characteristics are still important, they grow more subjective over time. A 30% drop in GPU pricing on eBay since January indicates that the profitability of mining cryptocurrency has peaked. GPU costs have decreased by 40–50 percent in just the previous four months, according to the various internet vendors selling them, often at rates lower than those on eBay. While further price cuts are possible, affordable graphics cards are now within the grasp of consumers.
Despite its exorbitant price, the RTX 3090 Ti comfortably exceeds the RTX 2080 Ti in terms of performance. If you’re on a tight budget and don’t want to spend more than $200 on a new graphics card, this is a fantastic alternative. While the GeForce RTX 3050 is significantly more powerful than the GeForce RTX 2060, the price difference is 50 percent. We’re still waiting on Intel Arc Alchemist, which is now only available on laptops but will be accessible on desktops in June.
Graphics Card Deals
If you’re looking for an good deal on a new graphics card, check our RTX 3080 deals, RTX 3070 deals, and RTX 3060 deals pages where we suggest some ways to save on a new graphics card. Generally speaking, the best deals will only cost 15–25% more than the nominal MSRPs. 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) |
The prices of most of the graphics cards are still above MSRP, although they have begun to fall significantly. Because eBay was the only location where you could buy a large number of GPUs, we previously used average prices from eBay. Newegg often has lower prices for all of the current-generation graphics cards, so we’ve included their prices as well as the official MSRPs.
You’ll notice that the list above now only includes cards from the current generation. As a result, they’ve become some of the best bargains out there, as many older models have been overpriced. Online, the GTX 1650 Super costs $335, but you can purchase it for less than $200 on eBay if you like. For $300, you can get the RTX 3050, which has superior performance and features.
However, the order of the cards listed below is dependent on more than just performance (including both standard and DXR performance). Performance, pricing, power, and other attributes are all part of our overall subjective assessment. Any of the cards on this list are worth evaluating, regardless of what other people have to say about them.
Best Graphics Cards for Gaming 2022
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The GeForce RTX 3080 is a powerful graphics card thanks to Nvidia’s groundbreaking Ampere architecture. 30 percent quicker and $500 cheaper than its predecessor, the new 2080 Ti is claimed. Due to its much higher price, the new RTX 3080 Ti was unable to dislodge the incumbent in our testing. Check out the 12GB version of RTX 3080, which is now $50 more expensive than the 8GB model.
If you want to play games in 4K or 1440p, this is the best graphics card for you. For newer games that use complex ray-tracing techniques, DLSS support may actually improve performance. The RTX 30-series GPUs may be your ticket to ray tracing if you missed the initial generation of RTX GPUs. At the very least, you’ll need the RTX 3080 to get the most out of ray tracing in games like Cyberpunk 2077, which uses even more of the technology.
You’ll need a better DLSS tensor core to apply this technology in future games, as it doesn’t take a supercomputer to train it per game. The ease with which DLSS 2.0 may be activated and removed in Unreal Engine and Unity has led to an increase in the number of games that employ it. Although Nvidia’s RT and DLSS performance is significantly quicker than AMD’s new 6000 series RX 6000 GPUs, Nvidia still lags behind in traditional rasterization.
Finding a working RTX 3080 at a reasonable price will be the most difficult part of using it, as will learning how to use it effectively. A wonderful moment to buy the 3080, which has been on the market for over $1,500 for the past year. This is a 35 percent premium over the suggested retail price (MSRP). Even if the 3080 Ti and 3090 are more expensive, the 3080 remains our top selection for a high-performance GPU.
Read: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Review
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Radeon RX 6800 XT from AMD is the ideal graphics card for Team Red’s needs. Despite the fact that it is faster in terms of raw performance, the RX Radeon 6900 Ultra costs 54% more than the normal model. It’s not a terrific deal because it doesn’t include any additional benefits. Because the 6900 is only $100 more expensive than the 6800, it makes sense to shop around for the best deal.. The RX 6800 XT is a big step up in performance and capability over the RX 5700 XT. DirectX Raytracing or VulkanRT support resulted in a performance increase of up to 70% to 90% in our tests.
Gamers dubbed it “Big Navi” before its release, and that was exactly what we wanted. This version of Navi has twice the number of shader processors and RAM than Navi 10. The 2.1-2.3 GHz range is where we’ve observed the fastest normal GPU clock speeds (by roughly 300 MHz) (depending on the card model). The TDP of the RX 6800XT is lower than that of the RTX 3080. (320W TDP). Ultimately, AMD was able to do this with only a minor increase in power consumption.
Its enormous 128MB Infinity Cache is largely responsible for AMD’s speed. A whopping 119% boost in bandwidth is claimed by AMD. According to our information, few games will demand more than 16GB of RAM in the foreseeable future, thus the 6800 XT is well-positioned in that regard.
What do you have to lose? Ray tracing’s performance isn’t great, but it’s also not atrocious. Because the 6800 XT’s ray tracing performance falls short of that of the Nvidia GTX 3070 by as much as 25%, it’s feasible that Nvidia’s future RTX GPUs will see more DXR games. Even in Quality mode, the performance of RTX cards can be reduced by 20% to 40% if they don’t have DLSS enabled. It’s around once a week. AMD has created FidelityFX Super Resolution as a fix for DLSS’s lack of mainstream adoption and poor quality (FSR). Whether or not FSR 2.0 addresses this is irrelevant since it has yet to be published.
As with many current GPUs, the pricing and availability aren’t fantastic. In comparison to the RTX 3080’s price premium of $30, you can presently find the RX 6800 XT for less than $1,000 online. Is it worthwhile waiting for the RDNA2 upgrade, which is expected to enable “6×50 XT” variants with 18 Gbps GDDR6 memory?
Read: AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT Review
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For some, speed trumps all other considerations when choosing a credit card. GeForce RTX 3090 Ti from Nvidia caters to this set of gamers. When paying about three times as much as the RTX 3080’s quoted price, the performance of the RTX 3080 is only marginally enhanced (20-30 percent). Aside from being only 5–10 percent faster, the RTX 3090 has a higher MSRP and is also significantly more expensive. The price difference between these two smartphones is irrelevant to anyone who is really considering making a purchase.
As long as Nvidia doesn’t release Ada Lovelace-powered GPUs, the RTX 3090 Ti will be the company’s best. Because it includes a complete GA102 chip, the new Titan card is not an option because it has 84 SMs Nvidia claims that the 3090 Ti brings Titan-class performance and features to the GeForce brand, particularly 24GB of VRAM. The performance of the RTX 3090 Ti will be surpassed by a newer, faster graphics card only in the fall of this year.
It’s not just about video games. NVLink, rather than SLI, may be a better option for professional applications and GPU computations. The 24GB of GDDR6X memory is useful for a variety of content creation programmes. In terms of Blender performance, the Titan RTX was noticeably faster than the 3080. Titan RTX’s performance may be worse than expected in some SPECviewperf programmes since the drivers have been configured to use additional functionalities not available to GeForce cards. The complete professional driver set requires an Nvidia RTX A6000.
While the GTX 1080 has an edge in some benchmarks, the RTX 3090 Ti is a close second in traditional rasterization performance. Although Nvidia’s graphics cards are now the fastest on the market, if you plan on implementing ray tracing and/or Deep Learning Streaming (DLSS) in your games, you should look no farther. There are 144 SMs in Nvidia’s Ada AD102 next-generation extreme graphics card; this means that the Ada AD102 may offer performance gains of up to 70%.
Read: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Ti Review
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AMD’s RX 6700 XT, which we tested at stock, clocked in at more than 2.5GHz throughout our gaming sessions. A little tweaking and overclocking allowed us to achieve speeds of 2.7-2.8GHz without overheating the graphics card. The factory overclocked graphics cards can go even faster.
The RX 6700 XT and RTX 3070 and RTX 3060 Ti went head-to-head in our benchmarking. The initial price of $479 is acceptable, given that it’s faster than the latter but slower than the former. It’s still behind the 3060 Ti in terms of DLSS games, but the 6700 XT almost appears like a competition to the 3060.
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. After a $15 rebate, the MSI RX 6700 Mech 2X is presently on sale for $515, which is just 7% more expensive than AMD recommends. 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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With Nvidia’s desktop Ampere series, the processing power reduction may have gone too far as we near the bottom of the price and performance scale. In comparison to the RTX 3050, this is the first GA106 card to feature a 192-bit memory interface and 12GB of VRAM, making it an improvement over GA104 but still a significant step backward. The 3060 Ti has 26% fewer GPU cores and 26% less memory bandwidth than the RTX 2070, resulting in a lower overall performance. 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. Even while demand continues to outstrip availability, the RTX 3060 now starts at $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 previous several weeks. In terms of ray tracing and DLSS performance, the RTX 3060 is the best overall value, as demonstrated in our testing.
VRAM capacity isn’t an issue, and in some situations, the 3060 begins to catch up to the 3060 Ti. Even if you can locate a 3060 Ti at an affordable price, the 3060 isn’t nearly good enough. A $200 price difference between the 3060 and 3060 Ti makes this or one of AMD’s products a better deal at this time.
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. This isn’t going to blow the world away, but it’s typical of mainstream components. 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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For the RTX 3060, AMD has developed the Navi 23 architecture. The AMD RX 6700 non-XT has fewer CUs, a narrower memory interface, and a smaller Infinity Cache, yet it still delivers exceptional performance.
RX 5700 XT outperforms the previous version despite the fact that the memory bus has been shrunk to 128 bits. In some cases, the RTX 3060 is a superior choice due to the RTX 3060’s lower price and higher VRAM capacity. There appears to be an advantage to even a 32MB Infinity Cache, which is surprising. TSMC’s N7 node is used to create 10–15% more FPS in 1080p on this smaller version of Navi 10, which goes by the name of Navi Mini.
Ray tracing, on the other hand, is a challenge. At 1080p, DXR (DirectX Raytracing) compatible games couldn’t barely maintain 20 fps. Nvidia’s RTX 3060 was about twice as fast before DLSS was implemented (where available). AMD, Nvidia, or even Intel GPUs do not benefit from the performance gain provided by FSR, hence this does not address the issue at hand. After the previous Big Navi chips, the RX 6600 XT is a disappointment.
At launch, the RX 5600 XT cost $279, so the $379 starting price isn’t exactly a selling point for a GPU that’s supposed to replace it. It’s a steal in today’s world of exorbitantly expensive graphics cards that the Radeon RX 6600 XT starts at at $390! (after rebate). That’s pretty much what it’s going for on the market!
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. With a starting price of under $399, it boasts all of the same functionality as the other 30-series GPUs. As a matter of fact, as all the other new graphics cards sold out rapidly. MSI RTX 3060 Ti Ventus now has the lowest pricing at $590, which is still roughly 50% above the nominal MSRP. <Sigh>
In our tests, the 3060 Ti outperformed the previous generation 2080 Super, winning every game. In addition, it’s only 9% slower than the RTX 3070, but it costs 20% less. Even in the most recent titles, the 3060 Ti may outperform an older GTX 1070 or RX Vega 56 by up to two times.
The absence of VRAM is the only serious worry. For the time being, 8GB is more than enough, although some games are beginning to test the boundaries. 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.)
However, AMD’s RX 6600 and RX 6600 XT challenge the 3060 Ti. However, the RX 6600 XT is presently selling for over $180 cheaper than the 3060 Ti, despite the fact that Nvidia’s part is quicker, particularly in ray tracing games. To put it another way, this card is ranked above this one in our ranking of the best graphics cards. Even Nvidia’s lower-tier RTX 3060 has 12GB of memory, compared to the GTX 1070’s 8GB of memory five years ago.
Read: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Review
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Everything that’s fantastic about the Radeon RX 6600 XT is taken and then scaled back significantly in the Radeon RX 6600. 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.
That’s actually less than AMD’s official $329 MSRP, which felt a little pricey at launch—not that we’ve ever seen those prices in meaningful quantities until now.. For the time being, AMD’s best value is the RTX 3060, with some cards shipping at or even slightly below MSRP, making this AMD’s best value.
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. In non-ray tracing conditions, it was able to match the RTX 2070’s performance. Despite this, it was unable to maintain a 30 fps average in our DXR test suite when ray tracing was enabled.
The RX 6600 is probably worth a look if you’re not concerned about ray tracing. Despite AMD’s Infinity Cache, the card only consumes 130W, which is significantly less power than comparable GPUs.
Read: AMD Radeon RX 6600 Review
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Our current best guess is that we’ll soon see an even better RDNA2 card, but we don’t expect it to be long before that happens. A high $999 MSRP at launch turned out to be substantially cheaper than street costs for the past 18 months. Even so, there are currently a few cards available for only a few dollars extra, and the cost of these cards is steadily decreasing.
With slightly more GPU cores, the RX 6900 XT provides a tiny performance boost for an expensive price rise over its predecessor, the RX 6900 XT. 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 red flags remain, such as the poor ray tracing performance and the absence of a direct alternative to DLSS. However, DLSS only works on Nvidia and has had a three-year head start on getting game developers to implement it. To summarise, Nvidia remains the clear choice for the greatest RT experience right now (not that you need RT to enjoy games).
The 6900 XT is still the fastest AMD GPU for those who only care about speed. Refreshes are expected in the next month or so, coupling all XT models with 18Gbps GDDR6 RAM and increasing clock speeds, likely at the cost of power consumption. 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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If you’re looking for something that’s a little less powerful than the 6800 XT, the RX 6800 is the way to go. This is despite the fact that the 16 GB GDDR6 and 128 MB Infinity Cache are still there. The 6800 XT is a good middle ground, but we feel it to be the better overall option.
On the other hand, the RTX 3070 Ti costs $120 more than the 6800 XT, while the RX 6800 is about $120 cheaper. In our non-ray tracing test findings, the Radeon RX 6800 outperforms Nvidia’s RTX 3070 Ti. We’ve found that the Nvidia GPU is 35 percent faster than AMD’s in ray tracing benchmarks regardless of DLSS quality mode’s additional 20–50 percent improvement.
AMD’s FSR 2.0, an alternative to DLSS, may be beneficial in the long term. FSR, on the other hand, has been designed to improve performance rather than image quality. With Nvidia Image Scaling or running at a reduced resolution, you can receive the same speed and quality advantages.)
RX 6800 rasterization prowess is more important than ray tracing prowess to us. If the price of this particular card falls to a reasonable level, we’d hold off till then. However, by the end of 2022, the new RDNA 3 and Ada architectures should appear.
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. Although it’s less than the initial price of $350 we’d want to see it go down to, given that our testing showed it was 7 percent slower than the previous generation RTX 2060, it’s currently selling for $300 or more. Even so, we’d rather spend the extra money on an RTX card than on a GeForce GTX 1660 Super or RX 5500 XT 8GB (which, if you’re willing to buy a used GPU, can be found for cheaper on eBay).
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. In contrast, AMD’s RX 6500 XT, which was supposed to have higher VRAM and bandwidth, doesn’t feature RT support.
Unfortunately, $300 still represents a significant outlay for a product of this calibre, and we don’t rule out further price cuts of up to 20% by the end of the summer (provided supply growth doesn’t falter). When it comes to 1080p extreme, the RX 6600 gives a 30 percent boost in performance over the RX 580 in our regular test suite, although ray tracing isn’t a need.
Read: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050
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The Radeon RX 6500 XT at least incorporates AMD’s RDNA 2 GPU, which is rare in the low-cost GPU market. 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 so, the RX 6500 XT’s starting price of $210 makes it a more affordable option than most of the competition. We recommend that most gamers save up for the RTX 3050 or RX 6600, which are both significantly better, while the 6500 XT’s performance can’t quite equal the GTX 1650 Super. Only on eBay can you get 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. A GTX 1660 series card or perhaps an RX 5500 8GB would be preferable, but we’d also prefer to buy fresh hard – many miners are likely to be selling cards that have been used hard for the past two years, making it risky to buy used hard.
Check out our full review of the AMD Radeon RTX 6500 XT to learn more.
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. CPU, motherboard, RAM, and storage are all provided by Cooler Master, as is the power supply, case, and CPU cooler, all of which are used to power our 2022 graphics card testbed.
We do tests at’medium’ and ‘extreme’ settings on three of the most popular gaming resolutions: 1080p, 1440p, and 4K. Whenever possible, we use’reference’ cards like Nvidia’s Founders Edition versions and AMD’s reference designs for these tests. There are no reference models for the majority of midrange and lower GPUs, therefore we have to rely on factory overclocked cards for our tests. It is our goal to identify cards that meet or exceed our benchmarks in these situations.
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 configuration and resolution combination. Faster is always preferred if the two runs are almost identical (within 0.5 percent of each other). 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. We’ll go back and retest any cards that indicate an anomaly and find out what the “right” result would be if we encounter games with clear outliers (i.e. performance is over 10% higher for the cards just listed).
Inevitably, because of the time it takes to thoroughly evaluate each GPU, new drivers and game updates will be released that affect performance. There are times when our results aren’t as accurate as they should be, therefore we conduct a thorough testing of all 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
As a result, we’ve selected a dozen of the best graphics cards on the market today. Nvidia and AMD’s Ampere and RDNA2 GPUs, as well as Intel’s Arc Alchemist GPUs, are all due out in the coming months. It is supported by Arc Alchemist, RDNA2, and Ampere, as well as Arc and RTX cards with extra Tensor Core technology for DirectX 12 Ultimate.
As part of our GPU pricing guide, we keep tabs on the best graphics cards currently on the market and their current prices. Many cards are currently selling for less than 25% of their MSRP, suggesting that the supply of cards is expanding as well. We don’t know if that will continue till the next generation of GPUs are released.
If you want the greatest advice we can give you, don’t spend more money on outdated equipment. To buy an RTX 30-series or RX-6000-series graphics card for the same price as the MSRP will soon be possible. Ampere and RDNA2 should be put on the back burner until Ada and RDNA3 are released.
If gaming is your major goal, you can’t overlook the CPU. Any gaming GPU, no matter how powerful, will be rendered useless if your computer’s core processor (CPU) is outdated or inadequate. Make sure you have the ideal CPU for the gaming experience you desire by looking at our CPU Benchmark hierarchy and the Best CPUs for Gaming page.
Our current GPU recommendations take into account all of these criteria. It’s possible that some slower cards are higher on our list than others based on our subjective rankings, which take into account a number of factors like the card’s power consumption and efficiency.
Additional Shopping Tips
While shopping for a graphics card, keep these things in mind:
• Resolution: The more pixels you’re pushing, the more performance you need. • Clock Speed: 1080p gaming doesn’t necessitate a high-end GPU.
Be sure your power supply has adequate juice and the correct 6- and/or 8-pin connector. • PSU (s). A 550-watt power supply is recommended by Nvidia for the RTX 3060, and an 8-pin connector and perhaps a 6-pin PEG connector are also required.
For video memory, a 4GB or 6GB card is a good starting point, but 8GB or more is recommended. While 12GB of VRAM is currently possible in some games, it’s not the norm.
Is G-Sync or FreeSync better? Using either variable refresh rate technology, your GPU’s frame rate will be synchronised with the refresh rate of your screen. AMD’s FreeSync technology works with Radeon cards, whereas Nvidia offers G-Sync and G-Sync Compatible displays (for recommendations, see our list of the Best Gaming Monitors).
It’s possible to improve visuals with ray tracing, which is supported by new graphics cards. DLSS delivers intelligent upscaling and anti-aliasing to increase performance, but it is only available on Nvidia RTX cards. For a separate set of games, AMD’s FSR works on practically any GPU and also supports upscaling and improvement.
Graphics Cards Performance Results
There are now eight games in our test suite. The following charts are based on data gathered during the past few months. Only the most powerful GPUs are tested at 1440p and 4K, however we try our best to test everything at 1080p medium and ultra.
It has been a few months since AMD’s FSR, FidelityFX Super Resolution, and Nvidia’s DLSS were released, yet none of the titles in our core test suite support FSR. This signifies that all of these tests are being performed at their native resolution. In a separate paper, we compare FSR with DLSS, and the basic conclusion is that DLSS improves performance while making less sacrifices to image quality.
RTX 30- and RX 6000-series graphics cards, as well as older GPU generations (non-RT cards cannot run our DXR benchmarks) are all represented in the following charts. Our GPU benchmarks hierarchy includes extra results for those who want to see them, as well as performance tests from our 2020-2021 suite on a Core i9-9900K.. As a visual aid, the charts are color-coded to show AMD in red/grey and Nvidia in blue/black.
Charts for April 15, 2022, show the current status of the following projects. Everything from the most recent GPUs to those from years past is covered.
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.
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 |
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| 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.
We’d love to hear what you think about our top gaming graphics recommendations. In the Tom’s Hardware Forums, let us know what you think.
