When you’re setting out to build or upgrade your gaming PC, the best graphics cards are often the first thing that comes to mind. There’s a simple reason for that: When it comes to PC games, GPUs are the most impactful component in determining your rig's raw frame rates. Quite simply, most of the time, a better graphics card directly results in better performance – at least up to a point.
TL;DR: These Are the Best Graphics Cards
These days, GPUs have legitimately become a luxury good. With graphics cards like the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 costing upwards of $1,999, you can expect to pay top dollar for top performance. Prices are still way higher than they were when the GTX 970 blew my mind in 2014, even when adjusted for inflation. However, if you temper your expectations, you can still get a solid gaming experience for a fraction of that price, especially if you're OK with gaming at 1440p or 1080p.
I’ve been reviewing graphics cards for the last four generations, and I’ve personally benchmarked, built with, and played games using every GPU on this list. However, if none of these strike your fancy, feel free to comment below what kind of gaming experience you’re looking for, and I’d be happy to help you find the perfect card for your build.
What to Look for in a Graphics Card
While it would be easy to just tell you to get the most powerful graphics card on the market for the best gaming experience, the truth is that picking a GPU is something you need to put a bit more thought into. Not all graphics cards are created equal, and everyone is going to need something a little different out of their PCI-E brick.
Decide on your resolution first
This is because a graphics card that's great at 4K isn't exactly going to translate to an amazing 1080p graphics card. Just take a look at the Nvidia RTX 5090. While the new flagship flies at 4K, it can actually be slower than much cheaper graphics cards at 1080p due to CPU bottlenecking. Instead, if you're playing at 1080p, something like the Intel Arc B580 is going to be a much better fit. You're still going to get solid gaming performance, but at a much lower price, which you can use to, well, buy more games.
Set your budget
Price is also a huge concern, and graphics cards are only getting more expensive these days. It would be awesome if everyone could afford an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090, but that's just not the world we live in. These days, the floor sits around $200-$250. For that price, you can get a solid 1080p graphics card without having to go back to a previous generation. If you have a bit more cash, something like the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT will unlock most of gaming's bells and whistles.
If you really want to go all out, you can get an amazing graphics card for around $1,000. Both the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX and Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 will provide an awesome 4K gaming experience, and the one you choose should ultimately depend on how much you care about ray tracing. For most people that just want raw gaming performance, the Radeon RX 9070 XT is a better option, as it's a more affordable card that can still handle 4K, and it even comes with FSR 4, which is the first time AMD can really go toe-to-toe with Nvidia's DLSS.
Luckily, it looks like this generation of graphics cards is going to make 4K gaming much more accessible. When I reviewed the Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti, I found that it had no problem breaking 60fps in even demanding games like Black Myth Wukong. However, more expensive and powerful cards like the RTX 5080 and 5090 are going to give you more breathing room for future PC games.
Check your power supply
With more expensive graphics cards, however, power is going to be a big concern. You're going to want to make sure you check which power supply you have against the power requirements for the graphics card you're looking at. Something like the Intel Arc B580 can get away with a 450W PSU, but you're going to want to make sure you have something much more powerful for the Radeon RX 7800 XT, for instance. You don't need to go overboard and fork over the cash for a power supply that offers twice the recommended power – just make sure you have enough juice to keep your GPU going.
1. AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT
The Best Graphics Card for Most People
Product Specifications
CUDA Cores/Stream Processors
4,096
Base Clock
1,660MHz
Boost Clock
2,970MHz
Video Memory
16GB GDDR6
Memory Bandwidth
664.6GB/s
Memory Bus
256-bit
Power Connectors
2 x 8-pin
Outputs
1 x HDMI 2.1b, 3 x DisplayPort 2.1a
PROS
Excellent 4K performance for the money
FSR 4 brings AI upscaling to AMD
CONS
Can fall behind in ray tracing sometimes
For the last few years, high-end graphics cards have been getting more expensive than ever before. In just a few generations, the top-end Nvidia graphics card went from being $699 for the GTX 1080 Ti to $1,999 for the RTX 5090, far outpacing inflation. And while the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT isn't quite the most powerful graphics card on the market right now, it still provides an excellent 4K gaming experience at a much lower price than the RTX 5070 Ti it directly competes with.
In my testing, I found that the $599 RX 9070 XT often beats the $749 RTX 5070 Ti, sometimes by double digits. Even in games like Cyberpunk 2077, the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT has no problem maintaining 71fps at 4K with the Ray Tracing Ultra preset, only trailing the RTX 5070 Ti by 4fps. That's a marginal difference and only goes to show that while AMD graphics cards still trail behind Nvidia GPUs in ray tracing, they've come a long way since the RX 6000 generation introduced RT to Team Red a few years ago.
This new generation of AMD GPUs also brings an improvement I've been begging AMD for: AI upscaling via FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) 4. This new upscaler doesn't necessarily provide better performance than FSR 3, which is based on a traditional temporal upscaler, but it does provide much better image quality, especially in scenes with fine detail that can get muddied up by less elegant upscaling solutions.
The only downside is that because AMD isn't its own version of this graphics card, the market is completely made up of third-party cards that could see much more volatile pricing. However, if you can get a Radeon RX 9070 XT at or around its MSRP, it's easily the best graphics card out there for most people.
2. Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti
The Best Mainstream Graphics Card if You Want to Spend a Bit More
Product Specifications
CUDA Cores/Stream Processors
8,960
Base Clock
2.30GHz
Boost Clock
2.45GHz
Video Memory
16GB GDDR7
Memory Bandwidth
896 GB/s
Memory Bus
256-bit
Power Connectors
1 x 12V-6x6 16-pin
Outputs
1 x HDMI 2.1b, 3 x DisplayPort 2.1b
PROS
Excellent 4K performance without paying RTX 5080 money
Has DLSS 4 MFG for high-refresh monitors
CONS
Continues Blackwell's lackluster generational improvements
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti is a lesson in pricing. At its suggested price of $749, it is one of the best bang-for-your-buck graphics cards of this entire generation. At launch, it was incredibly hard to find this GPU at that price, but in the months since, it's now finally available at the suggested price, which makes it even easier to recommend than it was back in February.
At $749, or even up to $800, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti is one of the best 4K graphics cards for most people. When I reviewed the 5070 Ti, I found that it stayed within reaching distance of the RTX 5080, consistently sitting just 13-15% behind it, while having a 33% lower asking price. It's not hard to see why it's the best value high-end graphics card of this generation, so far at least.
The elephant in the room, however, is Blackwell's tepid generation-on-generation improvement over the RTX 4000 graphics cards. The Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti has the best generational gain out of any of the RTX 5000 cards, and its still limited to being just 11% faster than the RTX 4070 Super and 21% faster than the original RTX 4070. That's not a huge jump, but its still a bigger improvement than the RTX 5080, which is just 15% faster than the RTX 4080 in the same test suite.
3. Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090
The Best Nvidia Graphics Card
Product Specifications
CUDA Cores/Stream Processors
21,760
Base Clock
2.01GHz
Boost Clock
2.41GHz
Video Memory
32GB GDDR7
Memory Bandwidth
1,792 GB/s
Memory Bus
512-bit
Power Connectors
1 x 16-pin
Outputs
1 x HDMI 2.1b, 3 x DisplayPort 2.1b
Size (Founders Edition)
11.9 x 5.39 x 1.9 inches (L x W x H) (Dual Slot)
PROS
The most powerful consumer GPU out there, period.
DLSS 4 multi frame gen will help further boost frame rates.
CONS
Generation-on-Generation improvement not very exciting
There's no way around it: The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 is the most powerful graphics card on the market right now. Full stop. While it doesn't mark the same kind of generational growth that the RTX 4090 or even the RTX 3090 did, there's no getting around the fact that it provides the best gaming performance you can get right now – especially when you take DLSS multi-frame generation into account.
Not only is the RTX 5090 bigger than the 4090, now coming with 21,760 CUDA cores and 32GB of GDDR7 memory, but it also has a much higher power budget. When I reviewed the RTX 5090, I found the next-gen graphics flagship would peak at a staggering 578W, a huge increase from the 448W of the RTX 4090. With all that extra power, Nvidia needed to find a better way to dissipate heat, and introduced a new cooler for its Founders Edition. Instead of doubling down on the triple-fan design of the last couple of generations, Team Green actually found a way to slim the design back down to a dual slot cooler, something I haven't seen in a flagship Nvidia graphics card since the RTX 2080 Ti.
The company was able to do this by shrinking down the circuit board where the GPU is located, placing it at the center of the card. Each side of that PCB is bookended by pass-through heatsinks, where fans pull cool air through the bottom of the card, and shoot it straight through to the top of your PC case. The thermal engineering of it all is a bit more complicated than that, but even with all that extra power, I only ever saw the RTX 5090 reach up to 87°C. That's a high temperature, but its still low enough to game at full blast.
On average, I found the RTX 5090 to be about 26% faster than the RTX 4090, when looking at 4K games and synthetic 3DMark benchmarks. That number does diminish at lower resolutions, of course, and you really shouldn't be forking over the $1,999 (or more!) for this GPU if you're not going to play at 4K. Even at 4K, there were certain games that simply didn't have much of a performance uplift due to the limitations of the CPU – and I used the Ryzen 7 9800X3D. For better or worse, then, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 shines in the exact kind of workload it's designed for. No holds barred, everything maxed out at 4K, and with minimal upscaling. Gone are the days where DLSS on 'Performance' mode is necessary at 4K – at least for this beastly GPU.
4. AMD Radeon RX 9070
The Best AMD Graphics Card
Product Specifications
CUDA Cores/Stream Processors
3,584
Base Clock
1,330MHz
Boost Clock
2,520MHz
Video Memory
16GB GDDR6
Memory Bandwidth
644.6GB/s
Memory Bus
256-bit
Power Connectors
2 x 8-pin
Outputs
1 x HDMI 2.1b, 3 x DisplayPort 2.1a
PROS
Best 1440p gaming performance for the money
Beats out the RTX 5070 at the same price
CONS
Can lag behind in some games with ray tracing
The AMD Radeon RX 9070 launched in a weird place. At $549, it's theoretically just $50 cheaper than the excellent 9070 XT at $599. And while the performance lines up pretty perfectly with that price difference, it can be hard to justify opting for the 9070 when you can just spend $50 more and get one of the best GPUs in years. However, get past that, and the RX 9070 makes a lot of sense if you play games at 1440p.
When I reviewed the AMD Radeon RX 9070, I found that it outperformed the Nvidia RTX 5070 – another $549 GPU – in almost every test by an average of 12%. Considering both are current-generation cards that launched just a day apart, that's a huge difference at the same price point. There are some games where AMD's lead is less pronounced, of course, particularly in ray tracing-heavy games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Black Myth Wukong, but the RX 9070 still pulls ahead in those games, too.
The AMD Radeon RX 9070, like its XT sibling, also introduces FSR 4, bringing AI upscaling to AMD graphics cards for the first time. Just like with the 9070 XT, this upscaling solution isn't necessarily faster than the temporal upscaling of FSR 3, but it is much more accurate, producing cleaner images with less ghosting and artifacting.
5. AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT
The Best GPU for 1080p
Product Specifications
CUDA Cores/Stream Processors
2,048
Base Clock
1,700MHz
Boost Clock
2,530MHz
Video Memory
16GB GDDR6
Memory Bandwidth
322 GB/s
Memory Bus
128-bit
Power Connectors
1 x 8-pin
Outputs
1 x HDMI 2.1, 2 x DisplayPort 2.1
PROS
Affordable
Solid 1080p performance with ray tracing
CONS
The 8GB model shouldn't exist
However much I love using a 4K monitor, the simple fact is that 1080p displays are still the most popular way to play PC games. You do not need an expensive RTX 5090 to power one – but the Radeon RX 9060 XT is the perfect GPU for the job.
In a perfect world, the Radeon RX 9060 XT is a $349 graphics card that can tackle pretty much any game at 1080p, even with ray tracing – something AMD cards have historically struggled with. For some reason, AMD decided to launch both the 16GB model that I reviewed along with a 8GB model for $50 less. The only fundamental difference between these cards is the video memory, but it's a pretty substantial change, and one that you shouldn't consider.
When I reviewed the 16GB model, I found that it had no problem keeping up with some of the most demanding games in my suite, including averaging 80fps in Cyberpunk 2077, putting it neck-and-neck with the more expensive RTX 5060 Ti. There are a few games where the GPU struggled, namely Black Myth: Wukong and Assassin's Creed Shadows, but even those games will run better once you start tweaking with quality settings. (I test everything at maximum settings, after all.)
Being part of the same generation as the Radeon RX 9070 XT that tops this list, the Radeon RX 9060 XT also gets access to FSR 4. This new version of AMD's upscaling tech adds AI upscaling to AMD cards for the first time, and gets close to DLSS in image quality. There are only a few games that support this new AMD tech so far, but that number will surely grow over the last few years.
These GPUs Didn't Make the Cut
Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060
The RTX 5060 is a 1080p graphics card, which is of course fine, but the problem is that it's competing with better options from both AMD and Intel. For less money, you can get the Arc B580 with slightly less performance but more VRAM, or you can spend a little more and get a Radeon RX 9060 XT with 16GB of VRAM. There are plenty of games out there that won't require more than 8GB of video memory, but for more demanding modern games like Assassin's Creed Shadows, you'll certainly feel the lack of frame buffer – I certainly did when I reviewed it.
Upcoming GPUs
Now that all the new graphics cards have been out for a while, it begs the question: When are we going to get something new? Given that both the RTX 50-series and the Radeon 90-series were launched back at CES 2025, it's extremely likely that we're going to get some kind of GPU announcement at CES 2026 in January. Don't get too excited, though; this probably won't be the RTX 6080 or anything.
Instead, we're probably going to see Nvidia launch a mid-generation refresh, which is typically labeled "Super." Last generation, the RTX 4080 Super ended up being essentially a price drop, coming in at a lower price and slightly better performance when I reviewed it in 2024. It's not guaranteed that we're going to see an RTX 5080 Super at CES, but given how small the generational performance uplift was with this series of graphics cards, it would be nice to squeeze a little more performance out of the architecture. Either way, I'll be on the ground at CES and I'll update this guide if it looks like Nvidia will actually launch its Super cards.
Best Graphics Cards FAQ
AMD or Nvidia? Or Intel?
When it comes to which brand of graphics card you should get, it ultimately comes down to your personal preference – even if each brand has its own unique advantages. Intel graphics cards are the most affordable option on the market right now, but its graphics cards aren’t exactly the fastest in the land. On the other hand, Nvidia makes the most powerful GPUs around, but you’re going to have to pay out the nose for that performance.
AMD graphics cards strike a pretty good balance between the two, but while the company loves to use open-source graphics APIs, it means you don’t get access to some of the exclusive features that Nvidia owners enjoy, like DLSS (and the new DLSS 4). AMD has alternatives for literally every Nvidia software feature, but some of them simply aren’t as good. See our guide to AMD vs. Nvidia GPUs for more info.
What power supply should I get?
Graphics cards, especially high-end ones, are sucking up more electricity with every passing year. If you’re looking to build a new gaming PC, or even upgrade from an older graphics card, you should really consider upgrading to one of the best power supplies.
Some of the graphics cards out there right now can take upwards of 450W of power by themselves, so you may want to consider a 1,000W power supply.
GTX vs. RTX
Nvidia has both an RTX, or Ray Tracing Texel eXtreme, and GTX, Giga Texel Shader eXtreme graphics cards series, with the RTX offerings being newer, more powerful, and more expensive.
That boosted performance is thanks to the architecture of RTX cards, which offer both Tensor and RT cores alongside CUDA cores for better graphics and rendering. Tensor cores enable AI and high-performance computing tasks bringing support for DLSS tech to help with upscaling and sharpening. RT cores are dedicated to ray tracing, allowing for more realistic lighting and shadows in scenes. Nvidia’s GTX graphics cards have a much simpler architecture and don’t offer Tensor or RT cores. Though they still work for budget builds, GTX cards will soon be obsolete.
Jacqueline Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN. When she's not helping her friends and family buy computers, you can usually find her tinkering with her own PC.
