RDNA2 brought ray tracing support to Team Red for the first time and greatly improved performance compared to the previous generation GPUs. You can check our launch reviews of the GeForce RTX 3090, GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, GeForce RTX 3080, GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, GeForce RTX 3070, GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, and GeForce RTX 3060 12GB for Nvidia, along with AMD's Radeon RX 6900 XT, Radeon RX 6800 XT and RX 6800, Radeon RX 6700 XT, Radeon RX 6600 XT, and Radeon RX 6600. The latest generation GPUs consist of Nvidia's Ampere architecture cards and AMD's RDNA2 architecture offerings. We've provided a dozen options for the best graphics cards, recognizing that there's plenty of potential overlap. Here's our list of the best graphics cards that are currently in production, that might even be available to buy if you search around or get lucky.
We'll be looking to upgrade our testbed in the coming months, once we see how the upcoming AMD and Intel CPUs stack up. All of these GPUs were tested using a Core i9-9900K PC, though in previous testing there wasn't a major difference between that CPU and the Core i9-10900K and Ryzen 9 5900X. We've also looked at the broader AMD vs Nvidia GPUs breakdown. We test and review all the major GPUs, and we've done extensive testing of graphics card power consumption, using proper hardware. Or just wait, but prices might not get back to anything close to 'normal' until some time in late 2022 (if then). If you need to upgrade, we recommend taking a look at pre-built gaming PCs instead. If you're desperate for a new GPU, you could maybe justify paying 25% more than the launch price, but double or triple the MSRP is simply too much.
As an example of the problem we face, the GeForce RTX 3060 12GB sells for around $700 on eBay, and the Radeon RX 6700 XT goes for over $800 - both more than double the suggested etail pricing (SEP). We're going to list the best graphics cards that are theoretically available right now, along with their nominal prices. We have a separate article looking at FSR and DLSS, and the bottom line is that DLSS improves performance with less compromise to image quality, but FSR works on any GPU. That means we're running at native resolution for all of these tests. While AMD's FSR, FidelityFX Super Resolution, has now been out for a few months, and Nvidia's DLSS has been around for a few years, none of the games in our core suite of benchmarks support FSR. Generally speaking, the best deals will only cost 25–50% more than the nominal MSRPs. However, If you're looking for an good deal on a new graphics card, we suggest checking our RTX 3080 deals, RTX 3070 deals, and RTX 3060 deals pages where we suggest some ways to save on either the graphics card itself or a prebuilt system that comes with it. The supply shortages, price gouging and scalping that have affected GPU pricing for more than a year haven't abated, even for the holiday shopping season. Meanwhile, with the hashrate limiter on Nvidia's cards at least partially bypassed, pricing on the RTX 30-series cards continues to be higher than the competing AMD cards, though supply is generally higher. Unfortunately, pricing and availability of all the best graphics cards remains terrible, with GPU prices on places like eBay often 50–100% higher than the official launch prices. With Bitcoin and Ethereum prices on the rise once more (for how long, we couldn't say), and continued supply chain issues, reasonably priced graphics cards are nowhere in sight. Price, availability, performance, features, and efficiency are all important, though the weighting becomes more subjective.
Where our GPU benchmarks hierarchy ranks all of the cards based purely on performance, our list of the best graphics cards tries to look at the whole package. Balancing performance, price, features, and efficiency is important because no other component impacts your gaming experience as much as the graphics card. Some want the fastest graphics card, others the best value, and many are looking for the best card at a given price. While there's no single solution that's right for everyone, we're here to sort out the must haves from the wanna-bes.
The best graphics cards are the lifeblood of any gaming PC - they're the beating heart pumping out stunningly-rendered pixels to your screen.