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. With Nvidia’s RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 cards available today, here are the best graphics cards on the market right now.
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 okay 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, you see, and everyone is going to need something a little different out of their PCI-E brick.
The resolution you play games at is going to be the first thing you want to figure out. Whether you already have a gaming monitor you love or you’re looking to build up an entire gaming battlestation, 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. Likewise, 1440p gamers are probably best off buying something like the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT or the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Super.
Budget 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 Nvidia RTX 4060 will unlock all of Nvidia’s exclusive bells and whistles – though they’re much less important on a lower-end GPU.
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 7900 XTX is probably going to be a better option, but you’re going to want to wait a minute for AMD’s next-generation offering. I don’t know how well the Radeon RX 9070 XT is going to perform until I benchmark it, but it should prove to be great for 4K gaming, especially with the upcoming FSR 4.
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, and check it 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. Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Super
The Best Graphics Card for Most People
Zotac Gaming Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Super
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This RTX 4070 Super from Zotac is the best graphics card for most people, packed with an awesome dual-fan cooler and all the performance you’ll need.
CUDA Cores/Stream Processors
7168
Memory Bandwidth
504.2GB/s
Power Connectors
1 x 16-pin
Outputs
1 x HDMI 2.1, 3 x DisplayPort 1.4
Size
10.5 x 4.4 x 1.7 inches (L x W x H)
Can break into 4K in some games
Should have had 16GB of VRAM
While it kind of hurts to call any GPU that costs $599 affordable, that’s kind of what the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Super is going for. For a mid-range price, you’re getting an extremely solid graphics card that can pump out 1440p-ready gaming performance, and can even stretch into 4K in certain games. It’s not the most powerful graphics card out there right now, but this would be Goldilocks’ choice.
When I reviewed the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Super, I found it to be an extremely strong contender, and probably the best of the mid-generation refresh cards that Nvidia launched at CES 2024. While it still has the same 12GB of VRAM that held the original RTX 4070 back, the RTX 4070 Super is packed with 7,168 CUDA cores, compared to 5,888 in the original model. That’s a 21% jump in shading cores, and this difference is reflected in gaming performance.
Just looking at a game like Cyberpunk 2077, which absolutely loves CUDA, you can see a 12% jump in performance over the RTX 4070 at 1440p. And, at 4K, the RTX 4070 Super is 13% faster than its predecessor in CD Projekt Red’s demanding RPG. Likewise, when running a game like Forza Horizon 5 at 4K, the RTX 4070 Super manages an impressive 123 fps, compared to the 94 fps of the original RTX 4070. That’s a 30% increase in performance at the same launch price.
No matter which game you play at 1440p, you’re going to get extremely good performance out of the RTX 4070 Super, and that’ll translate into 4K gaming more often than not. And with 1440p gaming growing in popularity, there’s never been a better time to upgrade to a card that can really soar at that resolution.
2. Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090
The Best Nvidia Graphics Card
Gigabyte Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090
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The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 is now the most powerful graphics card on the market, even if it claims that title with a bit less force than in previous generations.
CUDA Cores/Stream Processors
21,760
Memory Bandwidth
1,792 GB/s
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)
The most powerful consumer GPU out there, period.
DLSS 4 multi frame gen will help further boost frame rates.
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 also had 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.
3. AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX
The Best AMD Graphics Card
Gigabyte AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX
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This Radeon RX 7900 XTX from Gigabyte keeps the price down a bit, while providing an excellent triple-fan cooler.
CUDA Cores/Stream Processors
6,144
Power Connectors
2 x 8-pin
Outputs
1 x HDMI 2.1a, 2 x DisplayPort 2.1, 1 x USB-C
Size
11.3 x 4.3 x 2 inches (L x W x H) (Dual Slot)
Competitive pricing with RTX 4080
Can lag behind in some games with ray tracing
While AMD doesn’t really have a GPU that can go blow-for-blow with the RTX 4090, it does have one that is extremely competitive with the RTX 4080 Super, Nvidia’s next-best and more attainable card: The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX. Our hands-on testing of the Radeon RX 7900 XTX made it clear that this GPU is an absolute beast at 4K that can keep up with Nvidia, even beating Team Green in some games.
Even in games that are traditionally hard on AMD graphics cards, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX can handle at 4K. Just take a look at Cyberpunk 2077 – it’s able to manage an average of 58 fps at 4K with the ray tracing ultra preset, with FSR enabled. Obviously that’s not quite as good as the RTX 4080 in the same test, but frankly it was never going to be. However, in games with lighter ray tracing loads, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX fares a lot better.
For instance, in Forza Horizon 5 with everything cranked, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX manages an impressive 158 fps at 4K, basically matching the RTX 4080 Super at 159 fps. Likewise, in Far Cry 6, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX can deliver an incredible 154 fps average, beating out the RTX 4080 Super, which can do 151 fps.
Like with any graphics card, it’s important to know what kind of games you want to play. But if you’re playing a lot of games with little to no ray tracing, the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is an extremely potent 4K graphics card. Plus with DisplayPort 2.1, it’s better equipped for higher resolution ultrawide monitors.
4. AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT
The Best GPU for 1440p
Gigabyte AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT
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Packed with a triple-fan cooler, this massive RX 7700 XT from Gigabyte will keep your GPU cool while it pumps out frames.
CUDA Cores/Stream Processors
3,456
Power Connectors
2 x 8-pin
Outputs
1 x HDMI 2.1a, 2 x DisplayPort 2.1, 1 x USB-C
Size
10.5 x 5.3 x 2 inches (L x W x H) (Dual Slot)
Excellent performance for the money
Lags behind in ray tracing games
When you think of the perfect resolution for games, it’s easy to jump to 4K and say “more pixels is better.” However, 1440p really is the sweet spot for PC gaming, and the Radeon RX 7700 XT is the star of the show, thanks to the performance you get for the money. AMD has lowered the price on the Radeon RX 7700 XT from its launch price of $449 down to $419, but you can easily find it for around $399 on Amazon. At this price, it goes head to head against the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti, and that’s not a fight that looks good for Nvidia. And while I didn’t do a standalone review for the 7700 XT, I tested it alongside the Radeon RX 7800 XT, its big sibling.
While the RTX 4060 Ti does beat out the 7700 XT in Cyberpunk 2077, it’s not by much. The RTX 4060 Ti gets 62 fps at 1440p, and the Radeon RX 7700 XT gets 49 fps. And that’s on the ray tracing ultra preset. Nvidia’s lead disappears in other games, though.
For instance, in Forza Horizon 5, maxed out at 1440p, the RX 7700 XT manages 118 fps, compared to 107 from the RTX 4060 Ti. Likewise, in Total War: Warhammer 3, which doesn’t have any fancy ray tracing tech, the RTX 4060 Ti gets smoked, with it scoring 68 fps to AMD’s 85. That’s a 20% lead at about the same price.
There is a catch, though. While the Radeon RX 7700 XT is more powerful than the RTX 4060 Ti, it’s also more power-hungry, drawing up to 312W from the wall in my testing. Compared to the 159W that the RTX 4060 Ti eats up, that’s a pretty huge gap. However, if you have a power supply that can handle it – AMD recommends 550W – you get a much more powerful card at the same price. Whether or not it affects your power bill down the line is a future issue.
5. Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060
The Best GPU for 1080p
MSI Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060
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This RTX 4060 from MSI keeps the price under $300, while delivering a solid cooler. Plus, it should fit even in the smallest gaming rigs.
CUDA Cores/Stream Processors
3,072
Power Connectors
1 x 12-pin
Outputs
1 x HDMI 2.1, 3 x DisplayPort 1.4
Size
9.4 x 4.4 x 1.6 inches (L x W x H) (Dual Slot)
Solid 1080p performance with ray tracing
According to the Steam Hardware Survey, 1080p gaming displays are still the most popular monitors out there, and it’s not close. So, despite how hyped up 4K displays are, if you’re comfortable with 1080p, you don’t need an extremely powerful graphics card to play even the most demanding games. That’s where the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 really shines.
The RTX 4060 can power any game at 1080p, even with all the fancy ray tracing settings that are coming out these days. And thanks to DLSS, it can even stretch to higher resolutions in certain games. And for a current-generation graphics card that you can find under $300, that’s not a bad deal.
When I reviewed the RTX 4060, I found that it was able to run most games extremely well at 1080p with all the settings cranked at more than 60 fps, even if it just barely got there in some games. For instance, in Cyberpunk 2077 on the ray tracing ultra preset, the RTX 4060 scored just 62 fps at 1080p. That is the golden frame rate, but you’re not going to be doing much high-refresh gaming on this card.
The RTX 4060 does have a weak side, though, and that’s how it compares to the RTX 3060 Ti that came out before it. You can still find the RTX 3060 Ti at most retailers, and for a comparable price, but yet it manages to beat out the RTX 4060 in most of my tests. There are some features you’d be giving up by going with a last-generation card, DLSS 3.0 being chief among them, but that may be worth it for the slight edge in performance you can get. However, at this price range, a feature like DLSS 3.0 that can stretch performance out in supported games is worth it, and can really stretch out the value of the card.
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 isn’t perfect, but if you want a current-generation graphics card for under $300 that runs any PC game above 60 fps, I’d have a hard time coming up with an alternative – certainly not the Radeon RX 7600.
Upcoming GPUs
Now that the latest generation of Nvidia graphics cards is out, starting with the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080, 2025 seems to be a packed year for graphics cards. Team Green is set to follow up its two high-end Blackwell graphics cards with the RTX 5070 and RTX 5070 Ti sometime in February, which will be good news for anyone that wants to upgrade for under a thousand bucks.
Nvidia isn’t alone in new graphics cards though. AMD’s Radeon RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT are right around the corner, launching in March 2025. I got a chance to sneak in a benchmark of the 9070 at AMD’s CES 2025 booth, and while those are preliminary results you should take with a heaping of salt, it looks like it’s going to give the Radeon RX 7900 XT and RTX 4080 a run for their money.
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 – features like DLSS. 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 – especially if you’re going for the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090.
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.
Where to Get the Best Graphics Cards in the UK
There aren’t too many differences when it comes to the graphics cards you can pick up in the UK, but the main takeaway is where you can purchase them. All of the following links have been updated with UK vendors, saving you some time and money if you’re interested in picking up any of the graphics cards we’ve mentioned.
Best Graphics Card Asus TUF Gaming RTX 4070 Ti OC Edition
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Best Budget Graphics Card MSI Geforce RTX 3050 Gaming X
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Best AMD Graphics Card XFX Speedster MERC310 RX 7900XT
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Best 4K Graphics Card Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080
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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.
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