Finest graphics playing cards for PC gaming 2022

Most people who find themselves available in the market for a brand new graphics card have one main query in thoughts: Which card will give me probably the most bang for my buck? Clearly, the reply will fluctuate relying in your funds. Past that, there are a variety of things to contemplate: Uncooked efficiency is vital, however so are issues like noise, the driving force expertise, and supplemental software program. And do you wish to pay a premium to get in on the bleeding fringe of real-time ray tracing?

Allow us to make it straightforward for you. We’ve examined practically each main GPU that’s hit the streets over the previous couple of years, from $100 funds playing cards to $1,800 luxurious fashions. Our information has been distilled into this text—a shopping for information with suggestions on which graphics card to purchase, it doesn’t matter what form of expertise you’re in search of.

And sure, you possibly can lastly purchase a GPU once more. After over two years of an insane graphics card crunch spurred by chip shortages and an insane cryptocurrency surge, the dam has lastly burst. Finish outcome? GPU costs are lastly plummeting throughout the board, with higher-end graphics playing cards seeing particularly steep gross sales. Whilst you can purchase a used GPU for much less money, choosing up a brand new mannequin with a full guarantee and no threat is much more engaging with costs lastly approaching sanity.

We’re additionally simply beginning to see a brand new breed of graphics playing cards arrive. Nvidia’s ferocious GeForce RTX 4090 is right here, unlocking new 4K high-refresh gaming experiences like we’ve by no means seen earlier than—however AMD’s rival “RDNA 3” graphics playing cards are proper across the nook, too, with decrease costs and a radical new GPU design in tow. Whereas the 4090 simply earned a spot on this listing, its $1,200 RTX 4080 cousin is method to costly to suggest. It’s a horrible worth. And Intel’s debut Arc A7 graphics playing cards lastly arrived this fall as properly, albeit with loads of tough edges obfuscating a few of its engaging promise. However in the event you want a brand new graphics card right this moment, listed below are your greatest choices. Avenue pricing for these playing cards nonetheless fluctuates wildly, and these rankings take real-world prices into consideration—which presently give AMD’s Radeon GPUs an edge.

Be aware: There are custom-made variations of each graphics card from a bunch of distributors. For instance, you should buy totally different GeForce GTX 3080 fashions from EVGA, Asus, MSI, and Zotac, amongst others.

We’ve linked to our full assessment for every advice, however the shopping for hyperlinks result in fashions that hew carefully to every graphics card’s MSRP. Spending further can get you hefty out-of-the-box overclocks, beefier cooling techniques, and extra. Try our “What to look for in a custom card” part under for tips about how to decide on a custom-made card that’s best for you.

The most effective graphics playing cards for PC gaming

AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT – Finest funds graphics card

Costs could also be enjoyable, however presently, the much-maligned Radeon RX 6500 XT continues to be the one semi-reasonable sub-$200 possibility round. If you could find it for a superb worth, Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3050 is a way more succesful trendy graphics card, however its pricing is often inflated at round $300. The Radeon RX 6500 XT is much less interesting because of its nerfed reminiscence, PCIe lanes, and restricted ports, to not point out decrease efficiency, however you possibly can typically discover them going for round $200 on the streets nowadays. These {hardware} limitations imply you’ll want to stay to Medium or Excessive graphics settings at 1080p decision in trendy video games so as to obtain playable body charges, however in the event you do this, you’ll benefit from the expertise.

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Evaluation Radeon RX 6500 XT

AMD Radeon RX 6600 – Finest 1080p graphics card

AMD’s Radeon RX 6600 and Nvidia’s rival GeForce RTX 3060 each ostensibly carry the identical $329 MSRP, however on the streets, there’s a a lot wider hole. You could find the 6600 going for costs beginning round $200, whereas the most cost effective RTX 3060 begins at $400. These are each steep entry prices for 1080p gaming—at the very least in comparison with the GPUs of yesteryear—however with 8GB of quick GDDR6 reminiscence, insanely good energy effectivity, and AMD’s Radeon Tremendous Decision in tow, the Radeon RX 6600 is a good graphics card for individuals trying to recreation at 1080p decision at 60fps or increased with out compromising on visible constancy. (Or breaking the financial institution.)

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Evaluation Radeon RX 6600 Swft 210

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 – Finest 1080p graphics card for ray tracing

Nvidia is on its second-generation of devoted ray tracing {hardware}, and its killer DLSS upsampling function is in a whole bunch of video games to claw again the efficiency misplaced to turning on ray tracing (which carries a steep efficiency penalty). At $330-plus, it ain’t low cost, but when enabling these cutting-edge lighting results is a precedence, you’ll wish to go together with GeForce. The RTX 3060 is one other stable possibility, however it’s $400 on the streets and delivers efficiency on par with the $300 Radeon RX 6600 in video games that don’t use ray tracing.

In case you largely play newer video games working on DirectX 12 or Vulkan APIs, Intel’s Arc A770 delivers wonderful efficiency there, together with ray tracing chops on par with the RTX 30-series. It struggles with older DirectX 11 titles, nonetheless, and this primary technology product additionally comes with a fair proportion of bugs in its early days.

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Evaluation GeForce RTX 3050

AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT – Finest 1440p graphics card

In a sane world, Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3060 Ti would dominate 1440p gaming at its $400 MSRP. It’s that good, and it affords superior ray tracing efficiency to AMD’s Radeon rivals. However we nonetheless aren’t dwelling in a sane world, and the RTX 3060 Ti goes for $500+ on the streets, and infrequently $550 to $600. Nvidia’s RTX 3070, ostensibly $500, goes for $650 to $700 on-line. Get AMD’s Radeon RX 6700 XT as an alternative. It’s a lot quick for 1440p gaming at 60fps+ with out compromise, whereas its beefy 12GB of GDDR6 reminiscence supplies loads of headroom for flipping on all probably the most intense graphical options. The one draw back? AMD’s card is barely able to taking part in ray-traced video games at 1080p decision except you activate Radeon Tremendous Decision, or FSR 1 or 2 in video games that help it. One the flip facet, the Radeon RX 6700 XT can benefit from AMD’s superior performance-boosting Good Entry Reminiscence function in the event you’re working a contemporary Ryzen system that helps it.

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Evaluation Radeon RX 6700 XT

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti – Finest 1440p graphics card for ray tracing

Sure, the RTX 3060 Ti stays overpriced in comparison with its MSRP, going for $500+ slightly than the anticipated $400—however that’s as a result of it’s that good. If you need a killer 1440p gaming expertise with top-notch ray tracing because the cherry on prime, that is the cardboard to purchase even at an inflated worth. The step-down GeForce RTX 3060 can also be value contemplating, although it’s possible you’ll want to show down some graphics settings if you allow ray tracing, whereas the step-up RTX 3070 doesn’t ship sufficient of a efficiency enhance to justify spending but extra.

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Evaluation GeForce RTX 3060 Ti

Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 – Finest high-end 4K graphics card

Graphics playing cards that value $1,000 didn’t used to exist, however now they’re commonplace. All of them supply a compelling 4K gaming expertise. However if you need peak efficiency irrespective of the worth, you’ll be spectacularly happy with the GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Version. That is the primary graphics card able to maxing out a 120Hz 4K monitor in lots of trendy video games—a monumental achievement. Its rivals can stored a 60Hz 4K monitor fed, however not a excessive refresh charge show. The GeForce RTX 4090 embarrasses all earlier GPU contenders in all video games, full cease—it’s so quick that video games can grow to be CPU bottlenecked even at 4K/Extremely when utilizing this GPU. You’ll need a new Radeon 9 7950X or Intel Core i9-13900K to actually benefit from it.

Past the uncooked pace, the RTX 4090 additionally affords an ample 24GB of GDDR6 reminiscence for content material creators, best-in-class ray tracing chops, and new DLSS 3 know-how that makes use of AI to enhance body charges considerably—suppose twofold or much more, although responsiveness can take successful in some video games. It stays to be seen if AMD’s $999 Radeon RX 7900 XTX will have the ability to dethrone Nvidia’s new champion, however both method, the RTX 4090 is a completely elegant GPU for peak-performance gaming.

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Evaluation GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Version

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Version – Finest 4K graphics card

In case you’ve acquired a 4K/60Hz monitor and wish to put all these pixels to work, the RTX 3070, 3070 Ti and AMD’s Radeon RX 6750 XT and RX 6800 are all first rate cheaper choices. However if you need the very best expertise with none visible compromises, spend $800 and choose up the 10GB model of the RTX 3080. (The $1,000 12GB mannequin isn’t definitely worth the upcharge regardless of being barely extra future-proof.) The GeForce RTX 3080 packs sufficient energy to blow by means of video games even at 4K decision with eye sweet cranked, together with ray traced video games because of Nvidia’s killer combo of second-gen ray tracing {hardware} and DLSS.

The one drawback? That is an insanely common GPU, and it could nonetheless be troublesome to seek out fashions across the 3080’s $800 MSRP (although they’re undoubtedly popping up). AMD’s rival Radeon RX 6800 XT is simpler to seek out, simply as quick, and packs a whopping 16GB of GDDR6 reminiscence, however Nvidia’s superior ray tracing and DLSS chops earn it the nod for this worth level in the event you’re capable of finding one round MSRP.

All that stated, new GPU generations from each Nvidia and AMD are touchdown within the closing months of 2022, so it’s possible you’ll wish to see what the RTX 4080 and Radeon RX 7900 XT carry to the desk earlier than splurging on a last-gen flagship. However in the event you see an RTX 3080 on a sizzling deal, don’t hesitate to select it up.

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Evaluation GeForce RTX 3080

How we take a look at graphics playing cards

We take a look at graphics playing cards on a devoted take a look at system used just for this objective, with minimal further software program concerned. That ensures that any efficiency modifications we see are generated solely by the graphics card being examined and new GPU drivers, with out the variability of different {hardware} or software program modifications. Right here is the configuration of our present testbed:

• AMD Ryzen 5900X, inventory settings
• AMD Wraith Max cooler
• MSI Godlike X570 motherboard
• 32GB G.Ability Trident Z Neo DDR4 3800 reminiscence
• EVGA 1200W SuperNova P2 energy provide
• 2x 1TB SK Hynix Gold S31 SSD

So far as video games go, we use a set set of video games to check each graphics card that comes out in a given technology, and replace the suite when a brand new technology of GPUs is launched. We take a look at a wide range of video games spanning most main recreation sorts (techniques, racing, FPS, and many others.), engines (Unreal Engine, Unity, Anvil, and many others.) and underlying graphics APIs (DirectX 11, DX12, Vulkan). We use the built-in benchmarks for every recreation, however solely after validating the accuracy of the outcomes by working the benchmarks and evaluating the outcomes to efficiency witnessed by third-party GPU measurement instruments like OCAT. Every recreation is examined at the very least 3 times per decision, producing a median from these runs, with further assessments run if we encounter any hiccups. We can also carry out further testing with instruments like OCAT if any efficiency oddities are observed. Energy draw is measured on a whole-system foundation, itemizing each idle and absolutely harassed states as measured through a Watts Up meter that the system is plugged into.

What to search for in a customized graphics card

If you wish to store past the scope of our picks, know that discovering the appropriate graphics card will be tough. Varied distributors supply custom-made variations of each GPU. For instance, you should buy totally different Radeon RX 6700 XT fashions from Sapphire, XFX, Asus, MSI, and PowerColor.

To assist slim down the choices and discover the appropriate card for you, you need to take into account the next issues when doing all your analysis:

Overclocks: Greater-priced customized fashions are sometimes overclocked out-of-the-box to various levels, which may result in increased efficiency. Most trendy customized playing cards supply the identical important degree of efficiency,nonetheless.

Cooling options: Many graphics playing cards can be found with customized coolers that decrease temperatures and fan noise. The overwhelming majority carry out properly. Liquid-cooled graphics playing cards run even cooler, however require further room inside your case for the tubing and radiator. Keep away from graphics playing cards with single-fan, blower-style cooling techniques in the event you can assist it, except you may have a small-form-factor PC or plan on utilizing customized water-cooling blocks.

Dimension: Many graphics playing cards are of an identical dimension, however longer and shorter fashions of many GPUs exist. Excessive-end graphics playing cards are beginning to sport particularly huge customized cooling options to tame their enthusiast-class GPUs. Double-check that your chosen graphics card will slot in your case before you purchase.

Compatibility: Not all {hardware} helps a variety of connectivity choices. Greater-end graphics playing cards might lack DVI ports, whereas lower-end screens might lack DisplayPorts. Solely probably the most trendy Radeon and GeForce graphics playing cards help HDMI 2.1 outputs. Guarantee your graphics card and monitor can join to one another. Likewise, ensure your energy provide meets the really helpful wattage for the graphics card you select.

Actual-time ray tracing, FSR, and DLSS: AMD’s Radeon RX 6000-series graphics playing cards and all of Nvidia’s RTX choices can play video games with real-time ray tracing results lively. Nvidia’s RTX 30-series GPUs maintain a large benefit over every little thing else although, propelled even additional by devoted tensor cores for processing machine studying duties akin to Deep Studying Tremendous Sampling, which makes use of AI to hurry up the efficiency of your video games with minimal hit to visible constancy. GeForce RTX 20-series GPUs additionally help DLSS, whereas AMD’s rival FSR 2.0 and Radeon Tremendous Decision applied sciences are gaining traction by the day.