Building a Gaming PC? A Better Graphics Card Is Worth the Upgrade.

My first video card was a hand-me-down GeForce 256, and I've been fixated on graphics card price and performance ever since. I've been reviewing laptops, PCs, PC hardware, and video game consoles since 2009, and I've been covering PC and gaming hardware at Wirecutter since 2019. I've built dozens of PCs since 2002, both for myself and others.
I've also written Wirecutter's guides to external optical drives, video game consoles, and handheld gaming consoles.
For this guide: I spent more than 100 hours over the course of several months individually testing more than a dozen graphics cards across a range of prices and for different use cases.
I tracked availability and price fluctuations across multiple retailers, and I spoke with employees at brick-and-mortar electronics stores about expected allocations, price increases, and demand.
I closely monitored tariff and import-fee changes and their effects on the availability and pricing of the graphics cards I tested.
Like all Wirecutter journalists, I review and test products with complete editorial independence. I'm never made aware of any business implications of my editorial recommendations. Read more about our editorial standards.
If you just want to play PC games, a gaming laptop or a handheld gaming PC is the simplest way to get started. But if you play video games and want the most customization possible, or if you want your games to look and play their very best, you need a gaming PC with a dedicated graphics card.
Gaming PCs rely on graphics cards to generate the visuals and, often, process physical simulations in the games you play. Think of your gaming PC as an artist painting a picture (stick with me here): The CPU is its eyes, the RAM is its memory, and the graphics card is its hand holding the brush. Graphics cards are almost like separate, specialized miniature computers, with their own chips, memory, and complicated circuit boards sandwiched between heat pipes and cooling fans. The Gigabyte Aorus GeForce RTX 5090 Master ICE 32G. Connie Park/NYT Wirecutter
Consumer graphics cards, which are made for everyday use and for playing video games, are based on technology from one of a few chip makers: Nvidia, AMD, and, less commonly, Intel. These companies make the chipsets, or graphics processing units, that power graphics cards. They also create accompanying designs, called reference designs, for each GPU's add-in board. These companies occasionally make and sell graphics cards directly to you based on the reference designs.
However, most available graphics cards are made by third-party vendors using AMD and Nvidia GPUs. Each add-in board partner has its own brand and sub-brands of graphics cards aimed at certain kinds of buyers. But the biggest factor in how well a graphics card performs is the GPU it uses and the VRAM available to it. In our testing, and historically speaking, there has been little meaningful difference in performance between vendors' versions of a graphics card, other than the bells and whistles and the price.
While our picks are specific graphics card models that we've tested and spent extended amounts of time evaluating, other graphics cards that use the same GPU and have the same amount of VRAM are likely to perform about the same. If you can find two cards with the same configuration (say, RX 9070 XT models from XFX and from Gigabyte, for example), you should probably buy whichever one is cheaper, unless you've seen reports of specific reliability problems with one of them or its physical dimensions don't meet your PC's requirements.
If you have a graphics card that lets you play the games you're excited about at medium or high settings with acceptable frame rates, you should keep using it (and you might get a performance boost from upgrading other components, such as your PC's CPU, RAM, or even storage). There's always a better wave of graphics cards on the horizon, and FOMO isn't a great reason to spend money before you need to.
This guide recommends vendor-specific versions of graphics cards that we've tested. However, performance across the different vendor versions of each kind of card is typically similar enough for you not to worry much about it, and unless you have specific needs, such as a tight fit in your PC case or a particular color scheme you want to adhere to, you're better off going with the least expensive version of a particular GPU that you can find.
More expensive versions can provide better build quality, better and sometimes quieter cooling, snazzier lighting effects, and superior warranty support in the event something goes wrong. Some vendor-specific cards also advertise 'factory overclocking,' but those 'overclocked' versions don't typically produce noticeable improvements to performance.
I tested more than a dozen graphics cards across a range of pricing. We considered only graphics cards that are currently available and have not been discontinued; we did not consider previous-generation graphics cards that are now available only secondhand, which at this point includes the entirety of Nvidia's RTX 40–series GPUs. Connie Park/NYT Wirecutter
After benchmarking each graphics card, I considered the following criteria when determining our picks: Performance: We tested each card with some of this year's most popular games, along with some of the most graphically demanding titles available, to see how each card stacked up and to better understand how long they would be able to play new releases at acceptable settings. For our top pick, we primarily considered gaming at 1080p resolution, with some 1440p gaming. For our upgrade pick, good performance at 1440p was our primary point of consideration, though that graphics card can also handle 4K in most games too.
We tested each card with some of this year's most popular games, along with some of the most graphically demanding titles available, to see how each card stacked up and to better understand how long they would be able to play new releases at acceptable settings. For our top pick, we primarily considered gaming at 1080p resolution, with some 1440p gaming. For our upgrade pick, good performance at 1440p was our primary point of consideration, though that graphics card can also handle 4K in most games too. Memory: Any proper gaming graphics card has its own pool of video memory, or VRAM. The amount of VRAM and its rated speed can have a huge effect on how a graphics card performs — this is where a game stores most of its active visual information. The more graphic effects you enable, and the higher the fidelity you select, the more VRAM you'll use. When a game runs out of available video memory, performance suffers. We don't recommend any card with less than 8 GB of VRAM, but for resolutions above 1080p, you need more to get consistently good frame rates — and if you're paying more than $500 for a graphics card, you shouldn't settle for less than 12 GB.
Any proper gaming graphics card has its own pool of video memory, or VRAM. The amount of VRAM and its rated speed can have a huge effect on how a graphics card performs — this is where a game stores most of its active visual information. The more graphic effects you enable, and the higher the fidelity you select, the more VRAM you'll use. When a game runs out of available video memory, performance suffers. We don't recommend any card with less than 8 GB of VRAM, but for resolutions above 1080p, you need more to get consistently good frame rates — and if you're paying more than $500 for a graphics card, you shouldn't settle for less than 12 GB. Price and availability: Both of these factors are a core part of our selection process, but right now they're the most difficult to predict. Graphics cards launch at one price, sell out, and typically restock only sporadically. When (or sometimes if) they do come back into stock, it's always for higher prices, sometimes by significant margins.
Both of these factors are a core part of our selection process, but right now they're the most difficult to predict. Graphics cards launch at one price, sell out, and typically restock only sporadically. When (or sometimes if) they do come back into stock, it's always for higher prices, sometimes by significant margins. System requirements: Graphics cards have their own minimum hardware requirements to run properly. The requirements are primarily related to their size — how large the graphics card is, and how large your PC's case needs to be to accommodate it — and the rating of your PC's power supply. If your power supply, or PSU, isn't rated for enough wattage to properly power your new GPU, it may not perform as expected or work at all. However, keep in mind that more powerful graphics cards also need progressively faster and more powerful CPUs and fast RAM to keep them operating at their peak.
Graphics cards have their own minimum hardware requirements to run properly. The requirements are primarily related to their size — how large the graphics card is, and how large your PC's case needs to be to accommodate it — and the rating of your PC's power supply. If your power supply, or PSU, isn't rated for enough wattage to properly power your new GPU, it may not perform as expected or work at all. However, keep in mind that more powerful graphics cards also need progressively faster and more powerful CPUs and fast RAM to keep them operating at their peak. Noise and heat: A lot of electricity goes through a graphics card when it's working hard, and that generates heat. This requires active cooling in the form of fans (or, occasionally, even liquid cooling). I noted each GPU's self-reported temperature during the course of our game testing and also listened for audible changes in noise level in my open-air test setup. Keep in mind, though, that a poorly ventilated or cooled PC case drives up the noise level of any GPU, as its fans work harder to keep the graphics card at an ideal operational temperature. When a graphics card gets too hot, it slows down — a process known as 'thermal throttling' — and its performance worsens. Current-generation AMD- and Nvidia-based graphics cards appear to be well cooled and thermally engineered, with no indication of overheating or downclocking in our testing.
A lot of electricity goes through a graphics card when it's working hard, and that generates heat. This requires active cooling in the form of fans (or, occasionally, even liquid cooling). I noted each GPU's self-reported temperature during the course of our game testing and also listened for audible changes in noise level in my open-air test setup. Keep in mind, though, that a poorly ventilated or cooled PC case drives up the noise level of any GPU, as its fans work harder to keep the graphics card at an ideal operational temperature. When a graphics card gets too hot, it slows down — a process known as 'thermal throttling' — and its performance worsens. Current-generation AMD- and Nvidia-based graphics cards appear to be well cooled and thermally engineered, with no indication of overheating or downclocking in our testing. Additional features: Most people simply need a graphics card that runs games well, but some manufacturers offer additional software features that might be worth prioritizing. Each GPU type provides its own accelerated video encoder, for example, but Nvidia also supports special video-encoding options with the video game streaming site Twitch, and it also provides software for noise removal in microphone audio and camera enhancements. But depending on your needs, these features may not be worth paying for (or paying extra for).
I also paid attention to aspects such as the overall quality of construction of the graphics cards we tested, and to any other potential problem spots or quirks that impacted my experience with the GPU. One particular issue can be difficult to predict, and its effect on your experience may vary: electromagnetically induced acoustic noise, colloquially referred to as 'coil whine.'
Coil whine can range in frequency or volume, but it usually presents as a slightly high-pitched hum or even a screeching sound. Coil whine occurs when the affected device draws more electricity in order to run at higher-than-idle frequencies. Because more powerful graphics cards use so much electricity — often more than the rest of your gaming PC's components combined — they can be especially susceptible to coil whine. With at least one GPU we tested, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 Founder's Edition, the noise was audible even when we simply scrolled up or down in a web page.
As with loud fans in a PC or laptop, the impact of noise on your experience is at least a little subjective, and how audible coil whine can be also depends on where your PC is in relation to where you're sitting. But if you're sensitive to high-pitched noises, you may want to research whether people have reported this issue with the GPU you're thinking of buying.
We tested each graphics card in a variety of games using either included benchmarking runs or, where necessary, a repeatable in-game path. I tested each game's performance at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K resolutions, separately testing each resolution using medium and high graphical presets. I ran each test three times, averaging the results. I tested each game with upsampling and artificial frame generation disabled.
According to a recent survey, most players play games at 1080p, with a large number also playing games at 1440p resolution, so we primarily focused on graphics cards that provided good performance for those resolutions. Rather than testing each graphics card's performance with each game's absolute highest graphical settings, we used medium and high presets unless otherwise specified. Those tend to be the configurations that game developers target as the intended player experience, and every game we tested looked great at those presets. We benchmarked each title without using upsampling tools like Nvidia's DLSS and AMD's FSR, as those implementations continue to evolve, but our recommendations do take into account the performance benefit they provide in modern games.
I captured frame data from our tests using Intel's open-source PresentMon software. This testing data provided frame-time information — it literally measured how long my testing PC took to generate each individual frame of gameplay — for our benchmarking runs in each game. We used that information to determine a per-second frame-rate average across each test. I also measured first- and fifth-percentile frames-per-second lows to better measure each graphics card's performance consistency; a slightly lower average frame rate can provide a better experience in comparison with one that sees higher highs combined with more frequent performance drops. I then used CapFrameX to collate and compare each graphics card's results from our tests.
We tested the following games: Monster Hunter Wilds: Capcom's open-world, multiplayer action-RPG is the best-selling game of 2025. It features large spaces with many monsters and systems running in tandem. I tested with the high and medium presets with no alterations, other than to disable upscaling. This test did not use ray tracing.
Capcom's open-world, multiplayer action-RPG is the best-selling game of 2025. It features large spaces with many monsters and systems running in tandem. I tested with the high and medium presets with no alterations, other than to disable upscaling. This test did not use ray tracing. Marvel Rivals: This free-to-play online multiplayer shooter has been a breakout hit in 2025, and it scales well across a variety of systems. Our tests involved 60-second samples taken while we played the practice free-for-all mode.
This free-to-play online multiplayer shooter has been a breakout hit in 2025, and it scales well across a variety of systems. Our tests involved 60-second samples taken while we played the practice free-for-all mode. Civilization VII: The newest installment of the legendary strategy game provided a non-action scenario for our graphics cards to work with.
The newest installment of the legendary strategy game provided a non-action scenario for our graphics cards to work with. Cyberpunk 2077: While this RPG/first-person shooter hybrid is almost five years old, it continues to provide a workout for modern graphics hardware while also scaling well with settings adjustments. I ran the in-game benchmark using two presets: the ray traced high settings, and high without ray tracing.
While this RPG/first-person shooter hybrid is almost five years old, it continues to provide a workout for modern graphics hardware while also scaling well with settings adjustments. I ran the in-game benchmark using two presets: the ray traced high settings, and high without ray tracing. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: This game features optional support for path tracing for impressively realistic lighting and shadows, and it's currently one of the most demanding PC titles available. We did laps in the village in Sukothai on the high and medium presets with path tracing enabled; however, multiple GPUs fell short in this testing scenario, failing to break the 30 fps mark or to yield playable frame rates even with upscaling enabled.
I also did some light testing using each graphics card with other selected titles to determine how they would perform with new releases, including this year's Assassin's Creed Shadows and Doom: The Dark Ages , though these sessions didn't involve full benchmarking runs.
My test setup uses a Ryzen 9950x3D processor in an Asus Prime X670e-Pro motherboard with 32 GB of RAM running at 6000 MHz (unless otherwise specified), with a Corsair Elite MP700 PCIe Gen 5 SSD. I use a Thermaltake Core P3 Pro tower with an open face for accessibility and airflow, and ambient room temperatures hovered in the low 70s (Fahrenheit) during my testing. I completed the tests using stable driver releases from Nvidia and AMD.
Graphics card prices are all over the map in 2025 for a few reasons: Demand is high thanks to a growing interest in PC gaming, and because graphics cards enable AI and machine-learning workloads. Supply, meanwhile, is constrained because graphics cards rely on the same manufacturers and processes that produce much more lucrative AI-server hardware, along with chipsets for devices such as iPhones and MacBooks.
This situation had already led to the development of a gray market of sorts, where graphics cards often sell for much higher than their suggested retail prices, whether through third-party sellers or brick-and-mortar retailers. But with the introduction of steep — and fluctuating — tariffs on China, we're seeing graphics card prices and availability fluctuate, too.
That means our picks' prices may change significantly over time. While our top pick, an older, entry-level card, has stayed relatively stable in price for the past six months or so, our other picks have seen dramatic increases from their suggested retail price at launch. We plan to monitor prices closely and adjust our recommendations as necessary.
Connie Park/NYT Wirecutter
For console-level or slightly better graphics at 1080p or 1440p, the RX 7600 is a great option, and it's almost always available for a reasonable price. Dimensions: 9.49 by 5.16 by 1.61 inches Required power supply and connector: 550 W, one PCI-E 8-pin VRAM: 8 GB
The Radeon RX 7600 GPU from AMD is now two years old, but it has largely managed to defy the wild swings in pricing and availability that have affected its nearest competitors, Nvidia's GeForce RTX 4060 and Intel's ARC B580. At 1080p (and occasionally 1440p), the result is an entry-level GPU that gets you close to the graphics in current-generation consoles like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X without your needing to sell an organ or three to buy one.
The model we tested, the XFX Speedster SWFT 210 AMD Radeon RX 7600, is regularly available from retailers for around $300 to $330. But don't expect to do much 4K gaming; we also expect it to struggle to keep up with new big-budget video game releases in 2026 (and possibly sooner). Monster Hunter Wilds 1080p average, fifth percentile (medium preset, no upscaling) Marvel Rivals 1080p average, fifth percentile (high preset, no upscaling) Cyberpunk 2077 1080p average, fifth percentile (high preset, no ray tracing, no upscaling) AMD Radeon RX 7600 43 fps, 32.6 fps 118.6 fps, 87.1 fps 91.2 fps, 76.8 fps Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 57 fps, 41.5 fps 145.6 fps, 103.6 fps 85.1 fps, 71.4 fps
It plays current-generation console games with console visual quality. At a native, non-upscaled 1080p, the RX 7600 delivered playable frame rates in Monster Hunter Wilds on the medium preset. Marvel Rivals , Cyberpunk 2077 , and Civilization VII all demonstrated better-than-console performance with frame rates well over 60 fps at high settings, and with FSR3 upscaling, those improved even more. Although the RX 7600 couldn't max out the newer Assassin's Creed Shadows and Doom: The Dark Ages , both games were more than playable at frame rates and settings comparable to those consoles — as long as we stuck to 1080p.
It's small and quiet. The XFX Speedster SWFT 210 is downright diminutive compared with other cards we tested, and it's fairly sturdily built and attractive, especially for a comparatively price-conscious graphics card. Other RX 7600–based cards should provide similar benefits.
The RX 7600 is regularly available — and regularly priced. In 2025, a graphics card staying the same price month after month is almost unheard of. But somehow the XFX Speedster SWFT 210 AMD Radeon RX 7600 and similar versions of the RX 7600 have remained consistently priced around the $330 mark and have been reasonably easy to find. The RTX 4060 is a better performer, but it's routinely more than 20% more expensive, if you can find it new at all. Connie Park/NYT Wirecutter Connie Park/NYT Wirecutter Connie Park/NYT Wirecutter Flaws but not dealbreakers
It struggles with more advanced graphics and higher resolutions. Once we crossed the threshold from 1080p to 1440p, the XFX Speedster SWFT 210 AMD Radeon RX 7600 was able to handle slightly lowered settings here and there to reach playable frame rates, but for newer games the experience wasn't as good at higher resolutions. The RX 7600 also completely failed our path tracing benchmarks in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (as did our more expensive upgrade pick), with frame rates ranging from the teens to single digits.
It's an older card — and new ones are almost here. The XFX RX 7600–based card I tested for this guide is a two-year-old, entry-level card. Although it can handle current releases at 1080p at console-level settings, newer, better graphics cards are coming soon — or are already here. The value of the RX 7600 lies in how easy it is to find at an affordable price, but once other, newer graphics cards are available for the same price (or less, as AMD is suggesting with its newly announced RX 9060 XT), you shouldn't buy it.
Connie Park/NYT Wirecutter
AMD's RX 9070 XT offers the best value for players seeking high settings and great performance at 1440p, and it can even handle 4K gaming with a little nudging. Dimensions: 12.8 by 5.91 by 2.56 inches Required power supply and connector: 800 W, two PCI-E 8-pin VRAM: 16 GB
The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT can capably handle just about every modern game at high settings at 1440p with frame rates above 60 fps, and with some tweaking it even provides a consistently good 4K experience. The XFX Swift AMD Radeon RX 9070XT is attractively designed, with quiet fans, and it's routinely around 15% cheaper than cards based on the RX 9070 XT's most immediate competitor from Nvidia, the RTX 5070 Ti. However, the RX 9070 XT struggles with cutting-edge path tracing in games like Cyberpunk 2077 and I ndiana Jones and the Great Circle , so if you're hoping to get closer to the top tier of graphics tech, a card based on the RTX 5070 Ti is a better option, even if it costs more. Monster Hunter Wilds 1440p average, fifth percentile (high preset, no RT, no upscaling) Marvel Rivals 1440p average, fifth percentile (high preset, no upscaling) Cyberpunk 2077 1440p average, fifth percentile (high preset with high ray tracing, no upscaling) AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT 103.9 fps, 77.3 fps 189.8 fps, 137.8 fps 52.5 fps, 45.9 fps Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti 88.1 fps, 67.5 fps 176.9 fps, 118.3 fps 58.1 fps, 50.4 fps
The RX 9070 XT produces great 1440p (and 4K) performance. Even at higher settings, the RX 9070 XT cruised through our benchmarks, providing excellent performance in almost every game we tested. Across our benchmarks, it traded the lead with the more expensive Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti, often in surprising ways. In the games we tested, the RX 9070 XT also provided good performance at 4K, with visual settings and performance well ahead of that of current-generation consoles, and once again in this regard it often bested the usually more expensive RTX 5070 Ti. The RX 9070 XT should give you a great experience in current video games for years to come.
It features more advanced upscaling features than in previous-generation AMD GPUs. Modern games increasingly rely on machine-learning-based algorithms and processes to reach higher resolutions (a process called upscaling) and more consistent frame rates. Previous generations of AMD GPUs fell behind Nvidia's offerings in this respect, but with FSR 4.0, the RX 9070 XT provides a great-looking upscaler that closes most of the gap. This addition removes one of our biggest reservations in recommending an AMD GPU. I'd like to see the feature fully supported in more games, but everything I've seen so far is encouraging. Connie Park/NYT Wirecutter Connie Park/NYT Wirecutter Connie Park/NYT Wirecutter
You can usually buy one (for a lot less than the competition). Although supply has fluctuated significantly since the XFX Swift AMD Radeon RX 9070XT launched in March (as has the price), the RX 9070 XT's availability has become much more reliable at this writing. In addition, the price has finally reached an equilibrium point — for now — settling somewhere between 10% and 15% less than the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Gaming OC 16G and MSI 5070 Ti 16G Gaming Trio OC Plus models we tested. If you're hoping to keep costs under control, a price difference of $120 to $150 can make a big difference. However, you can occasionally find the RTX 5070 Ti models we tested for prices much closer to that of the XFX Swift AMD Radeon RX 9070XT, at which point they're equally good options. Flaws but not dealbreakers
AMD's software support still isn't as good as Nvidia's. While FSR4 is a much-needed step in the right direction, we're not seeing it in as many games as we are Nvidia's equivalent upscaling tool, DLSS. Additionally, AMD still can't quite compete with Nvidia in providing other bonus features and software support like Nvidia Broadcast and Nvidia's Twitch-streaming tools. And historically AMD's driver support has been slower than Nvidia's, though 2025 has shown Nvidia to have its own problems in that regard.
Path tracing is off-limits. While the Radeon RX 9070 XT has mostly caught up with Nvidia's GPUs in in more typical ray tracing scenarios, AMD can't compete at the bleeding edge of graphics tech: path tracing. Path tracing is a more technically accurate implementation of ray tracing, but it's also much more systemically demanding — so much so that almost every card we tested struggled or even failed outright in our benchmarks using the low path tracing settings in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle . While we could get the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Gaming OC 16G to an acceptable level of performance using a combination of upscaling and 1440p resolution, the XFX Swift AMD Radeon RX 9070XT just couldn't hack it. The situation could improve over time as AMD works with developers to better optimize its drivers. For now, however, if you want to live on the cutting edge, you'll have to look elsewhere (and spend more money).
It's more expensive than it was when it launched, and it can occasionally be hard to find. When the RX 9070 XT launched in March, AMD set a target price for vendors of $600. Once initial shipments of those GPUs sold out, prices increased precipitously. At this writing, they have largely settled: Our pick, the XFX Swift AMD Radeon RX 9070XT, typically sells for around $850. That's still much less than many models based on the RTX 5070 Ti, but we don't love it. However, we've started to see other RX 9070 XT models sell for much less, so you may want to shop around a bit to see what options are available to you.
You may encounter instability. In my testing with the RX 9070 XT (and its cheaper counterpart, the Radeon 9070), I experienced persistent system crashes and driver unresponsiveness while benchmarking Monster Hunter Wilds and AMD's own driver stress test. I resolved the issue — which is similar to those reported by multiple people across Reddit and other PC-gaming communities — by resetting my PC's DDR5-6000 to 'stock' settings in my motherboard's UEFI settings page. In another product category, this kind of thing might be a dealbreaker, but unfortunately, in PC gaming, it's a not altogether unfamiliar cost of doing business; for example, Nvidia's current drivers cause consistent crashing in Monster Hunter Wilds .
Coil whine could be an issue. I noted relatively minor but clearly present coil whine across three different 9070 models. Although it didn't affect performance or present any other issues, if you're especially sensitive to that kind of noise, you might want to go with a card based on the RTX 5070 Ti instead, even if it's more expensive.
Connie Park/NYT Wirecutter
This graphics card's RTX 5070 Ti GPU edges out the RX 9070 XT in ray tracing scenarios, and Nvidia's software features give it an edge for Twitch streamers seeking the best-looking video. Dimensions: 13.39 by 5.51 by 2.75 inches Required power supply and connector: 800 W, one 12vh2 VRAM: 16 GB
While most people would be better served paying less for the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT's similar performance in most games, if you're willing to pay more for better frame rates in games using the most advanced graphical tech, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti is a better GPU option. For streamers and content creators, RTX 5070 Ti cards such as the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Gaming OC 16G also support Twitch's Enhanced Broadcasting options, which use video-encoding hardware on the GPU to deliver much better-looking video while you're streaming your gameplay to Twitch.
It also runs games well at 1440p and 4K. Graphics cards based on Nvidia's RTX 5070 Ti, including the models we tested, the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Gaming OC 16G and the MSI 5070 Ti 16G Gaming Trio OC Plus, run neck and neck with those based on the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT, which are usually cheaper. But Nvidia's GPU similarly provides a great gaming experience for people with a 1440p display, even at higher frame rates — and in some games it performs even better than AMD's card, especially with ray tracing enabled. The Gigabyte GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Gaming OC 16G (left) and the MSI 5070 Ti 16G Gaming Trio OC Plus (right). Connie Park/NYT Wirecutter
It offers better support for both ray tracing and path tracing. Nvidia has consistently been at the forefront of new graphics technology with its GPUs, and in games using more advanced techniques like ray tracing, the RTX 5070 Ti continues to edge out the RX 9070 XT. In games such as Indiana Jones and the Great Circle , the Gigabyte and MSI RTX 5070 Ti graphics cards we tested allowed us to enable settings at playable configurations that our upgrade pick just couldn't manage. The number of games that this feature will meaningfully affect is small, but if you have around $1,000 to spend and want access to them, the RTX 5070 Ti is your only currently available GPU option.
It has bells and whistles such as Twitch Enhanced Broadcasting support. Twitch Enhanced Broadcasting uses the onboard video encoder inside Nvidia's GPUs (including the RTX 5070 Ti) to create high-bit-rate, compliant video versions for Twitch; this means viewers will see clearer, less blocky videos that haven't gone through multiple stages of processing, as well as, eventually, even high-frame-rate streams. Nvidia also offers, for 20-series RTX GPUs and up, the Broadcast suite of features, which provide on-the-fly noise removal to microphones, as well as background removal in webcam video feeds. These features aren't critical to gaming, but we appreciate them as value-adds for Nvidia's more expensive GPUs. Flaws but not dealbreakers
It's more expensive than it was supposed to be. Much like our upgrade pick, the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Gaming OC 16G costs significantly more than Nvidia's January 2025 suggested price of $750. Prices and availability continue to fluctuate, but it's rare that we see an RTX 5070 Ti for less than $950, and we often see them for much, much more. We understand some of the reasons for this jump, but that doesn't mean we have to like them.
Nvidia's drivers have been unreliable in 2025. Graphics cards rely on up-to-date drivers and constant support from GPU manufacturers to play just-released games in a stable fashion, and Nvidia has routinely fumbled in this regard so far this year, with more than a dozen driver and hotfix releases. These patches have repeatedly failed to address stability problems that owners have encountered with Nvidia's newest GPUs, including black screens, driver crashes, failures to wake from sleep, and unexpected application problems, several of which I have personally experienced. The most stable release I've found for Nvidia GPUs is months old. Nvidia will fix this issue eventually, but for now, these problems are a black mark against the RTX 5070 TI and its 50-series siblings.
If you want a great budget option and can tolerate some drawbacks: The MSI Geforce RTX 5060 8G Shadow 2X OC (and other entry-level RTX 5060 GPU–based graphics cards, such as the Asus Prime GeForce RTX 5060) is a great option for gamers on a budget playing at 1080p and 1440p resolutions — with an important caveat. At 1080p and even 1440p, the RTX 5060 posted excellent results in Doom: The Dark Ages and Assassin's Creed Shadows , two graphically intense 2025 titles, and it yielded good results across most of our benchmarks. However, like the other 5060-family graphics cards we tested, it just wasn't stable in Monster Hunter Wilds . Usually, a single title wouldn't have such a heavy influence on our recommendations, but Monster Hunter Wilds is the best-selling video game of 2025 at this writing. Additionally, Nvidia has had a number of problems with driver reliability throughout 2025. This keeps the RTX 5060 from being a pick for this guide for now, but if you're not bothered by a little troubleshooting and don't care about Monster Hunter Wilds , it's an excellent entry-level option that will play current releases well at 1080p and even 1440p for years to come.
If you want the best-looking video games: Almost no one should buy an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card — the launch pricing for this tier started at $2,000 and has reached eye-watering numbers since. However, if you absolutely need the best-looking, best-performing PC gaming experience (or you want to crank up the settings and play everything at 4K), the RTX 5090 is your only real option. I've been testing the Gigabyte Aorus GeForce RTX 5090 Master Ice 32G (which also comes in a slightly easier-to-find black version) for months, and I've been consistently impressed with its performance, as well as its absolute silence, especially in comparison with the fairly prominent coil whine present in Nvidia's own GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition card. Gigabyte's card has handled all of 2025's biggest games dialed up almost as far as they'll go, and as hard as I've tried to hate it and its used-car price tag, it has been a dream to play on. (And I even kind of love its completely ridiculous little LCD screen.) But unless you have an especially high-refresh-rate 4K display and a notably fast CPU to keep it fed with data, you'd be hard-pressed to really take advantage of all that power — and you'd need at least a 1,000-watt power supply to keep it running properly. And did I mention the price?
AMD announced the more budget-friendly Radeon RX 9060 XT in both 8 GB and 16 GB configurations at this year's Computex trade show. They're priced at $300 and $350, respectively (and theoretically), and they're set to arrive at retailers and online on June 5. According to AMD's released performance and benchmarking data, the 16 GB version of the RX 9060 XT may be particularly appealing for entry-level buyers seeking affordable performance. AMD's promised performance with its RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT was more or less on point, but the question remains as to whether you'll actually be able to buy any new video card for its suggested retail price; both the RX 9070 and the RX 9070 XT now sell for hundreds more than their initial pricing.
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 is comparable in performance to our top pick, the AMD Radeon RX 7600, and in many cases it performs better, especially in games using ray tracing. However, its prices have fluctuated wildly over the past year, with cards often selling for $400 or more, which makes it too expensive for its performance in comparison with other, better GPUs. It also appears to have been discontinued, as retailers rarely appear to have new stock. We can find the model we tested, the Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 4060 8GB Solo, only used on retailers like Amazon. Typically we don't recommend buying a used graphics card, especially when it saves you just 15% over the original list price.
The Asus Prime GeForce RTX 5080 and the Gigabyte Aorus GeForce RTX 5080 Master 16G, along with other RTX 5080 versions, are capable graphics cards that outperform all but exactly two other models: the last-generation GeForce RTX 4090 and the ludicrously expensive GeForce RTX 5090. However, the RTX 5080 models we tested yielded only a 20% to 25% improvement in 1440p and 4K testing over the RTX 5070 Ti and similar improvements over the RX 9070 XT, for prices that range from 50% to 100% higher. For the prices that add-in board makers are asking — which currently range from $1,500 all the way up to a frankly ridiculous $2,200 — the RTX 5080 is difficult to recommend. If those costs come down over time, or if the prices on other cards go up without affecting the RTX 5080, we'll reevaluate it.
The Asus Prime GeForce RTX 5070 and other RTX 5070 models are good 1080p and 1440p performers, but the RX 9070 XT delivers better performance and is likely last longer with current games, which also applies to the RTX 5070 Ti. With RTX 5070 graphics cards costing $650 to $800, paying a bit more for an RX 9070 XT or RTX 5070 Ti card makes much more sense. If you can find a card based on the RTX 5070 for around $500, it's not a bad purchase, but with prices trending considerably higher, we can't recommend it.
We encountered significant stability issues while testing the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB and the non-Ti GeForce RTX 5060 across multiple driver releases from Nvidia and multiple installs of Windows 11 24H2. These graphics cards could not finish our Monster Hunter Wilds benchmark runs without encountering complete driver crashes. That said, otherwise the RTX 5060 put out respectable results across the games we tested, with better-than-console performance at 1440p and even 4K with upscaling enabled and at medium settings. We'll reevaluate the RTX 5060 Ti and RTX 5060 once Nvidia's drivers are more stable, but considering that the pricing on these GPUs has seemed relatively settled (and close to the original manufacturer's suggested retail price), they could become a pick in the future.
The AMD Radeon RX 9070 is generally just $50 to $100 cheaper than the RX 9070 XT, which performed 10% to 15% better across our benchmark tests. If you can find one like the Gigabyte Radeon RX 9070 OC, the card that we tested, for closer to its original $550 launch price, it's a capable card at 1440p and even 4K with adjusted settings.
The Intel ARC B580 is an entry-level GPU designed to compete with AMD's Radeon RX 7600 and Nvidia's GeForce RTX 4060. Other outlets reported benchmarks and performance from the ARC B580 that were impressive, especially in light of its $250 launch price. However, since its launch in December 2024, it has become almost impossible to find, particularly at its initial suggested retail price. If it becomes more available and more competitive on price again, we'll evaluate it for this guide.
Other than the RX 7600, we didn't evaluate any Radeon 7–series GPUs because they're frequently unavailable or available only at vastly inflated prices compared with their initial suggested retail price. Similarly, Nvidia's 40-series RTX graphics cards have effectively been discontinued, so we elected not to consider them aside from the GeForce RTX 4060 (which appeared to be discontinued as we conducted research and testing for this guide).
This article was edited by Caitlin McGarry and Signe Brewster.

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