A graphics card is one of, if not the, most important components of a gaming PC. But, as with most PC components, there is no one-size-fits-all GPU. While some users may want the absolute best gaming experience on PC, others may prefer something more affordable, albeit less powerful. Many people are looking for the best budget graphics cards for casual 1080p gaming.
Fortunately, there has never been a better time to purchase a home. The crypto mining phase has ended, and the next generation of Nvidia and AMD graphics cards has arrived. It’s also officially a three-way fight now that Intel has launched its long-awaited Arc dedicated graphics line.
Best Gaming Graphics Cards 2023
1. GeForce RTX 4090
For some, the best graphics card is the fastest card, regardless of price. Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 4090 is designed specifically for this type of user. It also marks the first appearance of Nvidia’s brand-new Ada Lovelace architecture, and as such will be the most powerful card Nvidia has to offer… at least until the inevitable RTX 4090 Ti arrives.
If you were disappointed that the RTX 3090 Ti was only slightly faster (30%) than the RTX 3080 in most workloads, the RTX 4090 will provide more. On average, it was 55% faster than the 3090 Ti across our standard suite of gaming benchmarks. When you start a game with ray tracing effects, that lead grows to 78%! AMD’s new RX 7900 XTX can’t compete either, as the 4090 is 25% faster in traditional rasterization games and slightly more than twice as fast in ray tracing games.
2. Radeon RX 7900 XTX
The Red Team King is no longer with us; long live the Red Team King! AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 XTX has surpassed the previous generation RX 6950 XT at the top of the charts, accompanied by a price increase. Despite being advertised at $999, it sold out almost immediately, and we’ll now have to wait for supply to catch up to demand. Still, there’s reason to be excited, as the 7900 XTX features AMD’s latest RDNA 3 architecture.
This gives the 7900 XTX significantly more compute power, as well as 33% more memory. In our rasterization test suite, the new GPU is 32% faster on average than the 6950 XT, and 42% faster in ray tracing games. And it does so without significantly increasing power consumption or graphics card size. The second-tier RX 7900 XT trails by 15% as well, so saving $100 for the inferior 7900 makes little sense.
AMD’s GPUs can also be used for professional tasks, but results are hit or miss. Certain apps in the SPECviewperf suite perform admirably on AMD hardware; others fall short, and if you want to conduct AI or deep learning research, Nvidia’s cards are unquestionably superior. However, for this generation, AMD’s fastest option is the RX 7900 XTX, and it certainly packs a punch.
3. Radeon RX 6600
The Radeon RX 6600 takes everything good about the Radeon RX 6600 XT and reduces it slightly. It’s about 15% slower overall, and slightly slower than the RTX 3060 (in non-RT games), but it’s still 30% faster than the RTX 3050 in our tests. It’s also reasonably priced, with the least expensive cards starting at just over $200 — such as this ASRock RX 6600 card from Newegg (opens in new tab).
That’s a lot less than AMD’s official $329 MSRP, which felt a little high at launch — not that those prices were ever seen in meaningful quantities until recently. However, with cards now shipping at or below MSRP, this represents the market’s best overall value.
The RX 6600 competes in the midrange graphics card market against both the RTX 3050 and previous generation RTX 20-series and GTX 16-series GPUs. In our testing, it delivered near-RTX 2070 performance, at least in non-ray tracing scenarios. When ray tracing is enabled, it struggles horribly, barely averaging 30 frames per second in our DXR test suite at 1080p medium and trailing Nvidia’s RTX 2060 by 20%.
If you’re not concerned about ray tracing, the RX 6600 is well worth considering. AMD’s Infinity Cache saves what appears to be a somewhat underpowered GPU, and the card only requires about 130W, far less than competing GPUs. The only real potential competition on the horizon is Intel’s yet-to-be-released Arc A580; RDNA 3 GPUs are unlikely to reach the sub-$250 price point until mid-2023 or later.
See Also; Nvidia GeForce GTX 980MX: Is It a Good Graphics Card?
4. GeForce RTX 3080
Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3080 with the now-outdated Nvidia Ampere architecture remains a great option, though it has lost some of its luster. Depending on current prices, the recommendation also applies to all RTX 3080 cards, including the RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3080 12GB. The best deal we can find right now is $730 for the 10GB card, while the 12GB and 3080 Ti have skyrocketed to well over $1,000, making them questionable choices. However, this is subject to change, so double-check first.
The RTX 3080 is still performing well two years after its initial release. It can easily handle 1440p at maximum settings, and often 4K as well, though lowering to high quality (or enabling DLSS if available) may be required for the latter. DLSS also works without ray tracing and is currently available in over 200 games, so it’s a feature worth paying for.
5. Radeon RX 6800
AMD’s Navi 21 GPUs, such as the Radeon RX 6800, currently offer a better value for high-end AMD cards. Because of the RDNA 2 architecture, the RX 6800 has excellent rasterization performance and can handle ray tracing games at 1080p. Unless you can find a good deal on an RX 6950 XT, RX 6900 XT, or RX 6800 XT, the RX 6800 is your best bet for a Navi 21 graphics card at current prices, which have dropped significantly in the last few months.
The enthusiast community dubbed the Navi 21 GPU ‘Big Navi’ before its release, and we got exactly what we wanted. It’s more than twice the size of the previous generation Navi 10, with double the shader cores and RAM. Clock speeds are also increased to 2.1-2.4 GHz (depending on the card model), and AMD did so without significantly increasing power requirements: The RX 6800 has a lower TBP of 250W than the competing RTX 3080, which has a TBP of 320W.
See Also; GTX 1650 Super in Latest Steam Hardware Survey
FAQs
Which GPU is best for gaming?
GeForce RTX 3080
Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3080 with the now-outdated Nvidia Ampere architecture remains a great option, though it has lost some of its luster. Depending on current prices, the recommendation also applies to all RTX 3080 cards, including the RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3080 12GB.
Is GTX or RTX better for gaming?
RTX cards are thus superior not only in terms of graphics performance but also in terms of traditional rendering performance. If you want the best gaming performance from an NVIDIA card, you should go with a 30-series RTX GPU—ideally, an RTX 3090.
What GPU do pro gamers use?
What is the most powerful gaming GPU? This is the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Ti. It has 24GB of VRAM, a base clock of 1.67GHz that can be overclocked to 1.86GHz, second-generation ray tracing technology, and third-generation tensor cores. It also has DirectX 12 Ultimate, Nvidia DLSS, and G-Sync VRR support.
