Image: Brad Chacos/IDG
When it comes to gaming PCs, nothing matters more than your graphics card. To push as many pixels as possible you’re going to want the fastest graphics card you can afford—but ever-shifting prices and product lineups make it difficult to keep track of what’s available, especially in the midst of a crippling GPU shortage.
In honor of keeping frame rates high, we decided to rank all the major available discrete GPUs from Nvidia GeForce and AMD Radeon, starting with the fastest graphics card available and working on down. This list focuses on each company’s most current GPU lineups, and doesn’t include significantly older graphics cards. You’ll find all GeForce RTX 20- and 30-series offerings, however, as well as AMD’s last two graphics card generations.
Price to performance is not a consideration here—just pure performance. Concrete example: The GeForce RTX 2080 Ti is technically more powerful than the GeForce RTX 3070, and hence higher on this list, but it’s essentially tied in performance and the newer GeForce option is significantly cheaper at its recommended price, making it a better buy. That said, finding graphics cards anywhere near MSRP is extremely rare during the GPU shortage, so this guide can be used to help you wrap your head around the relative performance of any recent graphics cards you might manage to find, new or used.
We’ve verified this information through hours of blood, sweat, and benchmarking. Feel free to hit up the individual reviews to see our work in greater detail. Or, if you want more concrete buying advice for your specific budget or display resolution, be sure to read our guide to the best graphics cards for gaming. It provides much more information than this simple list, complete with discussion about considerations like value, various form factors, and what to look for in a customized model.
But if you just want to know if GPU A is faster than GPU B, starting with the current consumer gaming champion, read on. The higher up a graphics card is on this list, the faster and more powerful it is.
Editor’s note: This article was last updated to add the Radeon RX 6600 XT, GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, and RTX 3080 Ti to the list.
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090
Read our reviewPrice When Reviewed:$1499Best Prices Today:$999.99 at Newegg | $1,499.99 at Amazon
Mentioned in this article
GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition
Read our reviewPrice When Reviewed:$1200Best Prices Today:$1200 at Best Buy
Radeon RX 6900 XT
Read our reviewPrice When Reviewed:$1000Best Prices Today:$999.99 at Amazon | $1000 at AMD
GeForce RTX 3080
Read our reviewPrice When Reviewed:$699Best Prices Today:$800 at Newegg | $864.22 at Walmart | $911.84 at Amazon
Radeon RX 6800 XT
Price When Reviewed:$650Best Prices Today:$479.99 at Amazon | $539.99 at Walmart | $579.99 at Newegg
Radeon RX 6800
Read our reviewPrice When Reviewed:$580Best Prices Today:$580 at Best Buy
Mentioned in this article
GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Founders Edition
Read our reviewPrice When Reviewed:$599Best Prices Today:$599 at Nvidia
GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition
Read our reviewPrice When Reviewed:$1199.99Best Prices Today:$1199.99 at Best Buy
GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition
Read our reviewPrice When Reviewed:$500Best Prices Today:$409.99 at Walmart | $499.99 at Amazon | $520 at Newegg
Mentioned in this article
Radeon RX 6700 XT
Read our reviewPrice When Reviewed:$479Best Prices Today:$299.99 at Amazon | $339.99 at Newegg
GeForce RTX 3060 Ti
Read our reviewPrice When Reviewed:$400Best Prices Today:$349.99 at Walmart | $355 at Newegg
GeForce RTX 2080 Super Founders Edition
Read our reviewPrice When Reviewed:$699Best Prices Today:$699 at Best Buy
GeForce RTX 2080 Founders Edition
Price When Reviewed:$799.99Best Prices Today:$799.99 at Best Buy
GeForce RTX 2070 Super Founders Edition
Price When Reviewed:$499Best Prices Today:$499 at Best Buy
Mentioned in this article
Radeon RX 6600 XT
Read our review
Radeon RX 5700 XT
Price When Reviewed:$400
Mentioned in this article
GeForce RTX 3060 XC Black Gaming
Read our reviewPrice When Reviewed:$330Best Prices Today:$284.99 at Walmart | $289.99 at Amazon | $289.99 at B&H
GeForce RTX 2060 Super Founders Edition
Read our reviewPrice When Reviewed:$399Best Prices Today:$399 at Best Buy
Radeon RX 5700
Read our reviewPrice When Reviewed:$350
Pulse Radeon RX 5600 XT
Read our reviewPrice When Reviewed:$290
GeForce RTX 2060 Founders Edition
Read our reviewPrice When Reviewed:$299Best Prices Today:$299 at Nvidia
GeForce GTX 1660 Ti XC Ultra
Read our reviewPrice When Reviewed:$309.99Best Prices Today:$562.08 at Amazon
Dual GeForce GTX 1660 Super EVO OC
Read our reviewPrice When Reviewed:$229.99Best Prices Today:$399.99 at Amazon
GeForce GTX 1660 XC Ultra
Read our reviewPrice When Reviewed:$249.99
Radeon RX 590 Nitro+
Read our reviewPrice When Reviewed:$259.99Best Prices Today:$259.99 at Newegg
ROG Strix GeForce GTX 1650 Super
Read our reviewPrice When Reviewed:$190
Pulse Radeon RX 5500 XT
Read our reviewPrice When Reviewed:$179.99Best Prices Today:$179.99 at Newegg
Radeon RX 580 Nitro+
Read our reviewPrice When Reviewed:$229.99Best Prices Today:$229.99 at Newegg
Aorus Radeon RX 570
Read our reviewPrice When Reviewed:$159.99Best Prices Today:$159.99 at Newegg
