Best graphics card 2025 - top gaming GPUs

What is the best graphics card? Finding a new gaming GPU can mean wading through a swamp of often baffling numbers in specs lists, as well as weighing up the pros and cons of the different feature sets from Nvidia, AMD, and Intel. Fear not, though, as we've done all the testing and comparisons for you so that our best graphics card guide will steer you towards the right card for your needs without the jargon.

The best graphics card overall is the FAQ section that answers all your graphics card questions.

Also tested - PCGamesN graphics card reviews

Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060

Nvidia's latest attempt to catch the budget graphics card crown comes in the shape of the RTX 5060 and it's a bit of a weak effort. This card offers a solid upgrade over both the RTX 4060 and RTX 4060 Ti 8GB, but it still doesn't overly impressive as a generational upgrade. Plus, it's often beaten by the RX 9060 XT 8GB for the same price. However, it does have access to DLSS 4 frame gen to boost its frame rate. The real kicker with this card, though, is its 8GB VRAM. This causes performance in some modern AAA games to plummet, when all the settings are cranked up. The RX 9060 XT 16GB is a far better buy for just $50 more, at least based on MSRP.

AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT

Unlike Nvidia's last-generation RTX 4000 series GPUs that have almost all disappeared from shop shelves, a few of AMD's previous-generation options remain relevant to this list. The RX 7800 XT is its RX 7000 mid-tier card with really solid performance that generally sits between the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB and RX 9060 XT, and the RTX 5070 and RX 9070. It's not as good for ray tracing as AMD and Nvidia's latest, and doesn't AMD's latest FSR 4 tech, but if you just want raw overall gaming performance, it delivers. Don't pay more than $500 for it, though. Read our RX 7800 XT review for more information.

AMD Radeon RX 7600

Like the RX 7800 XT, AMD's last-gen budget graphics card, the RX 7600, is still available in some shops, making it an option for those seeking an entry level graphics card. It's considerably slower than the RX 9060 XT, though, so don't pay more than $275 for one. Read our RX 7600 review for more information.

How to choose a graphics card

The first step to finding a good graphics card choice for you is the same as every other component: budget. The Nvidia RTX 5090 is only the fastest option for your system if you can afford it, and knowing how much you can spend on your new GPU will help narrow down your options.

Next up, consider what sort of games you play and what monitor you have. If you mainly play AMD Radeon RX 7600. It brings for many modern features and still has the grunt to power AAA games at 1080p resolutions at medium to high settings but costs well under $300, at least based on MSRP.

Likewise, if your monitor only has a resolution of 1080p and a refresh rate of 120Hz or less, there's very little point in spending big on a GPU. If you do, you'll have the horsepower ready to run at higher resolutions and faster frame rates but only an one of the best gaming monitors will truly unlock that potential.

Meanwhile, if you have what many consider to be the goldilocks screen size and resolution - a 27-inch, 1440p display with a 144Hz-240Hz refresh rate - that's when mid-range GPUs such as the AMD Radeon RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT come in to play. For around $600 these will provide blazing fast frame rates at 1080p and 1440p in most games while bringing steady 60-120fps frame rates and stunning visuals in many AAA games with all the settings cranked up.

If you have a 4K monitor or a super-fast 360Hz+ gaming monitor - or one that can do both, such as you can read about in our RTX 5080 or all-conquering RTX 5090.

With those core factors taken into consideration, you can now move on to thinking about the finer differences between AMD, Intel, and Nvidia GPUs. All three companies largely offer very similar core features, with all ing AI acceleration and ray tracing as well as normal game rendering. All also include a type of AI-enhanced upscaling and frame generation technology. AMD has FSR, Intel has XeSS, and Nvidia has DLSS.

On balance, Nvidia is leading the charge on features, thanks mainly to the image quality of its DLSS upscaling and its unique feature called multi-frame generation or MFG. MFG lets a game render one frame in a normal manner then uses AI to insert two or even three extra frames. AMD also has a frame generation technology but it can only insert one frame. Our RTX 5090 review showed just how impressive MFG can be.

While MFG is impressive, and Nvidia's software technology lead in general isn't to be dismissed, we've seen with the likes of our AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT review that ultimately value trumps all for most buyers and right now AMD holds an advantage here.

As for Intel, it has yet to release a graphics card that really competes at all above the entry level segment of the market. Its Arc B580 was for a while a sub-$250 champion, but supply of the card at that price has been vanishingly rare, and it's less viable at the $350 price at which it's often selling.

FAQs

What is a graphics card?

Graphics cards enable your PC to display images of any type and they also power through the incredibly complex calculations required to render the 3D scenes in many games.

Most desktop work and 2D games put a low demand on your graphics card but when games display 3D worlds, the calculation demands increase considerably. As you then move to the stunning, realistic worlds of modern AAA games such as Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, a graphics card is performing billions of calculations a second to keep up with demand.

The more powerful modern graphics cards also ray tracing technology, which is used to create realistic lighting and reflection effects and is even more demanding than conventional 3D rendering. That's at least part of the reason we've seen the rise in AI to process information as quickly as possible and make your games look visually stunning while reducing the overall demand on your GPU.

However, don't be fooled by AI and ray tracing. A certain amount of conventional raw 3D-processing power is essential, which is why, when reviewing graphics cards, we test with both ray tracing and without and using AI upscaling and frame generation and without. You can read more about our testing procedures on our how we test page.

How do you upgrade your graphics card?

Unless your PC has a custom water-cooling loop that cools your GPU, upgrading your graphics card is one of the easiest and biggest-impact upgrades you can make to your gaming PC. They literally just slot in and out of your PC with a couple of screws and a clip on the motherboard's PCIe slot holding them in.

There are really only two factors to worry about, other than deciding which brand you want and how much to spend. The first is whether you have a powerful enough power supply with enough PCIe cables for your graphics card. If you're upgrading from an older mid-range card to another newer one, chances are you'll be fine. However, if you're stepping up from an RTX 2060 to an RTX 5090, you'll almost certainly need an one of the best power supplies to run your new GPU.

Graphics cards come with power supply ratings that should guide you towards the right option for you. Most mid-range cards will run on a 500W supply but high-end cards need a 1,000W unit.

The other factor is the length and overall size of the card. Many high-end graphics cards are huge so you'll need to check the dimensions of the card you're looking to buy to see if fits in your case. For a complete guide on the process of upgrading your graphics card, check our how to upgrade a GPU guide.

What is VRAM?

VRAM is an acronym for "video random access memory" and refers to the built-in memory used by graphics cards. Its purpose is to provide your GPU with its own high-speed pool of memory that it can use to store data.

More VRAM at your disposal is always a positive as it makes your system less reliant on standard RAM to plug any data gaps. If a graphics card does have to go to system memory to find data, it's far slower and can hugely impact your game's frame rate. Capacity is only part of the story, with the speed of your GPU's memory and its bus width influencing memory bandwidth, but capacity should be your first concern.

One example of this is running Indiana Jones and the Great Circle in our RTX 5070 review. Using its maximum path tracing mode at 1080p, this game runs out of VRAM and performs drops to under 10fps, despite the card's GPU actually having enough processing power to run far higher. A 16GB VRAM card is simply needed to run this mode in this game.

The above exception aside, 8GB of VRAM is usually enough for 1080p gaming, especially on entry level cards that otherwise don't have the processing power to run games at ultra high settings. However, for mid-range and above cards, at least 12GB is needed with 16GB offering a bit of a futureproofing cushion - the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT having this much is at least part of why it's such a great option right now.

Meanwhile, for truly high-end cards, these tend to feature 20GB or more of VRAM, to ensure games can run at 4K with all settings cranked to their maximum.

What is ray tracing?

Ray tracing refers to a different way of games producing their lighting effects. Conventional rendering uses a whole host of tricks to mimic real-life lighting effects but ray tracing (and path tracing) directly mimics the way light rays will interact with the 3D world.

When used well, it can transform the look of games from being flat and unrealistic to having a realism and depth that leaps out at you. In particular, it can improve shadows, reflections, and the overall illumination of a scene, as you can see in the image below that shows Minecraft without ray tracing on the left and with it on the right.

However, it's not always this transformative. Many AAA games with more sophisticated graphics than Minecraft use clever techniques to very successfully mimic realistic lighting. What's more, ray tracing ruins performance. It can drop frame rates massively while having a minimal affect on the look of some games.

The first ray-tracing-capable graphics cards arrived in 2018, with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 20 series. AMD ed in on the fun with its Radeon RX 6000 series in 2020, with Intel following with its Arc discrete GPUs in 2022. Time has shown that these early cards weren't really very good for ray tracing and it's only now in 2025 that a wide range of cards are powerful enough to enable ray tracing. Plus, it's only really now that we're starting to get games that take true advantage of the technology.

Does ray tracing work on all games?

Real-time ray tracing has only been a part of games since 2018, meaning that every game released before then won't feature the technology unless it's been patched in since. However, it's not a given that every game release after that time will feature ray-traced effects. The likes of Call of Duty Black Ops 6 and Baldurs Gate 3 don't include it, for instance.

Nonetheless, many big games, such as Fortnite and Cyberpunk 2077 offer ray-tracing options, and the number of examples continues to grow. Plus, we're even starting to see really old games get the ray tracing treatment with tools such as RTX Remix. We've already seen ray tracing in Quake 2 and Half-Life 2 and more titles are likely to follow.

What is rasterization?

Rasterization is the process through which 3D models are converted into the pixels you see on your screen. Traditionally it is a fundamentally different technique to ray tracing but modern graphics systems allow for ray traced affects to be used in conjunction with rasterization. When people talk about the rasterization performance or traditional rasterization of a GPU, it's referring to its non-ray traced 3D rendering speed. The vast majority of games still only use rasterization with no ray tracing at all.

Is a GTX or RTX graphics card better?

GeForce RTX graphics cards offer a more feature-rich experience than those sporting a GTX badge and provide superior performance, for any given class of GPU. So, for instance, an RTX 2080 is better than a GTX 1080 in all areas but a GTX 1080 is faster than an RTX 2060, it's just that the RTX 2060 has access to more modern features.

Those modern features are ray tracing and DLSS . Every RTX GPU is capable of using DLSS Super Resolution to boost frame rates via upscaling, in addition to improving visuals through ray-traced effects. Meanwhile, GTX pixel pushers don't have access to either technology.

As such, we don't recommend picking up a GTX graphics card these days. Not only are they very old now, you'll miss out on a lot of modern features.

What is multi frame gen?

A key feature you'll see mentioned a few times in this guide is multi frame gen. This is Nvidia's latest frame generation technology that uses AI to generate entirely new frames in-between conventionally rendered frames. This boosts your frame rate for a smoother look and feel. Frame generation (introduced in DLSS 3) has been available on Nvidia GPUs since the RTX 4000 series and on AMD cards (introduced with AMD FSR 3) but multi frame gen is new to Nvidia' RTX 5000 cards.

This new version generates not just one extra frame between normal frames but up to three extra frames, for a huge boost in the apparent frame rate of your game. It's not a wonder cure for a low initial frame rate (it actually lowers the your base frame rate before generating new frames) and isn't a technology that works well in games with fast movement as it introduces extra latency but can produce impressively high frame rates to max out your fast refresh rate monitor. You can learn more about frame generation in our FSR guides that also explain their upscaling and other AI-derived frame rate enhancing tech.

For more ways to upgrade your gaming PC, check out our best gaming U guides.