THE BEST EXTREME, HIGH-END, MIDRANGE, AND BUDGET GPUs
Going all out on pure performance might sound great, but most people need to strike a balance between framerate and cost. Putting everything together, we’ve picked the four best options for various budgets, keeping in mind that graphics card prices still aren’t completely back to normal. If you need something right now, here’s what we recommend, though waiting for the next-generation cards to arrive later this year should provide more bang for your buck.
GEFORCE RTX 3090 TI ($1,999)
When your only goal is to get the fastest graphics card possible, the choice is simple. Nvidia’s latest and greatest might not be particularly efficient, and your wallet might go on strike, but there’s no question this represents the current pinnacle of GPU performance. The law of diminishing returns is in full effect, so paying about three times as much as our high-end pick will only get you around 35 percent more performance. Thanks to Nvidia’s DLSS, however, you can generally break 60 fps at 4K even with demanding ray tracing games.
GEFORCE RTX 3060 TI ($399)
The RTX 3060 Ti almost seemed too good to be true. It was faster than the previous generation RTX 2080 Super and only marginally slower than the 2080 Ti, and prices were supposed to start at just $400. Of course, thanks to the usual culprits, including global shortages and crypto-miners, the RTX 3060 Ti ended up selling for $1,000 or more during most of last year, however, prices are finally coming down—and fairly rapidly too. If you want to save even more money, check out the non-Ti 3060 with 12GB VRAM. This was an extremely close runner-up in our tests and was available for under $500, at the time of writing.
RADEON RX 6800 XT ($649)
One and a half years after launch, AMD’s Radeon RX 6800 XT is a compelling option, particularly if you’re not convinced of the need for maxed-out ray-tracing settings—if that is something you care about, the RTX 3080 is a close second for this category. You’ll get 16GB of VRAM, which should be plenty for the next few years, and AMD’s prices make this a better value than other options. Street prices are close to $850 at the time of writing, but prices have been dropping by 10 to 15 percent per month this year. Hopefully, as you read this, cards will be under $700.
GEFORCE RTX 3050 ($249)
“Budget” means different things to different people, but we prefer to pay a bit more for substantially improved features and performance. The RTX 3050 rates as the slowest ray tracing card that’s still worthy of consideration, with a very competitive price. The GTX 1660 Super only costs slightly less, but it’s slower and can’t run ray tracing games worth a spit, plus the RTX 3050 still supports DLSS and can get a healthy performance boost in games that support the technology. If you can’t stomach the price, you’ll probably want to stick with whatever you currently have and save up money rather than pinching pennies.