The Best Graphics Cards of 2024: Buying Guide Covering All PC Gaming Segments

Using the best graphics card ensures that your PC performs optimally, rendering those complex 3D scenes on your screen at a high frame rate for a pleasant gaming experience. The GPU was and is still the number one priority for most gamers when it comes to building a powerful gaming PC or a system that focuses on content creation.

While the CPU is surely the brain of any gaming PC, the graphics card handles most of the workload in powerful pixels on your monitor. Finding the best graphics cards in today's age is a challenging but crucial task, which requires careful analysis of numerous GPUs through comparison in specifications and real-world tests. Previously, it was easier to pick a GPU by just comparing their raster performance but in today's era of Ray Tracing (dynamic lighting/shadows) and Upscaling techniques like DLSS, XeSS, and FSR, the comparison has become a bit more complicated than before.

To make picking the GPU easier for you, we have already taken this task for ourselves so you can focus solely on your favorite game. After performing a detailed scrutiny of many modern graphics cards, both from the latest and previous generations, we have listed below the best 7 graphics cards to buy in 2024.

Shaders: 8448, VRAM: 16GB GDDR6X, Boost Clock: 2670MHz, TDP: 285W

Anyone aware of the current-gen graphics cards will agree that the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super is one of the best GPUs NVIDIA has launched in the series. The 4070 Ti Super edition receives a great upgrade over its little sibling in various areas. While the 4070 Ti lacked a competitive VRAM size, the 4070 Ti Super now boasts 16GB VRAM to compete against the RX 7900 XT directly. While the AMD GPU still offers 4GB more VRAM, the faster GDDR6X memory on the 4070 Ti Super and its incredibly power-efficient operation take the RTX 4070 Ti Super to the win.

Apart from offering terrific raster performance at 1440p and 4K, the GPU takes a big lead over the high-end RX 7000 GPUs in ray tracing performance. Capable of maintaining the frame rates over 60 even at 1440p with Ray Tracing, the 4070 Ti Super is no joke. All of this at just a small power consumption increase of 25W over the RTX 4070 Ti, which as a result helps the Super edition to remain one of the most power-efficient high-end GPUs in the market. Not to mention, retaining the RTX 4070 Ti's MSRP of $799 makes it our overall best-recommended choice for enthusiasts.

Shaders: 5120, VRAM: 16GB GDDR6, Boost Clock: 2395MHz, TDP: 260W

Initially launched for the Chinese market, the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE(Golden Rabbit Edition) made its entry into the mainstream market in January this year. Its launch created a big hype in the GPU market since it easily owned its direct competitor, the RTX 4070 for roughly the same price. This upper mid-range GPU brings around 15% improvement in rasterization over the RTX 4070 and frame rates that touch 100 fps at 1440p resolution. Even though it isn't as fast as the 4070 Ti Super, you do get to save a whopping $250-$270 with the current pricing trends.

The RX 7900 GRE did not only replace the RTX 4070 but also the RX 7800 XT, which is now found for around $500. The price difference is not more than 30 to 50 bucks but the performance uplift is about 5-10% depending on the games. Surely, it lags behind its competitors from the Green team in Ray Tracing, but it offers a higher VRAM size of 16GB and a good 33% increase in stream processors over the RX 7800 XT.

Shaders: 7168, VRAM: 12GB GDDR6X, Boost Clock: 2505MHz, TDP: 220W

Despite offering great value in the Ada lineup, NVIDIA replaced the GeForce RTX 4070 with its Super edition. While the RTX 4070 still exists in the market, there is hardly any reason why anyone would go with that when the Super edition exists. By paying just $50 more, the RTX 4070 Super can change your gaming experience drastically. What's interesting is that the 4070 Super can deliver around 20% gain without any actual changes to the memory configuration. You still get the same 12GB GDDR6X VRAM on a 192-bit bus but what enhances its performance is the change in the Cuda Cores.

Compared to 5888 cores on the 4070, the 4070 Super brings 7168 cores, which is a 20% increase in the core count. Tensor and RT cores also gained an increase, which is why the RTX 4070 Super is seen outperforming the non-Super edition in Ray Tracing by around a 15% margin. If we compare it to the AMD GPUs such as the RX 7900 GRE, the 4070 Super takes a lead of up to 38% in ray tracing performance. Of course, the 7900 GRE is cheaper and delivers equivalent performance in rasterization. Either way, both GPUs are excellent for high-end gaming and at the end of the day, the choice boils down to whether you want better ray tracing performance or a higher price-to-performance ratio in rasterization.

Shaders: 3456, VRAM: 12GB GDDR6, Boost Clock: 2584MHz, TDP: 245W

The AMD Radeon 7700 XT graphics cards weren't something that attracted gamers a lot since it was priced poorly. At the launch time, the RX 7800 XT was available for just $50 more and offered much higher value. Thankfully, AMD gave this mid-range card a proper price cut, letting it dominate the $400 price tag comfortably. Unlike the RTX 4060 Ti cards, the RX 7700 XT is surely the number one contender in the mid-range segment and is a great alternative for users who don't want to spend another $200 for the 4070 Super.

It not only offers more VRAM for the price of a 4060 Ti 8GB card, but it also brings a wider 192-bit memory bus for enhancing gaming performance at higher resolutions. Even though it's not as power-efficient as Nvidia GPUs, it does offer a higher frame rate per dollar spent. Built using the Navi 32 die, the RX 7700 XT features 3456 stream processors, 12GB GDDR6 VRAM, and a simple dual-slot design for easy compatibility with most cases. Able to support AV1 encoding, the card is well-suited for streamers on a budget and has plenty of VRAM to stream modern titles.

Shaders: 2048, VRAM: 8GB GDDR6, Boost Clock: 2635MHz, TDP: 176W

It can be a surprise for many seeing this two-year-old GPU among our best gaming GPU picks but it's not just the performance of the AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT that brings it here. The card costs almost half its original MSRP at the moment compared to when it was released back in May 2022. Unlike other RX 6000 cards, the 6650 XT was launched later in the second batch to fill the gap between the RX 6600 XT and the RX 6700 XT. It still delivers a solid 60 fps performance at both 1080p and 1440p resolutions. While we don't recommend it for 1440p unless you are willing to lower some of the graphical presets, it is still able to deliver close to 60 fps on ultra settings in many games.

Nonetheless, it's well-suited for budget gaming builds that target 1080p resolution without any compromises in the visual quality. Whether you want to run eSports titles like CS and Valorant at three-digit frame rates or want to play visually immersive titles like RDR 2 or Hogwarts Legacy, the card boasts the horsepower required for smooth gameplay. At the same time, it's advised not to switch to 1440p for such titles where its 8GB VRAM can throttle performance.

Shaders: 1024, VRAM: 4GB GDDR6, Boost Clock: 2820MHz, TDP: 107W

Despite being heavily criticized, the AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT stood strong on its feet after its 2022 launch. Due to being heavily limited at just PCI-E x4 bandwidth, it failed to impress most but surprisingly, the 6500 XT remained as the favorite due to the absence of well-performing sub-$150 GPUs. The only GPUs that currently cost $150 or less are the Arc A380 and the RX 6400. The GTX 1650 Super and RX 5500 XT from the previous gen are almost out of stock everywhere with some editions selling at about close to $200.

This makes the RX 6500 XT a lot more convincing than it was initially. AMD's price cut from $200 to $150 saved the RX 6500 XT from embarrassment and luckily, it became one of the most selling entry-level GPUs on various retail stores. Even though the RX 6500 XT can't compete with the modern budget GPUs like RTX 4060 or RX 7600, it can very well provide 40-60 fps in most titles at 1080p. We recommend it for playing either eSports titles or casual games but you will still need to tweak the graphical settings to achieve playable frame rates for some intensive titles. Keep in mind that we don't recommend this card for modern games like Hogwarts Legacy, Alan Wake II, and similar titles that are significantly more demanding.

Shaders: 3072, VRAM: 8GB GDDR6, Boost Clock: 2475MHz, TDP: 115W

SFF or Small Form Factor components can save significant space in your chassis, which further enables you to go with cases that are small in footprint. Fortunately, we have a couple of options with this form factor in the GPU market. As it's not very common for users to opt for a high-end CPU with a low-profile design, it's best to settle with a GPU like Gigabyte's Geforce RTX 4060 OC. NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4060 is hands down, one of the best budget if not the best budget GPU. Not to mention if you ever feel the need to push the frame rates higher, you can always take advantage of DLSS 3.0 Frame Generation.

Opting for this low-profile design won't have any drastic impacts on your performance and you will be able to put it inside a compact ITX case. The RTX 4060 carries over a lot of its specs from its predecessor, the RTX 3060 but now it's more power-efficient, needing just over 110 watts of power consumption at full load. The Gigabyte LP RTX 4060 offers a slightly higher clock speed than the reference design(2475 MHz vs 2460 MHz in boost mode) and features a triple-fan design to quickly dissipate the heat. Measuring just 182mm in length, the card leaves a lot of clearance in the chassis and has all the latest connectivity ports for your display, including DP 1.4 and HDMI 2.1 ports.

Shaders: 16384, VRAM: 24GB GDDR6X, Boost Clock: 2595MHz, TDP: 450W

From the launch date up until now, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 has seen no rival. It's in a league of its own and surpasses any other GPU by a margin that is unlikely to be attained by any other GPU from the current AMD and Nvidia lineup. Unless we see one of the high-end RTX 50 GPUs hitting the shelves, the RTX 4090 will remain as the king of gaming GPUs. The RTX 4090 is the flagship GPU based on the Ada architecture, bringing a whopping 16384 CUDA cores and an insanely strong VRAM configuration of 24GB GDDR6X VRAM on the 384-bit memory bus.

The performance difference between the RTX 4090 and the current high-end graphics cards that are just below it is no less than 15%. This is after considering the results of various gaming benchmarks at 1080p and 1440p. The 4090 further increases the performance gap to over 20% between itself and the RX 7900 XTX and RTX 4080 Super at 4K resolution. The RTX 4090 is a true 4K gaming card, which will probably deliver over 60 fps at this resolution for a couple more years. However, This monstrous performance comes with its insanely hefty price tag of $1600 and a triple slot size that needs a lot of clearance. Furthermore, the total cost of the build, which includes the need for a big wattage capacity power supply(at least 1000W) does not fit everyone's budget.

Target Resolution: It's recommended that you always choose a GPU based on the resolution of your monitor. If you own a 1080p gaming monitor, consider going with a GPU that can max out all the graphical presets at this resolution. If you are willing to spend more, getting a GPU capable of playing games at 1440p won't hurt and will be beneficial in the long run.

Currently, 1080p is the most popular gaming resolution but a lot of gamers have transitioned to 1440p due to its higher pixel density(given that the screen size remains the same). Remember that as you go higher in resolution, not only does the demand for a higher-end GPU increase but the need for more RAM and a stronger CPU also increases.

VRAM Configuration: Since NVIDIA started to limit some of its graphics cards in their memory configuration, it's crucial to understand how important is to look for a good VRAM configuration. You don't just need to look for the VRAM size but you also need to look at other VRAM parameters such as memory bus width, memory speed, GPU cache, and the total memory bandwidth. A lot of GPU makers are now adding larger pools of cache to offset the higher bandwidth demand that comes with modern-day GPUs. NVIDIA has gone with larger caches while AMD has implemented its own Infinity Cache technology to allow for cost-effective memory bandwidth management directly on the silicon.

Since it can be a sluggish task to understand what you need, you may need to compare the performance of GPUs against each other at different resolutions in a variety of games. This will also expose a GPU's weakness in its VRAM config if it starts to result in stuttering or frequent frame rate drops.

Power-Efficiency: Power-efficiency matters when you want lower electricity bills. It may not be significant to some but for those who game for several hours per day, it can be quite a dealbreaker.

The combined power consumption of the GPU, CPU, and other components easily hovers in triple digits, and if you are running a PC consisting of the Intel Core i9 14900KS and RTX 4090, it's likely that your PC may touch 1000W of power consumption provided every component is close to 100% of the usage.

However, the rated TGPs/TDPs are not always close to actual or average power consumption figures. As in the case of NVIDIA's RTX 40 series, the GPUs consume much lower power in games compared to their maximum listed TDPs. The listed TDPs still give us an idea of what PSU one should invest in just in case they are pushing their GPUs to the limits.

Size: Graphics cards can be long and bulky. If you are planning to build a compact gaming build, it's advised to check your case's clearance before buying a GPU.

Keep in mind that you need to have at least 3-4 cms clearance remaining after you install your CPU. This is to ensure that access to other components doesn't become a nightmare. Having some additional space will also remove any wiring hassles and will be great for the airflow. Modern-day GPUs have resorted to triple and even 4-slot cooling solutions with beefier designs and we have seen way fewer SFF implementations compared to what we used to get a few years ago.

Ray-Tracing: A few years back, Ray-Tracing wasn't much of a big deal. But as a lot of games have started to implement ray-tracing techniques into their games, many gamers opt for NVIDIA GPUs even if the rasterization performance is lower compared to AMD ones.

So, decide if you want to play with ray tracing on or off before finalizing your choice.

What is the fastest GPU right now?

NVIDIA's Ada Lovelace-based Geforce RTX 4090 graphics cards currently sit at the top of the hierarchy, delivering solid gaming performance with and without ray tracing in modern titles. RTX 4090 can max out graphical presets even at 4K resolution but needs a high wattage capacity PSU to feed its power-hungry components.

Is NVIDIA better than AMD?

While NVIDIA remains the number one choice for most gamers, AMD graphics cards do provide competitive specifications, particularly in the VRAM department where NVIDIA has been lacking lately. Still, due to architectural improvements, NVIDIA is a bit ahead of AMD due to better ray tracing performance and matured upscaling techniques. Intel has also shown great value in its own Arc solutions backed by several updates on the software side which was lacking in the start.

How much VRAM will I need? 

The VRAM requirement mostly depends on the game you are playing. Older titles and eSports games can run satisfactorily on 4 or 6GB VRAM but a lot of modern games require higher. Also, with an increase in the resolution, the need for higher VRAM increases. It's best to settle with no less than 8GB VRAM for 1080p, 12GB for 1440p, and 16GB for 4K gaming.