Best graphics card 2025
What is the best graphics card? Looking out for a new gaming GPU can mean wading through a swamp of often baffling sets of numbers in specs lists, as well as weighing up the pros and cons of the different feature sets from Nvidia, AMD, and Intel. That’s where we're ready to help you out, as we’re not only genuine PC hardware enthusiasts who know our stream processors from our stream decks, but we’re also gamers. Your choice of GPU will have a bigger impact on your gaming experience than any other PC component and by a long, long way. Yes, it’s always worth making sure you have the best gaming CPU in your system, as well as the best gaming RAM you can afford, but it’s the mighty graphics card that really commands the power in your gaming rig, so you need to make sure you nail this choice. Your GPU is the primary driving force behind the frame rate in your games, and it also determines the resolution and graphics settings you’ll be able to use, including ray tracing, and some GPUs are much better at handling these settings than others. There are also features that are exclusive to Nvidia GeForce and AMD Radeon GPUs, such as Nvidia DLSS and AMD FSR, which also need to be considered. We’ve tested all the graphics cards listed in this guide in a number of different games ourselves, so we can say authoritatively which GPU you should buy for your needs, and why. The situation has quickly changed with the release of Nvidia’s new RTX 5000 GPUs in January 2025 as well, with the new RTX 5090 now the undisputed king of the graphics card world, if you can afford (or find) it, and the new RTX 5080 offering decent 4K gaming performance for a much cheaper price, thanks to is support for DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Gen.. The new AMD RDNA 4 GPU lineup is also now out in the wild, with the fantastic new Radeon RX 9070 XT bringing support for AMD FSR 4, which finally brings hardware AI to the company’s upscaling tech, and looks great. The Radeon RX 9070 is out now as well, with both new AMD GPUs taking aim at the RTX 5070 for mid-range supremacy. We're also expecting new budget GPUs, such as the RTX 5060 and Radeon RX 9060, to appear in the next few weeks as well. In the meantime, these graphics cards are your best options to buy for gaming right now, with prices starting at just $249.99 for a great 1080p card, and going all the way up to the mammoth Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 if you want to play games at 4K with all the eye candy enabled. Continue reading Best graphics card 2025 MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Ryzen 7 9800X3D review, Best gaming CPU, Radeon RX 9070 XT review


What is the best graphics card? Looking out for a new gaming GPU can mean wading through a swamp of often baffling sets of numbers in specs lists, as well as weighing up the pros and cons of the different feature sets from Nvidia, AMD, and Intel. That’s where we're ready to help you out, as we’re not only genuine PC hardware enthusiasts who know our stream processors from our stream decks, but we’re also gamers.
Your choice of GPU will have a bigger impact on your gaming experience than any other PC component and by a long, long way. Yes, it’s always worth making sure you have the best gaming CPU in your system, as well as the best gaming RAM you can afford, but it’s the mighty graphics card that really commands the power in your gaming rig, so you need to make sure you nail this choice.
Your GPU is the primary driving force behind the frame rate in your games, and it also determines the resolution and graphics settings you’ll be able to use, including ray tracing, and some GPUs are much better at handling these settings than others. There are also features that are exclusive to Nvidia GeForce and AMD Radeon GPUs, such as Nvidia DLSS and AMD FSR, which also need to be considered.
We’ve tested all the graphics cards listed in this guide in a number of different games ourselves, so we can say authoritatively which GPU you should buy for your needs, and why. The situation has quickly changed with the release of Nvidia’s new RTX 5000 GPUs in January 2025 as well, with the new RTX 5090 now the undisputed king of the graphics card world, if you can afford (or find) it, and the new RTX 5080 offering decent 4K gaming performance for a much cheaper price, thanks to is support for DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Gen..
The new AMD RDNA 4 GPU lineup is also now out in the wild, with the fantastic new Radeon RX 9070 XT bringing support for AMD FSR 4, which finally brings hardware AI to the company’s upscaling tech, and looks great. The Radeon RX 9070 is out now as well, with both new AMD GPUs taking aim at the RTX 5070 for mid-range supremacy.
We're also expecting new budget GPUs, such as the RTX 5060 and Radeon RX 9060, to appear in the next few weeks as well. In the meantime, these graphics cards are your best options to buy for gaming right now, with prices starting at just $249.99 for a great 1080p card, and going all the way up to the mammoth Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 if you want to play games at 4K with all the eye candy enabled.