The Best Graphic Cards You Can Buy In 2023

With the advent of the RTX 4000 series that shook up the entire GPU market and the subsequent RX 7000 series launch by AMD, we live in exciting times to be looking for a new graphics card for gaming or rendering purposes. It is difficult to navigate what are surely turbulent times with old products being phased out and relaunched, even as newer GPUs vie for a greater balance between power and price to compete in an increasingly price-sensitive market.

Since the launch of the RTX 4060 and 4060TI as well as AMD’s RX 7600 GPUs, much of the focus of late has been on the entry-level or mid-range market for users from aging platforms like the Nvidia GTX 1660

Whether one wants the best of the best RTX 4090 SKUs possible, something that offers the best value in the current market or something to get started with, Team GameRant has them covered on all aspects of their purchase as we do the research to help enthusiasts and gamers alike make an informed choice while navigating a turbulent graphics card market in 2023.

RTX 4080s are hard cards to recommend given the close price proximity on both sides of the aisle with RTX 4090 SKUs at the higher end and the AMD 7900XTX at the lower end. The Zotac RTX 4080 Trinity OC, however, is available at a more affordable MSRP of $1199 versus the competition where we see RTX 4080s trading for as much as $1500 based on demand and AIB partner pricing.

Despite being overshadowed by the RTX 4090, the RTX 4080 is no slouch in real-world performance and delivers significant gains versus the RTX 3080TI, which it replaces at the $1000ish price point. While it is anywhere between 30 to 50 percent faster than its predecessor, it also has a slightly lower power profile, pushing at a maximum of 320W vs. the last generation Ampere card clocking in at 350W.

Zotac’s take on the RTX 4080 via its entry-level is to offer marginal aesthetic gains while offering better-tuned clocks while staying competitive versus the MSRP of $1,199 that Nvidia commands for its Founder’s Edition RTX 4080.

Update: The Zotac RTX 4080 Trinity OC sees a large price cut that sees it currently being offered $200 below MSRP or $100 cheaper than an Nvidia Founders Edition SKU of an RTX 4080. This makes it considerably more competitive in a market where the RTX 4080 was previously somewhat overlooked by many users who would either look at the RTX 4070TI or the RTX 4090 instead due to price considerations for the former and performance gains for the latter.

The Asus RTX 4090 Strix OC needs no introduction. It’s currently named the best performance RTX 4090 on Game Rant’s RTX 4090 comparison guide and to date is the fastest Ada Lovelace-based card money can buy. It is therefore of little surprise that it tops the list as the best overall graphics card that money can buy. Even the monolithic design around the vapor chamber has found mass appeal with system builders who praise its build quality and RGB lighting. The fresh white finish also arguably looks much better than more standard and sleek black finishes, but that comes down to personal preference for most users.

What’s not up for debate is the fact that the ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX™ 4090 is packed with genuine top-of-the-line specs. Built with a 24-phase VRM, excellent thermals, and a full 600W power limit, the Strix OC is expected to push boundaries on a chip that already pushed the definition of what is possible in this generation of graphics cards. This 4090 graphics card additionally features 4th Generation Tensor Cores and 3rd Generation RT Cores, doubling both the AI and ray tracing performance from previous versions. At the same time, the framing and backplate are more durable than ever and pair well with an overall improved design that maximizes airflow and heat dissipation.

Update: The ASUS RTX 4090 Strix OC White Edition has seen further supply limitations driving prices up. The equivalent black version of the Strix 4090 OC is simply a far better buy unless one plans to spend the extra $700 on aesthetic alone; However, for all-white top-of-the-line PC builds, that might be something that is more or less a mandatory purchase, especially if one is aiming for best-in-class performance in addition to aesthetic gains.

The Sapphire Pulse 6700XT 12GB is the new contender for the best budget gaming GPU on offer as the previous 6600XT SKU was considerably underwhelming in terms of value for money combined with it ceding market space to the RX 7600. The Radeon RX 6700XT outpaces both, the competing RTX 4060 and the RX 7600 in raw rasterization benchmarks while offering more memory in tow.

It also happens to be the most aggressively priced GPU on the market currently from Nvidia or AMD in terms of price: performance. The added copy of Starfield Premium ($100 value) as part of AMD’s new rewards push simply makes this an even more appealing purchase than its predecessor even as the Pulse 6700XT offers an adequately cooled low-profile design to a GPU that more than holds its own for FHD or 2K gaming in 2023 with ease.

All in all, while the 6700XT isn’t the newest kid on the block, it happens to pack a significantly better price-to-performance ratio that makes it a viable option to consider alongside much newer GPU considerations from both, Team Red and Team Green.

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The Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Gaming OC 12G currently commands the sweet spot for high-end GPUs. While it is slightly slower in rasterization benchmarks versus the competing AMD 7900XT (which is more competitive given the fact that it currently trades at a discount), it does even the odds, sometimes even gaining a lead thanks to DLSS 3 ‘frame generation’ tech coming into play; This, in its current iteration is far superior to AMD’s on proprietary FSR solution.

The RTX 4070TI however is more power efficient than its AMD counterpart, It also has a considerable lead when it comes to rendering Ray-traced content; Nvidia’s current RT hardware solutions are at least a generation ahead of AMD’s own offerings and this tends to show when handling medium-to-high ray tracing workloads.

The 4070TI does have a tough upsell tho for its features as the RX 7900XT tends to be a more compelling upgrade for users looking for simply better-rasterized performance to boot.

Update: The Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4070 Ti has seen little to no price changes since the last update, but given the fact that it currently happens to be the most value-for-money upgrade in the RTX 4000 series of GPUs, that is not an entirely surprising outcome for what is a very capable graphics card in 2023 thanks to DLSS3 and better ray tracing performance than any competing RTX 3000 GPUs that also trade in the same price range.

The Intel Arc A750 Limited Edition 8GB Graphics Card is an excellent upgrade that also makes it the best candidate for an entry-level graphic card in 2023. With Intel continually pushing out driver updates that bring significant performance gains and the Arc A750 often pushing to near RTX 3060TI/4060TI tier performance in some titles, it happens to be the best entry-level offering from multiple Intel, AMD, and Nvidia contenders by far in the sub-$200 range.

With excellent rasterization and ray tracing performance on offer in addition to a powerful, quiet cooler in tow, the Arc A750 feels like a premium product in its own right and stays true to the ‘limited edition’ moniker. It does have some issues with older titles at times that are not built for DirectX 12 and requires Resizeable bar support to perform adequately, something that does make it relatively difficult to recommend the product if one is on an aging platform looking for a GPU upgrade to play the latest titles.

All in all, while it is not perfect, the A750 has a significant performance uplift versus the competition in its price range and the constant driver improvements mean that it will, over time gain even more ground versus its peers in an increasingly competitive mid-range GPU market for the foreseeable future.

As gaming continues to be more accessible to consumers at all price points, part of the driving force has been immensely better value cards at the low-end or the entry-level GPU market. This is a market that AMD has been spearheading for a while, whether one considers the extremely well-priced RX400 and RX500 lineups or simply AMD’s overall value proposition with the RX 6000 series lineup.

The XFX-badged RX 6600 is one such entrant that clocks in at the sub $250 price bracket while sitting somewhere between the Nvidia RTX 3050 and the 3060 in terms of performance metrics; It can regularly trade blows with the latter in some games but does have limited ray-tracing potential given AMD lags behind in this department.

Currently, however, neither the RTX 3050/3060 nor the RX 6600 are great ray-tracing cards given their performance limitations as well as target market, which somewhat allows us to ignore ray-tracing performance as a major factor or selling point for the RTX 3000 series cards. While the RX 6600 does run slightly hotter than similar SKUs, it stays within proscribed thermal limits with ease.

Update: Due to the lack of competition in newer current-generation AMD and Nvidia GPU lineups in the entry-level market, the RX 6600 still happens to be one of the best GPUs one can get on a strict budget. As a result, its price has remained more or less unchanged since it was last considered by the team at Game Rant, and it remains one of the top choices on offer for its price bracket.

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FAQ

Q: What GPU should I get for the best ray-tracing experience?

All Nvidia RTX series cards generally outperform their AMD counterparts for raytracing. If that is a comparable RTX card, it generally will deliver more favorable performance out of the box.

Q: Should I wait to get a new GPU in 2023?

The computer hardware landscape is ever-changing. But the uptrend in prices has been visible since the last generation as GPUs move to higher price points. Part of this is due to more expensive silicon, more elaborate cooling as well as higher margins by the chipmakers. That does mean that prices might not necessarily drop significantly throughout 2023 despite higher initial prices for most GPUs.