I Review Graphics Cards For a Living, Let Me Help You Pick an AMD GPU
When you’re setting out to build a gaming PC, the most consequential decision you’re going to make is choosing the best graphics card for your build. There are a lot of options out there, but picking an AMD graphics card makes a lot of sense, especially if you don’t want to fork over a lot of extra money for gimmicky extras. All of AMD’s current-generation graphics cards support ray tracing and feature support for FSR, or FidelityFX Super Resolution, an upscaling method supported by most major PC games.
While there are more powerful graphics cards out there, AMD graphics cards like the Radeon RX 9070 XT provide excellent 4K performance, but without a price tag that regularly sneaks into the $2,000 range. And if you’re in the market for a mid-range graphics card for 1440p, Team Red particularly shines, delivering excellent performance for the money you’re spending.
TL;DR: These Are the Best AMD Graphics Cards
Plus, it has to be said that AMD’s graphics architecture powers both the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X, which makes it easier on developers to optimize for AMD’s hardware when console games make their way over to PC. This by no means guarantees perfect optimization on PC games when you’re running an AMD graphics card, but it does help. Of course, AMD isn’t the only GPU maker in town, so if you’re more interested in Team Green’s offerings, head over to my guide to the best Nvidia graphics cards.
Like with any other graphics card, picking the best AMD GPU isn’t just about getting the fastest card on the market and calling it a day. Instead, you need to decide what resolution you want to play your PC games at and, more importantly, how much you’re willing to spend on a graphics card.
Graphics Card Basics
Graphics cards are, by their very nature, incredibly complex devices. While you don’t need to know everything about them to find a great GPU, there are a few things you should know ahead of time. For AMD graphics cards, the first thing you should keep an eye out for is whether or not it’s a current-generation part.
Unfortuantely AMD just completely changed its naming convention. The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT just launched as Team Red’s top-end graphics card, succeeding the RX 7900 XTX. Not only did AMD skip the 8, but it swapped some of the numbers around. The most important thing to know is that any AMD card with a ‘9’ as the first digit is a current-generation card, with ‘7’ and ‘6’ being the preceding generations.
Some AMD graphics card model numbers will be followed by an “XT” or an “XTX.” This just means that the graphics card is a step up, but without quite being in the next performance class.
This naming convention is relatively new, starting with the Radeon RX 5700 XT in 2019. Before that, the common naming convention for AMD graphics cards was three digits instead of four, like the AMD Radeon RX 580 or RX 480. These graphics cards are old news at this point, so you should avoid buying one, unless you find it for $100 or less.
As a general rule, you can follow a general rule of “higher number = better performance,” but there are specs you can drill down into to further determine performance.
The easiest spec to understand is the VRAM, short for video memory. Typically, having more VRAM is better, especially when you’re playing at a higher resolution. If you play at 1080p, 8GB is going to be more than enough for the majority of PC games. At 1440p, though, you’re going to want to aim for 12GB–16GB of VRAM, especially for more graphically intensive games like Cyberpunk 2077 or Black Myth: Wukong. If you want to play at 4K, though, you should get as much VRAM as you can afford. At this resolution, you really can’t get too much memory, which is why the Radeon RX 9070 XT comes with 16GB.
You can also look at how many compute units a graphics card has. Every graphics card will have multiple compute units, each of which will have dozens of streaming multiprocessors. These are commonly referred to as shaders, or CUDA cores for Nvidia graphics cards. For the latest AMD graphics cards, each compute unit will have 64 Streaming Multiprocessors. So, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, which has 96 Compute Units, has a total of 6,144 SMs.
The last few generations of AMD graphics cards have also included dedicated hardware for ray tracing in each Compute Unit. In the latest cards, each CU has 1 RT Core, totalling 96 for the 7900 XTX. As a general rule, the more RT Cores a card has, the better it’ll be at handling ray tracing.
Once you know what graphics card you want, you need to make sure your PC can actually handle it. Measure your case to make sure it has space for it, especially if you’re going for a high-end GPU. Also take a look at the power supply – as graphics cards get more powerful, they need more power, so you’ll want to make sure your PSU has enough wattage. Each graphics card will have a recommended power supply listed, so just make sure yours is beefy enough.
If You Just Want the Best: AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT
Best AMD Graphics Card (For Most People)
AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT
10
The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT is an excellent 4K graphics card that won’t cost you an arm and a leg
Streaming Multiprocessors
4096
Memory Bandwidth
644.6 GB/s
Power Connectors
2 x 8-pin
Excellent 4K gaming performance for the money
Brings GPU prices down to sanity (in theory)
The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT did something incredible: went back to the days when Team Red genuinely beat Nvidia graphics cards from a value perspective. And while right now it’s hard to see that, given the shortages every current-generation graphics card is facing, that doesn’t change the fact that this graphics card launched at $599, way cheaper than the $749 RTX 5070 Ti. What’s more, the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT is faster on average.
When I reviewed the Radeon RX 9070 XT, I found that it was on average 2% faster than the RTX 5070 Ti across my entire test suite. That’s not a huge difference, to be sure, but the fact that AMD’s graphics card beat the competitor’s more expensive option is a huge win for Team Red. It ends up that this is a $599 4K graphics card that can even handle ray tracing admirably – albeit not quite as well as Nvidia cards, though its getting closer.
The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT also introduces FSR 4. Unlike FSR 3.1, which uses a traditional temproal upscaling solution to improve performance, FSR 4 uses AI to upscale games to your native resolution. There is a catch, though: I found that FSR 4 has around a 10% performance loss compared to FSR 3.1, but that’s not really the reason to go for FSR 4 anyways. Instead, FSR 4 offers much better image quality, which will make up for the small performance hit, especially in single-player games where a super-high frame rate isn’t quite as important.
It remains to be seen whether or not AMD will follow up on the success of the Radeon RX 9070 XT with a more powerful graphics card, but it doesn’t really need to. Right now, the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT provides excellent 4K performance for the money, and that’s all that really matters.
Best For 4K: AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX
The best 4K AMD graphics card
Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 7900 XTX
12
The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is an extremely powerful graphics card, easily able to power most AAA games at 4K max settings.
Streaming Multiprocessors
6144
Power Connectors
2 x 8-pin
Outputs
1 x HDMI 2.1a, 2 x DisplayPort 2.1, 1 x USB-C
Excellent performance at 4K
More VRAM than you’ll need for gaming
Can fall behind in ray tracing performance
Even if 1440p and 1080p are the most popular PC gaming resolutions, there’s always going to be the folks who want to empty their wallet for the best gaming PC money can buy. If that’s what you’re going for, check out the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX. This is an expensive graphics card, costing around $900, but you get incredible performance for that money.
In his review, my colleague Bo found the Radeon RX 7900 XTX would either match or beat the more expensive Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 in most tests. While the two graphics cards were priced more competitively back then, these days the RX 7900 XTX is a clear winner when it comes to its price-to-performance ratio.
As time has gone on, and I’ve retested the Radeon RX 7900 XTX again and again, the numbers continue to impress me. When I threw the RX 7900 XTX in my test bench for my RTX 4080 Super review, I found there were a number of games where AMD’s flagship continued to match or outpace Nvidia’s more expensive card, particularly in games that didn’t rely on ray tracing. For instance, in Forza Horizon 5, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and Nvidia RTX 4080 Super are neck-and-neck with 158fps and 159fps, respectively. AMD’s card even takes the win in Total War: Warhammer 3 – by up to 8%.
AMD has released a successor of sorts, the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT which does beat the 7900 XTX in a number of games at 4K. However, because the 7900 XT has 24GB of RAM, there are going to be 4K games that will always perform better on the 7900 XTX – those high-resolution textures are particularly demanding on VRAM
If you’re willing to drop a thousand bucks on a single component, the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX will get you the most for your money, especially if you’re playing a lot of games that rely on traditional performance rather than ray tracing.
Best for 1440p: AMD Radeon RX 9070
Best AMD Graphics Card for 1440p
AMD Radeon RX 9070
5
While its priced uncomfortably close to the RX 9070 XT, the Radeon RX 9070 is an excellent 1440p graphics card for the money.
Streaming Multiprocessors
3584
Memory Bandwidth
644.6 GB/s
Power Connectors
2 x 8-pin
Excellent 1440p gaming performance
Brings AI upscaling to an AMD graphics card
Priced a little too closely to the RX 9070 XT
The AMD Radeon RX 9070 is a little outclassed by the 9070 XT. After all, you can theoretically spend just $50 more and get a more powerful GPU that can push into 4K gaming. But if you already have your heart set on a 1440p gaming monitor, that extra $50 might not be worth it – after all both GPUs still come strapped with 16GB of VRAM.
Because when I reviewed the AMD Radeon RX 9070, I was amazed by how well it handled games at 1440p, easily able to hit triple-digit frame rates in most of the games I tested. And even in the games where it “only” hit 70 fps at 1440p, you can just turn off ray tracing and get much better performance. What’s more, the 9070 makes a mockery of its direct competition from Nvidia, the RTX 5070. Even though both cards ostensibly cost the same, the RX 9070 beats the 5070 by an average of 12% across my test suite.
What’s more, the AMD Radeon RX 9070, along with the 9070 XT, brings FSR 4 to AMD graphics cards for the first time. This AI upscaling solution doesn’t necessarily improve frame rates over FSR 3, but it is way more accurate, leading to much better image quality in games that support it. Luckily, FSR 4 is an entirely optional feature, and you can turn it off in the AMD Adrenalin software if you’d rather just have a higher frame rate and can live with a softer image.
Best for 1080p: AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT
Best AMD Graphics Card for 1080p
Gigabyte Radeon RX 7600 XT Gaming OC Windforce
6
With 16GB of VRAM, the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT is going to power top-end games at 1080p for years to come.
Streaming Multiprocessors
2048
Power Connectors
1 x 8-pin
Outputs
1 x HDMI 2.1a, 3 x DisplayPort 2.1
Solid performance for the money
Small enough to fit in any PC build
Will struggle in some super-demanding games with ray tracing enabled
For better or worse, 1080p remains the most popular resolution for PC gaming. Both the monitors and the graphics cards that power them are more affordable at this resolution, and it can still look pretty damn good. You don’t need a high-end flagship at 1080p – instead, a low-to-mid-range graphics card like the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT is perfect.
You can find the Radeon RX 7600 XT for as little as $309 right now, making it the perfect price for a high-end 1080p gaming PC. When I reviewed the Radeon RX 7600 XT, it failed to impress me at higher resolutions, but there’s no denying its power at 1080p.
In games like Forza Horizon 5, this affordable graphics card is able to manage an average of 113fps with all the settings cranked at 1080p. Likewise, it delivers 128fps at max settings in Far Cry 6. That’s enough power for a high-refresh monitor in both of those games.
Even when the Radeon RX 7600 XT doesn’t deliver higher than 100fps in games, it’s still competitive. Total War: Warhammer 3 sees the 7600 XT managing 89fps at 1080p, which shows off the GPU’s strength in games without ray tracing.
In games with ray tracing, it gets a bit more complicated. While Forza Horizon 5 and Far Cry 6 both have ray tracing enabled whenever I test them, their ray tracing settings aren’t as intense as Cyberpunk 2077. In that game, the RX 7600 XT still manages an average of 44fps at 1080p on the Ray Tracing Ultra preset. That’s playable, but if you really want to push your framerate in that game, you should turn down the ray tracing effects a bit.
AMD also pairs the RX 7600 XT with 16GB of GDDR6, which is a lot of memory for a 1080p graphics card. There are certainly games around these days that can eat up that frame buffer, but having 16GB on this card will make it last a bit longer. After all, PC games are getting more VRAM-hungry as time continues its inevitable march into the future.
Best on a Budget: AMD Radeon RX 6600
Best AMD Graphics Card on a Budget
XFX Speedster SWFT Radeon RX 6600
8
The AMD Radeon RX 6600 is a last-gen graphics card, but it’s still able to pump out the frames in 1080p games, especially if you play a lot of esports games with friends.
Streaming Multiprocessors
1792
Power Connectors
1 x 8-pin
Outputs
1 x HDMI 2.1, 3 x DisplayPort 1.4a
It’s a last-gen graphics card
It might be a bit older than other picks on this list, but the AMD Radeon RX 6600 is still a great option, especially if you want to find a graphics card for less than $200. Though, admittedly, it just barely squeezes in under that limit at around $199.
I reviewed the Radeon RX 6600 in 2021 for TechRadar, and I was surprised at how well it was able to keep up with more expensive cards at the time at 1080p. And that was when the RX 6600 would run you $329. Fast forward to 2024, and the 6600 is still being sold, but for much less, and is still able to keep up in PC games – especially if ray tracing isn’t a concern.
For instance, in my review I found that it delivered 134fps in Final Fantasy XIV at 1080p. And in Horizon Zero Dawn, the RX 6600 delivered around 85fps at 1080p. It might have been a couple of years, but this graphics card can still easily handle most PC games at 1080p, especially if you just play a lot of lesser-demanding genres like MMOs, shooters, and MOBAs.
There are some more demanding games that have come out recently, like Black Myth: Wukong, that’ll cause some problems for the Radeon RX 6600. But for most people who just want a serviceable graphics card to play multiplayer games with friends, there aren’t many that the Radeon RX 6600 can’t max out these days, even three years later.
What is FSR?
FidelityFX Super Resolution, or FSR, is AMD’s solution to upscaling tech on PC. This is a software upscaler that takes information from recent frames, as well as motion vector information provided by the game engine, and upscales a lower resolution frame to your native resolution.
Before FSR 4, this was a software-based solution, the brunt of the work is done in the same streaming multiprocessors that the rest of the frame is rendered on. This means there’s less of a performance uplift than an AI-based model that uses dedicated hardware (like Nvidia’s DLSS), but FSR definitely improves your framerate over rendering at a higher resolution natively.
This is simply because running the FSR algorithm as a post-process effect after rendering a game at 1080p still takes much less compute power than rendering a game natively at 4K. However, because FSR is essentially a post-process effect, it does leave some room for fuzziness in some frames. Luckily, AMD has worked around this, and implemented features like contrast-adaptive sharpening, or CAS, to sharpen up images.
However, with the AMD Radeon RX 9070 and 9070 XT, AMD has updated FidelityFX Super Resolution to FSR 4, which now uses AI accelerators in the GPU to upscale, instead of a software-based temporal solution. This does come with a performance cost, but its much more accurate, and produces a much cleaner image. You can swap between both versions of FSR if you choose, opting for FSR 3 if you want the absolute maximum framerate, or FSR 4 if you just want a cleaner image.
FSR has also implemented a frame generation method to further improve performance. FSR frame generation takes the same information from previous frames, along with motion vector information and UI data provided by the developer to add extra frames between each ‘real’ frame. This also drastically improves frame rate, but can introduce latency if you turn it on at a lower frame rate. Instead, you should only turn on FSR frame generation if you’re already getting 50–60fps.
What is Ray Tracing?
Ray tracing is a method of realistically rendering light in 3D scenes. Instead of having a static light source that projects light only where the developers have specifically directed it, ray tracing allows light sources to project light naturally, tracing each ray of light as it bounces around the scene. Naturally, this adds a lot more work for the GPU, especially when it has to be done in real time.
For a few years, this was addressed by ray tracing being limited in games. Early ray tracing games like Battlefield 1 limited ray tracing to just reflections or shadows. This drastically improved these elements, but every other aspect of the game’s lighting was using the same indirect lighting methods games have been using for decades.
More recently, as RT cores in graphics cards have advanced, games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Black Myth: Wukong have started implementing full ray tracing, or path tracing, to their lighting engines. This completely replaces all light sources with ray traced lighting, transforming the game’s presentation. This is only possible because of the RT Cores in AMD and Nvidia graphics cards, and still demands an upscaling method like FSR for playable performance.
Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra