GPU Benchmarks and Hierarchy 2021: Graphics Cards Ranked

Our GPU benchmarks hierarchy ranks all the current and previous generation graphics cards by performance, including all of the best graphics cards. Whether it's playing games or doing high-end creative work like 4K video editing, your graphics card typically plays the biggest role in determining performance, and even the best gaming CPUs take a secondary role.

The following table sorts everything solely by our performance-based GPU gaming benchmarks. We have a separate article that lists the best graphics cards, which looks at all factors, including price, graphics card power consumption, and overall efficiency. For this GPU benchmarks hierarchy, the most recent addition is AMD's Radeon RX 6600 XT that launched on August 11, along with the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and GeForce RTX 3070 Ti that launched in June.

Deals on new graphics cards are still non-existent. Everything is selling out, at higher than "suggested" pricing, so there's no incentive for any company to cut prices. In fact, most of the AIB (add-in board) graphics card manufacturers have jacked up prices by 30% or more relative to the AMD and Nvidia 'official' starting prices. With continuing chip shortages across the globe affecting all industries, we don't expect pricing to improve on graphics cards until 2022. The profitability of Ethereum mining continues to be a major influence on GPU prices, despite the volatility of Ethereum and Bitcoin prices.

If you're looking to buy a graphics card right now, unfortunately the options are limited. You can always give the Newegg Shuffle a try, but fair warning: I've done that on most days and have only been selected for the opportunity to buy an overpriced bundle three times, and if you limit your selections to the better deals, your chances will be substantially worse. Otherwise, eBay has cards, at even more extreme prices — our GPU price index has the details on what you should expect to pay there, which usually means 50% to 100% over MSRP. With the chip and substrate shortages expected to last well into 2022, by the time retail outlets have inventory just sitting on the shelves, we might be looking at Nvidia's 5nm Lovelace GPUs and AMD's RDNA 3 architecture.

Which graphics card do you need? To help you decide, we've created this GPU benchmarks hierarchy consisting of dozens of GPUs from the past four generations of hardware. Everything is ranked from fastest to slowest, using the results from our test suite consisting of nine games for our GPU benchmarks, running at 'medium' and 'ultra' settings with resolutions of 1080p, 1440p, and 4K. For comparison purposes, the fastest card, based on the combination of all nine GPU benchmarks, three resolutions, and two settings, gets normalized to 100 percent, and all others are graded relative to it.

Not surprisingly, the fastest cards use either Nvidia's Ampere architecture or AMD's Big Navi. We're not testing with ray tracing or DLSS here, as most of the previous generation cards don't support those features, but even in traditional rasterization rendering the new GPUs come out on top. You can check out full launch reviews of Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3090, GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, GeForce RTX 3080, GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, GeForce RTX 3070, GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, and GeForce RTX 3060 12GB; and there's also AMD's Radeon RX 6900 XT, Radeon RX 6800 XT, Radeon RX 6800, Radeon RX 6700 XT, and now Radeon RX 6600 XT. At present, only one of the ten highest performance GPUs doesn't use either Ampere or RDNA2 — and that's the Titan RTX, which hardly counts.

Of course it's not just about playing games. Many applications use the GPU for other work, and we've covered some professional GPU benchmarks in our RTX 3090 review. But a good graphics card for gaming will typically do equally well in complex GPU computational workloads. Buy one of the top cards and you'll can run games at high resolutions and frame rates with the effects turned all the way up, and you'll be able to do content creation work equally well. Drop down to the middle and lower portions of the list and you'll need to start dialing down the settings to get acceptable performance in regular game play and GPU benchmarks.

It's not just about high-end GPUs, of course. We also recently tested Intel's Xe Graphics DG1, which basically competes with integrated graphics solutions. The results aren't pretty, and we didn't even try running any of those at settings beyond 1080p medium. Still, you can see where those GPUs land at the very bottom of the GPU benchmarks list.

Again, all of the games and settings we're using for testing have to conform to the lowest common denominator. That means ray tracing and proprietary tech like Nvidia's DLSS aren't enabled, even where they're supported. You can see how the GPUs stack up in DXR performance in our AMD vs. Nvidia ray tracing article, and we've also included RT and DLSS results in recent reviews like the RX 6600 XT, RTX 3070 Ti, and RTX 3080 Ti launch reviews. None of those scores are factored into the GPU benchmarks rankings, but the short summary is that Nvidia is usually quite a bit faster at RT, and DLSS provides a significant boost to performance for a minimal loss in image quality.

If your main goal is gaming, you can't forget about the CPU. Getting the best possible gaming GPU won't help you much if your CPU is underpowered and/or out of date. So be sure to check out the Best Gaming CPUs page, as well as our CPU Benchmarks Hierarchy to make sure you have the right CPU for the level of gaming you're looking to achieve.

GPU Ranking

GPU Benchmarks: Which Cards Ranked Highest?

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 takes top honors for raw performance, with a composite score of 152.7 fps across all 54 tests. That's the 100% mark, though it's worth noting that it also scored 98.7 fps at 4K ultra. It's nominally a $1,500 graphics card, which is out of reach of most gamers, but current shortages have rocketed pricing up to the $2,500 range. So much for "less than Titan" affordability.

Not too far behind the 3090 are the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, Radeon RX 6900 XT, Radeon RX 6800 XT, and GeForce RTX 3080, theoretically priced at $1,200, $1,000, $650 and $700, respectively (good luck finding any of those in stock for anything close to official launch prices). The RTX 3080 Ti lands in an odd spot, with only slightly lower pricing and performance than the 3090. It's basically at the old Titan price of $1,200, but at that point why not just spend the extra $300 for the 3090? Similarly, the 6900 XT is a minor bump in performance for a relatively large bump in price compared to the 6800 XT, and we'd generally recommend sticking with the latter.

The 6800 XT is also technically faster (barely, by a basically meaningless amount) than the RTX 3080 by our ranking formula, though as mentioned above, ray tracing and DLSS very much change the picture. Add those in and the 3080 easily beats even the 6900 XT. This is why we continue to rank the RTX 3080 as the best overall graphics card, though that's contingent on actually finding one for a price at least somewhat close to the $700 MSRP (anything under $1,000 would be worth a shot these days).

The new GPUs make all of AMD's and Nvidia's previous generation GPUs look a bit weak. The Radeon RX 6800, GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, and GeForce RTX 3070 match or beat the outgoing RTX 2080 Ti with a theoretical starting price of just $580, $600, or $500, respectively. The RTX 3060 Ti meanwhile leads the old 2080 Super in performance and potentially costs 42% less. Only the RTX 3060 12GB seems a bit lackluster, with performance basically at the level of the old RTX 2070 (non-Super) that launched 2.5 years ago. If the $329 official launch price were anywhere to be found, it would be a great deal, but it's not.

AMD's Navi 21 GPUs, aka Big Navi, finally break into the top three overall, even including Titan cards. That's something AMD hasn't managed since the Vega 64 launch (where it came in third). AMD is also mostly at feature parity with Nvidia now, with both companies supporting ray tracing. Except, Nvidia has Tensor cores that help with other tasks like DLSS, Nvidia Broadcast, RTX Voice, and potentially future applications, plus Nvidia's ray tracing performance is definitely still faster in the majority of DXR (DirectX Raytracing) games. The first Navi 22 card, the RX 6700 XT, lands in the ten spot if we discount the Titan RTX, while the first Navi 23 card, the RX 6600 XT, sits down in position 20, just ahead of its RX 5700 XT predecessor.

If you're in the market for a new sub-$500 graphics card right now, the best options are the RTX 3060 Ti and the RX 6700 XT. Neither one actually sells for under $500, sadly, but if you keep searching you can probably find a card for close to $500. The RTX 3060 Ti is only a bit slower than the RTX 3070, while the RX 6700 XT falls between the two Nvidia cards.

If you're willing to pay eBay prices, right now the RX 6700 XT costs around $700, as does the RTX 3060, while the RTX 3060 Ti costs closer to $1,000. Again, whatever GPU you're hoping to buy, it's still a terrible time to buy a graphics card, as all of the most desirable GPUs are either out of stock or seriously overpriced. In the Newegg Shuffle, for example, we routinely see graphics cards priced at 25% to 50% above the nominal MSRP, and your chances of getting selected are quite slim in our experience.

If you can find a reasonable deal on a latest generation GPU right now, great! But don't pay more for a previous gen GPU just because there aren't enough RX 6000-series or RTX 30-series GPUs to meet the current demand. Eventually, supply will catch up, and that will be the right time to buy. If you can't wait, our advice is to just try and find any old GPU that still works to hold you over. Based on current eBay prices, the best FPS per dollar card you can find — used — is the relatively ancient GTX 970. <Sigh>

That brings us to the bottom third of the list, the home of budget GPUs like the GTX 1650 Super, RX 5500 XT, and more. These cards give up a lot of performance in order to keep pricing down, and there are older generation GPUs that can perform just as well (or better) if you shop around. But component shortages have affected even these, with $300 and higher prices even on relatively weak cards like the GTX 1650 and RX 5500 XT 4GB — and we can't blame miners, as mining performance on 4GB cards is very poor these days.

Theoretically, the GTX 1660 Super, GTX 1650 Super, and RX 5600 XT are the best budget options, or at least they used to be before prices launched into the stratosphere. The higher you go on price, the worse things get, so take a careful look at historical pricing before you buy anything. GTX 1660 Super should cost $250, and GTX 1650 Super should cost around $175. The best prices we can see right now are around $450 and $375, respectively. Hard pass.

Unless you already have the hardware, or can get it for cheap, we don't recommend going below the GTX 1650 Super. Wait out the current shortages, and spend some time with indie games that can often run just fine on ... well, practically anything, even Intel's integrated graphics solutions! And you don't even need to buy a graphics card if you go that route. AMD's APUs are an even better option if you're on an extreme budget.

If you're looking at something like an RX 550 or GT 1030, you should consider AMD's integrated graphics on its Ryzen APUs as a viable alternative. If you have an older PC and are looking at adding a GPU, a motherboard and CPU upgrade might end up being a better option. Or not, as even a basic motherboard, CPU, and RAM can set you back $200 or more. Plus, the APUs are also sitting at inflated prices now. <Sigh again>

AMD did launch its latest Ryzen 5000G series processors, with the fastest integrated graphics we've seen so far. Prices aren't too bad, all things considered, but you get performance roughly on the level of the GT 1030 — a card that can actually be found in stock for around $125. Meaning, you could skip the full motherboard, RAM, and CPU upgrade and just get a low-end dedicated card to try and pass the time until things return to 'normal.'

Also worth noting is that the scoring assigned to each GPU uses all six test resolutions and settings, except on integrated graphics where we scale the result — because, come on, no one is going to try and run Borderlands 3 at 4K on an iGPU. (It will probably just crash.) If you want to check performance at just 1080p medium, or one of the other options, you can see the ranking order for the main GPUs in the charts below.

Test System for GPU Benchmarks

• Intel Core i9-9900K
• Corsair H150i Pro RGB
• MSI MEG Z390 Ace
• Corsair 32GB DDR4-3200 (2x 16GB)
• XPG SX8200 Pro 2TB
• Windows 10 Pro (21H1)

Our overall GPU benchmarks scores are based on the average frames per second (fps) of our testing of Borderlands 3, The Division 2, Far Cry 5, Final Fantasy XIV, Forza Horizon 4, Metro Exodus, Red Dead Redemption 2, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and Strange Brigade. If you want to do your own GPU benchmarking, see our complete list of the best GPU tests, which includes a lot more games and synthetic tests as well.

That's nine games, six settings and over 40 cards from the current and previous generations. We have a solid mix of game genres and APIs, plus AMD and Nvidia promoted titles, making this the definitive GPU benchmarks and performance hierarchy for gaming purposes. Due to the mix of various generations of GPUs, note that we don't include ray tracing or DLSS testing in any of the figures. That does penalize Nvidia's RTX cards quite a bit, and the RX 6000 series as well, since previous generation GPUs can't even try to run ray tracing in most games.

GPU Benchmarks and Performance Hierarchy Charts

Here you can see the average performance charts for our testing at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K (medium and ultra on all three). If you want to see the full suite of individual game tests, check out the charts in our Best Graphics Cards article. We've focused on the 'executive summary' and have omitted individual game charts as well as a few GPUs that don't fully qualify. We've left off the integrated graphics solutions as well as many older GPUs. That gives us 28 GPUs in the charts, color coded for your viewing pleasure. You can find additional charts with the 'retired' GPUs below the main charts.

Again, our GPU benchmarks scoring uses the average of all 54 scores (nine games, three resolutions, two settings). Including all 54 scores means the fastest cards are somewhat penalized because they run into CPU limitations at 1080p and even 1440p — especially at medium settings — and the slower GPUs can also end up penalized because they were never intended to run games at 1440p or 4K — especially at ultra settings.

If you intend to play at 1440p or 4K, the charts below can help you focus in on just those results. For example, the RTX 3080 overall scored 20.8% higher than the RTX 2080 Ti, but if you only look at 4K ultra performance, it's 33.5% faster.

Here's the same information as above, this time with all the older GPUs (which we generally aren't retesting on a regular basis these days). This chart also includes all the Titan GPUs, which we don't generally count as full participants in our GPU rankings due to cost. Not that price seems to matter much these days...

Legacy GPU Hierarchy

Below is our legacy desktop GPU hierarchy with historical comparisons dating back to the 1990s. We have not tested most of these cards in many years, driver support has ended on most of these models, and the relative rankings are pretty coarse. We group cards into performance tiers, pairing disparate generations where overlap occurs.

Finding Discounts on the Best Graphics Cards

With all the GPU shortages these days, you're unlikely to see huge sales on a graphics card, but you may find some savings by checking out the latest Newegg promo codes, Best Buy promo codes and Micro Center coupon codes.

For even more information, check out our Graphics Card Buyer's Guide.

MORE: Best Graphics Cards for Gaming

MORE: Graphics Card Power Consumption Tested

MORE: How to Stress-Test Graphics Cards (Like We Do)

MORE: CPU Benchmarks

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