Find out how to purchase a GPU in 2026

One of many hardest elements of any new laptop construct or improve is discovering the correct video card. In a gaming PC, the GPU is well an important half, and you’ll restrict your expertise by going with the unsuitable mannequin. The shopping for course of could be irritating, particularly proper now with reminiscence shortages resulting in greater costs. On this information, we’ll aid you navigate the market and discover the correct GPU on your wants.

It is all in regards to the video games

The primary query to ask your self is what sort of video games do you wish to play. Aggressive shooters like Valorant, Overwatch and Marvel Rivals had been designed to run on older {hardware}. As such, even entry-level GPUs just like the GeForce RTX 5060 can push these video games at 120 frames per second and above at 1080p (extra on why that is vital in a second).

Against this, if you wish to play fashionable, single-player video games with ray tracing and different graphical extras, you will want a extra highly effective GPU. Simply how far more highly effective will depend upon the decision of your monitor.

A 1440p or QHD monitor has 78 p.c extra pixels than a 1080p display screen, and a 4K show has greater than twice as many pixels as a QHD panel. Briefly, operating a sport at 4K, particularly at something above 60 frames per second, is demanding, and most GPUs might want to use upscaling methods like NVIDIA’s Deep Studying Tremendous Sampling (DLSS) and AMD’s FidelityFX Tremendous Decision (FSR) to push new video games at excessive refresh charges.

As regards to decision, it would not make sense to spend some huge cash on a 4K monitor solely to pair it with a reasonable GPU. That is a recipe for a nasty expertise. As you are purchasing for a brand new video card, you need to take into consideration the decision and body charge you wish to play your video games. Should you’re available in the market for each a GPU and show, make sure to take a look at our information to the finest gaming screens.

In case your funds permits, guess is to purchase a midrange card that may comfortably render all however essentially the most demanding video games at 1440p and at the very least 144 frames per second. Put one other approach, you need a GPU that may saturate a monitor at its native decision and refresh charge in as many video games as doable. That will provide you with the smoothest doable expertise when it comes to movement readability, and can help you dabble in each aggressive shooters and the most recent single-player video games because the temper strikes you.

NVIDIA vs AMD and Intel

One of many complicated elements of the GPU business are all of the gamers concerned. What you want to know is that there are three major gamers: AMD, Intel and NVIDIA. They design the playing cards you should purchase, however delegate the manufacturing of them to so-called add-in board (AIB) companions like ASUS, XFX, Gigabyte and others.

As you possibly can think about, this creates some complications. Probably the most annoying of which is that AMD, Intel and NVIDIA will typically set really useful costs for his or her graphic playing cards, just for their companions to promote their variations of these GPUs for greater than the producer’s urged retail worth (MSRP). For instance, NVIDIA’s web site lists the RTX 5070 with a beginning worth of $549. On Newegg, there aren’t any new 5070s listed at that worth. The one fashions anyplace near $549 are refurbished and open field specials. If you would like one which comes sealed, that can value you at the very least $630.

As for what firm you can purchase your new GPU from, earlier than 2025, NVIDIA was the undisputed king of the market. Particular GeForce playing cards might haven’t provided the very best rasterization efficiency of their worth vary, however between their efficiency in video games with ray tracing and the actual fact NVIDIA was forward on options like DLSS, an RTX GPU was a protected guess.

Nonetheless, with this yr’s RTX 50 sequence launch (and excluding fashions just like the RTX 5080 and 5090 the place there isn’t any competitors), it is protected to say NVIDIA missed the mark this technology. Should you’re available in the market for an entry- or mid-level GPU, AMD and Intel provide higher worth, with playing cards that include sufficient VRAM for now and into the long run. That mentioned, there are nonetheless a couple of causes you may take into account an NVIDIA GPU, beginning with ray tracing.

Ray tracing

For many years, builders have used rasterization methods to approximate how gentle behaves in the actual world, and the outcomes have been commendable. But when you realize what to search for, it is easy to see the place the phantasm falls aside. For that cause, real-time ray tracing has been a purpose of business for years, and in 2018 it grew to become a actuality with NVIDIA’s first RTX playing cards.

In some video games, results like ray-traced reflections and world illumination are transformational. Sadly, these options are costly to run, typically coming at a major body charge drop with out upscaling. Since ray tracing was optionally available in lots of video games earlier than 2025, you may get monetary savings by shopping for an AMD GPU. For instance, even when the RX 7800 XT was worse at ray tracing than the RTX 4070, the previous was typically cheaper to purchase, had extra onboard VRAM and provided nearly as good or higher rasterization efficiency in lots of video games.

Nonetheless, you possibly can’t ignore ray tracing efficiency anymore. We’re beginning to see releases like Doom: The Darkish Ages the place the tech is an integral a part of a sport’s rendering pipeline, and extra are prone to comply with sooner or later. Fortunately, AMD’s latest playing cards are a lot better in that regard, although you will nonetheless get an edge operating an NVIDIA mannequin. For that cause, if ray tracing is vital to you, NVIDIA playing cards are nonetheless the way in which to go.

Refresh charges and body charges

Should you’re new to the world of PC gaming, it may be tough to wrap your head round refresh charges. Briefly, the upper the refresh charge of a monitor, the extra occasions it will possibly replace the picture it shows on display screen each second, thereby producing a smoother transferring image.

For instance, transferring components on a monitor with a 240Hz refresh charge will look higher than on one with a 120Hz refresh charge. Nonetheless, that is dependent in your GPU having the ability to constantly render a sport on the applicable body charges. Within the case of a 120Hz monitor, you need a GPU with sufficient headroom to drive most video games at 120 fps. Realistically, most video playing cards will not be capable of obtain that in each sport, nevertheless it’s baseline to intention for when purchasing for a brand new GPU.

Body technology

Because the launch of NVIDIA’s RTX 40-series GPU, the corporate has provided a function referred to as body technology. Because the title suggests, it permits NVIDIA’s newest video playing cards to generate a further body for each body they render usually. With the 50-series, NVIDIA has since begun providing multi-frame technology, which provides these GPUs the power to generate as much as three further frames for each rendered body. AMD has its personal tackle the tech, as does Intel, although NVIDIA’s providing is taken into account superior to each as a result of the way it handles body pacing.

Body technology is good to have, nevertheless it’s not the silver bullet it may appear. Enabling it would improve system latency, decreasing how responsive your video games really feel. Considerably unintuitively, high-end GPUs additionally profit extra from the tech than their entry-level counterparts since they will naturally render extra frames. For that cause, it is best to think about body technology as a approach to get essentially the most out of a excessive refresh charge show.

Upscaling and latency

I’ve talked about DLSS a couple of occasions already. Alongside FSR and Intel XeSS, DLSS is an instance of what is generally known as a picture reconstruction expertise. Increasingly, native rendering goes out of style in sport design. With ray tracing and different fashionable results enabled, even essentially the most highly effective GPUs can wrestle to render a sport at 1440p or 4K and a playable framerate. That’s why many builders will flip to DLSS, FSR or XeSS to eke out further efficiency by upscaling a decrease decision picture to QHD or UHD.

Upscaling in video games is nothing new. For instance, the PS4 Professional used a checkerboard approach to output video games in 4K. What’s totally different now could be how fashionable GPUs go about it. With DLSS, NVIDIA pioneered an strategy that makes use of machine studying to recreate a picture at a better decision, and within the course of, addressed a few of the pitfalls of previous upscaling strategies. Should you’re delicate to those kinds of issues, there’s nonetheless blur and shimmer with DLSS, FSR and XeSS, nevertheless it’s a lot much less pronounced and may result in vital efficiency positive aspects.

To DLSS, NVIDIA later added single and multi-frame technology. DLSS is just accessible on NVIDIA playing cards, and following the current launch of DLSS 4.5, extensively thought of to supply the very best picture high quality. That is another excuse why you may select an NVIDIA card over one in every of its opponents.

Nonetheless, if you happen to determine to go together with an AMD GPU, do not feel such as you’re lacking out. The corporate lately launched FSR 4. Whereas it is not fairly on par with DLSS 4 and 4.5 when it comes to help and picture high quality, it is a main leap over FSR 3 and FSR 2.

Whereas with reference to DLSS, I will additionally point out NVIDIA Reflex. It is a latency-reducing expertise NVIDIA launched in 2020. AMD has its personal model referred to as Radeon Anti-Lag, however right here once more Crew Inexperienced has a slight edge. Should you’re severe about aggressive video games, Reflex can considerably cut back enter lag, which can make it simpler to nail your pictures in Counter-Strike 2, Valorant and different shooters.

Driver help

Beforehand, one of many causes to choose an NVIDIA GPU over the competitors was the corporate’s strong observe report of driver help. With one of many firm’s video playing cards, you had been much less prone to run into stability points and video games failing to launch. Firstly of 2025, NVIDIA’s drivers had been abysmal, however the firm has since corrected course.

VRAM

As you are evaluating totally different GPUs, particularly these in the identical tier, pay shut consideration to the quantity of VRAM they provide. Many fashionable video games will eat up as a lot VRAM as a GPU can provide, and in case your card has a low quantity, equivalent to 8GB, you are prone to run right into a efficiency bottleneck.

In case your funds permits for it, at all times go for the mannequin with extra VRAM. Contemplate, as an illustration, the distinction between the $379 RTX 5060 Ti 8GB and $429 RTX 5060 Ti 16GB. Spending an additional $50 goes to be rather a lot for some folks, nevertheless it’s the distinction between a card that’s solely satisfactory for a lot of current releases and one that can final you for a couple of years. In lots of instances, extra VRAM is best.

A slight caveat to that is when evaluating fashions which have totally different reminiscence bandwidths. A GPU that may entry extra of its reminiscence sooner can outperform one with extra reminiscence, even when it has much less of it outright. Right here, you will wish to learn evaluations of the fashions you are evaluating to see how they carry out in several video games.

Measurement and energy draw

Fashionable GPUs are large. Most new playing cards will take up at the very least two PCI slots on the again of your motherboard. They will additionally differ dramatically in size, relying on the variety of followers the AIB has added to chill the PCB. To be protected, make sure to examine the size of the cardboard you wish to purchase in opposition to the utmost clearance listed by your case producer. When you’ve got a radiator on the entrance of your case, additionally, you will have to issue the scale of that in your measurements. The very last thing you need is to purchase a card that does not slot in your case.

Lastly, make sure to examine the really useful energy provide for the cardboard you need. As a rule of thumb, until you realize what you are doing, it is best to simply persist with the producer’s advice. For example, NVIDIA suggests pairing the RTX 5070 Ti with a 750 watt PSU. So if you happen to’re at the moment operating a 650 watt unit, you will have to issue within the worth of a PSU improve along with your new GPU.

Must you purchase a used GPU?

It relies upon. If yow will discover a deal on an outdated RTX 40 sequence GPU, then sure. NVIDIA’s RTX 50 sequence do not provide vastly improved efficiency over their predecessors, and with most fashions promoting for greater than their urged retail worth, it is not the very best time to purchase a brand new NVIDIA card.

That mentioned, I think discovering deal on a used GPU might be tough. Most individuals will know the worth of what they’ve, and contemplating the present market, will most likely attempt to get as a lot as they will for his or her outdated card.

Chances are you’ll discover higher offers on older AMD and Intel GPUs, however I believe you are higher off spending extra now on a brand new mannequin from a kind of firms for the reason that generational positive aspects provided by their newest playing cards are far more spectacular. Merely put, the 9070 XT and B580 are two of the very best playing cards you should purchase proper now.

Something older than a card from NVIDIA’s 40 sequence or AMD’s RX 6000 household is just not price contemplating. Except your funds is extraordinarily tight otherwise you largely play older video games, you are a lot better off spending extra to purchase a brand new card that can final you longer.

When is an efficient time to purchase a brand new GPU?

Should you’ve learn up thus far, you are most likely questioning if it is even price shopping for a GPU proper now. The reply is (unsurprisingly) difficult. There are a handful of nice playing cards just like the Radeon RX 9060 XT and 9070 which might be completely price it. The issue is discovering any GPU at a worth approaching these set by AMD, Intel or NVIDIA.

The AI growth, and particularly actions by OpenAI, have led to reminiscence shortages. In flip, these shortages have induced the worth of shopper GPUs, SSDs and RAM kits to skyrocket in current months. As of our newest replace to this information, some fashions just like the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti are promoting for lots of of {dollars} above MSPR.

As such, if you happen to personal a comparatively current GPU, you are most likely finest off making an attempt to carry onto your present card till issues quiet down. But when your GPU is not chopping it anymore, you face a tough choice: overpay now, or wait and probably pay much more later.

To make that call simpler, I have been sustaining a separate information that lists a collection of GPU fashions you should purchase near MSPR. My purpose is to replace that article at the very least as soon as monthly, so make sure to examine typically.

Finest GPUs for 2026: Engadget ecommendations

Entry-level (1080p)

As we talked about above, if you happen to’re solely aiming to play fundamental aggressive shooters like Valorant and Overwatch 2 in 1080p, an entry-level GPU could also be all you want. Whereas 1080p is not a really perfect decision in terms of sharpness, many avid gamers want it because it’s simpler to succeed in greater framerates. And it additionally helps that 1080p gaming screens, just like the AOC 24G15N 24-inch we suggest, have a tendency to supply speedy refresh charges for between $100 and $200. Once you’re zipping by way of matches, you doubtless will not have time to take a breath and admire the element from greater resolutions.

Listed here are our suggestions for entry-level video playing cards:

• AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 8GB: Surprisingly sufficient, you possibly can truly discover this AMD GPU for $300. When you’ll should reside with 8GB of RAM, that is greater than sufficient for 1080p gaming, and it additionally has the good thing about DLSS 4 upscaling.

• AMD Radeon RX 7600: Whereas it is a last-gen card, the RX 7600 remains to be highly effective sufficient to deal with fundamental shooters.

Midrange (1440p)

Whereas entry-level playing cards can dabble with 1440p gaming, it is price stepping as much as one thing a bit extra highly effective if you happen to truly wish to obtain greater refresh charges. For many avid gamers, 1440p is the very best steadiness between sharpness and excessive body charges. It appears to be like noticeably higher than 1080p, and would not require the horsepower overhead of 4K. (And there is a good likelihood you will not actually see a visible distinction with the soar to 4K.)

Listed here are our suggestions for midrange GPUs:

• NVIDIA RTX 5060 Ti: Neglect the disappointing RTX 5070, the 5060 Ti delivers glorious 1080p and 1440p efficiency. And better of all, you possibly can nonetheless discover it underneath $500. (Learn our NVIDIA RTX 5060 Ti evaluation.)

• AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB: A step up from the 8GB mannequin we suggest above. The 16GB 9060 XT gives glorious efficiency throughout lots of the newest video games, and is inexpensive than the 5060 Ti.

• AMD Radeon RX 9070: AMD shocked us all with the Radeon RX 9070 and 9070 XT, two midrange playing cards that provided comparable energy to and extra VRAM than NVIDIA’s costlier playing cards. When you will not see the RX 9070 for its $550 launch worth right now, you possibly can nonetheless snag one for a slight premium at $650. (Try our AMD Radeon RX 9070 and 9070 XT evaluation.)

Excessive-end (4K)

If you would like essentially the most of what fashionable PC video games have to supply, together with 4K and the entire advantages of ray tracing, then be able to spend large bucks on a high-end GPU. Should you’re going this route, although, ensure you are additionally gaming on a high-end monitor that befits these highly effective GPUs.

Listed here are our suggestions for premium GPUs:

• NVIDIA RTX 5070 Ti: The RTX 5070 Ti shocked me with glorious 4K gaming efficiency for a launch worth that was nicely under the RTX 5080. It is the very best total NVIDIA card if you wish to play in 4K at 120Hz or past, nevertheless it’s additionally the toughest to search out at MSRP. (Try our NVIDIA RTX 5070 Ti evaluation.)

• AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT: I already talked about the RX 9070 XT. With shortages of the 5070 Ti, it is the very best GPU you should purchase now with out paying a ridiculous premium. (Try our AMD Radeon RX 9070 and 9070 XT evaluation.)

• NVIDIA RTX 5080: If the RTX 5070 Ti is not sufficient for you, the RTX 5080’s further energy and 24GB of VRAM ought to fit your fancy. Simply be ready to pay round $1,500 for it, a 50 p.c soar from its $999 launch worth.