GPU Hierarchy: Graphics Cards Benchmarked and Ranked

[harlan4096]

We've tested and ranked all the current GPUs from Nvidia and AMD, so you can see how each stacks up.

Our GPU hierarchy ranks all the current and previous generation graphics cards in terms of performance, using a suite of gaming benchmark tests. 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. Note that this is only looking at performance; we have a separate article that looks at graphics card power consumption and overall GPU efficiency, and of course price also plays an important role.

A good GPU will let you play recent games at smooth frame rates. Get one of the best graphics cards for gaming and you can enjoy those games at very high resolutions or frame rates, with the special effects turned all the way up. 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. And integrated graphics ... well, we tested that as well, and the results aren't pretty. (See the very bottom of the list for those entries.)

To help you decide which graphics card you need, we've created the GPU hierarchy below, which ranks all the current and recent chips from fastest to slowest. We've assigned each a score based on our current GPU test suite of nine games, running at 'medium' and 'ultra' settings with resolutions of 1080p, 1440p, and 4K. For comparison purposes, the fastest card gets normalized to 100 percent, and all others are graded relative to it, based on our testing.

You can see the full suite of charts for testing at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K in our Best Graphics Cards article. Here, we're focused on the 'executive summary' and have omitted individual game charts as well as a few GPUs that don't fully qualify—specifically, the integrated graphics solutions as those are only tested at 720p in most cases. We've also left off the Titan Xp and older Titan X (Maxwell), giving us a round 40 GPUs in the charts, color coded for your viewing pleasure.
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