[Hardware]GPU Benchmarks and Hierarchy 2021: Graphics Cards Ranked

[Revo]

 

 

Our GPU benchmarks performance hierarchy ranks all the current and previous generation graphics cards, including all of the best graphics cards, in terms of performance. 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 second role.

Note that the table below is based solely on the scores from performance-based GPU benchmarks. We have a separate article that lists the best graphics cards, based on all factors, including price, graphics card power consumption, and overall efficiency. In this latest edition, we've updated the tables and charts with results from the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and Radeon RX 6900 XT.

If you're looking for a good deal on a graphics card this holiday season, we have some bad news. Component shortages, particularly on graphics cards, mean you'll be lucky to find the card you want at all, never mind finding it at a good price. Even previous generation cards are currently often selling (used) for more than the original launch price. Maybe later in 2021 we'll have a decent supply of GPUs at sane prices, but like so many other things in 2020, the latest hardware launches have been awful.

To help you decide which graphics card you need, we've created this GPU hierarchy consisting of dozens of GPU benchmarks in the table below. 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.

The arrival of Nvidia's Ampere architecture, along with the GeForce RTX 3090, GeForce RTX 3080, GeForce RTX 3070, and GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, has pushed everything down a couple of rungs. AMD's Big Navi and the Radeon RX 6800 XT and RX 6800, plus the Radeon RX 6900 XT, have joined the ranks of the highest performance GPUs. They're also some of the highest priced GPUs, and they're all sold out.

Of course it's not just about playing games. Many applications use the GPU for other work, and we've covered some of the 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'd be able to play 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. And integrated graphics ... well, we've tested that as well, and the results aren't pretty. (See the very bottom of the list for those entries.)

It's important to note that 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. We've included our most recent DXR benchmark results from the 6900 XT review at the bottom of the article, but those scores aren't factored into the rankings. The short summary: Nvidia is faster at RT, and DLSS can provide a nice boost to performance.

If your main goal is gaming, you of course can't forget about the CPU. Getting the best possible gaming GPU won't help you much if your CPU is under-powered 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 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 also a $1,500 graphics card, which is out of reach of most gamers.

Not too far behind the 3090 are the Radeon RX 6900 XT, Radeon RX 6800 XT, and GeForce RTX 3080, nominally priced at $1,000, $650 and $700, respectively (if you can find one in stock). 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 than the 3080 by our ranking formula, though it's important to note that ray tracing and DLSS very much change the picture. Add those in and the 3080 easily beats even the 6900 XT.

The new GPUs make all of AMD's and Nvidia's previous generation GPUs suddenly look a bit weak. The same goes for the Radeon RX 6800 and GeForce RTX 3070, which match or beat the outgoing RTX 2080 Ti with a starting price of just $580 or $500, respectively. The RTX 3060 Ti meanwhile leads the old 2080 Super in performance and costs 42 percent less.

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 more, plus Nvidia's ray tracing performance is definitely still faster in the majority of DXR (DirectX Raytracing) games.
If you're in the market for a new sub-$500 graphics card right now, the RTX 3060 Ti is currently the card to get. It's a bit slower than the 3070, but overall it's the best price to performance ratio of all the modern GPUs. We'll probably see RTX 3060 and RX 6700 cards in early 2021, but unfortunately, 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.

We've seen RTX 2060 Super selling at over $500 ($100 more than the launch price), and RTX 2070 Super going for $600 or more (again, $100 more than the launch price). AMD's RX 5700 at one point could be had for under $300, but good luck finding one for less than $400 these days. The RX 5700 XT can often be found for a lower price than the vanilla 5700, assuming you can find either in stock.

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 6800 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. Even a budget card will suffice, and at least those aren't likely to be completely obliterated before 2021 rolls in.
That brings us to the bottom third of the list, the home of true 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 are affecting even budget GPUs, and we've seen prices on many of these cards increase 10% or more in the past month alone.

Sticking with relatively current GPUs, the GTX 1660 Super, 1650 Super, and RX 5600 XT are the best options for around $250 or less. Also, the RX 5600 XT seems to be selling at over $300 now, which is just ... yuck! Again, the higher you go on price, the more likely you are to see new GPUs arrive in the near future that make current cards look anemic. Based on what's currently available at somewhat reasonable prices, the 1650 Super and RX 5500 XT are currently the best budget options.

We don't recommend going below the GTX 1650 Super, though if you already have such a card you don't have to upgrade. There are tons of light and indie games that will run just fine on ... well, practically anything! Even Intel's integrated graphics solutions are often sufficient, particularly more recent variants like UHD 630 and Iris Plus. But there's still a 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.

We're interested in seeing what happens with the next generation of integrated graphics as well. Tiger Lake laptops sometimes double the performance of Ice Lake graphics, and AMD also has updated Zen 2 APUs with faster graphics as well. (We'll be testing both of these options soon enough for inclusion in the hierarchy.)

Okay, maybe buying a basic GPU isn't a bad idea rather than dealing with a full motherboard and CPU upgrade (depending on what sort of CPU you're rocking). Provided you can provide at least a 6-pin PEG power connector, though, we recommend going for at least something at the RX 570 level or above rather than picking up a lesser graphics card.

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 (1909)
Our overall GPU benchmarks scores are based on the geometric mean 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 6800 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, plus omitted the Titan cards. That gives us 32 GPUs in the charts, color coded for your viewing pleasure.

Yes, we know the labels on the charts are tiny. We've also included links to the full-size (1920x1080) images below each chart for those on smaller devices that want to be able to read them.

Again, our GPU benchmarks scoring uses the geometric mean of all 54 scores (nine games, three resolutions, two settings). The geomean is a slightly 'better' weighting than a pure average, though it doesn't massively change the results. Either way, including all 54 scores means the fastest cards are somewhat penalized because they run into CPU limitations at 1080p and even 1440p, and the slower GPUs can also end up penalized because they were never intended to run games at 1440p or 4K.

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.