The Best AMD GPUs in 2023

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has been behind what can easily be called a steady recovery in an increasingly competitive market. Whether it has been trading blows with recent Intel CPU lineups or catching up to the increasingly competitive GPU market, one can no longer easily dismiss the resurgent chipmaker as a done deal. The fact is that AMD has offerings that combine performance and value at multiple price points for its consumer base.

AMD’s RX 7000 Series: What Is In Play?

AMD’s most recent releases, the RX7800XT and 7700XT, are considerably more promising than their predecessors, primarily because of the price points. They finally deliver next-generation competition to Nvidia, which has the RTX 4070 and RTX 4060TI in the same space. Both boast better performance than their peers while offering more VRAM as part of their package.

This alone should make the RX 7800XT and 7700XT hot products, but the goalposts have moved considerably in the last few generations from simple rasterization. Nvidia’s trump card is Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS), or more particularly DLSS 3/3.5, an AI sharpening technique

exclusive

to its own GPUs that tends to offer significant performance gains.

AMD is late to the party, but it has made considerable inroads thanks to multiple updates to FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR). All eyes are on its third major iteration to deliver the goods on performance

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-launch as it takes a more open-source route, promising wider compatibility than its competition while building up significant performance gains.

AMD previously launched its RX 7000 series with two flagship card offerings: the Navi 31-based RX 7900XTX and its cut-down sibling, the RX 7900XT. They currently run at the helm of the current AMD GPU lineup. While the bulk of AMD’s value-centric options are concentrated in the RX 6000 series, the 7900XTX and 7900XT supplant the aging 6950XT with relative ease. Taking their place at the top, they clock in at an MSRP of $999 and $899, respectively.

This does mean that while the upgrade path for some enthusiastic high-end to mid-range users is straightforward, users looking for better value or specific

cases

in a turbulent market may have a tougher time without proper guidance. Add in the fact that multiple AIBs are selling AMD cards with their own custom configurations, and users can find themselves overwhelmed by the sheer number of variants available for them to purchase.

Picking The Best AMD GPU In 2023

AMD’s GPU choices are vast, with the RX6000 series trading at a serious discount, as well as the newer RX7000 series that aims to replace its older siblings at multiple price points. Therefore, while picking an AMD GPU, users can abide by simple guidelines to ensure they get the best bang for their buck:

Target Resolution

: As resolutions move higher, rendering games and content is increasingly more demanding on the GPU. As a result, knowing the target resolutions for the games a user plans on playing makes selecting an AMD GPU a much easier prospect. GPUs at different price points aim to allow users to game at varying levels of fidelity based on their target resolution. For example, the new 7900XTX is overkill for an FHD resolution, while the 6500XT will struggle with 2K gaming in most cases.

VRAM

: Most AMD GPUs offer plenty of VRAM at lower price points. However, some GPUs can be a bit more restrictive in terms of memory availability, and this directly correlates with performance when gaming at higher resolutions. Ideally, most gamers should aim for 8 GB or more of VRAM in a modern GPU to ensure that they can game at FHD or 2K resolutions with ease.

Price-To-Performance Ratio

: AMD’s RX6000 series is currently deeply discounted and often makes for better bargains than their RX7000 series counterparts at various price points. This means that before purchasing a newer RX7000 series GPU, it might be worth checking out other deals on the market for the older but still very relevant RX6000 series GPUs. The RX6700XT and RX6950XT happen to be excellent bargains with no direct competition from current RX7000 series GPUs at their price points.

Need to pair an AMD GPU with the right CPU? Check out Game Rant’s list of the best CPUs in 2023.

The Best AMD GPUs in 2023

The ASRock Phantom Gaming Radeon RX 6950XT 16 GB is the cheapest 4K gaming-capable GPU on the list. It goes neck and neck with the RX 7900XT for most resolutions, but it underperforms slightly compared to the newer GPU when it comes to 4K gaming. While the cheapest RX 7900XT found currently goes for as low as $800, the ASRock Phantom Gaming RX 6950 XT clocks in at $600. It matches the RX 7900XT for performance in FHD and 2K resolution, with the latter taking a firm lead in 4K gaming, helped by the newer RDNA 3 architecture and a 50% gain in memory bandwidth.

While the RX 6950XT is a behemoth by any measure, even when compared to most current-gen offerings, it does offer the best value for money when it comes to AMD’s high-end offerings. That is simply due to its unique price-to-performance offerings, coupled with the $200 in savings it offers to compensate for the higher power draw and older tech under the hood.

That being said, AMD’s last-gen flagship is a capable GPU on its own. Despite its less-than-stellar Ray Tracing performance, the discount is enough to make most gamers reconsider it as gaming continues to become an expensive affair for this generation at the higher end. Both AMD and Nvidia’s offerings push past $1000 for premium versions of their flagships ($2000+ for some RTX 4090 SKUs).

The Sapphire Nitro+ 7900 XTX Vapor-X is simply the fastest AMD GPU currently available. It also happens to feature some of the most premium build quality ever seen on the AMD platform. Sapphire took everything that it did right in the last generation and built itself a bigger advantage, one that other AMD GPU partners must look to overcome.

It clocks at the highest speed available for the 7900XTX out of the box, pushing to a rated boost of 2680MHz, while its unlocked BIOS design can see the card pushed well past the 3GHz barrier on certain games and non-gaming workloads. The Vapor-X is a key example of when the AIB fixes a vital issue with the chipmaker’s design, with the card being hard-pressed to even push 70 degrees Celsius under full load. This shows how well-engineered the card truly is.

All in all, if players have the money for it, and are a big AMD fan, this is the only card that should be on their shopping list for the best experience possible on AMD hardware.

The Sapphire Nitro+ 7900 XTX Vapor-X comes with a free copy of

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora

as part of an AMD Rewards offer for gamers jumping to its RX 7000 series GPUs until the end of 2023.

The ASRock Challenger Radeon RX 6700 XT is Game Rant’s pick for the best budget AMD GPU. This is not the fastest AMD GPU on the market, but the price-to-performance ratio is one of the best available, pulling its weight at the sub-$350 price range while providing stable performance in most modern titles thanks to AMD’s unified driver. The GPU offering by ASRock itself is a low-profile dual-fan design that comes overclocked out of the box while offering gains over stock AMD units that tend to run considerably hotter than their third-party sibling.

This makes the card much more versatile than some of its peers. It’s easy to fit in many gaming builds as budget and space constraints are met easily, making it a fool-proof upgrade while allowing many users to skip a PSU upgrade altogether. Most people still play games at 1080p, which this card handles without any issues. Those looking to cap out their display in terms of framerate at 2K or 4K will have to keep reading and be ready to shell out a bit more cash for a 7800XT or higher GPU.

Despite its moniker, the XFX Speedster MERC310 RX 7900XT is not here to win the performance crown for AMD. It is here to fill a void that exists because of how top-heavy NVIDIA’s RTX lineup offerings are. With a cooler that beats AMD’s stock offerings with ease, it boosts higher while maintaining lower temps than AMD’s stock units.

To accomplish this, the Speedster does its job in a tri-slot (2.7 slot effective), a tri-fan frame that some would consider overkill for the

specs

it powers. The result, however, is an extremely stable card. The XFX-branded 7900XT offers excellent value, being already cheaper than the MSRP for the 7900XT, which clocks in at $50 less.

For a GPU that trades blows with NVIDIA’s RTX 4080 and 4070TI, its current price point for a premium card is an impressive feat. Its size can be taken as a weakness or a strength from a PC-building point of view, but it does eliminate any second-guessing about its temperatures under load as a GPU.

The XFX Speedster MERC310 RX 7900 XT Black comes with a free copy of

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora

as part of an AMD Rewards offer for gamers jumping to its RX 7000 series GPUs until the end of 2023.

The XFX Speedster MERC319 RX 7800 XT Black is one of the best-built RX 7800XT GPUs users can find currently. It offers a tri-fan vapor chamber, dual bios, and both DP 2.1 and HDMI 2.1 ports out of the box. This allows it to be used in a variety of settings while keeping its thermals low and operation considerably quiet.

With 16 GB of VRAM on offer and a performance target that sees it beat the competing

Nvidia RTX

4070 handily, the Merc 319 7800XT carves its own niche while making a bid for one of the best-value AMD GPUs of this generation. At the same time, it provides competition for the Nvidia RTX 4070 GPUs at a sub-$500 price tag. The Nvidia RTX 4070 GPUs are seeing price cuts and adjustments as Nvidia aims to keep its products more competitive since the RX 7800XT launched in September 2023.

The Merc 319 does trade at a premium over the $500 the base 7800XT costs and requires a larger case than other SKUs given its form factor. This can also be seen as a necessary tradeoff for what is one of the best RX 7800XT SKUs on the market which comes overclocked out of the box.

The XFX Speedster MERC319 RX 7800 XT Black comes with a free copy of

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora

as part of an AMD Rewards offer for gamers jumping to its RX 7000 series GPUs until the end of 2023.

The Gigabyte Radeon 6500XT Eagle is a GPU that essentially takes over the void left behind after AMD retired the RX 470 and 570 GPUs. It is somewhat limited due to its 4 GB 64-bit GDDR6 RAM, but it remains a stellar performer for those looking for a decent graphics card under $200.

While it won’t win any performance awards, the GPU does receive current driver updates and has a very low power draw coupled with silent fans, as it looks to replace the RX 480/580 lineup of GPUs with matching performance in a low-profile design. This makes it a viable choice for customers who are on the fence, especially for those who are looking for an upgrade to older cards that are slowly being phased out with limited driver quality-of-life updates.

AMD’s RX 7000 Series: How It Fares Versus The Competition

AMD’s RX7900XT and 7900XTX GPUs were the first to arrive from Team Red at the tail end of 2022 as a direct response to Nvidia’s RTX 4080 and 4090 GPUs. Since then, AMD has pushed out the balanced RX 7600, RX7700XT, and RX7800XT GPUs that act as competitive mid-range counterparts to the Nvidia RTX 4060, RTX 4060TI, and RTX 4070, respectively.

AMD’s current offerings generally offer higher VRAM out of the box than their Nvidia counterparts. They also offer, more often than not, better rasterization performance out of the box. At the same time, AMD’s FSR tech has improved considerably since it first launched, and FSR 3 seems particularly promising. While its ray tracing performance continues to be less stellar than most enthusiasts would hope, the RX 7000 series does offer considerable gains over its last-generation alternatives from AMD.

AMD’s Value Proposition For Gamers In 2023

AMD has made multiple inroads recently, most of them in the right direction. AMD does concede space to Nvidia somewhat, as the chipmaker moves faster with its plans for DLSS 3.5, and it has no answer to the RTX 4090 in its product lineup. The RX 7900XTX trades blows with an RTX 4080, at best. On the other hand, AMD has also made some of the better decisions in the industry, adopting DisplayPort 2.1 early on and offering better value for money with a more aggressive rewards program than its competition. This offers enthusiasts multiple reasons to go with AMD while also offering a wide array of GPUs to end-users looking to upgrade down the line.

FAQ

Q: What is the latest AMD graphics card?

AMD’s most recent release is the RX 7700XT and 7800XT, which launched on September 6, 2023.

Q: Do AMD cards support Ray Tracing/RT?

Absolutely. AMD cards can do Ray Tracing. They use their own custom implementation versus Nvidia’s proprietary hardware-based Ray Tracing technology, which is considered to be slightly slower than Nvidia’s offering. This is, in its current iteration, somewhat inferior in terms of speed. However, AMD is projecting and delivering better Ray Tracing performance with newer GPUs and each driver update.

Q: What is AMD’s DLSS3 alternative?

Nvidia’s DLSS3 is groundbreaking tech that offers frame-gen tech as one of its most important breakthroughs in the space and with good reason. AMD has announced its own take on the technology in FSR 3.0. FSR (also known as AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution) is AMD’s own take on upscaling tech that allows older and newer GPUs to run games beyond their specs at playable frame rates.

AMD touts its upcoming FSR 3.0 tech to offer as much as two times the frames per second (FPS) as its last generation iteration (FSR 2), but it has yet to appear in game titles to date.