The best graphics cards for upgrading your system

If you want a GPU that's big and powerful — and you can handle a big and powerful price point — the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is about as good as they come right now. It's a beast of a GPU.

It's built for next-gen, 4K gaming. Make no mistake, the 4K capabilities are sensational. If anything, it struggles with lower resolutions. It's fast too — seriously, mind-bogglingly fast — and will handle whatever challenges the latest PC games offer up.

The source of this power is Nvidia’s Ada Lovelace GPU architecture, which features fourth-gen tensor cores, AV1 encoders, third-gen RT cores, and other cool features. In simpler terms, it’s a landmark in 3D graphics.

The GeForce RTX 4090 also boasts powerful rendering tools, so this card is also ideal for graphic artists. It will chomp through any creative jobs you throw its way.

All of which makes it the best in the biz but probably a bit specialist too. It takes a certain level of player who needs this kind of power — and who's actually willing to spend this kind of money — for PC gaming.

For a mid-level performance — and let's be honest, price — the GeForce RTX 4070 Super is a solid option. It's a recent addition to the RTX G40 series — one of several Super-branded GPUs that will replace some of the older GeForce GPUs and bridge to high-end gaming. The slightly lower spec GeForce RTX 4070, which Super has succeeded, and the higher spec GeForce RTX 4070 Super Ti are also available, if you have less or more budget.

Also using the Ada Lovelace architecture, the GeForce RTX 4070 Super is made for 1440p gaming, though reviewers say it can handle some 4K gaming with DLSS 3 —eagle eyed gamers will spot flaws though. If you are gaming at high-fps 1440p however, you'll be seriously impressed with its performance, including the ray tracing.

It retains some spec from the regular GeForce RTX 4070, such as the memory and clock, but adds 22% cores to make game performance significantly faster.

You just have to decide whether the gains in spec on the regular GeForce RTX 4070 make the extra cost of this Super edition worthwhile. And the price of the regular version could drop.

If you want to save your pennies (hey, buying all this PC hardware doesn't come cheap), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 is a very respectable GPU — despite being supplanted by numerous other models. Indeed, this GPU has been around for a few years and was initially a great choice for mid-range gaming. That hasn't changed but the price has dropped as the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and G40 series came along.

Running on GeForce's previous gen architecture, Ampere, and ranks as an entry level GPU. It was originally made for 1080p gaming — even 1440p was a push — though MSI boasts this third party model handles 4K. Still, maybe manage your expectations. Which at this price you probably will do anyway. On the plus side, it has plenty of memory, plus DLSS 2 and ray tracing.

Certainly, the spec doesn't seem as impressive as when the GPU was first on the market, but for getting yourself started with PC gaming, it's still a contender. Having said that, if you can stretch to a few hundred more, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is a step up and still cheaper than a lot of other GPUs.

Searching for good quality GPUs, it's hard to not be overwhelmed by the sheer number of NVIDIA GeForce options — it's certainly the most formidable name in graphics cards. But the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE is a serious competitor — and this third party version isn't crazy expensive.

It was originally an exclusive for China, but got a wider release. And gamers will be glad that it did. It's especially good for 4K gaming, which is much better than you'd expect at this price and gives more expensive NVIDIA GeForce models a run for their money.

This third party version by Powercolor — the amusingly-named Hellhound — is bolstered by AMD's FreeSynch technology (which ensures smooth gameplay on monitors that use the tech), as well as Radeon Boost for pepping up the fps, anti-lag technology, and AMD's RDNA 3 architecture.

If you're a content creator or graphic designer, this GPU breezes through video and photo editing, though reviewers have marked down its 3D modelling capabilities. Overall, it's a mid-range model, but the price to performance ratio makes it a cut above its direct price point competitors.

Sitting numerically between the 4070 and 4090, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Super sits midway between prices as well. Not to say it's cheap — £1,000-plus is a fair chunk of cash by anyone's standards. As part of the recently released G40 Super upgrade, it has a number of improvement tweaks, such as an uptick in cores and clocks — and ultimately an uptick in speed and performance.

It's not a monumental upgrade from the regular RTX 4080 but it is a price drop at this level. As you'd expect, it's packed with the best that NVIDIA GeForce has to offer: DLSS 3, frame generation technology, and excellent 4K gaming. Sure, the the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is superior, but you'll pay almost an extra £1,000 for that.

Ultimately, being the latest NVIDIA GeForce at this spec and performance level, it's the best you'll get from the brand for the £1,000 mark, though we can expect more upgrades later in 2024. For now though, if you've got £1,000 to spend on a graphics card, this is the top GPU at that price point from the best brand in the business.