The best AMD graphics card in 2023: top GPUs from Team Red

PRICE
VERDICT
REASONS TO BUY
REASONS TO AVOID
VERDICT
REASONS TO BUY
REASONS TO AVOID
One of the best AMD graphics cards against a red background
(Image credit: Future)

The best AMD graphics card in 2023 delivers unparalleled performance without breaking the bank, making them an excellent option for budget-conscious gamers. AMD consistently showcases its knack for crafting economical solutions with its latest RDNA 3 generation. 

While many recognize AMD for its affordability, the best AMD GPU options, like the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX, not only stand out for their value but also their stellar performance, earning coveted spots on our best graphics card list. If you're hunting for a bargain, the AMD Radeon RX 7600 reigns supreme as one of the best cheap graphics cards available today. 

With our extensive experience reviewing and testing AMD offerings in various gaming and creative scenarios for many years now, we're committed to guiding you towards the ideal AMD GPU tailored to your needs and budget, whether you're in the market for the best 1080p graphics card, the best 1440p graphics card, or the best 4K graphics card from Team Red.

The best AMD graphics cards in 2023

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We've pulled together the best 4K graphics cards, the best 1440p graphics cards, and the best 1080p graphics cards in AMD's lineup to help you find the right card for you.

An AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT on a table

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

The best AMD graphics card overall

The best graphics card overall

Specifications

Core Clock: 1,295 MHz (2,430 MHz Boost)
Shaders: 3,840
Ray Processors: 60
AI Processors: 120
Memory: 16GB GDDR6
Memory Clock: 19.4 Gbps effective
Outputs: 1 x HDMI 2.1, 3 x DisplayPort 2.1
Power Connectors: 2 x 8-pin
TDP: 263W
Passmark 3D Graphics Score, As Tested: 28,430
GeekBench 6 Compute (Avg), As Tested: 148,636
PugetBench for Photoshop, As Tested: 1,578
HandBrake 1.6, 4K to 1080p (FPS), As Tested: 168
Average 1080p Gaming FPS, As Tested: 111
Average 1440p Gaming FPS, As Tested: 86
Average 4K Gaming FPS, As Tested: 56

Reasons to buy

+
Better rasterization than RTX 4070
+
Improved ray tracing performance
+
16GB VRAM and AI cores

Reasons to avoid

-
Only marginally than the RX 6800 XT
-
Ray tracing and upscaling still lag behind Nvidia
-
Still power hungry

The AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT was AWOL for most of 2023, coming nearly a year after the announcement of AMD's flagship RX 7900 XTX and RX 7900 XT cards, but that just made it all that much sweeter when it finally launched and gave gamers everywhere the midrange graphics card they've been waiting for years now.

Powered by AMD's RNDA 3 GPU architecture, the RX 7800 XT avoided Nvidia's stubbles this generation and shipped the card with 16GB of GDDR6 VRAM and a wide enough memory bus to allow 4K textures to load quickly and render efficiently. That means that even though AMD is technically marketing the RX 7800 XT as a 1440p graphics card, it is more than capable of gaming at 4K.

If our testing, the RX 7800 XT battled the previous graphics card champion, the GeForce RTX 4070, to an effective Rocky-style draw (while coming up about 2% better in overall gaming performance). While the RTX 4070 has better ray tracing, the RX 7800 XT is a very capable ray tracer in its own right, with absolutely outstanding rasterization performance, so you're not missing out on anything like you were in the last generation AMD cards. 

To top it all off, the RX 7800 XT has a much lower MSRP than Nvidia's rival card, making this card a no brainer when it comes to offering outstanding performance at a great price. If there's a caveat here, it's that the 7800 XT's gen-on-gen performance isn't as good as some might have hoped for, but even with that its performance still makes it Best-in-Class as far as we're concerned.

An AMD Radeon RX 7600 on a desk

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

The Best Budget AMD Graphics Card

The best cheap AMD graphics card

Specifications

Stream Processors: 2048
Ray accelerators: 38
Boost clock: 2,625MHz
Memory: 8 GB GDDR6
Power draw (TDP): 165W
Memory clock: 18 Gbps
Power connectors: 1 x 8-pin
Outputs: 1 x HDMI 2.1a, 3 x DisplayPort 2.1
Average FPS at 1080p (Tested): 62
Max power consumption (Tested): 164W

Reasons to buy

+
Fantastic price
+
Outstanding 1080p performance
+
Decent enough 1440p performance

Reasons to avoid

-
Only 8GB VRAM
-
Ray tracing and FSR lag behind Nvidia

The AMD Radeon RX 7600 is here to bring AMD RDNA 3 to the under-$300/£300 segment, and it's got plenty of performance despite its lower price tag.

It's 1080p performance is absolutely fantastic for the price, even giving the Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti 12GB a run for its money. It's 1440p performance is also pretty decent considering that the card only has 8GB VRAM and a 128-bit memory bus.

In terms of gaming performance, you can easily get 60 fps on all of the best PC games at 1080p, with most of those running on the highest graphics settings. For more demanding games like Cyberpunk 2077, there might need to be some settings tweaks, but it's still definitely doable, especially with AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution.

Its ray tracing performance is still behind Nvidia's last-gen midrange cards, but RDNA 3 has definitely closed much of the gap between the two, so you don't have to sacrifice ray tracing completely just by going with a cheaper AMD card. 

An AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX on a table against a white backdrop

(Image credit: Future)

The best 4K graphics card from AMD

The best 4K graphics card from AMD

Specifications

Stream Processors: 4,864,
Core Clock: 1,900MHz (2,500MHz Boost)
Memory: 24GB GDDR6
Memory Clock: 20Gbps (960GB/s bandwidth)
Outputs: 1 x HDMI 2.1, 2 x DisplayPort 2.1, 1 x USB Type-C
Power Connectors: 2x PCIe 8-pin
Average FPS at 4K (Tested): 80
Max power consumption (Tested): 359W

Reasons to buy

+
Phenomenal performance
+
Well-priced for a premium card
+
Can fit in most cases
+
No 16-pin connector

Reasons to avoid

-
Just OK creative performance
-
Ray tracing is still a generation behind Nvidia's newest cards
-
Very power hungry

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX had a lot to prove when it hit the scene at the end of 2022, but it succeeds brilliantly in being the most powerful gaming GPU on the market for under $1,000 while outperforming Nvidia's RTX 4080 overall, which costs 20% more.

The new 2nd-gen ray accelerators in the RX 7900 XTX makes 4K gaming on ultra settings with ray tracing a reality on an AMD card, something that the last flagship AMD card, the RX 6950 XT, couldn't quite accomplish. It's not without faults, including falling behind the Nvidia RTX 4000-series in terms of ray tracing (while still beating out the RT performance of the Nvidia RTX 3090) and some uneven creative workload performance, but overall, this is the one graphics card we would recommend to just about anybody who are looking to finally upgrade their GPU after years of graphics card shortages.

An AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT on a table with its retail packaging

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

The best 1440p graphics card from AMD

4. AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT

The best budget GPU for 1440p

Specifications

Compute Units: 2,560
Core Clock: 2,150 MHz (2,600 MHz boost)
Memory: 12GB GDDR6
Memory Clock: 18 Gbps
Power Connectors: 2 x 8-pin
Outputs: 1 x DisplayPort 1.4a, 1 x HDMI 2.1 VRR and FRL
Average FPS at 1440p (Tested): 55
Max power consumption (Tested): 220W

Reasons to buy

+
Excellent thermal performance
+
Low power consumption

Reasons to avoid

-
Too expensive
-
Performance too similar to RTX 3060

Believe it or not, I'm still working on our full AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT review (I'm going for the full last-gen completion acheivement!). But with all the latest-gen cards dropping over the past few months, I've actually put more time in with the RX 6750 XT than I would have if I'd just reviewed it, and I have to say, the performance on this card is pretty spectacular.

It has its limitations, to be fair, and mostly that comes in the form of lagging ray-tracing performance, something that plagued the entire RDNA 2 generation. But for pure rasterization performance at 1440p, the RX 6750 XT is one hell of a contender. If you don't factor in ray tracing or upscaling tech, the RX 6750 XT is able to easily clear 80 fps on maximum settings at 1440p, on average.

This puts it even ahead of the Nvidia RTX 3070! Of course, once you turn on ray tracing, that all changes, with the RX 6750 XT averaging about 32 fps at 1440p with max settings, compared to the RTX 3070's 47 fps average over the same test suite. AMD FSR helps close the gap with an average of 52 fps with RT turned on and FSR set to performance. The RTX 3070, meanwhile, pumps out 68 fps with DLSS set to performance and RT turned on.

And while the Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti has much better ray tracing and upscaling performance, the RX 6750 XT manages to beat Nvidia's midrange GPU pretty handily in pure raster gaming performance, 82 fps to 73 fps, on average.

We'll have more when we formally review the card in the next few weeks, but given everything I've seen, you definitely don't want to sleep on this card, especially now that it's price has dropped considerably now that AMD RDNA 3 and Nvidia Lovelace cards are on the market.

- John Loeffler, Components Editor

AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT on a coffee table

(Image credit: Future)

The best AMD RDNA 2 graphics card

A top-notch AMD graphics cards for 4K workloads

Specifications

Stream Processors: 4,608
Core Clock: 2,015 MHz (2,250 MHz boost)
Memory: 16GB GDDR6
Memory Clock: 16Gbps
Power Connectors: 2 x 8-pin
Outputs: DisplayPort 1.4 with DSC, HDMI 2.1 VRR and FRL

Reasons to buy

+
Ray tracing for AMD
+
Strong DX11 performance

Reasons to avoid

-
Doesn't dethrone Nvidia

Though most AMD graphics cards are great thanks to their value to power ratio, there are a few AMD models that have the muscle to compete for space in the high-end GPU market. The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is one of those cards with its robust 4K performance.

Yes, its ray tracing isn’t as good as the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080. And, its performance lags a little behind in some instances as well. But, in others, it actually outperforms the RTX 3080, specifically when running on DX11. In our testing, we found the 6800 XT to be up to 9% faster in certain games such as Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey and Grand Theft Auto V. If you’re looking for a GPU from Team Red to work or play in 4K, then consider the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT. 

AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT on a book in front of a window

(Image credit: Future)

The best last-gen budget AMD graphics card

An affordable 1080p AMD GPU powerhouse

Specifications

Stream processors: 2,048
Core clock: 1,968
Memory: 8GB GDDR6
Memory clock: 16Gbps
Power connectors: 1 x 8-pin
Outputs: 1.4 with DSC DisplayPort, HDMI 2.1 VRR and FRL

Reasons to buy

+
Strong 1080p performance
+
Great thermal efficiency
+
Low power consumption

Reasons to avoid

-
Should be cheaper
-
Only slightly better than the RTX 3060

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT is possibly the best option in the company’s lineup if you’re looking for a GPU for 1080p gaming. It might not be the cheapest but it’s still affordable so you don’t have to splurge for that power. And, it can handle just about anything at 1080p with aplomb. It also offers great thermal performance and doesn’t consume too much power.

Its fiercest competition is the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060. And, while the 3060 is $50 / £50 cheaper, we found the 6600 XT to perform ten to fifteen percent better in most of our testing. That difference in pricing and performance does make choosing between the two a bit more difficult than it should be. 

While its ray tracing leaves a bit to be desired – an ongoing theme with AMD cards – the inclusion of Radeon Boost, a software feature that prioritizes performance over image fidelity, will appeal to competitive gamers.

How we test the best graphics cards

When it comes to the best graphics cards, it's incredibly important to make sure we're testing everything on an equal playing field. That's why, whenever a new graphics card comes out, we test it in a suite of around 11-12 games and across several resolutions, all on current drivers. 

During this process, we re-test all current-generation graphics cards whenever a new one comes out and ensure that all of the cards are tested on the same hardware – the same processor, the same memory at the same speed, the same motherboard, and the same SSD. That way, we can be sure that we're measuring how the graphics card itself is performing, and we can more reliably compare it against its rivals. 

We also make sure to log how much power its consuming and the temperatures it reaches under load, to make sure we can recommend it to people that may be concerned about high temperatures in their PCs. 

Today's best AMD graphics card deals

John Loeffler
Components Editor

John (He/Him) is the Components Editor here at TechRadar and he is also a programmer, gamer, activist, and Brooklyn College alum currently living in Brooklyn, NY. 


Named by the CTA as a CES 2020 Media Trailblazer for his science and technology reporting, John specializes in all areas of computer science, including industry news, hardware reviews, PC gaming, as well as general science writing and the social impact of the tech industry.


You can find him online on Threads @johnloeffler.


Currently playing: Baldur's Gate 3 (just like everyone else).

With contributions from