I bear in mind each graphics card I ever purchased. From the underpowered GeForce 6600 (non-GT) that sparked my PC constructing profession to the overkill RX 7900 XTX that I now use to play light-weight indie video games, all of them have a particular place in my coronary heart. But whereas I’m fortunate to have a robust GPU that lets me play nearly no matter I need, if I didn’t, I nonetheless wouldn’t be upgrading to one in all this technology’s playing cards.
Nvidia’s RTX 5090 is spectacular, however too costly. The RTX 5070 Ti provides higher worth, however good luck discovering one. AMD’s RX 9070 XT is genuinely a fairly superior card relative to what else is on the market, and the underdog fan in me desires you to purchase it in order that Nvidia has sufficient competitors to do something about its pricing and AI focus… however I’m nonetheless recommending that you just don’t.
Honestly, this graphics card technology simply form of sucks. Here’s why I’m holding off and why you must think about doing the identical.
I refuse to reward Nvidia’s habits
While I’m going to sling a good bit of shade on this article, nobody deserves it greater than Nvidia. I’m removed from the primary to say it, however the RTX 50 sequence launch has been some of the problematic in PC {hardware} historical past. I’ve been writing about graphics playing cards for over 20 years and have articles going again all that point lamenting Nvidia’s launch methods, however this one has been shambolic even by its personal doubtful requirements.
Beyond the driver issues, the missing ROPs, the melting power cables, and terrible availability and pricing, it’s the sheer hubris of this technology that actually irks me. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang stood on that stage at CES 2025 and stretched the reality to Nvidia followers. Not even within the wildest stretches of the creativeness is an RTX 5090 twice as fast as an RTX 4090. Nor does the RTX 5070 provide “4090 performance at $549,” as it simply isn’t available at that price and its efficiency isn’t remotely comparable. Not even the RTX 5080 can declare to be quicker than the 4090.
Adam Patrick Murray / Foundry
Nvidia is now making most of its cash from AI, knowledge facilities, and cozying as much as the most recent US administration, and it appears like the corporate simply doesn’t actually care about gaming anymore. They ought to—and I want they’d—however they don’t. Gamers really feel like an afterthought.
Just take a look at the efficiency upgrades supplied by in the present day’s playing cards. Just a few scant double-digit proportion factors right here and there, plus some slight ray tracing enhancements. Arguably the one actual enhance with this technology is the DLSS 4 transformer mannequin, however that’s AI as soon as once more. It appears like Nvidia is merely utilizing its gaming advances to coach AI for different ventures.
To me, shopping for any of the Blackwell graphics playing cards is rewarding Nvidia’s dangerous habits. It’s time we gave them a collective bonk on the nostril by leaving the RTX 50 sequence to the scalpers. Let all of them languish.
AMD’s playing cards are solely “good enough”
I’ve a gentle spot for AMD. I like a great underdog story, and although a $200 billion firm can actually solely be “underdogs” to multi-trillion-dollar sharks like Nvidia, AMD’s graphics division has persistently performed second fiddle. They’ve had some actual standout playing cards, although, and I loved watching the RX 6900 XT get inside placing distance of Nvidia’s flagship playing cards. Big Navi virtually delivered, however not fairly.
But if I take away my Radeon-tinted glasses for a second, AMD hasn’t been aggressive with Nvidia for a while. Their ray tracing efficiency has been lackluster. Their open-source mannequin for upscaling is admirable, however much less succesful than DLSS. They’ve repeatedly dedicated GPU pricing sins that make them much less aggressive than they need to be. (I’m taking a look at you, RX 7900 XT at simply $100 lower than the RX 7900 XTX!)
Adam Patrick Murray / Foundry
The RX 9070 XT is the primary AMD card in a very long time that gives a compelling mixture of sturdy rasterization efficiency, ray tracing that’s shut sufficient to Nvidia that it doesn’t really feel a technology behind, and it has FSR body technology now. It’s upscaling tech nonetheless doesn’t match DLSS, nevertheless it’s ok. All collectively, that makes the 9070 XT nearly the perfect graphics card to purchase this technology.
But “good enough” isn’t ok. Due to availability points, individuals nonetheless can’t purchase it—and simply over a month on from its launch, the pricing has gotten virtually as ridiculous as Nvidia’s. When avid gamers can seize an Xbox Series X, PS5, or perhaps a Switch 2 for underneath $500, however you’re anticipating PC avid gamers to pay over $1,000 for the graphics card alone, one thing has gone fully out of whack someplace alongside the best way.
It’s an issue particular to graphics playing cards
You know what I’m not writing about as of late? How ridiculous SSD pricing has turn out to be, or how RAM is someway outpricing shoppers, or some other piece of {hardware} bleeding avid gamers dry.
Sure, if you wish to purchase a flagship CPU, it’ll price you upwards of $450—however you can too get a extremely quick one for simply $200-300, particularly for those who’re prepared to go final technology. RAM is definitely the most cost effective I’ve ever seen it, and you may get a number of TBs of PCIe 4 storage for simply over $100. Motherboards are a bit foolish, however you may nonetheless discover a succesful one for lower than $200. And energy provides can be found for a spread of budgets.
Newegg
But fashionable graphics playing cards are in a league of their very own. If you need even the barest of barebones GPUs for good body charges at 1080p, as of this writing you’ve got only a few choices. Even one thing like Intel’s B580 will price you nearer to $400, a giant leap up from its $250 launch worth.
I do know, I do know. Some of the insane pricing is because of components past the management of those corporations. Graphics playing cards price quite a bit to fabricate and traditionally they’ve had poor margins, plus Trump’s tariffs are not serving to issues. But perhaps greed is combined in there someplace, too?
I really feel out of my thoughts to be celebrating the truth that AMD has a graphics card that prices the higher a part of $1,000 whereas solely providing comparable efficiency to high-end playing cards from 2-3 years in the past (which price the same quantity when they debuted again then).
This GPU technology is one to be skipped
I acknowledge that I’m in a privileged place. Not solely do I’ve a robust graphics card already, however there’s each probability I’ll get to check a fair higher graphics card sooner or later to exchange it. I’m not your common client. So if you want a brand new graphics card to play these new video games that excite you, I definitely wouldn’t begrudge you spending your hard-earned cash on what you need.
But for those who can skip this technology, I completely assume you must. What’s on provide simply isn’t that compelling. Sure, some playing cards are higher than others, and I’m genuinely excited that AMD is correctly competing with Nvidia on bang in your buck (even when it doesn’t have this technology’s equal of Big Navi). Yet even with exterior components pumping costs ever greater, I nonetheless really feel like these corporations can do higher.
AMD’s body technology and upscaling ought to be higher. Its ray tracing efficiency ought to have caught up years in the past. Nvidia’s pricing is downright insulting, and the dishonest and hyperbolic advertising and marketing is simply as dangerous. The entire graphics card trade wants a shakeup… and it’ll solely come from avid gamers voting with our wallets.