Everything that we’ve written in this article so far has been to give you a basic understanding of the graphics card market (and the hardware) to help you make an informed decision. We have more specific advice in our top picks around which graphics card is best at each resolution and for different people. But ultimately price is the biggest and most important factor. No matter what games you want to play or what resolution you intend to play at, you should buy the best graphics card that fits your budget for your new PC or your upgrade. To be clear, we aren’t suggesting everyone go buy an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090. However, it’s better to pay out more for a graphics card that might be a bit faster than you need...than it is to buy one you think will skate by your requirements, and then be disappointed. A key thing to keep in mind: Games are constantly becoming more graphically intensive, baseline resolutions keep increasing, and faster monitors that support ever higher frame rates keep coming out. Unless you don’t game much, it’s not going to be long before you get a new monitor or find a new game that’s more demanding on your PC. When that happens, you may well want to upgrade your graphics card again no matter what graphics card you buy now. If you opt for the best card that you can afford, however, you put off that day that much longer, and save you money long-term. And, as an added benefit, you’ll likely be able to run the games you do play now with slightly better settings. To be perfectly clear, no graphics card is a bad option at any resolution. Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 4090 is the single fastest graphics card we have ever tested. You might think it is overkill for 1080p but, if you have a high-refresh 360Hz 1080p monitor, it actually might be the best option for you in certain games. When we tested it for our review, it wasn’t able to maintain even 240fps at 1080p in F1 22, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, or Red Dead Redemption 2. It came the closest to succeeding at this task, though. Similarly, you might think some more budget-friendly cards, such as the Intel Arc A770, aren’t suitable for 4K gaming. But in our review, it was able to play several games well enough at 4K with maxed-out graphics settings. You’d want to turn down the graphical detail a bit in some games if you had an Arc A770, but the point is if that’s the best card you can afford with your budget, and you want to play at 4K, you still can. Think carefully about what you want out of your system and what you can afford to spend on a graphics card. Make absolutely sure it’s going to fit in your case and that your power supply, CPU, and other supporting parts are up to the job, and then buy the best graphics card you can manage. Don't go over your planned budget, as you can always buy a better graphics card down the road, but shop within reason, because the best card you can afford now is likely the best for you. You're now ready to look at our parts picks, all lined up, and buy with confidence.