If 4K gaming is what you're after, then there's no way around the fact that you'll need a powerful graphics card. Although NVIDIA makes excellent 4K-capable video cards in the guise of the RTX 4080 and 4090, we're tired of NVIDIA's price gouging. The 4080 costs $1200 and the 4090 costs $1600. Well, AMD gives you a better option #3 in the guise of the Radeon RX 7900 XTX. Currently, Amazon is offering the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 7900 XTX for $889.99 after you clip a $60 coupon. This is the best price we've seen, and among Radeon cards, Sapphire is the brand I would recommend the most.
Sapphire Pulse AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX Video Card (Better Than the RTX 4080) for $889.99
The Radeon RX 7900 XTX is AMD's flagship card, and it's mean enough to challenge the crazy powerful GeForce RTX 40 series cards. When you look at raw benchmarks without factoring in ray tracing or DLSS/FSR, the RX 7900 XTX actually outperforms the $1199 GeForce RTX 4080 in most games. It's also a good candidate for 3D work or AI art (like Stable Diffusion) because of its higher amount of VRAM (24GB vs 18GB).Once you factor in NVIDIA's DLSS technology over AMD's FSR, the RTX 4080 does edge out the RX 7900 XTX in some games, but still, that's a pretty awesome win for a card that's currently selling for $300 less than a 4080.
If You Need Ray Tracing, Stick with NVIDIA
AMD Radeon cards are outstanding alternatives to the NVIDIA GeForce cards in terms of both price and availability. For most gamers who want to maximize their performance for their dollar, these AMD GPUs are the way to go. However, if you're set on playing 4K games with ray tracing enabled, then you'll want to stick with NVIDIA. That's because the GeForce cards admittedly perform far better than their Radeon counterparts when it comes to ray tracing. Ray tracing is a form of rendering that allows for more realstic lighting effects. It makes light sources and shadows look better, but at the steep cost of GPU resources. At the end of the day, if you really want ray tracing, then you'll have to pony up that extra money. Is it really worth it for some extra lighting effects? That's up to you.
