It’s no secret that the suggested retail prices (MSRP) of the latest NVIDIA and AMD graphics cards often differ significantly from actual retail prices. Considering this discrepancy, the YouTube reviewers at Hardware Unboxed recalculated the price-to-performance ratios of popular GPUs, identifying the best-value models.
Methodology
Hardware Unboxed evaluated GPUs based on their average frames per second (fps) across 18 games at 4K and 1440p resolutions. The real-world retail price of each graphics card was then divided by its fps performance, resulting in a Cost Per Frame (CPF) metric.
Best GPUs for 4K Gaming
According to Hardware Unboxed’s calculations, the Radeon RX 7700 XT ranked first in 4K with a cost per frame of $9.07. However, its average 43 fps may not be ideal for a smooth 4K experience. A more comfortable minimum for 4K gaming is the RTX 4070 Super, which delivers 59 fps at $9.92 per frame.
AMD’s latest Radeon RX 9070 XT and Radeon RX 9070 also performed well, offering $10.14 and $10.31 per frame, respectively, both surpassing 60 fps at 4K.
Meanwhile, the NVIDIA RTX 50 series does not yet look particularly competitive in terms of price-to-performance. The RTX 5080, for example, is 30% more expensive than the RTX 4080 Super but only 6% faster. Hardware Unboxed even labeled the RTX 5080 as the worst purchase in the current market. The RTX 5090 has a similar price gap compared to the RTX 4090, but at least offers an 18% performance boost. The RTX 5070, priced at $11 per frame, delivers a solid 60 fps average and appears more competitive.
Best GPUs for 1440p (Quad HD) Gaming
In 1440p, the Radeon RX 7700 XT retained its top position. Meanwhile, the RTX 4070 Super climbed to third place, offering an impressive 106 fps at just $5.52 per frame. Budget options like the Radeon RX 7600 and RTX 4060 also made the list, with AMD’s card being 5% more cost-efficient.
Another notable result was the Radeon RX 9070, which turned out to be slightly more cost-effective than the RTX 5070. However, both lagged behind the RTX 4070 Super, which, despite similar performance, was 11–14% cheaper. Additionally, the Radeon RX 9070 XT proved to be 4.6% more cost-efficient than the Radeon RX 7900 XTX.
At the bottom of the rankings were NVIDIA’s latest high-end models, which had the worst cost-per-frame ratios in 1440p gaming.
