Experts at the German outlet PC Games Hardware (PCGH) have updated their ranking of graphics cards with the best price-to-performance ratio for 2026, naming AMD's Radeon RX 9070 the top choice for gamers using classic rasterization rendering.
The publication tested cards across two common gaming resolutions, Full HD and WQHD, and split its recommendations by workload, since a card that performs well in traditionally rendered games is not always the best pick for titles that use ray tracing.
Best cards for rasterization
The Radeon RX 9070, built on AMD's RDNA 4 architecture with 16 gigabytes of video memory, topped the rasterization ranking. PCGH noted that in many regions it can still be found close to its recommended retail price, something the outlet called unusual given current market conditions.
Intel's Arc B580 placed second. With a recommended price of about 250 euros, it undercuts rivals such as Nvidia's RTX 4060 and AMD's RX 7600 while matching or beating their performance in a number of scenarios, according to PCGH.
The Radeon RX 9070 XT ranked third, followed by the RX 9060 XT 8GB and the RX 9070 GRE, rounding out the top five. PCGH said Nvidia's cards lag noticeably behind AMD's on price-per-frame, which it attributed to changes in Nvidia's pricing policy.
Best cards for ray tracing
For ray tracing, PCGH ranked Intel's Arc B580 as the leader, with the Radeon RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT also among its main recommendations. Which of the two AMD cards to pick, the outlet said, depends mainly on budget and the resolution a gamer intends to play at.
PCGH suggested the Arc B580 for a budget-focused Full HD gaming system. For gamers seeking higher performance at 2K resolution, particularly with ray tracing enabled, the Radeon RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT were described as the more attractive options.
The outlet cautioned that graphics card prices change constantly, so the ranking reflects the market as of September 2026. Short-term discounts were not factored in; instead, PCGH said it used the lowest prices offered at the same time by several reliable retailers as its benchmark.
Nvidia's pricing under pressure
The ranking comes as Nvidia's high-end pricing draws increasing attention. Media reports have noted that the cheapest version of Nvidia's GeForce RTX 5090 has already climbed past 5,000 euros in Europe, with some models approaching 5,500 euros.
UNIAN has previously reported that Nvidia does not plan to release its next generation of gaming graphics cards until at least 2028. In the meantime, the company has returned the RTX 3060, a card originally launched five years ago, to store shelves.
