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Looking for the best GPU for the Ryzen 9 9900X?
The 9900X is one of the most impressive high-end CPUs for both productivity and gaming however a CPU is only as good as the rest of the components you pair it with, and the GPU is the most important building block.
A good graphics card will provide the best framerates, and it’s also beneficial for productivity tasks such as video editing and AI. In this video, I’ve picked the three best GPUs to pair with the 9900X across different budgets. One if you don’t want to overspend, another one if you need top performance and money is not an issue and another that balances performance and value.
Before moving on make sure you check the following detailed tutorial on how to choose the best graphics card for you: How to Choose a Graphics Card
Our Top Picks
- ASRock Challenger Intel Arc B580 – Best Budget GPU For Ryzen 9 9900X
- Zotac Solid GeForce RTX 5080 – Best Premium GPU For Ryzen 9 9900X
- PowerColor Red Devil AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT – Our Top Choice
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Why Should You Trust Us?
Konstantinos Chiotis combines over 24 years of hands-on experience in PC building and more than a decade in the tech industry, making him uniquely qualified to provide insightful and reliable hardware recommendations. His longstanding passion for technology and deep understanding of GPUs, motherboards, CPUs, and other PC components ensure thorough and well-researched guidance. Konstantinos’s expertise helps readers confidently select components that deliver optimal performance and lasting value.
How We Chose The Best GPUs for the Ryzen 9 9900X
Choosing the ideal GPU to pair with the Ryzen 9 9900X requires careful consideration of specific factors to leverage this powerful CPU’s full potential. The chosen graphics cards needed to excel not just in gaming performance but also support productivity tasks such as video editing, rendering, and AI-driven workloads.
Compatibility and Bottleneck Considerations
Compatibility is crucial for any high-end GPU and CPU pairing. The Ryzen 9 9900X is a robust processor, capable of handling demanding GPUs without bottlenecking, especially at higher resolutions like 1440p and 4K. GPUs selected had to match or exceed the CPU’s capability, ensuring smooth gameplay and high frame rates without wasted potential.
Performance at Target Resolutions
Different GPUs excel at various resolutions, so selections included:
- 1080p GPUs: Targeted toward competitive gaming where frame rate matters most. Selected GPUs consistently delivered high FPS, minimizing latency for the best competitive advantage.
- 1440p GPUs: Chosen to balance visual fidelity and performance. These cards comfortably handle high graphical settings, achieving excellent FPS in modern games without compromising image quality.
- 4K GPUs: Focused on maximum graphical quality and stable high frame rates, providing outstanding performance in AAA titles with or without ray tracing.
Productivity and Multi-tasking Efficiency
Given that many Ryzen 9 9900X users are content creators and professionals, GPUs with ample VRAM and efficient memory bandwidth were prioritized. VRAM is especially critical for tasks like high-resolution video editing, 3D modeling, and running AI workloads.
Cooling and Power Efficiency
A high-end CPU like the Ryzen 9 9900X generates substantial heat and requires GPUs with effective cooling solutions. The selected graphics cards include robust cooling systems to ensure stable operation under sustained workloads. Moreover, power efficiency was essential—cards were evaluated based on power draw relative to their performance, ensuring users wouldn’t need excessively powerful (and costly) power supplies.
Real-world Gaming and Benchmarking
Performance benchmarks provided the clearest comparison between GPUs. Selected GPUs excelled across various testing scenarios:
- Average FPS: GPUs demonstrating consistently high average FPS in popular and demanding game titles.
- Frame Stability: Low variance in frame rates was crucial to avoid micro-stutters, ensuring smooth gameplay.
- Ray Tracing and Upscaling: GPUs with advanced support for ray tracing and the latest upscaling technologies (such as DLSS and FSR) received priority, though raw rasterization performance remained most critical.
Market Availability and Pricing
Lastly, market availability and value significantly influenced selections. GPUs experiencing persistent shortages or unreasonable pricing spikes were noted, ensuring that you know any buying challenges. Each recommended GPU provides clear value for money, balancing performance, price, and availability effectively.
Summary of Criteria
| Criteria | Importance | Consideration |
|---|---|---|
| Compatibility with Ryzen 9 9900X | High | Matching GPU power to CPU capability |
| Gaming Performance | High | Excellent FPS at targeted resolutions |
| Productivity Performance | Medium | Sufficient VRAM and strong rendering capabilities |
| Cooling and Thermal Management | High | Effective cooling solutions for prolonged workloads |
| Power Efficiency | Medium | Reasonable power consumption relative to performance |
| Price and Availability | High | Stable pricing and reliable availability |
By carefully balancing these key factors, the following GPUs provide excellent performance when paired with the Ryzen 9 9900X.
Best GPUs For Ryzen 9 9900X Reviews
ASRock Challenger Intel Arc B580 – Best Budget GPU For Ryzen 9 9900X
Intel barely has any market share in the GPU space, mainly because they are relatively new competitors to Nvidia and AMD. However, low market share is all the more reason for them to step up with great performance and value. These departments are exactly where the ASRock Intel Arc B580 shines, pairing a robust design with Intel’s latest graphics chip.
The Arc B580 is the successor to the Arc A580, and the improvements here are substantial. First off, we get a VRAM bump from 8GB to 12GB, significantly improving performance in games where high-quality textures are a concern. It has a higher boost clock of up to 2.7GHz on the ASRock Challenger variant, and it’s up to 40% faster than its predecessor in 1080p gaming.
Comparing it to a similarly priced RTX 4060, it is about 5% faster and features 4GB more VRAM. It’s also 4% faster than the RX 7600 XT. While it’s not primarily a 1440p card, neither are any of the other cards available in this price bracket.
Most of these performance improvements come from Intel’s new Battlemage GPU architecture. The new architecture brings improvements to upscaling, frame generation, ray tracing, and of course, raw rasterization (meaning traditional rendering without upscaling or ray tracing).
As for the specific variant, I recommend the ASRock Challenger B580 as it’s one of the cheapest versions of the card. Despite the cheap price tag, the Challenger features a full metal backplate, RGB lighting, and two high-performance fans. It’s a dual-slot graphics card, meaning it will fit into any case with ease and it comes with a single 8-pin power connector, and a 500W power supply is recommended. The color scheme is simple, with an all-black appearance that will work with almost any build.
Compared to the reference version of the B580, the specs here are very similar. It has the same 12GB of VRAM, 20 Ray Tracing cores, and 160 Tensor cores. The only real difference is the boost clock bump to 2740MHz, which translates to a 2.6% overclock. In terms of ports, you get three DisplayPort 2.1 ports and 1 HDMI 2.1 port.
At 1080p, when paired with the 9900X, there is no CPU bottleneck at all. This means you’ll be maximizing the GPU to its full potential. At 1080p, 83FPS is the average across a wide variety of titles. In competitive titles, such as Counter-Strike 2, Marvel Rivals, and Black Ops 6, expect well over 120FPS even with high settings. Maximizing your high refresh rate monitor has never been cheaper.
The closest competitor to this card would be the RTX 4060. For people who care about raw performance and VRAM, the Arc B580 outshines it in both departments. The 4060 does pull ahead in ray tracing and upscaling technology, but you should not be prioritizing such features over performance in this budget end of the spectrum.
Unfortunately, there is a major downside with this card, and it has nothing to do with the card itself. Thanks to the ongoing GPU shortage and increasing demand for budget cards, the Arc B580 is very difficult to find at the Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price. This GPU only makes sense if you can find it for under $300, which is getting increasingly difficult day by day.
However, if you do get it at a good price, you’ll be very happy with the overall performance. The ASRock Challenger is a great variant, and temperatures never exceed 70 degrees while gaming. It’s a great 1080p card that won’t break the bank, and 12GB of VRAM ensures that you never run into struggles with textures not loading.
To sum up, what I like is…
Compact, dual-slot design
Great performance for the price
Power efficient and cheaper than the rtx 4060
12GB of VRAM
On the downside…
Scarce availability at the Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price
Zotac Solid GeForce RTX 5080 – Best Premium GPU For Ryzen 9 9900X
Nvidia’s RTX 50-series launch hasn’t exactly been great. There are numerous availability issues, problems with the 12-pin power connector, and dubious marketing claims. However, if you drown out all the noise and focus on the RTX 5080 itself, it’s a very strong GPU for 4K gaming. This is especially true for the Zotac Solid variant, which is one of the best variants around this generation.
Compared to its predecessor, the RTX 4080, the RTX 5080 has a lot of improvements on paper. It has 10% more cores, a slightly higher boost clock at 2.6GHz, and 16GB of GDDR7 memory instead of GDDR6. The 5080 also gets a few exclusive features, such as Multi-Frame Generation. As usual, you also get significantly improved Ray Tracing and AI performance.
Compared to its closest AMD equivalent, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, the RTX 5080 is already 15% faster in most games. This is without factoring in Ray Tracing and upscaling. Once you add in those parameters, the gap widens to about 40% at 4K. If you’re wondering how it stands next to its last gen counterpart, the 5080 outperforms the RTX 4080 by 14%, and the 4080 Super by 15%.
A lot of these performance improvements come down to the increased CUDA, Tensor, and RT cores.
The new Blackwell architecture also features Multi-frame generation, which is a technology that leverages AI to predict and generate additional frames in real time. Previously, the RTX 40-series could only add one generated frame, but MFG allows for up to three generated frames. While this improves performance in a lot of games, it also adds latency in many titles.
For the specific variant, I recommend the Zotac SOLID RTX 5080. Usually, I would recommend ASUS’s high-end line for such a premium graphics card, but this time they’ve failed to deliver on reliability as their 5080 cards are running into a multitude of issues. Instead, the Zotac SOLID is a more robust card with better cooling and durability.
It’s also quite the looker. The black-and-gold aesthetic reminds you of the good old Titan XP days, even though the overall footprint is substantially bigger. This is a gigantic triple slot card that has a length of 13 inches. It’s not going to fit into any ITX case with ease, and might even struggle with a lot of microATX cases. Thankfully, it runs cool thanks to the triple-fan design.
Out of the box, it comes with a 3x 8-pin-to-12VHPWR cable, a GPU support stand, and what Zotac calls a Spectra Link cable for more control over ARGB lighting. Speaking of which, there’s only one small RGB zone near the right end of this graphics card. This works well given the card’s cleaner aesthetic.
For performance, when paired with the Ryzen 9 9900X, expect exceptional framerates in almost any game, even at 4K. Without Ray Tracing, the SOLID 5080 delivers an average of 97FPS at 4K. Enabling the highest Ray Tracing settings at 4K will lower framerates by quite a bit, but the new DLSS 4 upscaling technology helps to even out the performance there.
So, the story comes down to price. The RTX 5080 is already an expensive GPU, and even more expensive if we factor in the GPU shortage and limited availability. Other options would be an RX 9070 XT. However, while that card is cheaper and has slightly better availability, it’s noticeably slower than the RTX 5080, especially at 4K with ray tracing.
The Zotac Solid RTX 5080 is a great high-end graphics card if you can buy it. The performance is fantastic, new features such as Multi-Frame Generation are enticing, and the appearance of this card is very premium.
To sum up, what I like is…
Fantastic performance at 4K
DLSS 4 is a game changer
Quite efficient for an 80-class card
High-end design
On the downside…
Extremely hard to find at a good price
Gigantic size limits case choices
PowerColor Red Devil AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT – Our Top Choice
AMD has been struggling to deliver a decent value proposition compared to Nvidia for a couple of generations now. While Radeon cards always have great raw performance, they usually have uncompetitive pricing and poor results in Ray Tracing. AMD is looking to change that with the 9070 XT. The PowerColor Red Devil variant, in particular, nails the balance between price and power, even if it’s not as flashy as its pricier siblings.
While the 9070 XT doesn’t have a direct predecessor, it serves as an upgrade to the RX 7900 GRE. It trades a few cores for a significantly higher boost clock (up to 3.06GHz) and RDNA 4’s architectural tweaks, delivering 20% faster rasterization than the GRE and even 6-8% gains over the 7900 XT.
Compared to Nvidia’s closest competitor, the RTX 5070 Ti, it’s just 9% slower in raw performance but 25% cheaper— a trade-off that’s more than worth it with the current GPU market.
Most importantly, AMD’s new RDNA 4 architecture brings AMD’s ray tracing and AI capabilities closer to that of Nvidia. FSR 4, AMD’s upscaling alternative to DLSS, now uses machine learning and AI algorithms to improve upscaling. While it’s not quite as sharp as DLSS 4, it’s a massive leap over FSR 3 and DLSS 3, with almost better than native image quality and motion handling.
The Red Devil itself is a beast of a card. Like most powerful GPUs, this is a triple-slot card that’s gigantic in size. It is 13.4 inches long and chunkier than most midrange GPUs. As expected, you won’t be fitting this into any ITX or even most microATX cases with ease. Fortunately, the three-fan cooling keeps temps surprisingly tame even under load.
The black shroud with red accents and aggressive RGB lighting mimics the classic gamer aesthetic that you all know and love. Fortunately, PowerColor has restrained the flashy aesthetic with the mostly black appearance, giving the Red Devil a clean look with a subtle red glow. It comes with a GPU support bracket and an addressable RGB LED cable that can plug into your motherboard or fan controller.
In terms of performance, when paired with a Ryzen 9 9900X, expect excellent framerates at 1440p. For games like Cyberpunk 2077, Alan Wake 2, and God of War Ragnarok, you get a smooth 120FPS with the highest settings. Competitive titles are not a problem either, as Counter-Strike 2 can run at 250FPS with the highest settings at 1440p. Interestingly, the 9070 XT also handles a surprising number of titles at 4K. FSR 4 upscaling helps here, and most games are playable at 4K with the right mix of settings and upscaling.
When it comes to the competition, the 5070 Ti costs around $150 more, and it doesn’t offer all that much more in terms of performance. The standard RTX 5070 is closer in price but suffers from 4GB less VRAM and worse performance. However, the 9070 XT does draw more power than either card.
So, that makes the RX 9070 XT the best-performing mid-range GPU of this generation. It’s the one you should be buying instead of the 5070 or 5070 Ti because of the value proposition alone. Best of all, it pairs well with high-end CPUs such as the Ryzen 9 9900X.
To sum up, what I like is….
Stellar performance across the board
Competitive pricing
Iconic red and black design
Major improvements with FSR 4
On the downside…
Draws more power than RTX 5070 and 5070 Ti
Actual market price is higher these days
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. Can the Ryzen 9 9900X bottleneck a GPU?
The Ryzen 9 9900X typically does not bottleneck modern GPUs. It’s powerful enough to fully utilize high-end graphics cards, especially at resolutions like 1440p and 4K, ensuring smooth gameplay and maximum GPU performance.
2. How much VRAM do I need for gaming with the Ryzen 9 9900X?
The amount of VRAM you need depends on your gaming resolution. For 1080p, at least 8GB is sufficient; for 1440p gaming, aim for 12GB, and for smooth 4K gaming, 16GB or more is ideal to handle high-resolution textures and detailed graphics without issues.
3. Should I prioritize GPU ray tracing performance for the Ryzen 9 9900X?
Prioritizing ray tracing depends on your gaming preferences. If realistic lighting and reflections matter to you, choose GPUs known for strong ray tracing performance, typically from Nvidia’s RTX series. Otherwise, raw performance and VRAM might offer better value.
4. What power supply is recommended for pairing GPUs with a Ryzen 9 9900X?
The recommended power supply for most GPUs paired with a Ryzen 9 9900X ranges between 650W to 850W. Budget GPUs generally require around 500W to 650W, whereas high-end GPUs such as the RTX 5080 or RX 9070 XT should have an 850W PSU for stability and future-proofing.
5. Is GPU cooling important when paired with the Ryzen 9 9900X?
GPU cooling is essential when paired with the Ryzen 9 9900X. Powerful GPUs generate substantial heat during gaming or productivity tasks. Choose graphics cards with robust cooling solutions like multiple fans and metal backplates to ensure reliability and optimal performance.
6. Do AMD or Nvidia GPUs pair better with Ryzen 9 9900X?
Both AMD and Nvidia GPUs pair effectively with the Ryzen 9 9900X. The choice depends on your specific needs—Nvidia GPUs offer stronger ray tracing and better DLSS upscaling, whereas AMD provides great rasterization performance and often better value at mid-range pricing.
7. Can I use a budget GPU effectively with Ryzen 9 9900X?
A budget GPU can effectively pair with the Ryzen 9 9900X, particularly for 1080p gaming. CPUs like the 9900X will ensure you get the most out of your GPU, delivering high frame rates and improved performance compared to less powerful processors.
8. What GPU features matter most for content creators using Ryzen 9 9900X?
For content creators, GPU features like ample VRAM (12GB or more), fast memory bandwidth, and support for AI-enhanced workloads are critical. These features accelerate video editing, 3D rendering, and AI-driven tasks, making GPUs with these characteristics ideal.
9. Is PCIe 5.0 support necessary in GPUs for Ryzen 9 9900X?
PCIe 5.0 support is not strictly necessary for Ryzen 9 9900X. While future-proofing with PCIe 5.0 is beneficial, current GPUs perform optimally with PCIe 4.0, which already offers sufficient bandwidth for high-end gaming and productivity workloads.
10. What GPU size should I consider for building with Ryzen 9 9900X?
When choosing a GPU size, consider your case compatibility. High-end GPUs typically require large cases due to their triple-slot and longer designs (often 13 inches or more). Always verify GPU dimensions against your case specifications before purchasing to avoid fitting issues.
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