This year saw a fascinating shift in the GPU landscape with major releases from AMD and NVIDIA at CES 2025. Significant strategic changes by these giants became pivotal in shaping consumer interest and market dynamics. AMD’s focus on mainstream gaming GPUs left NVIDIA to claim the high-performance tier, a move that worked in AMD’s favor, as we’ll explore further.
Retail availability was a major issue in 2025, with GPUs often out of stock or sold at inflated prices. Despite these challenges, the budget segment thrived, offering gamers appealing options thanks to AMD’s focus on mainstream markets.
Here’s our breakdown of the top GPUs of the year, ranked not only by performance but also by consumer feedback and availability.
Top Performer: NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 5090
NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 5090 leads the high-end GPU market, primarily because it faces no competition in this segment. With a massive 32 GB of GDDR7 VRAM and the new Blackwell GB202 silicon, the RTX 5090 delivers outstanding performance for 4K and even 8K gaming.
NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 5090
NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 5090 is the company’s flagship Blackwell consumer GPU, offering the best performance in the entire segment.
| Architecture | CUDA Cores | L2 Cache | Base/Boost | Memory | Bus | Bandwidth | TGP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blackwell (GB202) | 21,760 | 98 MB | 2.01 / 2.41 GHz | 32 GB GDDR7 | 512-bit | 1,792 GB/s | 575 W |
Although the RTX 5090 excels in performance, its availability and high $1,999 MSRP remain problematic. Nevertheless, its dominance in gaming and AI workloads makes it a top choice for many, albeit a sought-after one due to supply constraints.
Best Overall: AMD’s RX 9070 XT
AMD’s RX 9070 XT emerged as a stellar option in the mainstream GPU segment, offering excellent 1080p and 2K gaming performance at competitive pricing. Positioned as the flagship RDNA 4 GPU, it competed strongly against NVIDIA’s RTX 5070 Ti.
AMD’s Radeon RX 9070 XT
AMD’s Radeon RX 9070 XT is the flagship RDNA 4 GPU, being one of the best options for the mainstream segment.
| Architecture | Cores | L2 Cache | Base / Boost | Memory | Bus | Bandwidth | TGP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RDNA 4 (Navi 48) | 4,096 SPs | 8 MB | 2.40 / 2.97 GHz | 16 GB GDDR6 | 256-bit | 640 GB/s | 304 W |
The RX 9070 XT’s value proposition was heightened by its price advantage over high-cost NVIDIA models. Its extensive availability below MSRP further solidified its popularity among gamers.
Choosing Your Next Gaming GPU
The GPU market in 2025 offered diverse choices, making it challenging for consumers to decide. However, key considerations can guide your choice: understanding your gaming resolution and refresh rate needs, anticipating future-proofing with adequate VRAM, and selecting the right software ecosystem—be it NVIDIA’s DLSS, AMD’s FSR, or Intel’s XeSS. Determining the right power and software ecosystem remains crucial for optimizing your gaming experience and investment.
As we bid farewell to 2025, the year underscored the industry’s potential when manufacturers deliver value-packed performance. Looking ahead to 2026, the competition promises to be just as exciting.