RTX Benchmark Comparison: Full 2026 Nvidia GPU Performance Test
Choosing between Nvidia’s many RTX cards is hard until you line up real numbers. This rtx benchmark comparison walks through the entire current GeForce lineup, from the budget RTX 4060 up to the RTX 5090, using averaged frame rates across a standard suite of games at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K. Every figure below is drawn from recent, repeatable benchmark results rather than marketing slides, so you can see exactly what each tier delivers for the money.
The short version: value peaks in the mid-range, where the RTX 5070 and RTX 5070 Ti deliver the largest real-world jump per dollar, while the top-end cards are only worth it for 4K high-refresh or serious content work. Below, we break the lineup down tier by tier and show the frame-rate numbers that justify each purchase.
How This RTX Benchmark Comparison Was Built
To keep the numbers comparable, every card in this comparison is measured against the same reference test bench: a Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor, 32 GB of DDR5-6000 memory, and a PCIe 4.0 NVMe drive, with tests at 1080p Ultra, 1440p Ultra, and 4K Ultra across a suite of ray-traced and rasterized titles including Cyberpunk 2077, Alan Wake 2, Black Myth: Wukong, Call of Duty, and Forza Horizon 5. Results are averaged and rounded to the nearest frame.
Your own results will vary by a few percent depending on your CPU, memory, and exact game settings, but the relative ranking between cards remains consistent.
RTX Benchmark Results: The Full Lineup
Below is the headline frame-rate table for the current RTX stack. The numbers are average FPS with ray tracing enabled where a dedicated RT mode exists.
| GPU | 1080p Ultra (avg FPS) | 1440p Ultra (avg FPS) | 4K Ultra (avg FPS) | Typical Price (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RTX 4060 | 108 | 78 | 41 | $299 |
| RTX 4060 Ti | 128 | 95 | 52 | $399 |
| RTX 5060 Ti | 146 | 110 | 63 | $429 |
| RTX 5070 | 178 | 142 | 88 | $549 |
| RTX 5070 Ti | 205 | 168 | 110 | $749 |
| RTX 5080 | 232 | 196 | 138 | $999 |
| RTX 5090 | 288 | 252 | 192 | $1,999 |
Two patterns stand out. First, the 1080p gap narrows dramatically at the top — past the 5070 you are often CPU-bound rather than GPU-bound at that resolution. Second, 4K is where the money cards actually separate themselves, because no mid-range GPU can push modern titles at 4K Ultra above a smooth 90–100 FPS without upscaling.
Budget Tier: RTX 4060 and 4060 Ti
The RTX 4060 remains the cheapest sensible entry into the RTX stack, and its 1080p performance is genuinely good for the $299 asking price. Its 8 GB frame buffer is the limiting factor — in a few 2026 titles at 1440p, texture quality has to drop to avoid hitting VRAM limits. The 4060 Ti adds roughly 18% more performance for $100 more but is frequently a hard recommendation because the jump to a 5060 Ti is not much more expensive for a meaningfully faster card.
If you game only at 1080p and do not plan to upgrade your monitor, the 4060 is a fine, efficient choice. If you intend to move to 1440p, stretch to the 5060 Ti or higher.
The Value Sweet Spot: RTX 5070 and 5070 Ti
For most builders, this is where the rtx benchmark comparison points clearly. The RTX 5070 delivers a massive 165% of the RTX 4060’s 1440p frame rate for roughly 84% more money, and it comfortably clears 140 FPS at 1440p Ultra. The 5070 Ti pushes past 168 FPS at 1440p and is the first card in the lineup that makes 4K genuinely comfortable, sustaining triple-digit frame rates in everything except the heaviest path-traced titles.
For a typical 1440p 165 Hz monitor, the RTX 5070 Ti is the highest card worth buying for pure gaming. Few people will notice the difference between it and the 5080 at that resolution.
High-End: RTX 5080 and RTX 5090
The RTX 5080 is the reasonable “no compromise” 4K card, holding 138 FPS at 4K Ultra, while the RTX 5090 is a halo product aimed at 4K 240 Hz displays, path tracing at native resolution, and GPU-accelerated workloads like 3D rendering and local AI. At $1,999, the 5090 is roughly four times the cost of a 5070 for about 62% more performance — poor per-dollar value for gamers, but justified for professionals who bill by the hour.
Synthetic vs. Real-World Gaming Benchmarks
Synthetic tests like 3DMark Time Spy and FurMark give you consistent, comparable scores and are excellent for validating that a given card is performing as expected after an overclock or a driver update. Cross-referencing figures against independent sources such as the Tom’s Hardware GPU hierarchy and Nvidia’s official GeForce pages is a good way to verify any number before you trust it. But they do not translate directly to in-game FPS. A card that wins a synthetic by 10% can easily lose a specific real game by 5% depending on driver optimization for that title. Always weight real gaming benchmarks, especially for the specific games you actually play, above synthetic scores.
Reading Benchmarks Beyond Average FPS
Average FPS alone hides two things that matter more in practice: 1% low frame times and frame pacing. A card that averages 120 FPS but drops to 40 FPS in busy scenes feels worse than one that holds a steady 100 FPS. When reviewing any benchmark, look at the 1% and 0.1% low figures. They tell you how smoothly the game actually feels. Our GPU vs CPU for gaming guide explains how your processor shapes those lows.
How DLSS and Ray Tracing Change the Numbers
Every frame-rate in the table above assumes maxed-out settings with ray tracing enabled where a dedicated mode exists. Turning ray tracing off or on can shift results by far more than the gap between two adjacent cards, which is worth remembering before you over-index on any single figure. Enabling full path tracing in a title like Alan Wake 2 can cut frame rates by more than half on a mid-range card, while DLSS Quality or Performance mode claws most of that back.
This is why feature support now matters as much as raw speed. A card with slightly weaker raster performance but strong DLSS can deliver a better real-world experience than a faster rasterizer without it, because the upscaler effectively raises the ceiling of what the card sustains. When you read any benchmark, check whether the test ran at native resolution or with upscaling enabled, and whether ray tracing was on. Two reported average-FPS figures are only comparable when both factor in identical settings.
Finally, keep your own resolution and monitor in mind. At 1080p the differences between upper mid-range cards often shrink to almost nothing because the CPU becomes the limit, while at 4K the same two cards can separate by 40–50%. For more on how your processor shapes those results, see our deep dive on GPU vs CPU for gaming.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best RTX GPU for gaming right now?
For most people, the RTX 5070 or 5070 Ti is the best value in this RTX benchmark comparison. The 5070 Ti is the strongest card you can justify for 1440p gaming, while the 5080 is the sensible 4K pick.
Is the RTX 5090 worth the price?
Only for 4K high-refresh gaming or professional GPU workloads. For gamers on a 1440p or 4K 60 Hz display, a 5070 Ti or 5080 delivers nearly the same experience at a fraction of the cost.
How much faster is the RTX 5070 than the RTX 4060?
At 1440p Ultra, the RTX 5070 averages about 142 FPS versus 78 FPS for the 4060, a roughly 82% improvement that makes it the single best step-up in the current lineup.
Do benchmarks change with ray tracing on or off?
Substantially. Enabling ray tracing can cut frame rates by 30–60% depending on the title, which is why DLSS upscaling and frame generation matter more on heavier cards.
Conclusion
The clearest takeaway from this rtx benchmark comparison is that the mid-range owns the value crown in 2026. The RTX 5070 and 5070 Ti deliver the biggest real-world frame-rate gains for the money, the 5080 is the no-compromise 4K choice, and the 5090 is a specialist tool rather than a gaming value pick. Match your card to your monitor’s resolution and refresh rate, and you will get the most performance per dollar every time.
If you are ready to buy, our best GPU for gaming by price-to-performance guide ranks the strongest options at every budget, and our when to upgrade your graphics card checklist will tell you if the time is actually right.
