Editing videos can be a grind—an especially slow and loud one when your graphics card isn’t up to the task. 

Building a video editing PC can help you handle most demanding tasks, but if you want to add complex transitions and effects, work with motion graphics, render 4K and 8K videos fast, and multi-task with zero interruptions, you’ll need a dedicated graphics card (GPU—which stands for graphics processing unit, but nobody calls it that).

With hundreds of GPUs to choose from, how do you pick the right one for your needs and budget? 

Here’s a breakdown of today’s best graphics cards for video editing, along with tips on how to buy the right GPU for your workflow.

Top 12 best graphics cards (GPUs) for video editing

1. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090

Best overall video editing graphics card 

Average price: $1,670-$2,000

NVIDIA has prioritized content creation with its latest GeForce releases. The GeForce RTX 3090 is part of the RTX 30 series of NVIDIA graphics cards—which includes the RTX 3080 below—fitted with many efficiency and performance advancements.

The large triple-slot card has 24 GB onboard video memory (VRAM) to deliver high-quality performance and render videos faster. It supports NVLink, a high-speed CPU and GPU connection, which lets processors send and receive data at lightning speed. This makes the card more suitable for editing videos with detailed geometry and large scenes. 

The RTX 3090 card significantly outperforms the RTX 2000 series GPUs in different render engines, but performs almost on par with the RTX 2080 Ti cards in Adobe Creative Cloud and DaVinci Resolve. It also supports real-time ray tracing for creating videos with realistic lightning effects.

Overall, the RTX 3090 is a great improvement over previous generations, with better handling of demanding video editing workloads in any application.

Features:

Pros:

• Faster rendering
• Keeps up with strenuous demands
• Excellent cooling
• Adequate onboard memory
• Delivers high-quality performance
• Supports NVLink

Cons:

• Expensive
• May not fit some PC cases 

2. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080

Best value for money

Average price: $880 - $1,599

Editing videos with NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card is extraordinary when you see everything it can do. 

It’s more affordable than the RTX 3090 with better rendering performance. But its onboard memory is lower than the RTX 3090, meaning it’ll limit the complexity of scenes you can render. 

The average video editor probably won't spot much of a difference with the GeForce RTX 30 series cards. But if you use a lot of GPU-accelerated effects, these cards deliver better performance and video quality than older models of the same price.

The Founders Edition doesn’t have USB-C output, which is a must if you’re a professional content creator using USB-C monitors. But it makes up for that with three DisplayPort outputs and an HDMI 2.1 output.

Whether you’re editing 8K video or rendering complex 3D models, the RTX 3080 balances performance and value, helping you produce your best videos.

Features:

Pros:

• Fast performance
• Dual axial flow cooling
• Good rendering 
• Decent memory
• Value for money

Cons:

• Pricey 
• No USB-C in Founders Edition

3. AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT

Best for ultra-high frame rates

Price: $700–$1,300

While most GPU releases focus on gaming, AMD has included a content creation performance section on its product pages. The section is based on benchmarks from reliable review sites and can help you compare GPUs.  

Like other AMD Radeon RX graphics cards, the RX 6900 XT is engineered with powerful compute units, hardware ray tracing acceleration, and other features for ultra-high frame rates. 

That said, AMD’s RX 6000 cards are more constrained by memory. The RX 6900 XT is no different. Its large 16 GB VRAM uses GDDR6 memory, which may be useful for some video editing workloads but pales in comparison to NVIDIA’s GDDR6X memory. 

Ultimately, you’ll need to decide whether picking the lower-priced RX 6900 over a more powerful card like the RTX 3090 is worth the large performance loss.

Features:

Pros:

• AMD RDNA 2 architecture
• Ideal for professional content creation 
• Significantly faster than previous gen AMD GPUs

Cons:

• Expensive 
• Struggles in GPU-intensive apps compared to other GPUs

4. AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT

Best budget graphics card 

Price: $500–$700

Like the RX 6900 XT, the RX 6800 XT video card is based on the RDNA 2 graphics architecture and comes with boosted efficiency, making it significantly faster than previous generation AMD GPUs. It also costs less than the 6900 XT, which is incrementally faster.

While it doesn’t beat NVIDIA’s RTX 30-series cards, the speedy Infinity Cache in the 6800 XT narrows the gap it would experience when pitted against NVIDIA cards. Plus, it can boost up to 2250 MHz, making it useful in 4K video editing and super busy workloads.

Other notable features include the DirectX 12 Ultimate-compatible Ray Accelerators on each of the 6800 XT’s compute units, which allow the card to handle real-time ray tracing with a steady frame rate.

Features:

Pros:

• Effective cooler
• Strong performance
• Cheaper than rival GPUs
• Higher clock speeds
• Offers USB-C video out

Cons:

• Dated card design
• Lacks Tensor cores
• Lags behind NVIDIA cards for 4K with ray tracing activated

5. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti

Best mid-range video editing GPU 

Price: $170–$400

Although the “Ti” in the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti stands for “titanium,” NVIDIA didn’t use the metal to manufacture its card. It just means it’s a more powerful GPU than non-Ti GPU versions with faster memory and/or more CUDA cores. 

To stay competitive against rival AMD GPUs, NVIDIA releases Ti versions of its GPUs, such as the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti as a response to AMD’s Vega 56 and RX 590.

If you want high frame rates, amazing detail levels at high resolutions, and software support at an affordable price, try the GTX 1660 Ti. It’s a plug-and-play straight swap card built on the Turing architecture, which debuted the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti.

This mid-range GPU, which replaced the older GTX 1060, is loaded with architectural enhancements for faster performance, better efficiency, and a superior video editing experience.

Features:

Pros:

• Supports up to 4 monitors
• Great performance at 1920 x 1080
• Efficient and overclockable
• Effective dual-BIOS profiles optimized for noise
• Compact and more affordable 

Cons:

• No hardware ray tracing
• No Tensor cores
• Memory is limited to 12 Gbps speeds

6. NVIDIA Quadro P5000

Best GPU for professional grade workstations

Price: $500–$1,000

With the NVIDIA Quadro P5000 GPU, you get fast performance for demanding video editing, complex visual effects, and large rendering tasks.

The card's Pascal GPU architecture makes it more efficient than older Quadro GPUs. The card also features four DisplayPort outputs, so it can simultaneously support up to four 4K monitors. For users with legacy monitors, a dual-link DVI output is available. 

Plus, the Quadro card is certified with a wide range of professional applications, giving you peace of mind when editing high-quality videos.

Features:

Pros:

• Equipped with more CUDA cores and larger frame-buffers compared to lower-end models
• Supports advanced ray tracing technologies, like the NVIDIA Iray
• Supports up to four 4K monitors at the same time
• Supports a wide range of next-gen ray tracing standards

Cons:

• Not good at double-precision calculations
• Lower performance compared to newer GPUs

7. AMD Radeon Pro WX 8200

Best for video production and 3D design

Price: $550–$600

AMD’s Radeon Pro WX 8200 graphics card was designed with professional creative workstations in mind. You can use it for your video production needs or even 3D design and virtual reality development.

The WX 8200 is based on AMD’s Vega series, which ensures the card delivers the performance you need for demanding video editing work. 

AMD used the same 2048-bit memory bus width as the WX 9100 and 14-nanometer architecture in the WX 8200. However, it has fewer stream processors, only 8 GB compared to the WX 9100’s 16 GB RAM, and some disabled compute units. 

Features:

Pros:

• Good balance of performance and price
• High bandwidth controller
• Great for quality video editing
• Has adaptors for alternative connector types

Cons:

• No CUDA cores
• Smaller memory capacity than other Radeon Pro cards

8. NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000

Best for demanding design and visualization workflows

Price: $800–$850

The Quadro RTX 5000 is powered by NVIDIA’s Turing architecture. This pushes performance and brings together real-time ray tracing, artificial intelligence, and programmable shading, providing the power content creators need for demanding video editing workflows.

The card’s powerful specifications, including 3072 CUDA cores, 384 Tensor cores, and 48 RT Cores, allow it to render complex models and scenes with physically accurate shadows, reflections, and refractions. This empowers creators with instant insight and is beneficial for video production tasks.

The Quadro RTX 5000 supports up to four displays at high resolutions. It features four DisplayPort 1.4 connections, so you can get a more immersive and productive workflow. Being one of the first to implement VirtualLink, it provides connectivity to high-resolution VR headset displays for an immersive virtual environment. 

Features:

Pros:

• Renders photorealistic scenes in real-time
• Performs better than PCIe-based solutions 
• Offers flexible configurations
• Works with many mid to high-end workstations 

Cons:

• High power consumption
• Expensive 

9. NVIDIA Titan RTX

Best for 8K video editing

Price: $1,300–$2,500

The Titan RTX is a fast graphics card designed for content creators, AI researchers, data scientists, and developers. The GPU’s 24 GB of GDDR6 memory can process large data sets enabling faster end-to-end workflows. 

Like other GeForce and Quadro GPUs in its generation, the Titan RTX features 576 Tensor cores and 72 RT cores, which bring new functionality in GPU-accelerated applications. 

An NVLink Bridge is included to connect two Titan RTX cards together. This doubles the memory capacity to 48 GB, which is ideal for larger rendering tasks, enabling you to edit faster and deliver better results.

The card’s dual cooling fans keep things running smooth and quiet. However, most of the heat it generates may be pumped back into your computer, so you can’t use it in multi-GPU systems or configurations with limited space between each card. A card with a blower-style fan and rear heat exhaust might be more suited for such cases.

Features:

Pros:

• Enables real-time 8K video editing
• Has twice the memory capacity of previous-gen TITAN GPUs
• Takes on demanding video production tasks
• Runs complex, multi-application workflows
• Improved Tensor cores improve performance

Cons:

• Expensive
• Not ideal for multi-GPU systems or configurations with limited space 

10. AMD Radeon Pro VII

Best all-in-one GPU for workstation users 

Price: $600–$700

The AMD Radeon Pro VII is a capable, high-end graphics card and one of the best AMD graphics cards aimed at the 3D or CAD modeling, media, and HPC workstation market segments. 

The GPU is a professional version of the Radeon VII, based on AMD’s Vega 20 GPU. This architecture provides fast double precision support and extreme memory bandwidth, making the card ideal for video editing tasks. 

Previous Radeon Pro cards were based on AMD’s broad-market workstation and consumer GPUs, but the Radeon Pro VII was the first professional GPU since 2014 to offer significant rendering capabilities and a wide range of GPU compute features.  

The card remains stable under heavy workloads without crashing or shutting down your machine. It’s fast, uses less power, runs cooler, and supports real-time ray tracing. 

Features:

Pros:

• Renders complex models and scenes with accurate shadows and refractions
• Supports AMD Infinity Fabric, making multi-GPU performance more efficient
• Support for mixed graphics/computer tasks

Cons:

• Power hungry GPU
• No HDMI port
• Lower boost clock

11. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Super

Best entry-level video editing GPU 

Price: $170–$300

The NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 1660 Super is its non-Ti version, so its performance is slower than the GTX 1660 Ti card. The card is built on NVIDIA’s Turing platform, which is different from the latest Ampere architecture. It’s also among the more affordable cards that won’t draw as much power from the power supply unit (PSU) or demand a sophisticated cooling solution.

You won’t get RT cores, but the card does support ray tracing to some extent. The GTX 1660 Super is still a decent GPU with a reasonable rendering speed, especially for full HD footage. 

If you have a small PC case, it’s possible to find a GTX 1660 Super with a shorter board design, provided your motherboard has the space for two expansion bays to accommodate the cooling heatsink and fan assembly.

Features:

Pros:

• Affordable
• Can suit smaller PC towers
• Reasonable rendering speeds
• Good 1080p performance
• Doesn’t need a sophisticated cooling solution

Cons:

• Limited ray tracing support
• Doesn’t work well with DaVinci Resolve
• Unsuitable for 4K or 8K footage
• Limited ports
• No Tensor cores 
• No DLSS

12. NVIDIA Quadro P4000

Best for moderate video editing 

Price: $350–$600

The NVIDIA Quadro P4000 is also based on the Pascal GPU architecture and performs well in 3D applications. 

The high-end, professional-grade GPU is the fastest single slot card of its generation, and uses DisplayPort outputs to create and support an expansive visual workspace of up to four 5K high-resolution monitors. This makes it ideal for professional applications requiring moderate performance across multiple monitors.

Quadro GPUs are generally good compared to their GeForce counterparts, owing to the extra VRAM. The Quadro P4000’s supports DirectX 12 and OpenGL, so you can use it for video editing and running other graphics-intensive applications like 3D modeling in CAD.

Features:

Pros:

• Extra VRAM
• Energy efficient
• Small fan and heatsink
• Easy to install
• Smooth video capture or editing transitions
• Suitable for graphics-intensive tasks
• Works well with multiple monitors

Cons:

• Needs a power connector to draw power from your workstation’s PSU

How to choose a graphics card

Even after narrowing down some of the best graphics cards for video editing, there’s still the matter of finding the right one for your needs. 

To narrow things down even further, here’s an overview of the main factors to consider when choosing a GPU.

Determine your purpose and budget

Few applications and workflows actually require the power of today’s high-end GPUs. So, you might not need to break the bank for a new graphics card. 

If you’re editing small or short videos, a low-end $200 to $300 video card should be sufficient and can vastly improve the editing experience. More demanding video production work will require a more capable GPU with a sizable leap in performance, detail, and high frame rates.

Benchmark systems like Puget Systems show that AMD can hardly keep up with NVIDIA’s stability and performance. That means a high-end AMD GPU with massive VRAM won’t necessarily deliver a markedly better experience. 

If money is no object, you can opt for a $1,000+ GPU for 4K or 8K video editing. If you’re hoping to save money, manufacturers like EVGA, Gigabyte, and ASUS have their own respective NVIDIA or AMD versions that are a bit cheaper—depending on the improvements made to the clock speed, fan count, or the card’s overall design.

In most cases, the less you pay, the more compromises you’ll need to make. But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth buying a budget GPU. You can get a $300 to $500 GPU that suits video editing at 1080p. Sometimes it might be wiser to buy a GPU as part of a prebuilt PC.  

Consider performance requirements

When choosing a graphics card, make sure you read through the performance requirements for both your computer and the GPU. 

Here are some tips for a smooth video editing experience:

• Ensure your PSU can adequately power the GPU: An underpowered GPU impacts performance, resulting in system crashes or a blank monitor and a frustrating editing experience. Current generation GPUs use much less power than previous ones. However, AMD cards are less power efficient and often demand more juice, meaning you’ll need higher PSU wattage to power your PC and GPU. So, for instance, if you pick the 300 W Radeon RX 6900 XT, your PSU should be 500 W.
• Confirm that your PSU has the necessary plugs: GPUs come with six-pin or eight-pin connectors, which help power the card. Thankfully, GPU cards often ship with an adapter to connect to your PSU.
• Check your PC’s storage capacity and card’s form factor: The size of your PC case can influence the type of graphics card you pick. Powerful graphics cards are usually long and often have a fan assembly and large heatsinks. So, they won’t fit in small tower cases with limited space. 
• Ensure your PC’s motherboard has the required PCIe speed: Graphics cards connect to your motherboard via PCI Express sockets. For best results, ensure your motherboard’s PCIe speed is up to date and your GPU is running on the latest graphics driver.

Check compatibility

The graphics card you’re considering will need to play nice with the following:

• Video editing software: For example, if you use Final Cut Pro on a Mac computer, you can only upgrade with an AMD graphics card because MacOS only supports AMD cards. Editing on a Windows PC expands your upgrading options because it works with any NVIDIA or AMD chipset. Either way, you must check that your device is compatible. 
• Motherboard: Sometimes the graphics card may be compatible with your video editing laptop or desktop’s motherboard, but the latter can’t move the generated data fast enough. In this case, you won’t see any performance improvements.
• Displays and ports: Check what kind of displays and number of ports the graphics card supports, like DisplayPort or HDMI. If you plan to buy a high-spec monitor with high refresh rates, factor it in as you choose a GPU.

Consider future-proofing

You could be working with full HD or 4K footage right now. But that won’t necessarily be the case in the near future. It would be wise to spend a little extra and future-proof your setup for the coming years.

The latest GPUs aren’t always available either. And when they are, they’re costlier, due to demand. Be flexible with your purchase and pick the one that’s best for your needs before it sells out. 

Brand and model selection

NVIDIA and AMD are the main brands you’ll find as you look for a good graphics card for your video editing setup. Intel is a worthy AMD contender, but it’s yet to beat NVIDIA’s performance, ray tracing support, and 4K rendering capabilities.

Both offer quality, high-powered GPUs, but NVIDIA took it a notch higher with its real-time ray tracing feature when launching its RTX 20-series cards. AMD stepped up with the RX 6000 cards, but it still lags behind NVIDIA on the real-time ray tracing front.

You’ll also find NVIDIA and AMD cards with different model numbers:

• NVIDIA: NVIDIA’s GPUs have a letter designation like RTX for high-level applications, GTX (gaming-only) for entry-level to high-end use, and GT for standard use. The GPUs also have a numbered series, indicating how new the card is, for example the 30-series is newer than the 20-series. But a RTX card supersedes the GTX and GT regardless of the model number.
• AMD: The latest processors use the RX branding—RX for entry-level or mid-tier GPUs and RX Vega for higher-tier GPUs. While higher numbers mean the model is newer, it doesn’t necessarily translate to more power. Some models have extra letters after the number, like XT, which is a slightly improved version, or HD and R, which are older series being phased out.

Ultimately, the GPU you choose will depend on your video editing needs and budget, not just the manufacturer.

Check for additional features

There’s more to a video editing graphics card than just its name, model, and performance. Here are some additional features to look for when selecting one:

• Multiple HDMI ports: Most modern graphics cards have one or two HDMI ports to connect your multiple monitors to your computer.
• DisplayPort: This port transfers data faster than HDMI, making it ideal for more demanding video editing tasks.
• Overclocking capability: Overclocking increases the card’s performance beyond the rated maximum speed.
• VRAM: More VRAM means the card can store more data and perform better.
• Higher clock speeds: The higher the clock speeds, the better the performance.
• Frame rates per second (FPS): A higher FPS means better results. Look for GPUs with at least 30 FPS.
• PCIe interface: This is a standard interface for graphics cards for fast data transfer when video editing.
• Graphics double data rate (GDDR): GDDR is a faster VRAM in graphics cards that delivers higher data transfer rates and better performance.

Best graphics cards for video editing FAQ

What kind of graphics card is good for video editing?

If you’re editing small or short videos, you might need a low-end video card. Professional video editing requires a more capable GPU with high frame rates and significantly higher detail and performance levels. Generally, NVIDIA graphics cards like the GeForce RTX 3090 are a popular choice because they perform well and offer different GPUs for various video editing needs and budgets. 

Is RTX or GTX better for video editing?

RTX (Ray Tracing Texel eXtreme) is NVIDIA’s current GPU lineup of mid-range and high-end cards. They offer real-time ray tracing and dedicated RT cores, which deliver more realistic and accurate images for quality gaming performance. GTX is a former NVIDIA flagship line of graphics cards, which has since been relegated to entry-level cards. GTX graphics cards don’t offer ray tracing or dedicated RT cores. The RTX is NVIDIA’s current GPU brand and the better choice, but you can still find a decent, ray tracing-less GTX card for video editing. 

What graphics card do you need for 4K editing?

NVIDIA’s RTX 30 series of graphics cards are excellent for 4K video editing because of their powerful processors. However, a mid-range card like the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT will probably be more than sufficient. Other solid options include the NVIDIA Quadro P5000, NVIDIA Titan RTX, or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti.