The Sundarban
Published Feb 1, 2026, 5:30 PM EST
Monica J. White is a journalist with over a decade of expertise in masking expertise. She constructed her first PC nearly 20 years ago, and she has since constructed and examined dozens of PCs.
PC hardware is her main beat, and graphics cards and the GPU market at large are her main area of pastime, but she has written thousands of articles masking all the issues related to PCs, laptops, handhelds, and peripherals. From GPUs and CPUs to headsets and software, Monica’s always willing to geek out over all issues related to computing.
Originate air of her work with How-To Geek, Monica contributes to TechRadar, PC Gamer, Tom’s E book, Laptop Mag, SlashGear, Whop, and Digital Tendencies, among others. Her ultimate goal is to make PC gaming and computing approachable and enjoyable to any audience.
Monica spends a lot of time elbow-deep in her PC case, as she’s always making upgrades, finding out something, or plotting out her next earn. She’s the stagger-to tech purple meat up particular person in her immediate circle, so she’s by no means out of issues to develop. On every occasion she has spare time, yow will discover her gaming unless the early hours and hanging out along with her canine.
A new GPU is probably the most thrilling thing when you may be a PC gamer. After all, or not it is usually the one most impactful aspect in a PC, and upgrading your graphics card can give you a major performance increase in all your games.
I regain it. I savor it, too. But the reality is that you probably spent too distinguished to your graphics card—I know I have. Here is why I assume that most of us can regain away with something way cheaper than what we regularly finish up with.
Most gamers develop not need a high-finish GPU
That’s a fact, not an belief.
Credit ranking: Justin Duino / How-To Geek
I spent shut to $1,100 on my GPU when it first came out, and while I develop not remorse it, I always knew it was overkill. Although the latest games maintain pushing hardware requirements up and up, the vast majority of gamers persist with a extra reasonable brand point.
Steam’s monthly Hardware Gaze offers some honest appropriate insight into where we’re at. Or not it is 2026, but probably the most popular GPU among surveyed players is tranquil Nvidia’s RTX 3060, a graphics card that’s now almost 5 years worn.
This is followed by the RTX 4060 laptop and desktop versions with a combined share of shut to eight%. Those GPUs aren’t the latest generation, but even as soon as they had been, they had been budget-oriented and mainstream. Taking place the list offers us the RTX 3050 and the GTX 1650 as the next two entries. In fact, Nvidia’s latest RTX 50-series doesn’t even appear on the list unless the 17th situation, and that’s tranquil the budget RTX 5060 with a 1.69% share. The first high-finish GPU on the list is the RTX 3080 at quantity 19, and the RTX 5080 doesn’t reveal up unless even later.
1080p tranquil remains the stagger-to chance
Or not it is not lawful GPUs, either. The main reason to regain an costly graphics card is to match it with an equally spectacular track, but these are tranquil scarce. The honest appropriate worn 1080p, although outdated, remains the tip resolution outdated-fashioned on Steam with over 50% respondents, followed by 1440p at 20.59%. 4K sits at below 8% within the occasion you combine 16:9 and 16:10 aspect ratios.
If or not it is not the track, then or not it is usually game requirements that pressure the sales of these high-finish GPUs. But are these requirements really that steep?
Ultra + ray tracing is a money pit you may not must chase
Is it good? Yes. But is it necessary?
Credit ranking: Patrick Campanale / How-To Geek
Certainly one of many reasons why I sold my RTX 4080 Spruce when it launched in 2024 was that I wanted to play all the issues at max settings with ray tracing enabled. And, although or not it has been two years and or not it is far from probably the most great GPU obtainable, I am happy to say that I can tranquil develop lawful that in every game that I play.
Nonetheless, looking back, I may’ve gotten away with something that can most fascinating race games at high settings without ray tracing, and I probably wouldn’t have noticed distinguished of a disagreement.
Certain games really make probably the most of what a GPU can offer. Clearly, Cyberpunk 2077 involves ideas. I freely admit that walking via the streets of Night Metropolis with elephantine lighting fixtures effects is an expertise, but for the duration of actual gameplay, I develop not have time to gaze the scenery—I am too busy playing. At that point, or not it is less about lighting fixtures and visuals and extra about maintaining solid frame rates.
Ultimately, I am not going to command you whether you want to play at maximum settings or not. My one discover of advice is to watch evaluations from sources you have confidence and search for comparison videos for the explicit games you want to play. You may gain, savor I did, that the game tranquil appears fantastic at a bit decrease settings.
Contemporary GPUs are less about hardware than ever earlier than
For larger or worse.
Credit ranking: Hannah Stryker / How-To Geek
We reside in an age where hardware upgrades are slowing down, but the software stack retains evolving with each generation. Within the case of Nvidia, or not it is most fascinating the RTX 5090 that receives meaningful upgrades to issues savor CUDA core counts. The relaxation of the lineup strikes at a slower pace, although the RTX 50-series gave us a change from GDDR6X to GDDR7. VRAM capacity largely stayed the same, although, apart from the RTX 5090.
This state of iteration,
