GPU Test System Update for 2025

[W1zzard]

2025 will be busy with GPU launches, all three GPU vendors are expected to release new cards in the coming weeks and months. To prepare for this, we've upgraded our GPU Test System, with a new Ryzen X3D CPU and more. The list of games has changed substantially, too.

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[Space Lynx]

Great plan on the game choices, all makes sense to me. Build looks great imo.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

As point of note. Its amazing how the RX6800 still absolutely ripping it at 1440p and on the PPD chart. Almost 5 year old GPu and still duking it out. Not that gaming/game engines as a whole have moved much in the past 5-10 years. The 6800 is what i should have bought instead of my 6700XT back in 2022 but that card either wasn't available or way too expensive as we were just heading out of lockdown/global GPu shortage. Paid about £370 after Asus finally paid out on their summer Cashback Scheme. Those guys really dont like to pay.


:EDIT:

fixed structuring and grammatical issues

 

[Space Lynx]

As point of note. Its amazing how the RX6800 still absolutely ripping it at 1440p and on the PPD chart. Almost 5 year old GPu and still duking it out. Not that gaming/game engines as a whole have moved much in the past 5-10 years. The 6800 is what i should have bought but that card either wasnt available or too expensive as we were just heading out of lockdown in 2022. Paid about £370 for my 6700XT after Asus finally paid out on their summer Cashback Scheme. Those guys really dont like to pay.

and the intel cards taking gold and silver medals.

yeah that is honestly really impressive, especially since XESS does seem to beat out FSR for image quality and fps gains usually. I would still say for the average user it's probably best to save up a little bit more money and get a 4060 or 4060 ti for DLSS3 frame gen, I hate all this new tech as I prefer simple raster gaming, but I have to admit the fps gains are insane that Nvidia has pulled off. Really looking forward to RTX 5090 and 5080 reviews of DLSS4 frame gen and neural stuff

 

[docnorth]

Nice work as usual. Any chance to find a GDDR6X 3060 ti? I know it sounds (and is) selfish, but I’m curious. Thanks anyway.

 

[Space Lynx]

Nice work as usual. Any chance to find a GDDR6X 3060 ti? I know it sounds (and is) selfish, but I’m curious. Thanks anyway.

seems like a waste of time imo, he already has enough on his plate. i can't imagine testing that many gpu's, sounds like a nightmare honestly. its a lot of work

 

[Sunlight91]

I'm happy Hogwarts Legacy is still there. I'm starting it this Christmas.
But I probably get a used 4090 next year if the 5090 is over 2000€. I need the 24GB VRAM for running LLMs.

 

[soupinator]

I'm surprised you're keeping Hogwarts Legacy on the list (or were testing it in the first place.) While it is very popular, the game's optimization is truly terrible and also extremely variable in different parts of the game. It's not very representative of what to expect from UE4 games at all.

 

[mate123]

Nice work as usual. Any chance to find a GDDR6X 3060 ti? I know it sounds (and is) selfish, but I’m curious. Thanks anyway.

I have that card, but I don't think there is any real difference from the non gddr6X version, or probably within the margin of error.

 

[Luminescent]

So we will see charts that are 90% green and the rest, just like Nvidia's market share.
2025, a great year to know which Nvidia card to buy.
Hope I'm wrong but RIP AMD and Intel.

 

[friocasa]

So you rejected FF16 because low sales, but included star wars outlaws that has less than half of concurrent players on steam

I miss a rockstar game

The Dragon Age game also flopped, and there are quite a few new games getting attention like Marvel Rivals

 

[ShiningSapphire]

It would be good to point out in-game test locations for every title so people can easily replicate the results.

 

[evernessince]

So we will see charts that are 90% green and the rest, just like Nvidia's market share.
2025, a great year to know which Nvidia card to buy.
Hope I'm wrong but RIP AMD and Intel.

Yeah, unfortunately you can see in recent benchmarks that games have been pushing the RT effects more at the cost of AMD. The GPU market is in a really bad spot right now with the only good happening is Intel's new GPUs.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

Looking good man. Excited for another great year of tpu reviews. Even if the products aren't so great.

 

[Prima.Vera]

Indeed, nGreedia's 4000 series is THE WORST of Performance per Dollar and also Cost per Frame charts by far.
Sadly, there are still so many people still not only defending nVidia's monopolistic practices, but also thinking that the callous money they ask for their products is actually a fair deal...
Sad reality really.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

AMD's "Fine Wine" is turning to vinegar a bit in this round of testing.

Looks like AMD cards are seeing some slippage vs Nvidia across the board. 7900XTX has fallen behind even the standard 4080 and it looks like AMD equivalents have lost a few % vs their NV counterparts up and down the stack.

Bummer.

 

[Veseleil]

Excuse me if I missed something, but where are the games based on a Unity engine?

May I suggest a poll with, let's say 5-10 Unity games to choose at least 2-3 from, to be included in a test suite? Or at least one? Any suggestions are welcome, and again criticism if I missed something. Cheers.

 

[Rjc31]

Appreciate you @W1zzard for all you do here! One of a select few reviewers/testers/benchmarkers that I completely trust to give the facts. Looking forward to the next year!

 

[dgianstefani]

AMD's "Fine Wine" is turning to vinegar a bit in this round of testing.

Looks like AMD cards are seeing some slippage vs Nvidia across the board. 7900XTX has fallen behind even the standard 4080 and it looks like AMD equivalents have lost a few % vs their NV counterparts up and down the stack.

Bummer.

The cost of essentially ignoring RT hardware.

 

[Lew Zealand]

The cost of essentially ignoring RT hardware.

What do you mean? He's referring to the non-RT charts.

In other news I apparently have a thing for value cards, with 4 of the top 6 and half of the top 10. Spread among all 3 brands of course.

 

[phints]

Wow, fantastic build for GPU testing. What caught my eye besides the beast 9800X3D is that DDR5-6200 CL28 RAM, very fast and low latency with 1:1 is sweet. 24H2 with VBS enabled is an odd choice though, I did a clean Win11 24H2 install and VBS wasn't enabled and I didn't change anything. MS even recommends having it off for gaming on one of their posts.

 

[HD64G]

AMD's "Fine Wine" is turning to vinegar a bit in this round of testing.

Looks like AMD cards are seeing some slippage vs Nvidia across the board. 7900XTX has fallen behind even the standard 4080 and it looks like AMD equivalents have lost a few % vs their NV counterparts up and down the stack.

Bummer.

Driver overhead from the nVidia driver is less prominent with that monster of CPU (9800X3D). Anyone not having top-notch CPU paired with nVidia's high-end ones is losing performance @1440P or below in many high FPS games. Also, @W1zzard needed to update his test PC just in time to review the 5090 so as to not be bottlenecked by Intel's CPU he had until now.

Merry Chrstmas to His believers and have a nice holiday for the rest!

 

[N/A]

the 5090 so as to not be bottlenecked

"as much" fixed that for you. The CPU not bottleneck the 5090 has not yet been conceived.

 

[Dyatlov A]

Very good new hardware, it is the best now what can drive a videocard. Maybe the most popular old games I would keep in the tests GTA5 and RDR2.

 

[Timbaloo]

That case, more the manufacturer... are they new? Never heard of them, but just scrolled through their cases, some interesting designs they have...