The best graphics cards for video editing: the best choice for all budgets

The best graphics cards for video editing can transform your workflow. Editing and rendering video is one of the tasks that puts most strain on a computer, requiring significant processing and graphical horsepower even if you're not working with 8K footage or 3D video. A discrete, powerful graphics card speeds the process up.

I've built this list based on my experience using different GPUs with the latest video editing software. Along with Creative Bloq's sister sites (which includes my usual haunt, TechRadar), we've reviewed and tested a wide range of graphics cards, and I've used that experience to select the best GPUs for video editing.

Remember to check that a graphics card is compatible with your system and software before you buy. And if you're still building your setup, check out our guides to the best computer for video editing and the best monitor for video editing.

Rob Dwiar

As Deputy Editor at TechRadar Gaming, I've spent years using and testing the latest computer hardware, including graphics cards. I built up the hardware team at GamesRadar+, which involved plenty of time spent reviewing GPUs, and the options on this list are my personal recommendations for video editing, based on my experience and that of my colleagues.

The quick list

The best graphics cards for video editing in full

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Best graphics card for video editing overall

This is the graphics card for video editing that I would recommend for most people. It's a new card, having arrived in February 2025, and that means as often happens with these things, you might have trouble getting hold of one (or at least, getting hold of one for the state launch price of £729 / $749). If you do however, you'll find this to be a capable card that offers a demonstrable advantage over the previous 4070 series.

As well as being great for gaming, its 16GB of GDDR7 memory, punchy clock speed, and 8,000+ CUDA core make the 5070 Ti capable of enable chewing through video editing, production, and 3D rendering. It's more than capable for 4K, and a newly designed cooling system ensures that it runs at impressively low temperatures. It's one of the most effective cooling systems I've seen in a while, and since video editing often involves long, marathon sessions at the computer, this can only be a good thing.

If you've already got a mid-to-high GPU from Nvidia's previous 30-series, or the equivalent from AMD, then this might not be quite worth the upgrade for you. It's not a radical departure from anything previously released. However if you're coming from something older, or from no graphics card at all, this is our top pick for providing great performance for video editing for a reasonable cash outlay. It'll do everything the vast majority of video editors need it to do, very efficiently.

Our expert says

Our expert says

Rob Dwiar

"This is the video editing graphics card I'd recommend to most users, with exemplary cooling performance."

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Best budget graphics card for video editing

Yes, this is from Nvidia's previous generation of cards, but if you're looking for the best graphics card for video editing on budget, I think the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 remains a brilliant candidate for budget-conscious video editors. Its price has come down since launch, and while it's probably not the card you'd choose for 4K, it's a significantly lesser expense than the likes of the RTX 5070 Ti.

Despite the lean price tag, we found that the card can crunch through most low-to-mid video editing demands thanks to a reasonable 8GB GDDR6 VRAM, 272GB/s bandwidth and 3,072 CUDA cores. Throw in a boosted clock speed of 2,460MHz and you have a solid budget video editing GPU, at least for 1080p FHD video. Attention should also be paid to its impressively low power consumption of just 115W, the Ada Lovelace architecture once again delivering top-notch efficiency.

Offering up-to-date features and Nvidia-specific bonuses, this is for my money your best bet for a cheap card to get started with video editing.

Our expert says

Our expert says

Rob Dwiar

"Recent price reductions make the RTX 4060 my best pick for video editors on a budget."

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Best premium graphics card for video editing

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If you're looking for a GPU for anything, let alone video editing, and have the budget for it, the RTX 5090 FE is basically the best mainstream graphics card that money can buy today. Offering massive performance increases over the previous 4090 – Nvidia claims up to 70% improvement levels – this is a serious card for those who need everything it's offering. Going to be editing 8K footage? The RTX 5090 FE can handle that, just as it can handle basically any creative task you could name.

Under the hood, 32GB of video memory, 2.4GHz boost clock speed, and more than 21,000 CUDA cores drive that stunning performance, and it will chew through any high-demanding video edit you can throw at it as a result. In our review, its DaVinci Resolve overall score was 30% higher than anything our Tech Reviews Editor Erlingur had seen from a 4090 card, setting new benchmarks across the board.

It's an absolutely wince-inducing expense – you could get two or three spare RTX 5070 Ti cards for the same price, and probably have some change. However, if you pick this as your next video-editing card you'll also future-proof yourself for some time given its 8K capabilities and the sheer power it offers, so there's a solid argument to say that it's a wise, long-term investment.

Our expert says

Our expert says

Erlingur Einarsson

"Video editors with truly professional needs should put the 5090 at the top of a very short list - if the needs justify the near-$2,000 cost."

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Best AMD graphics card for video editing

I've featured all Nvidia cards in my top three spots, but AMD has plenty to offer discerning video editors as well. There may be a temptation to chase the latest on the Team Red side of things when looking for the best AMD graphics card for video editing, but I think the previous-gen RX 6900XT is still a very worthy contender, especially as time has passed and its price tag has dropped. The value-to-performance AMD offering available with the RX 6900XT is excellent now in 2024.

Using broad brush strokes, in recent years, AMD has closed in on – and in some cases exceeded – Nvidia in its primary goal of gaming benchmarks. Where that leaves the RX cards for video editors is still up for debate. However, AMD is bringing some exciting new technologies to market, especially when the RX series of cards are paired with the latest AMD Ryzen CPUs. Namely 'Smart Access Memory', which allows the CPU and GPU to maximise the bandwidth between them, resulting in a potentially substantial performance gain.

Also, importantly for video editors, AMD cards can work with Intel Macs via an external GPU box, which makes a card like the RX 6900XT a potentially great investment for multi-OS workplaces. As a once-flagship card for a reasonable price, the AMD RX 6900XT could still be a future-proofing bargain. If this is still a bit dear for you, consider its slightly smaller sibling, the RX 6800XT.

Our expert says

Our expert says

Rob Dwiar

"I think Team Red's previous-gen RX 6900XT is still a very worthy contender for video editing, especially as its price tag has dropped."

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Best budget pro graphics card for video editing

I'm recommending the A4000 as the best professional graphics card for video editing with an eye firmly on value. We found the higher-spec A5000 to be wonderful, but it's comparably-massive price tag makes it an option for a select few. I think the A4000 is the better buy. It's a compact, powerful card designed with creative professionals in mind, as opposed to Nvidia's GeForce RTX cards, which are primarily aimed at gaming.

The A4000 is a refreshing compact card from Nvidia, which makes it suitable for those with a matching, lean rig. It's not as powerful as Nvidia's top of the range consumer card, the RTX 4090 above, but its shorter length means it'll fit into a wider range of small and medium PC cases. It also boasts relatively low power consumption of 70W.

We found the graphics card provides excellent performance in design applications from 3D rendering to photo and video editing, with its 16GB of memory, and 6,144 CUDA cores. A great bonus with the A4000 is that OpenCL and CUDA applications in particular run like treats with the card's Ampere architecture. This can often set the RTX A4000 apart when focusing on video editing at higher resolutions and when working with plug-ins and filters. Just note that if you want a card that will also serve for gaming, you're better sticking with one of the GeForce options.

Our expert says

Our expert says

Rob Dwiar

"A compact, powerful card designed with creative professionals in mind – I think the A4000 is the better buy than the pricier A5000."

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Best value AMD graphics card for video editing

While it's not the newest arrival to the AMD stable, having been released in September 2023, the AMD RX 7800 XT offers better value than ever. It was clearly set up to rival Nvidia's popular RTX 4070 Ti Super, which used to sit at the top of this list before the 5070 series arrived. This card falls in the mid-range of AMD's lineup, which for a while was something of a blind spot for the manufacturer, who seemed only interested in putting out very cheap or very expensive cards. That's a problem I'm happy to now see corrected.

The AMD RX 7800 XT features a fresh chiplet design and new microarchitecture. I found that the 16GB of memory and 3,840 stream processors are more than capable of handling most video editing tasks at a price that neatly undercuts the RTX 4070 and RTX 4070 Ti. Pound for pound, we've found that Nvidia's cards do provide more speed and a slight edge when it comes to performance (and that speed is money if you're a professional video editor). However, the difference is slight enough that this AMD card can be considered a real contender if you're on a budget.

Our expert says

Our expert says

Rob Dwiar

"While Nvidia's cards do have an edge, this AMD card can be considered a real contender if you're on a budget."

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Best AMD graphics card for video editing pros

If you want to something AMD-shaped but in the professional range, the RX 7900 XTX is my pick. It's a pretty powerful 'Team Red alternative' to the Nvidia options like the 5070, and it's a decent powerhouse for video editing and for other professional work. The 24GB GDDR6 memory delivers fast render times, which is good news for editors, who can always do with a bit more workflow speed.

It's also a great card for gaming, making it ideal if you want to use the same machine for work and play. It's well-priced for a premium card, offering arguably better value than its Nvidia rivals even if it doesn't quite match them in terms of performance. One thing to be aware of however is that it is quite power hungry, so probably isn't the best choice if you're looking to keep your setup lean and minimal.

Ultimately it is a little hard to recommend this over, say the 5070 Ti, our number one pick. But it's a perfectly capable card, and indeed it may well prove easier to find than the in-high-demand Nvidia options, so if you need something soon, this could be the buy.

Our expert says

Our expert says

Rob Dwiar

"If you want a premium card for pro-level work and simply must go with AMD, try this one."

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How to choose the best graphics card for video editing

There are a few key factors to consider when choosing a graphics card for video editing. The first is the amount of VRAM, aka video memory, which determines how much memory your graphics card has access to. The more VRAM you have, the more complex videos you can edit. For basic 1080p video editing, 6GB of VRAM is a good starting point. For 4K video editing, you'll want at least 8GB of VRAM. And for 8K video editing, you'll need at least 16GB of VRAM.

Another thing to think about is the GPU core clock speed; the speed at which your graphics card's processor operates. A higher core clock speed will generally mean faster performance. Then there's GPU architecture: the design of your graphics card's processor. Different architectures have different strengths and weaknesses. For example, NVIDIA GeForce RTX graphics cards are good at ray tracing and AI-powered effects, while AMD Radeon RX graphics cards are often more affordable.

Also Consider cooling: graphics cards can generate a lot of heat, so it's important to choose a card with adequate cooling. And of course, you need to check your video editing software to make sure it's compatible with the specific card. Other factors to consider are the physical size of the graphic card, especially if you have a lean setup, and the specs of the rest of your computer (there's no point in buying a top-of-the-range graphics card for video editing if you don't have a powerful enough CPU to get the most out of it).

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How we test graphics cards for video editing

We test graphics cards for video editing by going beyond just the headline specs and looking at how different cards actually perform in real-world use. We run benchmark tests, but we also draw on the real world reviews conducted by our team of writers and editors, who do a lot of video editing, both as part of their work for Creative Bloq and our sister sites like TechRadar and also in freelance work and recreationally. We look at their experiences with different cards when making our picks.

While baseline specs can give you a rough idea of how well you can expect a GPU to perform, there's no substitute for real-world testing to get a feel for how quickly a card handles different editing tasks, as well as other factors e.g. how noisy its cooling systems are, or how much power it tends to consume. You can read more about how we test and review.

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FAQs

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