Choosing the best graphics cards for video editing has become a little more difficult in recent years. Given the progress and next-generation graphics cards from both big players like Nvidia and AMD, as well as Intel, finding the right model (no matter which series) and navigating the market may have become a little more difficult.
But this is where we come in. Our list of the best graphics cards for video editing includes everything from high-end to low-cost, low-value to reliable and robust. You'll find that many of the best graphics cards usually appear here too, as consumer cards, or those designed primarily for gaming and everyday use, are the best for the task, offer increasingly good value for money, and are also the most readily available.
You'll also need a top-of-the-line graphics card for video editing, as video footage at better resolution and frame rate is more widely used than ever before. Even most camera phones can capture 4K content at 60 frames per second, while high-end professional cameras using RAW codecs will require more processing power from a PC. That's why it's more important than ever to choose a graphics card that can handle the demanding workload and still fit within your budget.
The key difference between choosing the best graphics cards for video editing and other (but not all) uses or goals is that any card you consider must work properly with the video editing program you intend to use. For example, DaVinci Resolve from Blackmagic Design is an excellent example of an NLE (non-linear editing system) that can work with a wide range of GPUs, but for Final Cut Pro users on Mac, the only graphics card upgrade option is AMD graphics cards. Let's get started now.
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050
Although it belongs to the previous generation of cards, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 is a great option if you're on a tight budget and looking for the best graphics card for video editing. Although it's part of the 30 series, the 3050 will retain its value despite being one of the last products released in this series. It's also only 18 months old at the time of writing and has yet to be replaced by the 4050 or similar.
Aside from its affordable price, it also has some processing power, which means it can handle most low to medium demand video editing tasks. Its 2,560 CUDA cores, 224GB/s bandwidth and 8GB of GDDR6 VRAM should do the trick. A solid budget video editing GPU is built by adding a boost clock speed of 1,780MHz and 130W of total power. To get the most out of the 3050 you'll probably want to keep it in the 1080p, Full HD video quality range, but it should be very comfortable and reliable in this setting.
While we'd want to go for a more affordable card like the GTX 1650 (or 1660 if you can find one), the RTX 3050 really doesn't cost much more than the 16s and provides significantly more in terms of modern capabilities and Nvidia-specific benefits.
AMD Radeon RX 6900XT
When looking for the best AMD graphics card for video editing, there may be a desire to chase the latest on Team Red's side, but we believe the last-gen RX 6900XT is still a very strong contender - especially now that time has passed and its price has dropped. With the RX 6900XT, AMD has a great value-performance proposition right now in 2023.
Viewed from a broad perspective, AMD has caught up and in some cases surpassed Nvidia in gaming benchmarks, which has been the main focus recently and in terms of sheer power. Where this leaves RX cards for video editors is still unclear.
However, AMD is introducing some innovative new technologies, especially when the RX series graphics cards are combined with the latest AMD Ryzen CPUs. In particular, "Smart Access Memory", which allows the CPU and GPU to maximise their communication capabilities, potentially providing a significant performance boost.
A card like the RX 6900XT could be a great investment for multi-OS businesses, as AMD cards can work with Intel Macs via an external GPU box, which is vital for video editors. AMD RX 6900XT can still be a good opportunity for the future as a once flagship card at a reasonable price. If it's still too expensive for you, you should definitely consider its slightly less powerful brother, the RX 6800XT.
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090
The RTX 4090 is definitely the solution if you're looking for a GPU for anything, let alone video editing, and have an extremely healthy, unlimited budget. The 4090 is actually the best premium graphics card for video editing, and this is largely due to the amount of power it offers, which is a lot. It's even wild.
Its monster performance is powered by 24 GB of video RAM, a 2.5 GHz boost clock speed and more than 16,000 CUDA cores under the hood. As a result, it can handle any difficult video editing task, including dealing with 8K content. Yes, it will need a PC with enough space (literally) and the 'right' components to match to get the best performance - and to keep it quiet, cool and adequately powered! - But at the top end of the market, a better consumer video editor simply doesn't exist.
Given its capabilities in 4K and 8K (and the sheer power it offers), the 4090 makes sense as your next video editing card and will help future-proof yourself for some time to come. As such, there's a strong view that it's a prudent long-term investment.
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Ti
Our top pick for the best GPU, it's also the card we recommend most users use for video editing. That's because the card is recently developed, widely available, and perfectly balances strong power with mid-range value. It's reasonably priced, offers all the benefits and features of Nvidia's latest cards, and sits mid-range in the company's lineup.
As well as being perfect for gaming, it can also handle 3D rendering, video production and editing thanks to its almost 8,000 CUDA cores, fast clock speed and 12GB of GDDR6X memory. It will also be more than adequate at 4K, but it won't be the best. The best performance will be achieved if your PC has newer parts in other important areas (CPU, RAM, etc.), but the good news is that the 4070 Ti's power consumption and demand is 285w, which is well below the 300w threshold.
The 4070 Ti is a great graphics card choice for video editing if you're upgrading from an older device or starting from scratch. However, if you already own an Nvidia or AMD card from the mid to high 30 series, this upgrade may not be worth it for you just yet.
AMD Radeon Pro W6800
The W6800 is the graphics card to buy for video editing if you want to stick with AMD but are also determined to get something professional. Not only does it offer a direct and all-encompassing "Team Red alternative" to the RTX A4000 above, but it comes perilously close to being the best professional video editing card money can buy (with the exception of Nvidia's A6000).
The board is quite power hungry and having only Mini DisplayPorts is a drawback for some users. However, this is to be expected from a professional grade board, so it's likely that these drawbacks won't deter the majority of users. However, if you're looking for something with "normal" Display Port inputs in this price range, you may want to consider the W6600 model, which is in the middle of the range.
Overall, the Pro W6800 is a great professional graphics card for video editing, and if you do other types of professional work for a living, it would be hard to do better.
Nvidia RTX A4000
The A5000 is an excellent professional card and can perform well for video editing work, but its relatively large price tag means that for all but a small number of people, the A4000 would be a better buy. Here we recommend the A4000 as the best professional graphics card for video editing.
The A4000 is a thin, average pro-grade card that will fit in a wider range of small to mid-size cases. Accordingly, it will be ideal for anyone with a slim setup.
With 16 GB of memory and 6,144 CUDA cores, the graphics card can handle any task thrown at it and boasts outstanding performance in design applications such as 3D rendering, image and video editing. A4000 has the added advantage of enabling OpenCL and CUDA programmes in particular to run like absolute champions thanks to the card's Ampere design. As a result, this often makes RTX A4000 stand out when dealing with creative applications, plug-ins and filters, and when focusing on creativity-specific activities such as video editing at higher resolutions.
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