Products at a Glance
How we chose the best GPUs for Ryzen 7 3700X
We’ve made our choices for the best GPU for Ryzen 7 3700X on a combination of factors including the value for money of the cards, their power potential and how well they will match up to what the previous generation chipset can do this year. That means providing you with a list based on our own testing and experience with more up to date offerings from both AMD and Nvidia so you can get the full scope. We’ve considered models for not only 1080p but also 1440p and 4K, so those wanting to pair with the best gaming monitors are fully covered.
Originally released nearly five years ago, the Ryzen 7 3700X is far from the forefront of processor tech in 2024. However, armed with a total of eight cores and 16 threads with a max boost clock of 4.4 GHz, there’s enough life in this chipset to fuel your gaming needs even all these years later. It’s held up remarkably well over the years but will start to slow signs of aging when pushed to its limits.
Product Reviews
- Powerful for 1440p and even 4K
- Excellent value for money
- 16GB VRAM
- Doesn't excel in ray tracing
The AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT takes the top spot as the GPU for Ryzen 7 3700X and that’s for a couple of reasons. Starting off with the fact that it’s armed with 16GB GDDR6 VRAM and a large 256-bit memory bus for a total bandwidth of 624.1 GB/sec. This means it should have no problem steamrolling through games in 1440p and providing decent framerates in 4K as well. A big reason why we’re comfortable recommending this card above others also comes down to its pricing. It’s available starting from $499.99 / £479.99 which is hard value to argue against considering Nvidia’s mid-range offerings.
Make no mistake, the RX 7800 XT is a GPU that’ll absolutely storm through 1080p and 1440p, especially when enabling FSR where available. The 4K performance is solid for the money but it’s unlikely to blow you away. You should be able to achieve around 4K60 if you’re smart with your settings and make use of FSR effectively, but you won’t be able to push ray tracing too hard here. Still, all things considered this is an excellent card that will be able to power your games for many years to come, and work well with the Ryzen 7 chipset as well.
- Aggressive pricing
- Boosted by DLSS 3
- Strong 1080p and 1440p performance
- Struggles under intense loads
- DLSS can be a crutch
Gaming on a tight budget can be tough and Nvidia appeared to understand this when it released the RTX 4060. This mainstream GPU is equipped with 8GB GDDR6 VRAM on a 128-bit memory bus. It’s the weakest of the Ada lineup being forged on the AD107 die, but still has enough grunt under the hood to power today’s games in 1080p and 1440p. Keep in mind that you’ll want to be enabling DLSS where available for a framerate boost, but you should have no issues in pushing demanding software at 60fps and above in both target resolutions.
Then we get onto the pricing of the RTX 4080 which is hard value to beat at only $299 / £289 which is about as cheap as you can get for a current-generation GPU. As expected from a lower-end video card, this model features a TDP of just 115W so it’s incredibly powerful efficient for a micro ITX or smaller form factor build you may be doing. Its strong performance is partially due to its high base clock speed of 1,830 MHz out of the box with a boost potential of 2,460 MHz. You can squeeze every frame out of this card effectively, making it a solid option for a budget buy.
- Leading gaming performance
- A beast in all resolutions
- Significantly cheaper than RTX 4090
- Expensive
- High power draw
If you’re in the market for something truly high-end that can make the most of what the Ryzen 7 3700X is capable of then look no further than the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX. Now, this card doesn’t exactly come cheap at $999 / £999 but you’ll be buying significant overhead that will power 4K games for many years to come. That’s all due to the video’s card’s 24GB GDDR6 memory paired with its massive 384-bit memory bus. The RDNA 3 flagship won’t break a sweat keeping up with even the most demanding software, especially when you add FSR 3 into the mix.
All that performance potential expectedly comes at the cost of power. With a bandwidth of 960 GB/sec, it shouldn’t be too surprising that the RX 7900 XTX has a 355W TDP. You’ll need to be running at least a 750W GPU or above to assure strong performance, but AMD’s made things easier for you. That’s because, unlike with Nvidia’s recent GPU generations, this video card is powered by just two 8-pin connectors. Depending on the partner variation, you could be using three but that’s an upgrade from a 16-pin adapter as far as we’re concerned. If you want a GPU that will last throughout the years then this could be it.
- 20% more CUDA cores over original
- 12GB GDDRX memory
- No price increase over first iteration
- On the pricier end of mid-range
In terms of a value pick, it’s a challenge to bet against the RTX 4070 Super. It’s not quite the cheapest GPU in our roundup, but it offers amazing value for money with the functionality on display. Namely, its bump up in CUDA cores to 7,168 with 12GB GDDR6X VRAM on a 192-bit memory bus. Effectively, it’s the fastest card on this list in many ways while not costing too much either. You can pick it up from $599 / £579 depending on if you go for an Nvidia made model or a partner card.
This GPU’s no slouch either, as the RTX 4070 Super can confidently deliver in not only 1080p and 1440p but also 4K as well, bolstered up by DLSS 3’s Frame Generation. Then there’s the matter of ray tracing which should be no big deal for this video card. If you’re looking to get the best value for money then there’s little more you can ask for under the $600 / £600 mark. We said as much in our dedicated RTX 4070 Super review which has all the benchmarking and hands-on testing for further reading.
You’ll notice in our list that we didn’t recommend any GTX graphics cards available for purchase and that’s due to the fact that they won’t be able to keep up. Whether you’re buying through Amazon for a brand such as Gigabyte, ASUS, or MSI, we think you will be better served by an Nvidia GeForce RTX model to pair with your AMD Ryzen CPU. It will help you to hit higher resolutions and be less of a bottleneck than an aging chipset well.
These recommendations were made so you can have far better gaming experiences thanks to the GPUs’ enhanced VRAM capacity. Any of the cards in this roundup should be an excellent choice regardless of who manufactures them for your gaming rig. It’s all about getting high frame rates in your gameplay after all, so an older CPU shouldn’t get in the way too much.
What GPU is good for Ryzen 7?
As the Ryzen 7 3700X is a couple of generations old now, we’re primarily recommending mid-range offerings from both AMD and Nvidia such as the RTX 4060 and the RX 7800 XT. You shouldn’t experience any substantial bottleneck with this pairing.
Is the Ryzen 7 3700X good for high end gaming?
The Ryzen 7 3700X may not be at the forefront of the upper mid-range as it once was when it debuted back in mid 2019 but it should still have enough under the hood with its specs to power today’s games. If you do notice struggling with your system, however, then we recommend an AM4 or AM5 based upgrade.
Our Verdict
We’ve chosen the RX 7800 XT as our top recommendation for the best GPU for Ryzen 7 3700X due to its feature set, high amount of VRAM, capabilities in all gaming resolutions, and its pricing.