The Ryzen 7 5800X is an eight-core and sixteen thread Zen 3 CPU that is the awkward one of the Zen 3 lineup. While it has only two more cores than the Ryzen 5 5600X it costs 50 percent more while offering only academic difference in games and a noticeable bump in multithreaded performance that’s still not worth the price difference. On the other side, we have the 5900X, which costs just 22 percent more while packing 50 percent more cores and an increase in multithreaded performance that’s more than worth the extra money for getting the 5900X.
Still, the 5800X is a more than capable CPU. It’s priced a bit higher than we would like but if we ignore the price for a bit the 5800X looks pretty solid. It’s one of the fastest gaming CPUs at the moment, topped only by the 5900X and 5950X by a couple of frames. Next, its productivity performance is praiseworthy for an eight-core chip. It lags behind the 5900X but if you need a gaming CPU you’ll occasionally use it for some light to moderate video and photo editing, maybe for compiling some code or rendering relatively simple scenes and models, the Ryzen 5800X will do the trick.
Another good thing about the 5800X is that, in the wake of massive shortages of every type of new hardware, this CPU is usually the most widely available of the Zen 3 bunch thanks to, ironically, it’s awkward pricing. If you have one or plan to get one, the good news is that the 5800X can eat any current GPU for breakfast. It’s extremely capable for current titles and it could age more gracefully than the 5600X thanks to the two extra cores. Finding the best graphics card for the Ryzen 7 5800X depends on your resolution and the games you play. Below you’ll find a number of choices suited for a wide range of resolutions. Most of these cards are in the high-end market or near it, but we’ve included a couple of odd choices in case you prefer gaming at 1080p or in case you’re only playing esports titles.
Best Graphics Cards For Ryzen 7 5800X Builds – Our Picks
| Award | Model | |
|---|---|---|
| Best Price To Performance Graphics Card To Combine With The 5800X | Sapphire RX 6800 XT Gaming |  |
| ASUS RTX 3080 TUF Gaming OC |  |
|
| Best Graphics Card For 1440p Gaming On 5800X Builds | EVGA RTX 3070 XC3 Black Gaming |  |
| Sapphire RX 6800 Gaming | |
|
| Best GPU For 1080p Gaming On 5800X Builds | XFX RX 5600 XT Thicc II Pro |  |
| Zotac Gaming RTX 2060 |  |
|
| Best Overall Graphics Card For 5800X Builds | EVGA RTX 3090 FTW3 Ultra Gaming |  |
| Best Card To Get While Waiting For Ampere And Big Navi Stock To Stabilize | Zotac Gaming GTX 1660 Super |  |
Best Price To Performance Graphics Card To Combine With The 5800X
Sapphire RX 6800 XT Gaming
| Memory | 16 GB GDDR6 |
| Base Clock | 1825 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 2250 MHz |
| Outputs | 2× DisplayPort 1× HDMI |
Okay, let’s start with the most obvious picks. The two cards that are a perfect match for the 5800X are the RTX 3080 and the RX 6800 XT. Considering the price of the CPU and the fact that the vast majority of 5800X builds are made to play the newest games with all visual options cranked to the max you cannot go wrong with any of these two.
The 6800 XT is a better choice for 1440p resolution, where it has a slight advantage over the RTX 3080. The AMD card also packs more memory, which could prove beneficial with next-gen titles at 4K resolution. If you play at 1440p, we reckon that the 10GB of memory found on the RTX 3080 will be enough until the card’s EOL.
While having less memory, the RTX 3080 is faster than the RX 6800 XT at 4K on average. It also has much better ray-tracing performance in most games, and it offers much better extra features. Stuff like DLSS, RTX Voice, and Nvidia’s excellent NVENC encoder cannot be found on AMD GPUs. RTX Voice and NVENC are especially important if you like to stream games and we highly recommend RTX 3000 cards for all streamers out there.
ASUS RTX 3080 TUF Gaming OC
| Memory | 10 GB GDDR6 |
| Base Clock | 1440 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 1710 MHz |
| Outputs | 3× DisplayPort 2× HDMI |
Performance-wise these cards are lightfast at 1440p in every AAA title. They are also the best graphics cards for 4K gaming at the moment. if you want a minimum of 60 frames with all settings cranked to max the RTX 3080 and the RX 6800 XT are the cards to get. As for the esports titles, these will run every esports game out there at your max monitor refresh rate without issues, both at 1440p and 4K. If you game at 1440p and don’t need a high refresh rate experience when playing AAA games, check out the two cards below.
Best Graphics Card For 1440p Gaming On 5800X Builds
EVGA RTX 3070 XC3 Black Gaming
| Memory | 8 GB GDDR6X |
| Base Clock | 1500 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 1725 MHz |
| Outputs | 3× DisplayPort 1× HDMI |
While the RTX 3080 and the RX 6800 XT are the best cards you can get for gaming at 1440p, not everyone wants to get the flagship GPU, not everyone demands triple-digit performance in AAA titles, and not everyone needs to play every game with literally every option turned to max.
This is where the RTX 3070 and the RX 6800 come into play. While not flagship cards, they can be an excellent fit with the Ryzen 7 5800X. You’ll get sky-high frames in multiplayer games while every single AAA title (aside from unoptimized messes like Watch Dogs Legion) will run at least 60 frames with all or most graphic settings turned on. Not bad for the price.
Sapphire RX 6800 Gaming
| Memory | 16 GB GDDR6 |
| Base Clock | 1700 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 2105 MHz |
| Outputs | 2× DisplayPort 1× HDMI |
You can lower some details and get near or pass 100 frames in most AAA games so if you don’t care about every single eye candy, you can have a fast refresh rate gaming experience in AAA titles if you get either the RX 6800 or the RTX 3070. If that works for you, we would recommend the RX 6800 over the RTX 3070. It’s almost 20 percent faster than the RTX 3070 on average (at 1440p), it packs double the amount of memory, and you’ll also get a small bump in performance in most titles thanks to the AMD’s SAM (Smart Access Memory), presuming you have a B550 or an X570 board.
Another interesting choice, for gamers who don’t care about playing with ultra settings and running games at higher than 60fps, could be the RX 5700 XT. This is an excellent bang for the buck card at the moment, especially considering the issues with pricing and availability of the latest cards from NVidia and AMD. A great 1440p 60fps card that can easily run esports titles at 100 frames or higher.
If you like ray tracing effects and need extra features such as the RTX Voice or the NVENC encoder, get the RTX 3070. And while the RTX 3070 is slower than the RX 6800 in most games, in games that support DLSS the Nvidia’s card takes the lead. DLSS could also make the RTX 3070 competitive for longer if it becomes a mainstream feature found in many future games. AMD doesn’t have the answer for DLSS at the moment but it does work on its own similar tech. Finally, if you play at 1440p, 8GB of video memory found on the RTX 3070 is enough at the moment and will most likely be enough for future titles.
Best GPU For 1080p Gaming On 5800X Builds
Now, the 5800X builds are mostly ultimate gaming machines that don’t deal with 1080p resolution. But, there’s always an exception. What about high refresh 1080p gaming? If you need a card that can chug out multiplayer games at 120Hz or higher while doing a pretty good job (at least 60fps) when running the latest AAA with max settings, the best two choices at the moment are the RX 5600 XT from AMD and the RTX 2060 from NVidia.
Both have the same amount of memory, the RX 5600 XT is a bit faster than the 2060, and when it comes to extra features we have the usual situation, but this time the AMD card doesn’t support ray tracing at all. No matter the final choice, both of these are excellent 1080p cards.
Now, if you want to maximize your 1080p performance in order to run esports titles at 240 or maybe 360Hz while achieving near triple-digit framerate in most AAA games, get the RX 5700 XT. A year ago this card was a clear overkill for 1080p gaming but today, with the arrival of next-gen titles and higher and higher monitor refresh rates, the 5700 XT is a pretty good choice for users who prefer frame rate over resolution.
XFX RX 5600 XT Thicc II Pro
| Memory | 6 GB GDDR6 |
| Base Clock | 1130 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 1620 MHz |
| Outputs | 3× DisplayPort 1× HDMI |
ZOTAC Gaming RTX 2060
| Memory | 6 GB GDDR6 |
| Base Clock | 1365 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 1680 MHz |
| Outputs | 3× DisplayPort 1× HDMI |
Best Overall Graphics Card For 5800X Builds
EVGA RTX 3090 FTW3 Ultra Gaming
| Memory | 24 GB GDDR6X |
| Base Clock | 1395 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 1800 MHz |
| Outputs | 3× DisplayPort 1× HDMI |
While the RTX 3090, as well as the upcoming RX 6900 XT, are the two most powerful graphics cards at the moment and technically, the best pairing for every 5800X build, we wouldn’t recommend either of these. The RTX 3090 is on average only about 10 percent faster than the RTX 3080 while selling for more than double the price. And while we don’t have any official RX 6900 XT at the moment, we reckon the situation with the flagship AMD card will be the same.
That said, if we had to recommend any of these two, it would be the 6900 XT. It’s way less expensive than the 3090 (at least according to the official MSRP, which doesn’t guarantee the same street price) while packing 16GB of memory. The 3090 could only be interesting for people who can benefit from 24 gigabytes of memory. In other words, the 3090 can be a solid GPU, but only if you plan to utilize its memory and CUDA cores to the max, if doing rendering or video editing work.
Best Card To Get While Waiting For Ampere And Big Navi Stock To Stabilize
ZOTAC Gaming GTX 1660 Super
| Memory | 6 GB GDDR6 |
| Base Clock | 1530 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 1785 MHz |
| Outputs | 3× DisplayPort 1× HDMI |
Reserved for the end of the list is the GTX 1660 Super, the best card for users who’ve decided to wait for this whole mess with Ampere and Big Navi Cards to clear up. While not the performance heavyweight, the GTX 1660 Super is good enough for 1440p 60fps gaming with high to medium settings in most AAA games. The card’s also great for 1440p high refresh rate gaming, at least when it comes to eSports and multiplayer titles. In other words, the card’s a perfect temporary solution to game until you get a permanent GPU upgrade.
If you want more oomph the RX 5700 XT is a pretty solid choice. With it you’ll get at least 60 frames in AAA games with most options turned on but you also have to pay more. When it comes to used cards, take a look at the GTX 1070 and 1080 as well as their Ti variants. Due to the issues with the availability of new cards, pricing on used RTX 2000 cards has skyrocketed so they aren’t a pretty good deal at the moment. On the other hand, the GTX 1070 still is an excellent 1080p card while the 1080 Ti and 1070 Ti and quite capable 1440p cards.
