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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 extra cores than the Ryzen 5 5600X it costs 50 percent more while offering only academic difference in games. 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. If you want to find out the best GPUs for 5600X, 5900X, and more check out our graphics cards section.
While the 5800X is priced a bit higher than we would like it’s still an excellent gaming CPU. For starters, it’s still one of the fastest gaming CPUs at the moment. 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, the Ryzen 5800X will do the trick. If you have one or plan to get one, the good news is that the 5800X can eat any current GPU for breakfast. If you want to find out what are the best graphics cards for Ryzen 7 5800X, read on.
If you like to check more buying guides we recommend the best graphics card buying guides: best graphics cards for 5600X, best graphics cards for 5900X, or maybe best GPUs for Intel Alder Lake CPUs. You can also see our guides for the best graphics cards for 1440p 144Hz gaming or the best 1080p 144Hz graphics cards.
1. ASUS RTX 3080 TUF Gaming OC: Best bang-for-buck graphics card for Ryzen 7 5800X
Let’s start with the most obvious pick. The best bang-for-the-buck graphic card for 5800X is the RTX 3080. 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 either the 10GB or 12GB version.
While 12 gigabytes of memory could prove beneficial with next-gen titles at 4K resolution the 10 gigabyte version is more than enough for any current game and will be for the foreseeable future. If you play at 1440p, we reckon that the 10GB of memory will be enough until the card’s EOL.
The RTX 3080 offers excellent rasterized performance on top ray tracing performance that’s, in most games, miles ahead of AMD GPUs. Then you also have stuff such as DLSS, RTX Voice, and Nvidia’s excellent NVENC encoder; none of which can 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.
Performance-wise the RTX 3080 is lightfast at 1440p in every AAA title. It’s also the best graphics card for 4K gaming at the moment unless you want to spend much, much more for just about 10-15 percent gains. if you want a minimum of 60 frames with all settings cranked to max the RTX 3080 is the card to get. As for esports titles, this GPU 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 necessarily don’t need a high refresh rate experience when playing AAA games, check out our next pick.
2. EVGA RTX 3070 XC3 Black Gaming: Best graphics card for 1440p gaming for 5800X
While the RTX 3080 is the best bang-for-buck graphics card for 5800X, 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 comes into play. While not a flagship-level card, it 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.
You can lower some details and get near or pass 100 frames in most AAA games. And don’t forget about activating a resizable BAR feature, which can bring a slight performance boost in a lot of recent titles. Resizable BAR is, at the moment, only available on B550 or X570 boards. If you plan on pairing the RTX 3070 with Ryzen 7 5800X and you also need a quality board to complete the build you can find best B550 and X570 boards in our buying guides.
3. ZOTAC Gaming RTX 2060: Best 1080p gaming GPU for for Ryzen 7 5800X
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 GPU for 5800X at the moment is the RTX 2060 from NVidia.
The RTX 2060 still offers competitive 1080p performance and is capable of reaching 60 frames in most games, with the majority of visual options cranked to the max. Six gigs of memory are enough for 1080p these days and should stay enough in the coming years. Finally, the card supports DLSS for times when you need that extra performance boost in the latest AAA games, such as Dying Light 2. If you’re playing in 1080p the RTX 2060 is the best GPU for 5800X, as long as you don’t overpay it.
4. EVGA RTX 3090 FTW3 Ultra Gaming: Best overall graphics card for 5800X
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 GPUs 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. The similar situation’s with the RX 6900 XT and RX 6800 XT.
That said, if we had to recommend any of these two, it would be the RTX 3090. It’s quite expensive but it packs 24GB of memory, which could be of importance for gamers who also do serious work on their PCs. 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.
5. ZOTAC Gaming GTX 1660 Super: Best first aid GPU for 5800X
Reserved for the end of the list is the GTX 1660 Super, the best graphics card for 5800X 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 the best 5800X GPU acting as a temporary solution until you get a permanent GPU upgrade.
6. PowerColor RX 6700 XT Hellhound: Best bang-for-buck AMD graphics card for Ryzen 7 5800X
If you want to go full AMD, the best bang-for-buck AMD graphics card for Ryzen 7 5800X is the RX 6700 XT. This card offers almost the same performance as the RTX 3070 while being a bit cheaper. Not a great choice for gamers who want DLSS and acceptable ray tracing performance for 1440 gaming but if you don’t care about those two the RX 6700 XT has a lot to offer.
First of all, there’s the aforementioned almost-RTX 3070 performance with the added benefit of 16GB of memory instead of just eight. Next, while you can get RTX 3070 models for about ten percent more cash, those are almost exclusively dual-fan versions that aren’t as cool as triple fan solutions. On the flip side, some of the most affordable RX 6700 XT models – like the one on our list – have three fans and much better thermals under load than dual-fan RTX 3070 models. Finally, the RX 6700 XT doesn’t have such a bad ETH hash rate so you could let it mine while you aren’t gaming and earn some cash on the side.
7. Sapphire Pulse RX 6600: Best budget AMD graphics card for Ryzen 7 5800X
Yes, costing almost as the last-gen high-end card isn’t very “budget” but at the current prices the RX 6600 is an excellent budget graphics card for the 5800X. It’s cheaper than Nvidia counterparts while having enough muscle to reach 3060-like levels of performance. Not great but far from terrible, especially if you compare the price of the two cards. Yes, you get less video memory but 8GB if more than enough for a budget-oriented GPU that will most likely be used for 1080p and 1440p gaming.
Now, there’s no DLSS, which could greatly benefit gamers playing at 1440p resolution. But at least you have AMD FSR that’s supported by more and more games by the day and that has an acceptable level of quality at 1440p – if you use the Ultra Quality preset, of course. As for ray tracing performance, you won’t get playable framerates with high settings and ray tracing either with the RX 6600 or the RTX 3060 so there’s no loss here opting for AMD instead of Nvidia.
At the end of the day, the RX 6600 wouldn’t be a great buy in normal times but in this market, the card’s pretty solid. It’s cheaper than the competition, it’s cool and quiet while achieving excellent performance at 1080p and respectable performance at 1440p, and it comes with 8GB or video memory. The only potential issue could be the card’s PCIe x8 interface. Not an issue if you own a PCIe 4.0 motherboard but when paired with a PCIe 3.0 board the RX 6600 has lower performance in some titles at 1080p such as Hitman 3 and Battlefield V. On the other hand, the x8 interface is not an issue at 1440p and in the majority of modern titles when playing in 1080p so we can say that pairing the card with a PCIe 3.0 board is safe.
