How we test
One scale for every part
Every graphics card gets a performance score on a single scale, where 60 is roughly an RTX 4060 at 1080p high settings. Every CPU gets a ceiling on the same scale: the strongest GPU it can keep fully loaded at 1080p and 144Hz in CPU-heavy games. Both come from our own testing and published benchmark data across a fixed set of games.
Adjusting for your settings
The CPU ceiling moves with your settings. Higher resolutions raise it (×1.3 at 1440p, ×1.7 at 4K) because the GPU does more work per frame. Higher refresh targets lower it (×0.85 at 240Hz) and lower targets raise it (×1.25 at 60Hz). 8GB of RAM lowers it by 10%, and streaming while you play lowers it by about 8%.
Choosing the three picks
Max before bottleneck is the strongest card within 5% of the adjusted ceiling. Best match is the strongest card at or under your budget that still fits. Budget pick is the best performance per dollar among cheaper cards that keep at least 70% of the best match's performance.
A pairing counts as balanced when the GPU would stay above roughly 95% load in most games. FPS figures are rounded estimates, and each game is marked CPU- or GPU-limited depending on which side runs out first.
Prices and updates
Prices are approximate US street prices for new cards and are reviewed when they move by more than 10%, when a new GPU launches or when a driver noticeably changes results. Data last reviewed .