Diablo 4 Video Card Recommendation List – The Best Value GPU for Your Budget

Graphics Card with Demonic Red Diablo Flames

The best video card for Diablo 4 for every budget range! The graphics cards recommended here are all compatible with Diablo 4 and are selected specifically to provide the best experience in Diablo 4 with your budget in mind.

The recommendations here are based on real player benchmarks in the latest version of Diablo 4, as well as research on compatibility and any issues some players experience with some video cards.

In general, shopping for a GPU (video card) for Diablo 4 will be a little easier than some other new PC releases. Activision-Blizzard tends to have well optimized AAA games, and while D4 has beautiful graphics and lighting effects, top down perspective is fairly forgiving. On the other hand, Diablo is well known for tons of monsters, and particle effects on screen at once, so an upgrade will greatly improve performance.

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Under $100: What is the Best Graphics Card for Diablo 4 Under $100? 

Answer: The GeForce GTX 970 is the best video card under $100 for D4. It is the cheapest option for the lowest budget tier, but is only available used.

  • GTX 970 Diablo 4 Benchmarks: 1080p, Medium/Low Settings: 50-60 FPS

If saving as much money as possible is an absolute necessity, your minimum GPU choice should be an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970. These have been out of production for years, but you can always buy one used. Keep in mind there are risks and hassles that may come with buying used (no warranty!) GeForce GTX 970 (Used) – $80 or less on eBay this link will take you to all the current eBay listings for GTX 970’s. There are hundreds to choose from. Be sure to check the seller’s feedback first.

Under $200: Best GPU for Diablo IV on a $150 to $200 Budget?

Answer: The Radeon RX 6600 is the best GPU for Diablo 4 under $200! This is an excellent value for 1080p or 1440p resolutions.

RX 6600 Benchmarks for Diablo 4:

  • 1080p, Medium Settings: 195 fps
  • 1080p, Ultra Settings: 110 fps
  • 1440p, Ultra Settings: 75 fps

Radeon cards are currently in a position to be a better value at many price points compared to their GeForce competitors. The RX 6600 hits a perfect sweet spot for great performance at an amazing value. You can stick with 1080p to match a high refresh rate monitor, or step up to 1440p for larger monitors and still have comfortably over 60 fps. If you prefer sticking with Nvidia GeForce branded cards, you won’t get nearly the performance: GeForce GTX 1650 for a slightly lower cost, but much worse performance, or a GeForce GTX 1660 Super for a slightly higher price and a little worse performance.

Under $350: The Best Video Card for Diablo 4 at $250, $300, $350? (Best Value Tier)

Answer: The Radeon RX 6700 XT is the best GPU for Diablo under $350. High performance at a great value. 

RX 6700 XT Benchmarks for Diablo 4:

  • 1080p, Medium Settings: 220 FPS
  • 1080p, Ultra Settings: 160 FPS
  • 1440p, Ultra Settings: 115 FPS

Compared to the previously mentioned RX 6600, the 6700 XT is roughly a 45% performance increase and 50% higher price, making it a matching great deal. The previously mentioned RX 6600 is a screaming value for 1080p gaming, and this RX 6700 XT is a similarly impressive deal that is ideal 1440p gaming resolutions. It’s a perfect choice for anyone with a bit higher budget who still wants a great value. For team green, Nvidia users in this price range would look to the RTX 2060. Prices can vary, you may find some considerably cheaper on Amazon through this link. Performance on the GeForce RTX 2060 matches the previously mentioned Radeon RX 6600.

RX 6700 XT
RX 6700 XT – View on Amazon

Under $500: The Best Video Card for Diablo 4 – $400 to $500 Range

Answer: The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is the best graphics card (GPU) for Diablo 4 with a $500 maximum budget. It is the best value for ultra high refresh rates at 1440p and 1080p resolutions.

RTX 3060 Ti Diablo 4 Benchmarks:

  • 1440p: High Settings: 160 FPS
  • 1080p: High Settings: 285 FPS

The RTX 3060 Ti hits the sweet spot for performance and value for players running at 1440p resolutions or below and who have high refresh rate gaming monitors. It brings plenty of power for high quality settings while still producing enough frames to exceed the 120hz or 144hz many modern gaming monitors run at for ultra smooth visuals. Stepping up from the RTX 3060 Ti to an RTX 3070 or 3080 are also decent options, but they offer much less effective value for the hundreds extra it will cost you.

Best value under $500: ZOTAC RTX 3060 Ti 8GB OC ZOTAC has proven to be a top tier GPU manufacturer that has stood the test of time. A few years ago I hesitated to recommend them, but since then they have proven they are here to stay with great quality control and customer service.  This RTX 3060 Ti Overclocked 8GB gives you the best bang for the buck at this price range, and this ZOTAC is currently the best value among respected manufacturer brands for this model.

Under $800 / $900: The Best 4K Value GPU for Diablo 4 

Answer: The Radeon RX 7900XT is the most affordable option for playing Diablo 4 at 4K resolutions. By lowering just a few quality settings, you can get pretty consistent framerates that should just barely stay above 144 fps at 4K.

RX 7900XT Diablo 4 Benchmarks:

  • 4K resolution, high settings: 100-145 fps

The Best GPU for 4K Diablo 4 – Around $1000 to $1200

Answer: The GeForce RTX 4080 is the best graphics card for playing Diablo 4 at 4K with ultra performance, and falls into the $1000 to $1200 price range. It easily powers maximum graphics quality settings on 4k monitors with high refresh rates.

The RTX 4080 allows you to crank absolutely every setting to maximum while still pushing out enough frames per second to offer buttery smooth visuals on 4k monitors. If you’re running a 1440p monitor an RTX 4080 may be overkill right now, but it does offer future proofing to ensure you’ll have no issues running max settings in any games that come out in the next couple of years.

Moving up a level to the most expensive card available right now, the RTX 4090 offers at most 25% performance over the 4080. However at around $500 more it doesn’t offer enough noticeable real-world improvement to be deemed a good value, especially in Diablo 4.

RTX 4080 Diablo 4 Benchmarks:

  • 4K resolution, high graphics settings, 150-200 FPS
  • 1440p, high settings: 200-300 FPS
  • 1080p, high settings: 300 FPS

Best GPU Value for 4k in Diablo 4: MSI Gaming GeForce RTX 4080 16GB OC – The RTX 4080 is more than powerful enough to run Diablo 4 in 4K at high settings while still providing smooth FPS. If you’re currently running 1080p or 1440p and are considering an RTX 4080 or better, make sure to upgrade to a 4K monitor as well! If you don’t plan on running 4K, for most people it would be more cost effective to stick with the 3000 series of cards for another year or two.

 

The Most Powerful GPU for Diablo 4: $1500 to $2000 – 4K Resolution

GeForce RTX 4090 – In some modern or upcoming games, going with the 4090 might be necessary to max out graphics settings at 4K, while also matching or exceeding a monitor’s refresh rate at 120hz or 144hz. However, in Diablo 4 specifically, the RTX 4080 is easily powerful enough to do this already, especially with DLSS on. We would recommend sticking with the 4080 as a better value unless you really want to future proof your system.

A Quick Note about Other System Specs (CPU, RAM)

This article is focused on video cards (GPUs) however other components of your system will be a factor in performance. Your GPU will have the biggest impact, but if your RAM or CPU fall too far behind, they can cause even the most expensive video card to have poor performance.

RAM is fairly simple, you will just want to have 8GB or more and you’ll be fine in normal circumstances in Diablo 4.  This amount of RAM is pretty standard on most systems built in the last 10 years. However, there have been many issues with memory leaks in the game, and having 16GB as a buffer would be a good idea. 

CPU performance can be as complicated as GPU’s. However if your computer was at least a midrange system built any time in the last 7 years (or newer) you probably won’t have a CPU bottleneck in Diablo 4 until you get to the very high tiers of video cards. You can check how your processor compares to the lower end official recommendation of i5-4670K by googling “i5-4670K vs [Your CPU Here].” One of the first results should give you a very simple benchmark score comparing your CPU to that baseline.

Maxing Out Performance – How to Increase FPS in Diablo 4

So now that you have your card, or are waiting for your new one to arrive, there are a few things you can do to make sure you’re getting the best performance possible on your current system. Many of these suggestions are similar for any game, but it can help to have a complete list of your options:

  1. Update your graphics card drivers
  2. Lower graphics quality and feature settings in game
  3. Lower resolution in game (from 1440p to 1080p for example.)
  4. In the Windows search bar, type “Game Mode” and click the result. Turn on Game Mode if it is not already on.
  5. Close any apps running in the background, including a browser
  6. Make sure your hard drives are not low on free space (especially the boot drive and the Diablo 4 install drive) 
  7. Put the game into Fullscreen mode instead of Windowed or Borderless

Current Known Bugs in Diablo 4 (Beta etc.)

  • Currently many players are seeing a temporary FPS drop / stutter when they open their inventory or menus. 
  • There appear to be common memory leak issues which cause bad stuttering, lag and crashes, especially on older cards with 8GB or less VRAM. Turning down textures, shadows, resolution, and enable the “Low FX” option may help. Most likely these issues will be fixed before retail release.
  • Some players reported damage to their video cards while maxing out the card’s performance in Diablo 4. This was a big news story for a while, but ultimately it only seems to have happened to a handful of users. It appears you can prevent the problem by setting a reasonable framerate cap, using DLSS, and checking your fan and temperature settings. Most likely the cards were faulty to start with and would have failed when stressed in any game. Either way this is unlikely to be an issue in the future.

Diablo 4 Official Recommended System & GPU Requirements:

The official system requirements for Diablo IV can be found at Blizzard’s website and the important bits are listed here. The minimum recommended requirements are not too demanding, with the GTX 970 being released almost 10 years ago and allowing for 60 fps at 1080p.

Minimum Requirements

  • OS: 64-bit Windows 10
  • Processor: Intel Core i5-2500K or AMD FX-8100
  • Memory: 8 GB RAM
  • Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 or AMD Radeon R9 280
  • DirectX: Version 12

* 1080p native resolution / 720p render resolution, low graphics settings, 30fps

Recommended Requirements

  • OS: 64-bit Windows 10
  • Processor: Intel Core i5-4670K or AMD R3-1300X
  • Memory: 16 GB RAM
  • Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 or AMD Radeon RX 470
  • DirectX: Version 12

* 1080p resolution, medium graphics settings, 60fps

Conclusion: Our Picks for the Best Diablo 4 Video Card

Thanks for sticking with us through this Diablo IV GPU Buyer’s Guide! We’ll wrap up with our Editor’s Choices:

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3 Responses

  1. Peter says:

    Why only nvidia cards? Rx 6950 xt is worst than 3060ti in diablo iv?

  2. daydull says:

    Hi, we added AMD Radeon option(s) where appropriate in the article, and continue to monitor and update if needed. I would not compare the two cards you listed to each other. For right now you’ll probably have a better experience with most GeForce cards in Diablo 4. That may change if AMD cards/drivers are updated with FSR 3 capabilities, which is supposed happen this year sometime, but no specific date yet.

  3. daydull says:

    We’ve just updated the recommendations (again) to match the latest price changes and benchmarks!

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