Best Budget Graphics Cards in 2023
With prices moving closer to MSRP for multiple SKUs as well as the move to Nvidia’s RTX 4000 series as well as AMD’s rather limited RX 7000 series offerings, we are seeing an emerging trend in the market: more competitive entry-level to mid-range hardware as the market gets propped up with an increasing amount of used and refurbished units that provide much better value than they did the same time last year.
There are three major players in the game now in order of significance: NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel. The first two compete at various price points while Intel has been more or less focused entirely on the mid-range segment so far based on its ARC product releases aimed at disrupting the sub $300-500 market.
This does however also help us set a good precedent when it comes to what price range we should aim for to both make comparisons fairer and define what «budget» means. Based on the fact that budget might mean different things for different consumers, we will be looking at GPUs that range from ~$200 to $700 to cater to the bulk of our audience’s needs with regular updates in tow.
ASRock Challenger D Radeon RX 6700 XT
The Best Overall Budget GPU For Gaming
Powerful GPU At A Budget
$310 $330 Save $20
The ASRock Challenger D Radeon RX 6700 XT is an excellent mid-range GPU that does justice to 1080P and 1440P gamers. While it can handle the bulk of modern games at a respectable frame rate at FHD or 2K resolutions, it also does so at a price point where it decimates Nvidia’s RTX 3060/3060TI offerings. It does offer Ray Tracing but the performance overhead is significantly higher than Nvidia’s 2nd and 3rd gen RT-core enabled RTX 3000 and 4000 GPUs which tend to be at least a generation ahead of the 6700XT’s own implementation.
Pros
- Excellent rasterization performance compared to its competition
- Has plenty of GDDR6 memory (12GB) that should prevent throttling due to memory limitations at its target resolution
- Relatively power efficient compared to comparable last gen GPU alternatives
Cons
- Underwhelming Ray Tracing performance compared to Nvidia & Intel offerings
- Limited driver support from AMD when the RX 7000 series launched was a bit of a disappointment but has since been rectified
$310 at Newegg $399 at Amazon
The ASRock Challenger D Radeon RX 6700 XT is an excellent mid-range GPU that trades at a sizable discount, offering Navi 22 chip as part of its arsenal bundled with an impressive 12GB of GDDR6 memory as it takes on Nvidia’s RTX 3060 and 3060TI with a minor pricing edge in tow.
With rasterization performance that sees it even beat the higher-priced RTX 3060TI comprehensively, AMD’s ‘fine wine’ claims by some of its fans might hold ground as the 6700XT gains ground with every successive driver update, making a card that was originally considered a poor man’s RTX 3060TI now beating it comprehensively on more than just occasion.
At the core of the RX 6700XT is an RDNA 2-based core that is manufactured on a 7nm process. The Xbox Series S, Series X, and PS5 are also based on the same architecture which should make it a beneficiary down the line of developer implementation of select AMD technologies on said consoles being ported to PCs down the line.
At the same time, the Ray Tracing (RT) performance of the RX 6700XT comes up considerably short as does its own implementation of DLSS, AMD FidelityFX, which does help matters for the 6700XT but isn’t up there with Nvidia’s solution which is arguably superior and more mature as the tech goes, but that could change over time.
Currently, however, at the price point it competes at, the RX 6700XT is a blend of value, performance, and features on offer that can not be bested easily, making it our best budget GPU pick by far.
Intel Arc A750 Limited Edition 8GB Graphics Card
Best Entry-Level Budget GPU
A Compelling Arc On A Budget GPU Quest
The Intel Arc A750 is a dual-slot GPU that aims to cater to the entry-level/mid-range GPU market audience as it offers excellent performance coupled with a price that makes it compete with AMD and Nvidia’s lower-end offerings with ease
Pros
- Effectively beats both Nvidia’s RTX 3050 and AMD’s 6600 with ease in raw performance tests
- Excellent, aggressive pricing allows it to be a contender within its target price range
- Has an appealing, understated design theme which makes it look premium while skipping on RGB lighting
- Does a decent job with ray tracing for a first-generation GPU
Cons
- Drivers are fairly new and quirky compared to its competition which has years of experience, leading to somewhat unsteady performance on last-gen titles
- Relatively high idle power draw
See at Amazon $250 at Newegg
The discrete GPU market has a new, not-altogether-surprising entry in the form of Intel which renews focus on the entry-level and midrange in a bid to both, cater to consumers looking for a budget purchase and shake the dominance of the two major other players (Nvidia and AMD) while taking lessons learned from the endeavor to (hopefully) make more powerful integrated GPU solutions within its CPU offerings.
The Intel Arc A750 Limited Edition 8GB Graphics Card is no exception as it decimates its own competition, AMD’s RX 6600 and Nvidia’s RTX 3050 with ease in raw performance benchmarks and holding its own in ray tracing benchmarks in tandem.
Intel’s lofty goals are still within reach, but Team Blue will have to endeavor to work towards lower power draw, particularly in idle situations for its ARC GPUs if they are going to compete for efficiency vs other mobile and discrete competitors over time. Intel’s ongoing endeavors with its GPU drivers should improve things somewhat but in their current state, the ARC lineup handles DX12 titles quite well while falling short on more dated titles that use legacy versions of DirectX.
We do expect support to improve over time and as the A750 holds its own distinctly versus its competition unless power draw is a core reason in your purchase philosophy, the A750 is as solid as they come for an entry level budget GPU purchase.
MSI GeForce RTX™ 3060 VENTUS 2X 12G OC
The Best Budget Nvidia GPU
Ampere-based Budget Play
$290 $460 Save $170
The MSI GeForce RTX™ 3060 VENTUS 2X 12G OC is a midrange GPU that is the best-selling GPU on both Amazon & Newegg for April 2023.
With plenty of CUDA Cores, respectable gaming benchmarks and performance, and ample GDDR6 memory, it aims to be a mainstay for mainstream consumers that prefer to game at Full HD and 2K resolutions with respectable frame rates in games.
Pros
- Offers a sizable 12GB of GDDR6 memory, allowing it to meet more stringent memory requirements for modern games
- Decent Ray Tracing performance on offer
- Has an excellent price-to-performance ratio versus other Nvidia options
Cons
- Priced quite close to the RTX 3060TI while AMD’s RX 6700XT is cheaper and faster in general
$290 at Amazon $290 at Newegg
The MSI GeForce RTX™ 3060 VENTUS 2X 12G OC is an excellent overclocked AIB variant of the RTX 3060 that offers better value than the stock SKU considerably; offering decent value for a better-cooled and clocked version of the same GPU. With 12GB of onboard memory as well as excellent ray tracing performance on offer for its performance class, it does carve out its own niche for gamers aiming for a GPU that can handle 1080P and to a lesser extent, 1440P gaming with ease without pushing into 3060TI/3070 territory in terms of pricing.
The 3060 is criticized for being slower than AMD’s competing RX 6700XT which competes at similar, if not better price points while offering far better rasterization performance. The RTX 3060 however does do ray tracing far better than AMD’s own implementation, also adding better tech in the mix using DLSS to ensure the RTX 3060 remains relevant for longer than some of its direct competitors given the amount of widespread support the tech currently has.
Gigabyte Radeon RX 6600 Eagle 8G Graphics Card
The Best Budget AMD GPU
Tri-Fan Budget AMD Upgrade
Gigabyte Radeon RX 6600 Eagle 8G is the company’s mid-range graphics card from the most popular Radeon RX 6000 series. It is built with the AMD RDNA 2 architecture and provides a 128-bit memory interface with 8 gigabytes of GDDR6 memory. It is installed with Gigabyte’s Windforce 3X cooling solution, which means that it was three alternate spinning fans for optimal airflow. The GPU supports multiple high-resolution monitors simultaneously with two DisplayPort connectors and two HDMIs.
Pros
- Has excellent cooling thanks to its tri-fan cooling system that also offers alternate spinning to increase airflow while supporting semi-passive cooling for low workload scenarios
- Well-priced: One of the cheapest but capable GPUs in the market for modern titles making it a strong budget contender even in 2023 for gamers
- Comes bundled with the free AMD The Last of Us bundle for PC at select retailers
- Is a low power consuming upgrade which means most PCs will not need to upgrade their PSU to get up and running
Cons
- Comes in a much larger profile than the RX 6600 generally needs which could be an issue for users with smaller cases
- AMD’s recent handling of the RX 6000 series driver updates left a lot to be desired as it focused exclusively on the RX 7000 lineup at launch. While the situation has been rectified, it warrants a mention given multiple issues gamers faced during that time with newer titles
- Ray Tracing Performance is lacking
$196 at Amazon $200 at Newegg
The Gigabyte Radeon RX 6600 Eagle 8G Graphics Card is an entry-level AMD RX 6600-based GPU that has an overkill cooling system and a profile to match given the chip it sports, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing from both an aesthetic or cooling perspective in the long term.
While it isn’t the strongest performer on our list, it does do a decent job for its price and target resolution of 1080P even if it takes a hit on Ray Traced content, which is a mainstay issue for AMD hardware currently with both Intel and Nvidia’s implementations of the tech being considerably superior to Team Red’s.
The upside of the RX 6600 is that it is a relatively power-efficient GPU that can run on most computers without needing a dedicated PSU purchase due to its limited power draw needs. The RX 6600 Eagle by Gigabyte does feel like an over-engineered version of the GPU by an AIB and as we stated earlier, is not necessarily a bad thing, but it could be a limiting factor for some users looking for a lower profile budget GPU in the same trim. Thankfully other vendors such as XFX have you covered with a smaller form-factor SKU that performs similarly, albeit at a $10 premium at the time of writing.
Intel Arc A770 Limited Edition
The Best Budget Intel GPU
Intel’s Finest With Plenty of VRAM IN Play
A part of Intel’s first dedicated graphics cards, the Arc A770 offers a great price-to-performance ratio but still needs to deliver on better drivers despite already offering better RT performance than entry-level AMD GPUs and going neck and neck with Nvidia’s RTX 3060 GPU in most benchmarks.
Pros
- Well-Priced; beats competing Nvidia and AMD alternatives in the same price range handily in a variety of benchmarks
- The only current-gen GPU in the market with 16GB of memory in its price range, making it an easy upgrade for high resolution gaming
- Aesthetically much more pleasing than any other stock unit with subtle RGB lighting and a futuristic design
Cons
- High Idle power consumption compared to its competition
- Driver support is an ongoing endeavor from Team Blue as it scrambles to deliver more stable performance across the ARC lineup
- Requires PCI-E 4.0 slots and resizable BAR support to ensure optimal performance
$400 at Amazon $350 at Newegg
The Intel Arc A770 Limited Edition is part of Team Blue’s ongoing push to capture the burgeoning mid-range GPU market and is an excellent first attempt by the CPU juggernaut as it attempts to push into the discrete GPU market en masse using a mix of value and raw power under the hood.
As with most new products competing in a well-established market, it does suffer from well-entrenched competition from both AMD and Nvidia which have arguably better software support from developers and their own drivers on offer.
The Arc A770 however does have a few tricks up its sleeve. It has excellent Ray Tracing performance on offer, pushing 16GB of GDDR6 memory in a market segment that is currently crowded by 8GB and 12GB SKUs, and throws in superior DX12 compatibility and support for current-gen and upcoming titles even as last-gen titles do take a significant performance hit.
To do so, Intel relies on PCI-E 4.0 and Resizeable Bar, however, which in a nutshell is a PCI-E implementation of access to a GPU’s frame buffer directly by the CPU, allowing for faster performance in a variety of tasks and applications, with a focus on gaming. This makes the Arc A770 an excellent upgrade for current-gen PCs but one that you should consider avoiding if you are pairing it with dated hardware such as an older motherboard.
There are (sometimes) cheaper 3rd party SKUs of the A770 out there that you should consider if you are in the market however that should help you make a more price-savvy purchase versus the stock option at times.
ASUS Dual GeForce RTX 4070 OC Edition
The Best Premium Budget GPU
Pushing Budgets and Performance Tiers
Pros
- Excellent silent performance under load
- Has better cooling performance than the stock RTX 4070 despite sharing the same MSRP
- Offers higher boost clocks than stock units out of the box
- Excellent Ray Tracing and DLSS 3.0 performance on offer
Cons
- Offers rasterization performance that is close to an RTX 3080 in raw terms
- Doesn’t offer the same performance jump that the RTX 3000 series did on a comparable price tier last generation
- Lacks displayport 2.0 support unlike AMD alternatives in the 7000 series
$600 at Amazon $600 at Newegg
The ASUS Dual GeForce RTX 4070 OC Edition is an excellent RTX 4070 SKU that delivers excellent performance at a price that pushes towards the upper echelons of the performance and price graphs but is somewhat digestible given what is on offer in terms of solid DLSS 3.
0 and better Ray Tracing performance in addition to fast GDDR6X memory on offer making it the ultimate 1440P GPU currently at a relatively high $600 price tag, a common theme in the RTX 4000 series as Nvidia prices GPUs in a bid to allow it to clear older RTX 3000 series GPUs with ease.
While a lot of Nvidia fans are somewhat disappointed by Team Green’s less than aggressive pricing this generation, one cannot deny that in the case of the RTX 4070, if you are looking for an excellent high-end GPU at the sub $600 mark, you can’t really go wrong with Nvidia’s latest and greatest, even if it isn’t truly a value upgrade from the RTX 3000 series if you have an RTX 3070 or up unless you plan to max out RT or DLSS 3.0 performance with rasterization gains at a minimum at a similar price point as the RTX 3080.
That being said, the RTX 4070 is a capable GPU on its own with significant power under the hood, the ability to play games much more smoothly due to Nvidia’s frame-gen tech as part of its DLSS 3.
0 offerings and stellar Ray Tracing (RT) performance under the hood, all of which make it a viable choice for gamers.
FAQ:
Q: How long do cheap graphics cards last?
A: Cheap GPUs do not necessarily equate to build quality. As such, a cheap, well-built GPU can last years beyond a high-end but poorly-manufactured GPU. Ideally, a GPU should last a few years beyond its service warranty but wear and tear, use cases, and the location it is used, all contribute to its potential longevity.
Q: How to choose the best cheap graphics card for you?
A: To answer this, you must consider future performance considerations. A lot of older GPUs offer better performance than current-gen alternatives but happen to be used or have somewhat limited warranty considerations in play, something that needs to be considered at the time of purchase. Generally, finding a GPU that has plentiful VRAM and decent performance based on your target resolution (1080P, 1440P, 4K, or otherwise) and budget is an important first step to choosing a viable GPU for your needs.
Considering your display’s maximum resolution and refresh rate might help you make a more informed decision in this regard.
FAQ
Q: How long do cheap graphics cards last?
Regardless of the price of the GPU a newly purchased GPU should last several years. In terms of game support, most games should support GPUs for quite some time, until the technology is seen obsolete by game developers, it is hard to give an estimate on that one though.
Q: How to choose the best cheap graphics card for you?
The first thing you should do when looking for a new budget friendly GPU is to go through all your favorite games or games you are looking to play and see what the requirements are. After that consider if you want to play these games in 1080p or 1440p, or what resolution your monitor is if you don’t have a preference one way or another. If you are using a 1080p monitor there is no need to spend that extra money on a card that supports 1440p.
After going through those two steps the list of options should be narrowed down quite a lot.
Then you just have to define the top of your budget, and eliminate or add features that you want like DLSS or ray tracing, until you find the perfect card for you.
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Review: Mainstream Ada Arrives
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(Image: © Tom’s Hardware)
Tom’s Hardware Verdict
The RTX 4070 brings Ada Lovelace down to the mainstream with a $599 price tag. It’s basically on par with the RTX 3080 in a more compact and efficient package, with DLSS 3 Frame Generation sweetening the pot.
Pros
- +
Efficient and fast graphics card
- +
Great features at a mostly reasonable price
- +
Excellent ray tracing and AI hardware
Cons
- —
Still more expensive than the last-gen 3070
- —
Unnecessary 16-pin power connector and adapter
- —
DLSS 3 isn’t really a killer feature
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Nvidia positions its new GeForce RTX 4070 as a great upgrade for GTX 1070 and RTX 2070 users, but that doesn’t hide the fact that in many cases, it’s effectively tied with the last generation’s RTX 3080. The $599 MSRP means it’s also replacing the RTX 3070 Ti, with 50% more VRAM and dramatically improved efficiency. Is the RTX 4070 one of the best graphics cards? It’s certainly an easier recommendation than cards that cost $1,000 or more, but you’ll inevitably trade performance for those saved pennies.
At its core, the RTX 4070 borrows heavily from the RTX 4070 Ti. Both use the AD104 GPU, and both feature a 192-bit memory interface with 12GB of GDDR6X 12Gbps VRAM. The main difference, other than the $200 price cut, is that the RTX 4070 has 5,888 CUDA cores compared to 7,680 on the 4070 Ti. Clock speeds are also theoretically a bit lower, though we’ll get into that more in our testing. Ultimately, we’re looking at a 25% price cut to go with the 23% reduction in processor cores.
We’ve covered Nvidia’s Ada Lovelace architecture already, so start there if you want to know more about what makes the RTX 40-series GPUs tick. The main question here is how the RTX 4070 stacks up against its costlier siblings, not to mention the previous generation RTX 30-series. Here are the official specifications for the reference card.
Swipe to scroll horizontally
| Graphics Card | RTX 4070 | RTX 4080 | RTX 4070 Ti | RTX 3080 Ti | RTX 3080 | RTX 3070 Ti | RTX 3070 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Architecture | AD104 | AD103 | AD104 | GA102 | GA102 | GA104 | GA104 | ||
| Process Technology | TSMC 4N | TSMC 4N | TSMC 4N | Samsung 8N | Samsung 8N | Samsung 8N | Samsung 8N | ||
| Transistors (Billion) | 32 | 45. 2) |
294.5 | 378.6 | 294.5 | 628.4 | 628.4 | 392.5 | 392.5 |
| SMs | 46 | 76 | 60 | 80 | 68 | 48 | 46 | ||
| GPU Cores (Shaders) | 5888 | 9728 | 7680 | 10240 | 8704 | 6144 | 5888 | ||
| Tensor Cores | 184 | 304 | 240 | 320 | 272 | 192 | 184 | ||
| Ray Tracing «Cores» | 46 | 76 | 60 | 80 | 68 | 48 | 46 | ||
| Boost Clock (MHz) | 2475 | 2505 | 2610 | 1665 | 1710 | 1765 | 1725 | ||
| VRAM Speed (Gbps) | 21 | 22. 4 |
21 | 19 | 19 | 19 | 14 | ||
| VRAM (GB) | 12 | 16 | 12 | 12 | 10 | 8 | 8 | ||
| VRAM Bus Width | 192 | 256 | 192 | 384 | 320 | 256 | 256 | ||
| L2 Cache (MiB) | 36 | 64 | 48 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 4 | ||
| ROPs | 64 | 112 | 80 | 112 | 96 | 96 | 96 | ||
| TMUs | 184 | 304 | 240 | 320 | 272 | 192 | 184 | ||
| TFLOPS FP32 (Boost) | 29. 1 |
48.7 | 40.1 | 34.1 | 29.8 | 21.7 | 20.3 | ||
| TFLOPS FP16 (FP8) | 233 (466) | 390 (780) | 321 (641) | 136 (273) | 119 (238) | 87 (174) | 81 (163) | ||
| Bandwidth (GBps) | 504 | 717 | 504 | 912 | 760 | 608 | 448 | ||
| TGP (watts) | 200 | 320 | 285 | 350 | 320 | 290 | 220 | ||
| Launch Date | Apr 2023 | Nov 2022 | Jan 2023 | Jun 2021 | Sep 2020 | Jun 2021 | Oct 2020 | ||
| Launch Price | $599 | $1,199 | $799 | $1,199 | $699 | $599 | $499 |
There’s a pretty steep slope going from the RTX 4080 to the 4070 Ti, and from there to the RTX 4070.
We’re now looking at the same number of GPU shaders — 5888 — as Nvidia used on the previous generation RTX 3070. Of course, there are plenty of other changes that have taken place.
Chief among those is the massive increase in GPU core clocks. 5888 shaders running at 2.5GHz will deliver a lot more performance than the same number of shaders clocked at 1.7GHz — almost 50% more performance, by the math. Nvidia also likes to be conservative, and real-world gaming clocks are closer to 2.7GHz… though the RTX 3070 also clocked closer to 1.9GHz in our testing.
The memory bandwidth ends up being slightly higher than the 3070 as well, but the significantly larger L2 cache will inevitably mean it performs much better than the raw bandwidth might suggest. Moving to a 192-bit interface instead of the 256-bit interface on the GA104 does present some interesting compromises, but we’re glad to at least have 12GB of VRAM this round — the 3060 Ti, 3070, and 3070 Ti with 8GB are all feeling a bit limited these days.
But short of using memory chips in «clamshell» mode (two chips per channel, on both sides of the circuit board), 12GB represents the maximum for a 192-bit interface right now.
While AMD was throwing shade yesterday about the lack of VRAM on the RTX 4070, it’s important to note that AMD has yet to reveal its own «mainstream» 7000-series parts, and it will face similar potential compromises. A 256-bit interface allows for 16GB of VRAM, but it also increases board and component costs. Perhaps we’ll get a 16GB RX 7800 XT, but the RX 7700 XT will likely end up at 12GB VRAM as well. As for the previous-gen AMD GPUs having more VRAM, that’s certainly true, but capacity is only part of the equation, so we need to see how the RTX 4070 stacks up before declaring a victor.
Another noteworthy item is the 200W TGP (Total Graphics Power), and Nvidia was keen to emphasize that in many cases, the RTX 4070 will use less power than TGP, while competing cards (and previous generation offerings) usually hit or exceeded TGP.
We can confirm that’s true here, and we’ll dig into the particulars more later on.
The good news is that we finally have a latest-gen graphics card starting at $599. There will naturally be third-party overclocked cards that jack up the price, with extras like RGB lighting and beefier cooling, but Nvidia has restricted this pre-launch review to cards that sell at MSRP. We’ve got a PNY model as well that we’ll look at in more detail in a separate review, though we’ll include the performance results in our charts. (Spoiler: It’s just as fast as the Founders Edition.)
Image 1 of 2
Four GPCs, one NVENC, and one NVDEC for the RTX 4070 (Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)The full AD104 implementation includes five GPCs, four NVDEC units, and two NVENC blocks. (Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Above are the block diagrams for the RTX 4070 and for the full AD104, and you can see all the extra stuff that’s included but turned off on this lower-tier AD104 implementation. None of the blocks in that image are «to scale,» and Nvidia didn’t provide a die shot of AD104, so we can’t determine just how much space is dedicated to the various bits and pieces — not until someone else does the dirty work, anyway (looking at you, Fritzchens Fritz).
As discussed previously, AD104 includes Nvidia’s 4th-gen Tensor cores, 3rd-gen RT cores, new and improved NVENC/NVDEC units for video encoding and decoding (now with AV1 support), and a significantly more powerful Optical Flow Accelerator (OFA). The latter is used for DLSS 3, and while it’s «theoretically» possible to do Frame Generation with the Ampere OFA (or using some other alternative), so far only RTX 40-series cards can provide that feature.
The Tensor cores meanwhile now support FP8 with sparsity. It’s not clear how useful that is in all workloads, but AI and deep learning have certainly leveraged lower precision number formats to boost performance without significantly altering the quality of the results — at least in some workloads. It will ultimately depend on the work being done, and figuring out just what uses FP8 versus FP16, plus sparsity, can be tricky. Basically, it’s a problem for software developers, but we’ll probably see additional tools that end up leveraging such features (like Stable Diffusion or GPT Text Generation).
Those interested in AI research may find other reasons to pick an RTX 4070 over its competition, and we’ll look at performance in some of those tasks as well as gaming and professional workloads. But before the benchmarks, let’s take a closer look at the RTX 4070 Founders Edition.
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Jarred Walton is a senior editor at Tom’s Hardware focusing on everything GPU. He has been working as a tech journalist since 2004, writing for AnandTech, Maximum PC, and PC Gamer. From the first S3 Virge ‘3D decelerators’ to today’s GPUs, Jarred keeps up with all the latest graphics trends and is the one to ask about game performance.
Best budget gaming graphics cards in 2023
Contents
Best budget gaming graphics cards in 2022 by Nvidia and AMD that can run the latest games.
The popularity of mining has long gone and the cost of video cards is getting cheaper every day, which allows you to buy good cards at affordable prices.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650
9Nvidia’s 0005 Geforce GTX 1650 is an improved version of the previously popular GTX 1050 graphics card. Like the 1050, this model has a fairly low cost and very good features that allow you to play a large number of games with high FPS.
GTX 1650 has 4GB VRAM , low power consumption in 75W , and frequency up to 1665MHz . Such characteristics are quite enough if you are not chasing a maximum of stable FPS and beautiful picture.
On average, this video card will allow you to play in 1080p (Full HD) at 60-70 frames per second.
But at 1440p, the card will allow you to run games with FPS in the region of 20-30 frames.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050
The GeForce RTX 3050 is the cheapest graphics card from the manufacturer Nvidia , which supports ray tracing, as well as DLSS super resolution technology.
This video card has very good characteristics for its low cost.
3050 has 8GB video memory , frequency up to 1777MHz , power consumption 135W , and one of the newest types of memory — GDDR6 900 06 .
Thanks to these characteristics, this graphics card can provide stable 60+ FPS at high / ultra settings in popular games such as Fortnite (ultra 1080p around 60-70 FPS), Hogwarts Legacy (high 1080p 55-6 0 fps ), Atomic Heart (medium/high settings 60-75 FPS).
AMD Radeon RX 6600
The AMD Radeon RX 6600 is a stripped down version of the RX 6600XT graphics card.
It is also a competitor to the RTX 3060 video card from the Nvidia .
This video card has 8GB VRAM , frequency up to 2491MHz and power consumption 132W .
The card will allow you to play most games on high / ultra settings with an average of FPS 118 . Playing in 2K will get a maximum of 60 FPS .
For example, in Cyberpunk 2077 the video card will allow you to play on ultra settings with 55-65 FPS .
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060
The GeForce RTX 3060 is one of the most popular models in the entire RTX line. It, like the RTX 3050 , supports ray tracing and DLSS technology, which will allow you to play any game at ultra settings with a high FPS .
This model has 12 GB video memory , frequency up to 1777 MHz and power consumption 170 W .:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/13109957/setienne_180914_2954_0085.jpg)
RTX 3060 will run most modern games at high settings in 120+ FPS .
For example, Battlefield 5 will run at high settings with a frame rate of 120-130 , Horizon Zero Dawn will be able to run at the same high settings at 100-110 FPS . Fortnite on ultra settings will work in 120-130 FPS .
AMD Radeon RX 6650XT
This model allows you to play Full HD with a high and stable FPS , as well as enable additional graphic effects such as ray tracing.
The video card has 8 GB video memory , frequency up to 2635 MHz and power consumption 176 W .
Thanks to the powerful features of this card, you can run most modern games in stable 130 — 150 fps (1080p Full HD) .
For example, Fortnite will run on ultra settings with a frame rate of 130 FPS .
Cyberpunk 2077 can be run on ultra settings with 75-80 FPS .
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Super/Ti
The GeForce GTX 1660 has several versions: regular, Super and Ti . The last two are practically the same.
This video card is an improved version of the most popular video card installed by gamers (according to Steam statistics) — GTX 1060 .
The GTX 1660 Super/Ti will play most modern games at high/medium settings at 60fps .
For example, this model allows you to play Cyberpunk 2077 on high settings at 55-60 fps . Fortnite will pull on ultra settings from FPS around 100 fps .
Best Budget Gaming Graphics Cards — Conclusion
Determining the best budget gaming graphics cards is not easy, as there are so many of them and they all have the best features.
TOP 5 Best Budget Graphics Cards in 2023
The best budget graphics cards that deliver great performance without spending a fortune. Whether you’re looking for something for casual gaming, light video editing, or general use, these budget GPUs are for you.
Not every PC user needs the latest and greatest graphics cards. Thankfully, thanks to the never-ending war between Nvidia and AMD for market share, some of the best graphics cards we get are very affordable for most users.
Nvidia released many of its new offerings at lower prices than the previous generation cards they replaced. And while the prices of AMD’s best graphics cards have risen somewhat from generation to generation, many Team Red cards are excellent value for money.
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your needs, it’s easier than ever.
We’ve reviewed most of the best GPUs over the past few years so we know which ones to recommend to budget shoppers.
We’ll point you in the right direction and help you get the best budget graphics card without sacrificing performance for the price.
1
AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT
Best budget graphics card overall
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Video memory size: 8192 MB
Memory type: GDDR6
Memory frequency: 16000 MHz
Memory bus: 128 bit
Video processor frequency: 2064 MHz
Connectors and interfaces: HDMI output, DisplayPort output x 3
Process technology: 7nm 90 241 Connection type: PCI Express 4.0
TDP: 160 W
Technologies Support: HDCP support, Vulkan
Support Supply for additional power: 8 PIN
Maximum permit: 7680 × 4320
Number of supported monitors: 4
Pros
- Excellent 1080p performance
- Low power consumption
- Excellent thermal performance
Cons
- Falls short of 1440p
- Falls short of RTX 3060
, you really can’t go wrong with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT.
It may not be able to deliver the 1440p performance that even the RX 5700 XT is capable of, but for 1080p you can easily get consistent frame rates at max settings for your favorite games.
And although it does support ray tracing, even at 1080p it greatly degrades the performance of any graphics card. Thankfully, with AMD’s Radeon Super Resolution hardware control, you can now get playable 1080p frame rates even with ray tracing enabled, and AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution, built into many games, will deliver even faster performance.
It’s still objectively not the most budget card, but at the moment it’s the best value graphics card of this generation and is actually worth buying.
2
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050
The best budget graphics card for its price
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Video memory size: 8192 MB
Memory type: GDDR6
Memory frequency: 14000 MHz
Memory bus: 128 bit
Video processor frequency: 1550 MHz
Connectors and interfaces: 90 006 HDMI output, DisplayPort output x 3
Process technology: 8 nm
Connection type: PCI Express 4.
0
TDP: 130W
Technology support: HDCP support, CUDA support, ray tracing support
9000 5 Auxiliary power connector: 8 pin
Max. resolution: 7680×4320
Number of monitors supported: 4
Pros
- Excellent 1080p gaming performance
- Ray tracing and DLSS
- Low temperatures
Cons
- Loses RTX 2060
The GeForce RTX 3050 is one of the few Ampere era Nvidia graphics cards that comes close to to be considered a budget graphics card, and because of this, it is a good choice for games at 1080p.
It also has many features that AMD cards just don’t have, such as machine learning-enabled Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) technology and Tensor Cores to not only play at high frame rates, but also handle creative workloads, which even the best AMD graphics cards will struggle with.
However, it’s a bit pricey for an Nvidia xx50-series card, as the GTX 1050 and GTX 1650 come out at almost half the price of an RTX 3050.
However, this is the state of the industry, and with graphics card price inflation as it is, it’s probably the lowest price you will pay for a graphics card with this performance and advanced features.
3
AMD Radeon RX 6600
AMD’s best budget graphics card for the price
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Video memory size: 8192 MB
Memory type: GDDR6
Memory frequency: 1400 0 MHz
Memory bus: 128 bit
Video processor frequency: 1626 MHz
Connectors and interfaces: HDMI out, DisplayPort x 3 out
Process technology: 7 nm
Connection type: PCI Express 4.0
TDP: 132 W 90 241 Technology support: HDCP support, Vulkan support
Auxiliary power connector: 8 pin
SLI/NVLink/CrossFire: NVLink support
Maximum resolution: 7680×4320
Number of monitors supported: 4
Pros
- Excellent 1080p performance
- Low power consumption
- Relatively affordable
Cons
- Falls short of 1440p
The AMD Radeon RX 6600 isn’t that far behind the RX 6600 XT when it comes to performance, but this smaller version of the Navi 23 GPU is a much more attractive option for a budget build.
With very decent 1080p performance and support for features like AMD Radeon Super Resolution, this card can easily handle the best PC games at 1080p at frame rates above 30fps, if not closer to 60fps in some games with medium load, high or maximum settings.
At the same time, this card is slightly cheaper than the AMD XT variant, so if you want the best performance at the lowest price, you need to consider this card.
4
AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT
AMD’s best budget graphics card without ray tracing
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Video memory size: 8192 MB
Type Memory: GDDR6
Memory frequency: 14000 MHz
Memory bus: 256 bit
Video processor frequency: 1770 MHz
Connectors and interfaces: HDMI out x 2, Display out Port x 2
Process: 7 nm
Connection type: PCI Express 4.
0
TDP: 265 W
Auxiliary power connector: 8 pin + 8 pin
Maximum resolution: 5120×2880
Number of monitors supported: 4
Pros
- Great performance
- Good software features
- Affordable
Cons
90 280
Get ready for ultimate performance and immersive gaming with budget AMD Radeon RX graphics 5700XT. This is a powerful card with high performance RDNA architecture, as well as Radeon fx and VR image sharpening technologies.
The latest Radeon software for an incredibly responsive and immersive gaming experience. The Radeon RX 5700 series features compute units that are best suited for visuals and layered cache hierarchies to dramatically reduce latency and responsiveness in games.
The
AMD Radeon RX 5700 is based on the new 7nm RDNA graphics architecture. One improvement worth noting is the inclusion of PCIe 4.
0.
If you’re looking for the best graphics card capable of delivering 1440p gaming performance and want to save some money, this is a great option.
5
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super
Nvidia’s best budget graphics card without ray tracing
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Video memory size: 6144 MB
Type memory: GDDR6
Memory frequency: 14000 MHz
Memory bus: 192 bit
Video processor frequency: 1815 MHz
Connectors and interfaces: HDMI out, DisplayPort out x 3
Process: 12nm
Connection type: PCI Express 3.0
TDP: 125W
Technology support: HDCP support, CUDA support , Vulkan support
Auxiliary power connector : 8 pin
Maximum resolution: 7680×4320
Number of monitors supported: 4
Pros
- Excellent 1080p performance
- Available
Cons
- No RT cores
- Limited ports
Replacing Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super is one of the best low cost graphics cards on the market right now.
It’s capable of nearly 80fps in Middle Earth: Shadow of War at Ultra graphics settings at 1080p, and even hits a respectable 54fps at 1440p. It’s incredible considering how much it costs.
However, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super has its drawbacks. It comes with a DVI port instead of a second HDMI port (or even USB-C), and while it does have DisplayPort, you won’t be using multiple displays with this card. It also lacks ray tracing cores, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find another graphics card that’s as good as the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super at its price point.
How to choose the best budget graphics card
So how do you find the best cheap graphics card when you may not have many options? To help narrow things down a bit, there are a few things to keep in mind that will make your search a lot easier.
First of all, keep in mind that it’s very likely that the card will support 1080p with occasional jumps into 1440p territory if you want something close to 60fps.
If all you want is above 30fps, you might be able to run some games at 1440p.
Secondly, ray tracing will be very difficult to implement at this price point, at least effectively. AMD FSR does help, but not to the extent that Nvidia’s DLSS does, and even DLSS won’t be able to trace high quality scenes well. In many ways, you will have to make a choice between ray tracing on the one hand and quality textures and models on the other, as you won’t be able to have both in the price range we’re talking about.
However, look at your system and honestly evaluate its capabilities, because if you have 8 GB of RAM, a slightly older processor and a slow SSD (or even HDD), then you definitely better not look at the latest generation graphics cards. Because even the most advanced GPU you can put in your case won’t be able to perform at full capacity if the PC’s weak point is a slow processor or slow under-sized RAM.
Fortunately, there are graphics cards that will greatly improve the performance of such a system, but most likely it will not be an AMD RX 6000 or Nvidia RTX 3000 series card.