It’s tough to find a graphics card on a budget these days, but there are still some options available.
Recent years have been tough for people buying GPUs on a budget. That was true in 2020, and it’s still true today. AMD and Nvidia just don’t offer good value cards like they used to. Still, there are some decent options in the $100 to $300 range for the value-conscious PC user. They’re not the best graphics cards, but they’ll do well enough for 1080p and even in some cases 1440p gaming at a good framerate.
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- AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT Best overall budget GPU $250 at Newegg
- AMD Radeon RX 6600 Best Value $210 at Best Buy
- Intel Arc A750 Limited Edition Best Intel option $220 at Amazon
- Asus Dual GeForce RTX 4060 Best Nvidia option $300 at Amazon
- AMD Radeon RX 6700 Best for high FPS 1080p gaming $270 at Amazon
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- AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT Best GPU under $200 $140 at Amazon
These are the best budget graphics cards in 2023
AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT Best overall budget GPU
A bit pricey for a budget card, but has great performance
$250 $275 Save $25
The RX 6650 XT is a refreshed version of the RX 6600 XT. It’s aimed towards midrange gamers who want relatively good bang for buck and the ability to play at 1080p and 1440p.
Pros
- Capable of high framerates at 1080p and 1440p
- 8GB VRAM
- Good value
Cons
- Only barely in budget territory
$255 at Amazon $250 at Newegg $250 at Best Buy
AMD’s Radeon RX 6650 XT gets my recommendation for the best GPU in the entire budget market thanks to its good bang for buck and overall performance. It’s not firmly in budget territory at $250ish, but it’s ideal for users who want a good midrange GPU that can game at 1080p and 1440p. It’s also a generally better choice over Nvidia and Intel’s competing cards around the same price and performance.
With 32 Compute Units (or CUs), the 6650 XT is a slightly cut-down version of the RX 6700 XT and 6750 XT, which both offer 40 CUs. Additionally, the 6650 XT has 8GB of GDDR6 as opposed to the 12GB found on the 6750 XT and 6700 XT, and the 10GB on the 6700. However, the 6650 XT is also roughly $50 cheaper than these higher-end models, which helps it just barely squeeze into the budget class of graphics cards.
The 6650 XT’s main performance-based competition is the RTX 4060, which usually goes for $300,. The 4060 does come with 8GB of GDDR6 like the 6600 XT, but does have an advantage with DLSS, superior ray tracing performance, and other Nvidia features, though not every user will find all that stuff useful. Intel’s Arc A750 is also a competitor at $250 or less, but suffers from driver issues, and you might also consider the newer RX 7600, but in almost every respect it’s effectively a carbon copy of the 6650 XT but for a little more.
Originally, I recommended the RX 6600 XT, which the 6650 XT theoretically replaced in 2022. The 6650 XT never made a ton of sense as a purchase since its performance boost was paired with a price increase, but nowadays, the 6650 XT has better availability and costs about the same as the 6600 XT. If you find a 6600 XT for a much cheaper price than the 6650 XT however, get the 6600 XT instead. If you can’t find either a 6650 XT or 6600 XT, then get the 7600, which will have good availability for the foreseeable future.
AMD Radeon RX 6600 Best Value
The RX 6650 XT’s little brother
$210 $280 Save $70
The AMD Radeon RX 6600 is a budget graphics card geared towards 1080p gamers. It’s a solid option to consider for those who’re looking to enjoy 1080p gaming without spending too much money on high-end cards.
Pros
- Good value for the features
- 8GB of VRAM
- Solid 1080p gaming
Cons
- Over two years old
$210 at Best Buy $220 at Newegg
The AMD Radeon RX 6600 is essentially a cut-down RX 6650 XT. Fundamentally, there aren’t any huge differences between these two GPUs, but the 6600 can be found in the $200–$250 range, which makes it more accessible to budget buyers while having a better bang for your buck if you can find this card at the lower end of the price spectrum.
Generally, you’ll find that the 6650 XT is about 20% faster than the regular 6600, and this is down to the 6600’s 28 CUs as opposed to the 6650 XT’s 32, a lower core clock speed, and slower VRAM. While there’s nothing you can do about the lower core count, you could try overclocking a 6600 to get performance close to a stock 6650 XT. Compared to the RTX 3050, the 6600 is about 30% faster, though loses to the slightly more expensive A750.
Features do help the 6600 compete with Nvidia’s and Intel’s cards. FSR is a good alternative to both DLSS and XeSS and is present in almost as many games as DLSS. The 6600 also has features that would be appealing to streamers, such as AMD Noise Suppression for filtering out non-vocal noises from your microphone and AMD’s latest encoder, which is almost as good as Nvidia’s.
The one thing that prevents us from recommending the 6600 as the best budget GPU from AMD is its inconsistent price and availability. You can find it for as little as $200, but there are very few models in stock at the time of writing. The 6600 XT and 6650 XT can be found for around $250, which puts the 6600 uncomfortably close to GPUs with far more performance. But if you can find a 6600 in stock at that $200 price point or a little higher, it’s a deal you should take.
Intel Arc A750 Limited Edition Best Intel option
A bit buggy, but a solid choice for gaming and content creation
$220 $298 Save $78
Intel’s Arc A750 graphics card is a strong contender at the midrange thanks to its $250 price tag and decent performance. It’s 90% of the A770 for much less, and competes against the more expensive RX 6600 XT and RTX 3060.
Pros
- Great value
- XeSS Resolution upscaling and ray tracing
- AV1 encoding
Cons
- Buggy drivers, though Intel is improving them
$220 at Amazon $220 at Newegg
Intel’s first attempt at consumer-dedicated graphics in two decades focused purely on the more budget-conscious area of the market. The Arc A750 isn’t as cheap as some GPUs, but at around $250 (or even less since it seems to be on permanent sale), it’s affordable enough to give any budget system some serious horsepower. It’s roughly equal to the RTX 4060 and RX 6650 XT in performance and features, though inconsistent performance from driver issues means it’s not always the best GPU at this price point (though it often is).
Performance-wise, it isn’t too far off from the flagship Arc A770, having 28 of the A770’s 32 Xe cores, though it is limited to 8GB of VRAM as opposed to the A770’s potential 16GB. In the wider context, the A750 performs at a similar level to Nvidia’s RTX 3060 and AMD’s RX 6650 XT with a much more attractive price-to-performance ratio. One other thing to note is that if your motherboard doesn’t support resizeable BAR or ReBAR, you should avoid Intel Arc Alchemist GPUs as they require this feature to be enabled to achieve good performance.
Besides performance and ray tracing, the A750 boasts DisplayPort 2.0, something not even the RTX 4090 has, and HDMI 2.1. Additionally, it was one of the first cards to launch with a hardware AV1 encoder, making it perfect for content creators who want to be on the bleeding edge. There are some issues with older games, particularly those relying on DX9 since there is no hardware support. But newer technologies like DX12 and Vulkan see great performance on the A750. And with 8GB of VRAM, it’s better specced than some of its alternatives.
While driver issues plagued Intel’s Arc GPUs when they first launched, Intel has been hard at work resolving bugs, glitches, and performance issues. I’m much more comfortable giving a thumbs up to the A750 now that it can provide a more reliable and consistent gaming experience. The A750’s price cuts have allowed it to continue to be competitive against the RX 6600 and 6650 XT even though both of those cards are much cheaper than they used to be.
Asus Dual GeForce RTX 4060 Best Nvidia option
Not quite budget but at least it’s not the 3050
Asus’s RTX 4060 Dual is one of the more affordable versions of the 4060. It comes with a simple but cost-efficient dual fan design, which is more compact than bigger, triple fan models.
Pros
- Relatively affordable
- Modern features
- Efficient
Cons
- Not a ton of VRAM
- Generally poorer value than AMD and Intel cards
$300 at Amazon $300 at Newegg
Nvidia has been more or less absent from the budget market since 2020, and not much has changed since then as the RTX 3050 never went for the $250 Nvidia said it should cost, instead retailing for closer to $350 for most of its life. If we stretch the definition of budget to $300, then Nvidia’s acceptable RTX 4060 is certainly a good candidate, and while it won’t amaze you, it’s certainly a useable graphics card with good efficiency, performance, and features.
With just 3,072 CUDA cores, 8GB of GDDR6 VRAM, and a 128-bit memory bus, the RTX 4060 is pretty barebones compared to the card it apparently replaces, the 3060, which had 3,584 cores and 12GB of VRAM on a 192-bit bus. Despite all that, the 4060 coasts along on its massive 2,460MHz boost clock, allowing it to actually be faster than the 3060 by around 15%, though having just 8GB of RAM is a little concerning.
As for the competition, it’s mostly just the RX 6650 XT and Arc A750, both of which are about on par or at worst a little slower depending on the game. In theory, AMD launched its RX 7600 as a competing card too, and while it is $30 cheaper and just as fast, the 6650 XT’s current price of roughly $250 makes the 7600 redundant. Beyond pure performance though, the 4060 offers DLSS, better ray tracing performance, higher efficiency, and some other, more minor Nvidia features, all of which can certainly justify spending the extra $50 this card costs.
While it would be nice for Nvidia to launch another GPU in the $100 to $200 segment like it had up until the RTX 30 series, it’s highly likely the RTX 4060 will be Nvidia’s cheapest GPU worth getting for some time. The RTX 4050 is based on the same silicon as the 4060, which probably means it’ll be at least $200, and who knows if it’ll be fast enough to be worth getting. At least with the 4060 you get an acceptable product, even if it’s not exactly a budget GPU.
AMD Radeon RX 6700 Best for high FPS 1080p gaming
A weird midrange GPU at a potentially great price
$270 $300 Save $30
AMD’s RX 6700 is a graphics card that straddles the line between budget and midrange. It’s effectively a slightly slower RX 6700 XT with 10GB of VRAM, less cores, less cache, and a lower clock speed.
Pros
- Great for high framerates at 1080p and 1440p resolutions
- 10GB of VRAM
- Sometimes retails for $300 or slightly less
Cons
- Probably going out of stock very soon
$270 at Amazon $270 at Newegg $280 at Best Buy
The RX 6700 is the black sheep of the RX 6000 series. It came out only in 2022, much later than most other RX 6000 cards, and pretty much wasn’t marketed at all. It also sits somewhat awkwardly between the RX 6650 XT and the RX 6700 XT, which cost around $250 and $330, respectively. What makes the 6700 intriguing however is when it’s closer to the $300 mark or less, making it at times a better deal than the 6650 XT, and a great choice for anyone wanting to game at a higher framerate at 1080p or even 1440p.
The 6700 slots in right between the 6650 XT and 6700 XT with 36 CUs, 80MB of Infinity Cache, and 10GB of VRAM. One quirk of the 6700’s spec sheet is its relatively low clock speed, about 200 to 300 MHz lower than the 6650 XT and 6700 XT. But since all of these cards are based on the same silicon, the 6700 should have some room for overclocking, which means even higher performance. And speaking of performance, the 6700 is about 10% faster than the 6650 XT and about 90% as fast as the 6700, which isn’t surprising based on the spec sheet.
The niche for the 6700 comes in when you look at the price. Some models are going for $300 or less, which is about the same price the 6650 XT goes for. The 6700 has more VRAM, is faster out of the box, and can run even faster with an overclock, so it’s not only better for hitting a high framerate at 1080p and 1440p, but also just a better deal in general. Meanwhile, the RX 7600 as AMD’s latest midrange card goes for $270 like some 6700s, but has 2GB less VRAM and is generally slower, making it an objectively worse choice.
That’s all assuming you can find a 6700 at that magical $300 price point or less though. The problem is that there aren’t a ton of 6700 models around, and many of them are actually going out of stock. At the time of writing, XFX’s Speedster SWFT309 is available at major retailers and for just $270 or $280, but it’s hard to imagine that lasting for long. If you want the best value for $300, get in while you can.
AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT Best GPU under $200
A laptop GPU repackaged as a desktop graphics card
$140 $165 Save $25
The RX 6500 XT is a budget gaming GPU with middling performance for its price. Running this card in a PCIe 3.0 PC reduces its already low performance, so it’s recommended for PCs that have PCIe 4.0.
Pros
- One of the cheapest new GPUs available
- Low power consumption
Cons
- Only on par with the RX 580 from 2017
- Performs poorly without PCIe 4.0
$140 at Amazon $190 at Best Buy $170 at Newegg
I’m recommending the RX 6500 XT not because it’s good, but because it has outlasted its competitors. Below the $200 price point, there’s almost nothing else you can buy, unless you’re shopping for something used. While there are cards like the RX 6400 and the GTX 1630, these cards are slower and are mostly aimed at SFF machines. The 6500 XT is a winner by default.
With just 16 CUs and 4GB of VRAM on most models, the 6500 XT is about on par with older GPUs like the RX 580 and the GTX 1650 Super while being about half the speed of the more expensive RX 6600. That’s assuming we’re talking about a PC that has PCIe 4.0 support, anyway. The 6500 XT needs PCIe 4.0 in order to run optimally, and in PCs with just PCIe 3.0 the 6500 XT loses about 20% of its performance. The overlap between people who would want to buy a 6500 XT and who have PCIe 4.0 is very small, making the 6500 XT a paradoxical GPU for budget buyers.
There are some good things about the 6500 XT though. It doesn’t consume a ton of power, though it’s not remarkably efficient for its performance level. Additionally, as a modern RX 6000 series GPU, it supports AMD’s latest hardware and driver features, and its performance can be increased using FSR.
But ultimately, the 6500 XT is your only good choice for current-gen hardware below $200. Nvidia literally offers nothing in this category and the only other AMD GPU is the RX 6400 which is basically a slower 6500 XT with the same PCIe problem. There is Intel’s A380, but testing data on it is scarce and it likely suffers from diver issues much like the A750. Other than the whole PCIe thing, there’s nothing terrible about the 6500 XT as a product, it’s just too expensive, especially considering the RX 6600 only costs $200 or so, which is a tiny difference for more than double the performance.
Best budget graphics cards to buy in 2023: Final thoughts
When it comes to budget graphics cards, it’s basically AMD and Intel’s arena; Nvidia cards are simply too expensive to compete on any mainstream metric. Although things aren’t great at the moment if you’re on a budget, price cuts from AMD and Intel mean cards from 2021 and 2022 are now much more affordable. AMD’s RX 6650 XT is a great overall GPU if you can afford it and delivers good, midrange performance at 1080p and 1440p, and isn’t too expensive at $300.
AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT Best overall budget GPU$250 $275 Save $25
The RX 6650 XT is a refreshed version of the RX 6600 XT. It’s aimed towards midrange gamers who want relatively good bang for buck and the ability to play at 1080p and 1440p.
$255 at Amazon $250 at Newegg $250 at Best Buy
Meanwhile, Intel’s Arc A750 is a good choice if you want something with a little better bang for buck and slightly better features like AV1 encoding. It used to be my pick for the best overall budget GPU until the 6650 XT came down in price. The RX 6600 is also a good choice if you can’t justify spending more than $250 on a graphics card, and the RX 6700 is a fairly midrange card that sometimes dips down to $300, making it a better deal than the 6650 XT at times. Nvidia’s RTX 4060, although the most expensive card here at $300, is decent overall and is quite modern.
If you’re curious about what kind of parts would go best with a budget GPU, check out our $1,000 mainstream PC build guide. Also be sure to drop by our XDA Computing Forums to talk more and get more GPU recommendations from the experts in our community.
Categories: Reviews
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