In a market that’s all focused on the best graphics cards, buying a GPU can be deceptively difficult. For those of us who don’t need the “best” and just want “good enough,” this is a difficult process. Sometimes spending a few more dollars gets you something that’s significantly better, and sometimes, spending $100 less means a significantly better value GPU.
Luckily, there are some GPUs that are perfectly good choices right now. If you want to get the most GPU power for the least money, check out the AMD Radeon RX 6600.
amd radeon rx 6600
Overall, AMD is often cheaper than Nvidia, and this applies to both last-gen and current-gen cards. It has some notable cards in the $180 to $320 range, not to mention the $500 RX 7800 XT, which is one of the best value graphics cards this generation. However, if you want to get the cheapest GPU possible while still maintaining good performance, I recommend the RX 6600.
The RX 6600 belongs to AMD’s RDNA 2 lineup, and has two more powerful siblings – the RX 6600 XT and the RX 6650 XT. However, due to their similar performance, you can also choose the cheapest one when you are on a budget. RX 6600 can be found at such a low price
And at that price, it’s a good deal.
What kind of performance can you expect from this card? You should be able to play most titles at 1080p without compromising the settings too much. In our own testing, the RX 6600 was able to handle red dead redemption 2 And maintain an average of 59 frames per second (fps) – and that’s on Ultra settings. we even tried it Fortnite, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Battlefield V, And Civilization VI, and it averaged between 71 fps and 138 fps. Read the AMD Radeon RX 6600 review to learn more.
Although I recommend this GPU, it is not a direct choice, as AMD has several RX 6000 cards that are in the same price range and offer slightly better performance. There’s the RX 6600 XT, RX 6650 XT, and the current generation RX 7600. The latter can be found approximately
And if your budget can stretch that much, it’s money well spent.
When we benchmarked the RX 7600, we found that it averaged 66.3 fps in our 1080p test suite, while the RX 6600 scored 50.9 fps. If you want a stable 60 fps in modern games at 1080p, the RX 7600 is a more straightforward option; If you don’t mind going to medium settings, choose the RX 6600.
What about Nvidia and Intel?
If you’re not interested in AMD but still want a cheaper GPU, there are some alternatives from Intel and Nvidia worth considering: the Intel Arc A750 and the Nvidia RTX 4060.
One thing to keep in mind when buying an Intel Arc card is compatibility. As you can read in our in-depth reviews of the Arch A750 and Arch A770, while these GPUs are compatible with older processors, they benefit from the ability to enable resizable bars. This means you’ll need a 10th Gen Intel processor or AMD Ryzen 3000 or newer. Without the resizable BAR, the Arc A750’s performance drops by a large margin.
With that disclaimer out of the way, the Arch A750 is a surprisingly solid GPU for 1080p gameplay, averaging 80 fps at 1080p Ultra across our entire test suite. This is also viable for 1440p, reaching an average of 62 fps, while the Arch A770 scored 68 fps.
If you want to try Intel in your next PC build, the cheapest version of the Arch A750 will come
And comes from sparkle. Intel’s own version is a little more expensive at $230.
Moving on to Nvidia, as you can read in our review of the RTX 4060, this card comes with a few caveats, but it still has an edge over the competition as it has up to Nvidia’s Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS3) frames. Have access. generation. Although not supported in a lot of games, DLSS 3 can help the RTX 4070 outperform the RTX 4090, and it has a similar effect on the RTX 4060. It’s an artificial boost that opens the door to high-end gaming on a low budget, which is why the RTX 4060 makes sense regardless of the price.
Without the DLSS 3 crutch, the RTX 4060 still performs well enough to handle 1080p gaming with ease. It averaged 78.2 fps in our 1080p test suite at Ultra settings. As far as DLSS3 is concerned, it really makes a difference on a GPU of this caliber – whereas the 4060 hits an average of 82 fps without DLSS3. cyberpunk 2077It managed a cool 136 fps with frame generation enabled.
RTX 4060 starts at approx.
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Do you really need a GPU?
If you’re trying to build a PC while spending as little as possible, and you’re not a hardcore gamer, one way to save a few hundred dollars is to not get a graphics card at all.
Integrated graphics often get a bad rap, and rightfully so, but we’ve come a long way in the last few years. Specifically, an option that is viable for daily use (including Some? Gaming) is AMD’s Ryzen 5600G processor, or rather, Accelerated Processing Unit (APU). This is a separate category of processors that combine a CPU and a GPU in a single chip. This integration gives the 5600G more GPU power than most iGPUs.
I won’t lie to you – the Ryzen 5600G is no gaming beast. However, as long as you are satisfied with medium settings and you are playing mostly older games and indies, it will do. It’s also a solid choice for everyday tasks, whether work or casual browsing. Most of all, it is highly affordable – it costs approx
Now. There’s also the Ryzen 7 5700G with more cores and slightly better performance. its price is
,
A good way to get the most out of this APU is to make sure you’re using some of the best RAM available in your price range. This is because the Ryzen 5600G doesn’t have its own dedicated video memory (VRAM), which a separate GPU would normally have. To compensate for this, it uses a portion of your system’s RAM to store textures and other graphics-related data. The faster your RAM, the better the performance.
No matter which GPU or APU you choose, don’t be afraid to dip into the previous generation when assembling a budget PC. Some of those options are still pretty excellent and, after several discounts, now offer far more acceptable prices than some of their current-generation counterparts.
