If you are in market for a budget graphics card for your PC, we will help find the best one. Graphics cards are mainly offered by two major manufactures – AMD and Nvidia.
One of the most popular budget graphics card for budding PC gamers is Nvidia GeForce GT 1030. It costs under 100 dollars and can be found for under $70 if you are fine with a used piece. GT 1030 graphics card takes single PCIe slot and offers one HDMI output and display port, both of which can be used to connect to external displays.
GT 1030 does not generate a lot of heat and Asus even sells a passively-cooled version of it that has no fan. It can play modern gaming titles at low or medium settings just fine.
See, if you are going to play older gaming titles, the ones that were released a decade back, or if online slots or casino games are your thing, then any entry level Nvidia graphics card, like GeForce GT 710 or even integrated AMD Vega 3 GPU would work just fine. These AMD Vega 3 graphics cards are often used in AMD Ryzen 3 processors and work great for basic gaming or multimedia usage. Eventually, it all depends on your gaming hobbies – if browser games like miniclip or casino games are enough for you, don’t bother buying an expensive GPU.
So, if you buy AMD Ryzen 3 processor, the AMD Vega 3 is already there on the chipset and you are good to go. No need to buy a discrete graphics card. This also helps in a cheaper PC build. AMD Vega 3 can be more than enough for a person who has just started gaming.
Another popular choice is AMD Radeon RX 560. This one is a lot more powerful than the Nvidia’s GT 1030, but generates more heat as well. You will need proper cooling system if you are going to use AMD RX 560 in your computer system.
On the flip side, having RX 560 means you will have no trouble in running latest games at medium or high settings. It is even possible to run 2-3 year old games at highest settings. And since RX 560 is now a two year old graphics card, it can be bought at fraction of its official price if you spend some time on eBay or your favorite market for used goods. Radeon RX 560 costs around $130 brand-new.
Direct competitor to RX 560 is Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 or 1050Ti. It delivers same performance as the RX 560 but runs a lot cooler. The GTX 1050 has a lot more shaders than the GT 1030 and that means, graphics look better and crisper. Price-wise, the GTX 1050 costs around $150.
Verdict – Budget gamers do not have a lot of choice. However, there are 3-4 excellent budget graphics cards that will let you enjoy your favorite game with good quality graphics and high FPS. To us, the best budget GPU is AMD Radeon RX 560. It costs less than 150 dollars and is widely available in second-hand market for under $80. It runs latest games just fine and is well supported by AMD, even in 2020.