The best cheap graphics cards of 2024: top GPUs on a budget

Finding the best cheap graphics card in 2024 is more daunting than ever. Amidst a landscape marred by recent price inflations and a bewildering variety of options, sorting out the most value-packed GPU requires a strategic approach. However, the age-old adage that lower prices equate to inferior quality is rapidly becoming obsolete. Today's market is rife with budget-friendly graphics cards that deliver commendable performance, especially at lower resolutions. Yet, the challenge lies in differentiating the truly worthwhile from the plethora of outdated models.

Understanding your specific gaming requirements is pivotal in making an astute purchase. For many gamers, the allure of the best 1080p graphics card remains unshaken, as it continues to dominate the preferences of the gaming community, according to insights from the Steam Hardware Survey. Conversely, the best 4K graphics card might seem like overkill for casual gamers or streamers who don't require such high-end specifications. The sweet spot for many lies with the best 1440p graphics cards, offering a harmonious blend of high-resolution gaming and affordability.

Rest assured, your search for the perfect GPU doesn't have to be a solitary journey. Our comprehensive guide meticulously examines the best cheap graphics cards of 2024, catering specifically to the needs of budget-conscious gamers and streamers. We've consolidated the top-performing, cost-effective GPUs from industry titans such as AMD, Intel, and Nvidia. This ensures that you're equipped with the necessary information to select the best graphics card that aligns seamlessly with both your gaming preferences and budget constraints.

Written by
John Loeffler
Written by
John Loeffler

John has been working with computers since he was a teenager, long before he ever started writing about computer hardware or working on his Master's degree in Computer Science. Needless to say, he knows computers inside and out, and he has personally tested (and retested) all of the graphics cards on this page, regardless of whether he wrote our original review, and has validated the results you'll find here. 

The quick list

The best cheap graphics cards of 2024

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The best cheap graphics card overall

An AMD Radeon RX 7600 on a desk

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)
The best cheap graphics card overall

Specifications

Stream Processors: 2048
Ray accelerators: 38
Boost clock: 2,625MHz
Memory: 8 GB GDDR6
Power draw (TDP): 165W
Memory clock: 18 Gbps
Power connectors: 1 x 8-pin
Outputs: 1 x HDMI 2.1a, 3 x DisplayPort 2.1

Reasons to buy

+
Fantastic price
+
Outstanding 1080p performance
+
Decent enough 1440p performance

Reasons to avoid

-
Only 8GB VRAM
-
Ray tracing and FSR lag behind Nvidia

The AMD Radeon RX 7600 stands as the unparalleled choice in the affordable graphics card market, especially for those seeking remarkable performance without breaking the bank. 

Priced under $300/£300, this card ushers in the cutting-edge AMD RDNA 3 technology to the budget segment, delivering an astonishingly high value for its cost. Its prowess in 1080p gaming is nothing short of extraordinary, rivaling even the pricier Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti 12GB. The RX 7600 also offers commendable 1440p performance, a feat that's impressive given its 8GB VRAM and 128-bit memory bus.

When it comes to gaming performance, the RX 7600 effortlessly achieves 60 fps in the top PC games at 1080p, most of which can be played on the highest graphics settings. It handles demanding titles like Cyberpunk 2077 with ease; a few adjustments in settings can unlock excellent gameplay, augmented by AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution technology. 

While its ray tracing capabilities may lag slightly behind Nvidia's previous generation midrange cards, the RDNA 3 architecture significantly narrows this gap. This means that opting for this more affordable AMD option doesn't require a total compromise on ray tracing features. In sum, the AMD Radeon RX 7600 is the definitive best choice for anyone seeking top-tier performance at a budget-friendly price.

Read the full AMD Radeon RX 7600 review

The best cheap Nvidia graphics card

An Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 on a table with its retail packaging

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)
The best cheap graphics card from Team Green

Specifications

Stream Processors: 3072
Ray tracing cores: 24
Core base clock: 1,830MHz
Core boost clock: 2,460MHz
Memory: 8GB GDDR6
Memory clock: 17 Gbps
Power connectors: 1 x 12-pin

Reasons to buy

+
Fantastic 1080p gaming performance
+
Better ray tracing and DLSS 3
+
Very power efficient

Reasons to avoid

-
1440p performance hampered by low VRAM
-
No Founder's Edition

While some may have expected the Nvidia RTX 4060 to deliver a generational performance leap akin to its pricier Lovelace counterparts like the RTX 4070, it's important to recognize its true value as the most affordable option in Nvidia's lineup. 

Currently available for under $300/£300, the RTX 4060 not only undercuts the price of some RTX 3060 models still on sale but also offers an exceptional deal for its category. 

It might not be a groundbreaking upgrade for those who already own an RTX 3060 or similar, but for gamers upgrading from older Nvidia or AMD models, the RTX 4060 is a game-changer, delivering significant improvements at a cost even lower than the RTX 3060's original launch price.

Of course, the RTX 4060 isn't without its limitations. Its 8GB VRAM and 128-bit memory bus may constrain its performance at 1440p, though it remains a viable option, particularly with the enhancements brought by DLSS 3.

Read the full Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 review

The best last-gen cheap AMD graphics card

AMD Radeon RX 6600

(Image credit: Future)
The best cheap AMD graphics card by price

Specifications

Stream Processors: 1792
Ray tracing cores: 28
Core base clock: 1,626MHz
Core boost clock: 2,491MHz
Memory: 8 GB GDDR6
Memory clock: 14 Gbps
Power connectors: 1 x 8-pin
Outputs: 1 x HDMI 2.1, 3 x DisplayPort 1.4a

Reasons to buy

+
Excellent 1080p performance
+
Low power
+
Relatively affordable

Reasons to avoid

-
Can’t really break through to 1440p
-
Third-party cards are expensive

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 isn't that far behind the RX 6600 XT when it comes to performance, but this slimmed down version of the Navi 23 GPU is a much more appealing option for a dedicated capital-B Budget Build.

Featuring some very respectable 1080p performance and support for features like AMD Radeon Super Resolution, this card can easily play the best PC games at 1080p with frame rates north of 30 fps, if not closer to 60 fps on some medium-lift games, on high or maximum settings.

All the while, this graphics card is a good bit cheaper than AMD's XT variant, so if you're looking to get the best performance at the lowest price, with an emphasis on price, than this is the card you need to be considering.

Read the full AMD Radeon RX 6600 review

The best cheap Intel graphics card

An Intel Arc A750 graphics card on top of its retail packaging

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)
The best cheap graphics card from Intel

Specifications

Stream Processors: 3584
Core base clock: 2,050 MHz
Core boost clock: 2,400 MHz
Memory: 8GB GDDR6
Memory clock: 16 Gbps
Power connectors: 1x 8-pin
Outputs: 1 x HDMI 2.1, 3 x DisplayPort 2.0

Reasons to buy

+
Excellent 1080p performance
+
Affordable

Reasons to avoid

-
Performance is uneven

Intel has come a long way with its Arc graphics cards since they launched, and the Arc A750 offers solid 1080p — and even 1440p — performance at a very attractive price tag.

And, thanks to Intel's fairly extensive history with AI-powering hardware, its Intel XeSS super sampling technology fares shockingly well against Nvidia's much more mature DLSS technology, even if it ultimately has to take second place to the likes of the RTX 3060.

What's more, its ray tracing hardware is also surprisingly solid for a first-generation discrete graphics card, and it can play some games like Returnal like a dream. Other games though might not fare as well (especially older DX9 and DX10 titles, but Intel is regularly updating its drivers, so a lot of these issues will likely get straightened out in time. If you're ok with some growing pains, there's a lot to like about Intel's A750.

Read the full Intel Arc A750 review

The best last-gen cheap Nvidia graphics card

An Nvidia RTX 3050 on a wooden table

(Image credit: Future)
The best cheap Nvidia graphics card of the last generation

Specifications

Stream Processors: 2,560
Core base clock: 1,552MHz
Core boost clock: 1,777MHz
Memory: 8GB GDDR6
Memory clock: 14 Gbps
Power connectors: 1x 8-pin
Outputs: 1 x HDMI 2.1, 3 x DisplayPort 1.4

Reasons to buy

+
Great 1080p gaming performance
+
Ray tracing and DLSS
+
Low temperatures

Reasons to avoid

-
High power draw
-
RTX 2060 offers better performance

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 is one of the few Nvidia graphics cards from the Ampere era that is anything close to being considered a budget graphics card, and for what it is, it's a solid choice for 1080p gaming.

It also comes with a lot of features that AMD cards simply don't have, like machine learning-enabled Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) technology, and tensor cores to not just play games at fast frame rates, but also to handle creative workloads that even the best AMD graphics cards will stumble over.

Still, it's expensive for an Nvidia xx50-series card, with the GTX 1050 and GTX 1650 launching for nearly half the price of the RTX 3050. Such is the state of the industry though, and with graphics card price inflation being what it is, this is probably the lowest price you'll pay for a graphics card with this kind of performance and advanced features.

Read the full Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 review

The best cheap non-ray tracing graphics card

The retail packaging and the physical Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super graphics card against a yellow background

(Image credit: Future)
The best cheap graphics card without ray tracing

Specifications

Stream Processors: 1408
Core base clock: 1.520 MHz
Core boost clock: 1,785 MHz
Memory: 6 GB GDDR6
Memory clock: 14 Gbps
Power connectors: 1x 6-pin
Outputs: 1 x DisplayPort 1.4a, 1 x HDMI 2.0b, DL-DVI

Reasons to buy

+
Excellent 1080p performance
+
Affordable

Reasons to avoid

-
No RT Cores
-
Limited Ports

Replacing the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super is absolutely one of the best cheap graphics cards on the market right now. It is able to crank out nearly 80 FPS on Middle Earth: Shadow of War on Ultra graphics settings at 1080p and even managing a decent 54 FPS at 1440p. This is incredible considering it comes in at under $250 (£200, AU$400).

Still, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super does have its drawbacks. It still goes with a DVI port in lieu of a second HDMI port (or even a USB-C) and while it does have a DisplayPort, you won't be running several displays with this card. It also lacks ray tracing cores, but you're going to be hard-pressed to find another graphics card that's as good as the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super for the price.

Read the full Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super review

How we test cheap graphics cards

When it comes to chosing the best cheap graphics cards, it's not enough to look at benchmark scores and just pick whichever is the highest scorer.

If you're looking to buy a new graphics card that is more affordable than the obscenely expensive high-end cards or even their midrange siblings, you really need to look at its price-to-performance. You're really looking for how much performance can you squeeze out of every dollar or pound spent of that graphics card, and so we apply a pretty simply formula.

After we've collected all of our benchmark scores for all of the different graphics cards that we test, we simply divide those scores by the card's MSRP, and it gives us exactly how many points or frames per second each card puts out relative to its cost. These scores are then comparable across the entire range of graphics cards we test, giving us a very clear indicator for which cards are a great value and which cards are not, even if the latter are the most powerful graphics cards on the planet.

We also go off of subjective experience. Having tested the cards ourselves, we can get a real sense of where the cards fit into the budget market. And looking at cards in a target range of under $400 / £350 / AU$600 MSRP, we can see which cards offer the best performance per dollar/pound spent. 

While we don't strictly choose based on that metric, it can serve as a helpful guide to picking which cards you should look at more closely versus which ones are clearly not worth further consideration.

How to choose the best cheap graphics card for you

How to choose the best cheap graphics card for you

So how do you find the best cheap graphics card, exactly, when you might not have a whole lot to go on? To help you narrow things down a bit, there are a couple of things to consider that will help making your search a good deal easier.

First and foremost, understand that it's very likely that you'll need to keep things to 1080p, with only occasional dips into 1440p territory, if you want anything near 60 fps. If all you're looking for is above 30 fps, than you might be able to get some games to play at 1440p.

Second, ray tracing is going to be very hard to pull off at this price point, at least effectively. AMD FSR will help, but not on the same scale as Nvidia's DLSS, and even DLSS is not going to ray trace high quality scenes very well. In a lot of ways, you will have to make a choice between ray tracing on the one hand and quality textures and models on the other, since you won't be able to have both in the price range that we're talking about.

That said, look at your system and honestly assess its capabilities, because if you've got 8GB RAM, a processor that's a little older, and a slow SSD (or even an HDD), then you're definitely better off looking at not just last-gen graphics cards but last-last-gen graphics cards, since even the most advanced GPU you can fit into your case and effectively power won't be able to run at full tilt if it is being bottlenecked by a slow CPU or slow RAM with insufficient capacity.

Fortunately, there are graphics cards out there that will greatly help the performance of that kind of system, but its likely that it won't be an AMD RX 6000-series or Nvidia RTX -3000 series card.

How much should I spend on a cheap graphics card?

For the most part, there are very few graphics cards that you can get under $200/£200/AU$300 that are worth upgrading your rig with, but we are tossing aside the definition of "cheap" if we suggest spending anything more than $400 / £400 / AU$600 on a budget graphics card.

With that price range, you have a number of options that are worth the price, and so you should let your budget determine what card it right for you in that range.

How long do cheap graphics cards last?

If you purchase a new graphics card, then even a cheap one will continue to run very well for several years, if not longer, depending on how hard you run it.

If you're talking about how long will it be before the minimum requirement for the best PC games no longer include your graphics card, it will likely be about as long as your card will actually operate before it is so obsolete that developers no longer support it.

All in all, you can expect to get at least three to four years of useful gaming life off the best cheap graphics cards on the market today.

Today's best cheap graphics card deals

John Loeffler
Components Editor

John (He/Him) is the Components Editor here at TechRadar and he is also a programmer, gamer, activist, and Brooklyn College alum currently living in Brooklyn, NY. 


Named by the CTA as a CES 2020 Media Trailblazer for his science and technology reporting, John specializes in all areas of computer science, including industry news, hardware reviews, PC gaming, as well as general science writing and the social impact of the tech industry.


You can find him online on Threads @johnloeffler.


Currently playing: Baldur's Gate 3 (just like everyone else).

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