Jacob Roach / Digital Trends
Graphics cards are only getting more expensive, but there are still a handful of excellent budget GPUs you can pick up today. As the generation nears its end and we await the arrival of RTX 50-series and RDNA 4 graphics cards, we’ve seen GPU prices drop on last-gen options like the RTX 4060 and RX 7600, which are some of the best budget graphics cards you can buy.
For the purposes of this guide, we’re defining a budget graphics card as anything that costs less than $300. In the context of a full PC build, that should mean the overall price you’re spending on a PC is between $600 and $700. If you have a bit more money to spare, make sure to read our full roundup of the best graphics cards, which has a few more expensive options.
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Jacob Roach / Digital Trends
Nvidia RTX 4060
The best budget GPU
Pros
DLSS 3
Excellent efficiency
Price reduction compared to last-gen
Strong ray tracing performance
Cons
Beaten by cards that are only $30 more
Limited memory interface
Weak at higher resolutions
Although the RTX 4060 loses some points compared to AMD’s cheaper RX 7600, it’s become much more attractive over the past several months. You’ll still find most models for the $300 list price, but some have dropped below that mark. And when on sale, the RTX 4060 is a steal, offering not only solid raw performance, but also features like Nvidia’s coveted DLSS 3.5.
Those features are where the RTX 4060 truly shines. In Cyberpunk 2077 with the Ultra RT preset, the card just barely makes it past 30 fps. Turn on DLSS 3, however, and you’ll get well over 90 fps, all with the ray tracing sliders tuned to the max. That’s unheard of for a $300 graphics card, and it’s all enabled by Nvidia’s next-gen feature set.
Raw performance isn’t bad, either, though there are better options around the same price if you aren’t concerned about ray tracing and DLSS 3. Overall, the card falls just short of last-gen’s RTX 3060 Ti, though it manages to outpace the Arc A770. And, if you factor in ray tracing performance, it’s actually faster than the AMD RX 7600.
Nvidia RTX 4060
The best budget GPU
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends
AMD RX 7600
The best budget GPU from AMD
Pros
Solid 1080p gaming performance
Aggressive pricing
Only a single 8-pin power connector
Compact design
Cons
Memory interface limits higher resolutions
Ray tracing performance is lacking
The AMD RX 7600 was destined for failure, but a quick pricing adjustment days before releasing has transformed it into the go-to budget graphics card this year. You can find it between $250 and $280, and there isn’t another current-gen GPU targeting that price. And compared to last-gen options, the RX 7600 is much faster.
It’s most comfortable at 1080p, where you’ll soar past 60 frames per second (fps) in demanding games like Cyberpunk 2077 with maxed-out settings. It can crack 100 fps in a lot of titles, too, such as Horizon Zero Dawn and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla without lowering any of the graphics settings.
Compared to the competition, the RX 7600 manages to match Intel’s Arc A770 overall, and that GPU still costs $300 to $350. It also ends up around 13% faster than last-gen’s RX 6600 XT and RTX 3060, both of which sell for around the same price. Most importantly, the RX 7600 beats Nvidia’s $300 RTX 4060 outside of ray tracing, which is its most direct competition.
AMD RX 7600
The best budget GPU from AMD
Intel Arc A750The best value GPU
Pros
Great 1080p and 1440p gaming performance
Competitive ray tracing performance
Relatively inexpensive
Cons
Resizable BAR is necessary
XeSS needs some work
Intel’s Arc GPUs had a rough start, but they’re a surprisingly good value a year after launching, assuming you don’t mind dealing with a few quirks. The Arc A750 wasn’t much of a GPU when it released, but it has quickly become a go-to budget graphics card after Intel cut the price. Now, you can find it between $220 and $240, and that’s a price range that AMD and Nvidia don’t have a current-gen offering in.
You’re getting performance about on-par with an RTX 3060, just for slightly cheaper. It’s a 1080p graphics card that can hit 60 fps in the most demanding games with all of the settings cranked up, but you should expect lower performance in titles with ray tracing. This is a card that’s just hitting 60 fps at 1080p Ultra, while cards like the RTX 4060 and RX 7600 can comfortably shoot past that mark.
It’s a great value, especially if you can pick up a card for around $220. You should keep in mind some of the issues with Intel GPUs, though. The drivers continue to improve with each new release, but there are still games that occasionally pop up that inexplicably won’t work on the cards. Intel is usually fast to issue a patch, but it’s something to keep in mind.
Intel Arc A750
The best value GPU
Luke Larsen / Digital Trends
AMD RX 6750 XT
The best last-gen budget GPU
Pros
Very inexpensive right now
12GB of VRAM
Powerful enough for 1440p
Cons
Poor ray tracing performance
No DLSS
AMD’s last-gen RX 6750 XT isn’t a budget graphics card. It’s sure priced like one, though. The previously midrange card is now available for around $310 to $330. That’s above what we set as a “budget” graphics card, but the RX 6700 XT is well worth stretching your budget for.
The RX 6750 XT is priced like a budget graphics card, but it doesn’t perform like one. It gets close to the performance of the $400 RTX 4060 Ti, and it sometimes even beats that card. In Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Forza Horizon 5, the RX 6700 XT is faster, hitting 120 fps and 150 fps at 1080p, respectively.
As is the case with all AMD cards, the main trade-off is ray tracing performance. The RX 6750 XT is often slower than even the Arc A750 when ray tracing is brought into the mix, and it doesn’t have access to Nvidia features like DLSS 3.5. However, for PC gamers look for the best bang for their buck, there’s no deal like the RX 6750 XT right now.
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