The Top 7 Low-Cost Graphics Cards for Video Games (2024)

The price of graphics cards has been rising, with the RTX 4090 fetching close to $1,500. The market for low-cost graphics cards used to be quite interesting. Even at entry-level pricing points, AMD and Nvidia used to produce something innovative. Originally priced at $249 and $199, respectively, the GTX 1060 and RX 480 are still my top picks for affordable graphics cards. Well, the market for inexpensive GPUs isn't as fiercely competitive as it once was. Nevertheless, we have included a few of the top cheap graphics cards up to $350.

In addition to selecting the best low-cost GPU for your requirements, you must confirm that it works with your setup. One way to do this is to determine whether the card will fit into your PC case. You must confirm that your graphics card's horizontal and vertical dimensions fit the design of your computer.

Additionally, you must confirm that your PSU has enough power to fulfill the demands of your GPU. Lastly, make sure your shiny new card upgrades smoothly by reading our helpful GPU installation guide here. Let's get right to talking about the possibilities without spending any more time:

1. AMD's Best Budget GPU, the Radeon RX 7600 XT

• VRAM & Effective Memory Clock: 16GB GDDR6 18 Gbps
• Boost Core Clock: 2755 MHz [Depends on AIB]
• Thermal Design Power (TDP): 190W
• Stream Processors: 2,048
• Transistor Count: 13,300 Million
• Manufacturing Process: 6 nm

2. GeForce RTX 4060 8GB: NVIDIA's Best Budget GPU

• VRAM & Effective Memory Clock: 8GB GDDR6 17 Gbps
• Boost Core Clock: 2460 MHz [Depends on AIB]
• Thermal Design Power (TDP): 115W
• CUDA Cores: 3,072
• Transistor Count: 18,900 million
• Manufacturing Process: 5 nm

Pros	Cons
Low power consumption, highly efficient GPU	Raw performance increase is not significantly impressive compared to RTX 3060
DLSS 3 AI frame generation support	May run into issues caused by VRAM capacity, especially at 1440p resolution
AV1 Support for high-quality streaming
Optimized performance in ray-tracing

3. Radeon RX 7600 from AMD

• VRAM & Effective Memory Clock: 8GB GDDR6 18 Gbps
• Boost Core Clock: 2655 MHz [Depends on AIB]
• Thermal Design Power (TDP): 165W
• Stream Processors: 2,048
• Transistor Count: 13,300 Million
• Manufacturing Process: 6 nm

4. Intel Arc A750: The Best Budget GPU for the Money

• VRAM & Effective Memory Clock: 8GB GDDR6 16Gbps
• Core Clock: 2050 MHz
• Thermal Design Power (TDP): 225W
• Xe Cores: 28
• Ray Tracing Units: 28
• Transistor Count: 21,700 Million
• Manufacturing Process: 6 nm

Pros	Cons
Impressive performance for the price, suited well for 1080p gaming	May have stability issues, Arc users need to be patient for driver updates
Supports AV1 for high-quality streaming	Higher power consumption than the competition
Not bad in games with ray-tracing

5. An 8GB AMD Radeon RX 6600

• VRAM & Effective Memory Clock: 8GB GDDR6 14 Gbps
• Boost Core Clock: 2491 MHz [Depends on AIB]
• Thermal Design Power (TDP): 132W
• Stream Processors: 1,792
• Transistor Count: 11,100 Million
• Manufacturing Process: 7 nm

Pros	Cons
Suited for 1080p gaming	No support for AV1 encoding
Supports AMD Fluid Motion Frames (AFMF)

6. GeForce RTX 3050 6GB from NVIDIA

• VRAM & Effective Memory Clock: 6GB GDDR6
• Boost Core Clock: 1470 MHz [Depends on AIB]
• Thermal Design Power (TDP): 70W
• CUDA Cores: 2,304
• Transistor Count: 8,700 Million
• Manufacturing Process: 8 nm

Pros	Cons
Perfect upgrade for older builds, no PCIe connector required	Performance isn’t that great compared to similarly priced options
The most affordable RTX GPU supporting DLSS	Only 6GB VRAM capacity
Decent enough for 1080p gaming at reduced graphics settings
NVENC support for high-quality streaming

7. Intel Arc A380: The Lowest Cost Modern Graphics Card

• VRAM & Effective Memory Clock: 6GB GDDR6 16Gbps
• Core Clock: 2200 MHz
• Thermal Design Power (TDP): 75W
• Xe Cores: 8
• Ray Tracing Units: 8
• Transistor Count: 7,200 Million
• Manufacturing Process: 6 nm