When Building a PC on a Budget, Avoid These 5 GPUs

Nvidia, AMD, and Intel all sell discrete GPUs under different naming conventions. Confused about what to buy for your budget PC build? Find out which graphics cards to avoid and which are our best picks to buy instead.

1 $100 – $150 Range

Don’t Buy: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650

The Nvidia GTX 1650 and its 1600-Series GPUs were intended as NVIDIA’s answer to budget 1080p gaming. Its numbering might throw you off, as the 1600-Series was released between NVIDIA’s flagship 2000-Series and 3000-Series GPUs.

After five years, it seems like Nvidia is poised to abandon the budget GPU market. In 2024, it was leaked that Nvidia is set to kill the GTX 1600-Series lineup. Maybe they’re too flush with cash from selling AI chips to care. Luckily, you have alternatives.

Buy Instead: AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT

The AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT is the winner in this bracket in terms of graphical performance. It’s part of AMD’s 6000-Series GPUs, which is a generation older than the more recent 7000-Series.

The specs show that each card is stronger in a different area. The RX 6500 XT has a much higher boost clock, while the GTX 1650’s architecture provides a bigger memory bus. A new challenger has also appeared in the form of the Intel Arc A380, which provides more VRAM, and forms part Intel’s first-generation GPUs for desktop PCs.

But specs only give us an idea of theoretical performance. The AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT’s much higher clocks help it outperform the others in gaming benchmarks:

The GPUs at this range might be all you need for a little more graphical oomph on a computer for productivity, perhaps for use with medical imaging software or data visualization tools. If you’re looking for gaming performance, however, I recommend saving for the next tier. You can roughly double the frame rate in 1080p gaming for just $50 more, delivering way better value.

2 $150 – $200 Range

Don’t Buy: Intel Arc A750

Gamers need Intel to compete with Nvidia on GPUs, but Intel’s first splash into the discrete GPU space for mainstream consumers means they’re still figuring things out. The new Intel Arc A750 should theoretically be the fastest in this segment with its unmatched 256-bit bus. Unfortunately, Intel Arc GPUs don’t natively support DirectX for older games, and driver optimization is still being ironed out as we speak.

Buy Instead: AMD Radeon RX 6600

Competition is intense in the sub-$200 gaming bracket. But all GPUs in this price range lie in the shadow of one card: the AMD Radeon RX 6600.

The RX 6600 pulls off at least 60 FPS @ 1080p resolution, the baseline expectation for running a game smoothly, better than its competitors:

• ~100 frames-per-second (FPS) in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare @ 1080p ultra settings
• ~65 fps in Elden Ring @ 1080p maximum settings
• ~66 fps in Cyberpunk 2077 @ 1080p high settings

For a GPU that can handle 1080p smoothly in popular PC games, the AMD Radeon RX 6600 is the champ.

3 $200 – $250 Range

Don’t Buy: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 was the best card in its price range when it was first released in 2021. That was if you could get your hands on one amid the fever dream of pandemic scalpers and crypto miners. Ah, good times.

Today, the RTX 3060 is slower and costs more than its competition.

Buy Instead: AMD Radeon RX 7600

Real-world performance shows the AMD Radeon RX 7600 beating the RTX 3060 when compared at their intended sweet spot of 1080p gaming on high settings.

On the surface, the specs of these two cards look like they would even out in performance:

If you were mostly crunching workloads like 3D modeling in Blender, then the RTX 3060’s higher CUDA core count and increased VRAM would win out. But for gaming, the Radeon RX 7600 has both higher frame rates and newer architecture for better support going forward.

4 $250 – $300 Range

Don’t Buy: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060

Having built multiple low to high-end systems with Nvidia’s 2000-Series and 3000-Series GPUs over the years, I’m surprised to find myself not recommending the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060. For entry-level gaming where every frame counts, you can get superior performance for less.

Buy Instead: AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT

Let’s unpack the naming for the AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT. It’s part of AMD’s 6000-Series generation. The extra -50 means it’s a hardware refresh of the mid-range RX 6700, and the XT (“extended”) moniker means its clocks have been cranked to turbo.

The AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT is undisputedly faster than the RTX 4060 at this price point:

Let’s briefly discuss the competition:

Nvidia’s RTX 4060 may be better for you if you’re only looking at office productivity. And for gaming, the Intel Arc A770, the top card in Intel’s first-gen lineup, seems tempting—especially its 16 GB edition, since the amount of VRAM you need for modern games is becoming more and more important. Unfortunately, the Intel Arc’s growing pains as a first-gen release make it too risky for most.

For gaming in this bracket, the AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT is your best bet. It’s plenty capable of 1080p on ultra settings or 1440p resolution on medium.

5 $300 – $400 Range

Don’t Buy: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti

Don’t be fooled by synthetic benchmarks, which award higher scores to Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 4060 Ti. This scoring is valid if you’re focused primarily on creative workloads or machine learning. But if you’re talking about gaming, it’s a different story.

Buy Instead: AMD Radeon RX 6800

For 1080p competitive gaming or 1440p resolution with high settings, the AMD Radeon RX 6800 is the best value here.

A review of benchmarks in popular games shows the RX 6800 outperforming the 4060 Ti in FPS. Sure, Nvidia’s lighting and reflection effects look better to my subjective eyes. But you should mostly ignore ray-tracing in video games at this range; it’s a distractor in the face of raw FPS output.

It’s a close call between the RX 6800 and the newer-gen AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT, but the RX 6800 gets a slight edge for delivering more FPS, using less electricity, and costing less. If you can’t find the RX 6800 anywhere or if there’s a price drop, then get the RX 7700 XT instead.

Now that we’ve reached the end of our roundup, I hope you’ve gained a better understanding of what graphics card would be best for you. For productivity or high-end gaming PCs, Nvidia’s GPUs are solid picks. But if you’re building a budget gaming rig, it’s best to consider an AMD RX 6000-Series or 7000-Series card.