Graphics cards have increasingly gotten expensive, with the RTX 4090 costing north of $1,500. At some point in the past, the budget graphics card market was quite exciting. AMD and Nvidia used to release something revolutionary even at entry price points. My favorite budget GPUs from the past would be the GTX 1060 and RX 480, launched at $249 and $199, respectively. Well, things aren’t so heavily competitive in the budget GPU market these days. Still, we have discussed many best budget graphics cards up to $350.
Apart from deciding on which budget GPU is right for your needs, you also need to make sure it is compatible with your build. This includes judging whether the card can fit inside your PC case. You have to ensure that the horizontal & vertical dimensions of your graphics card are compatible with your PC build.
Moreover, you also need to ensure your PSU can supply adequate power to meet your GPU’s needs. Finally, to ensure a seamless upgrade to your shiny new card, go through our handy GPU installation guide here. Without wasting any more time, let’s begin discussing the options:
1. Radeon RX 7600 XT – Best Budget GPU from AMD
- 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
AMD RX 7600 XT is a compelling graphics card to buy under $350. It has 16GB of GDDR6 VRAM, so you do not need to worry about running out of video memory in games. Certain titles, especially modern AAA ones, play better with higher VRAM capacity. This is expected to become even more prevalent as we move forward into the newer generation of games.
The performance is a notch ahead of the RTX 4060, but keep in mind that the RX 7600 XT can still lag behind the RTX 4060 Ti. You can even turn on features such as AFMF (Advanced Fluid Motion Frames) through the driver settings, to double your frames in games with AI frame generation.
Both the ASUS dual variant of the RX 7600 XT features a black theme with brand elements on the backplate. The Sapphire Pulse, on the other hand, has red accents to accentuate the black theme of the GPU. The dual fan models are much smaller in size, making them suitable for smaller cases. If you have a bigger case, you can also go for triple fan models.
Pros Cons Highest VRAM capacity offered at this price 128-bit memory interface Supports AMD Fluid Motion Frames (AFMF) Ray-tracing performance not as good as Nvidia Max out in-game settings and play at 1440p AV1 Support for high-quality streaming
2. GeForce RTX 4060 8GB – Best Budget GPU from NVIDIA
- 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
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 is Team Green’s best new generation offering under $300. There is not much difference when we compare the raw performance of the RTX 4060 against the previous-gen RTX 3060. So, it is considered by some to be a somewhat disappointing GPU launch. However, it is a decent graphics card for gaming, considering it supports DLSS 3 frame generation. With DLSS 3 enabled, you can play modern games at higher settings too! Even the highly intensive RT Overdrive setting on Cyberpunk 2077 is actually playable on the RTX 4060, thanks to DLSS 3.
It also needs a considerably low amount of power and is rated at 115W TDP. With 8GB VRAM, it is possible to run into issues with video memory running out especially when maxing out games. You may not be able to push 1440p on this graphics card, but it should work out fine for less demanding games. Overall, the RTX 4060 is not too bad of a consideration, especially being available under its launch pricing a few months after its release.
Being a graphics card that doesn’t demand too much power, there are a lot of smaller options on the market. The GPU started dipping under its MSRP at times, making it a better deal than when it was launched. The MSI Ventux 2X variant linked below has an all-black design and dual fans. If you can accommodate a bigger GPU, the Gigabyte Eagle variant features triple fans with WindForce cooling system. It has a grey finish, with blue accents on its fans.
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. AMD Radeon RX 7600
- 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
AMD Radeon RX 7600 is Team Red’s answer to the RTX 4060 and offers a bit more value for your money since it’s priced lower. At this price, it’s super tough to find a GPU with high VRAM capacity. The RX 7600 is a good GPU for 1080p gaming. But then again, you won’t be able to max everything out depending on how intensive the game is. Moreover, the raw performance increase is not significant compared to the predecessor RX 6600.
To increase your performance in basically any DX11/ DX12 game, you can also turn on the AFMF feature through driver settings. This will enable AI frame generation, and the overall performance becomes quite satisfactory. This GPU is often going for prices under its launch MSRP, sometimes available at $240-$250 as well.
One of the most affordable Radeon RX 7600 GPUs on the market is the XFX SWFT 210 variant. It has dual fans and a sleek look with a black theme. The backplate features the brand’s logo by being distinctly cut out. For a small premium, the Gigabyte Gaming OC variant listed alongside features triple fans. It features a logo shown on the side of the graphics card with RGB support.
Pros Cons Supports AMD Fluid Motion Frames (AFMF) May run into issues caused by VRAM capacity, especially at 1440p resolution Suited for 1080p gaming Ray-tracing performance not as good as Nvidia AV1 Support for high-quality streaming
4. Intel Arc A750 – Best Value for Money Budget GPU
- 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
Intel’s venture into the graphics card market is going well, with the Intel Arc A750 being the most attractive GPU to buy around the $200 price point. It has been discounted heavily from its original MSRP of $289. The performance of this graphics card is particularly impressive. After several GPU driver updates, Intel made the Arc A750’s performance competitive against the options listed above. This makes it pretty much the best value-for-money budget GPU in 2024, as long as you don’t mind the negative we are about to discuss.
Though the performance has greatly improved, there may be some stability issues that you may run into. Games such as Starfield and GTA V are known to still have issues with Intel Arc graphics cards. By the way, you need 2x 8-pin GPU power connectors for this graphics card because it has a 225W TDP. I can’t recommend this GPU to everyone. But for its price, as long as you don’t mind tinkering around & being patient, this can be a satisfying GPU to own.
The Acer Predator BiFrost variant linked below features dual fans, but it has hybrid cooling with a ‘vapor chamber’. It looks quite interesting and different from traditional GPU designs. The graphics card from Acer also features RGB lighting with the Predator logo. The other GPU linked below is the Sparkle Titan Arc 750. It features dual fans with a black backplate and fans. The GPU shroud has a blue finish. No AI frame generation technology for Intel GPUs is out yet, but we did hear they were working on something.
| 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. AMD Radeon RX 6600 8GB
- 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
AMD Radeon RX 6600 is Team Red’s affordable offering under $200. Even today, it stands to be a pretty capable budget gaming graphics card suited for 1080p gaming. It is behind by about 20-25% when compared to its successor, the RX 7600. This is our pick from the last-generation GPU lineup, and the RX 6600 originally launched at $329. Today, it is available for under $200.
For 1080p gaming, it will work decently with several modern titles, even at high settings. I consider the RX 6600 the bare minimum to get in 2024 because options under this dramatically go down in how much gaming performance you can get. By the way, the RX 6600 also supports the AMD AFMF technology.
The PowerColor Fighter variant below has dual fans. It has a basic look with a black design and no backplate. Still, it gets the job done and is one of the most affordable RX 6600 GPUs on the market. Next, we have the ASRock Challenger RX 6600 graphics card with dual fans.
Pros Cons Suited for 1080p gaming No support for AV1 encoding Supports AMD Fluid Motion Frames (AFMF)
6. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 6GB
- 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
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 6GB is a recent launch by the company. But is it a new GPU? Well, not really, since it is using the older RTX 30 series architecture. The RTX 3050 6GB is less performant than the RTX 3050 8GB, which was originally unveiled before. However, there are some benefits to buying this GPU. It is the cheapest RTX GPU for desktops available currently, so it supports DLSS for image quality and performance enhancements.
The graphics card also comes in at a price much lower than the RTX 3050 8GB, with several brands selling the RTX 3050 6GB for under $200. In terms of performance, I’m somewhat disappointed, to say the least. I hope there are better-performing graphics cards launched in this price bracket later. But, for now, this is what we get from Nvidia at $200! One great thing about the RTX 3050 6GB is that it is perfect for upgrading the GPU in many older builds. It doesn’t require any dedicated PCIe power connectors and simply pulls power from the PCIe slot to operate.
| 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 – Most Affordable Modern GPU
- 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
Intel Arc A380 is the most affordable modern GPU available to buy today. I wouldn’t say this card’s performance is entirely desirable, especially in heavy modern games. But this GPU is perfect for entry-level gaming. The Intel Arc A380 has 6GB GDDR6 memory and has a power requirement of 75W. In gaming, the performance is similar to a GTX 1650.
Keep in mind that, like the Arc A750, the Arc A380 also suffers from being a first-generation launch of dedicated Intel GPUs. The drivers are getting better, but you may encounter some stability issues, especially in certain games such as Starfield. But it has extra VRAM while costing less than the aforementioned Nvidia GPU.
There is another dedicated Arc GPU, which is even more affordable, called the Intel Arc A310. The A380 is a better pick since the price difference isn’t too substantial.
Pros Cons Decent for entry-level gaming May face stability issues Supports AV1 for high-quality streaming Four display output ports
Presently, it has become increasingly hard to judge the best budget graphics card. To make it easier for you as a PC builder looking to decide or upgrade to a new graphics card, refer to our curated list above. I hope it helped you decide which particular GPU under $350 is right for you!
Which graphics card do you like the best? Let us know in the comments below, and do tell us if you have any doubts.
