Best Budget Graphics Cards (Under $250) for PC Gaming
So you are looking to upgrade your PC and get a brand new graphics card but you are on a tight budget, let’s say no more than $250, and you are asking yourself what would be the best graphics card for this budget? Well, we asked ourselves the same question. So we decided to make a list of the most popular budget graphics cards under $250 and benchmark them all across Borderlands 3, GTA V, Shadow of the Toomb Raider, Forza Horizon 4, Rainbow 6 Siege, Fortnite, and CS:GO to see what is the best graphics card for this budget.
So let’s dig in shall we? The chosen graphics cards for our tests are:
AMD RX 570 8GB
AMD RX 580 8GB
Nvidia GTX 1650 Super 8GB
AMD 5500XT 4GB
AMD 5500XT 8GB
Nvidia GTX 1660 Super
The Testing Platform and Benchmarks
To test the chosen graphics cards we used the following configuration (yes we chose the 3600X instead of a better, higher-end CPU as we think this will be the sweet spot for gaming by delivering more than enough power for current games as well as future games to come - you can read more about why the AMD Ryzen 3600X here):
AMD Ryzen 5 3600X
ROG Crosshair VIII Hero Wi-Fi
G.Skill Trident Z Royal Gold 16GB 3600Mhz Dual-Channel
Samsung 970 PRO M.2 512GB SSD
Seasonic Prime 850 Ultra Titanium 850W
As the numbers show we can see that the battle is really close between the GTX 1650 Super, the GTX 1660 Super, and the RX 5500 XT 8GB version, but it all comes on which can prove to be the better value on the long run.
The RX 5500 XT 8GB version had a very bad launch as performance was poor in comparison with the GeForce competitors, but since then drivers have matured (yes we all know AMD has issues with launching good drivers when they deliver a new product on the market) and the results are showing today.
The old AMD RX series is not to be neglected either as they can offer good performance if you are not very pretentious on details as well if you are just a casual gamer and you don’t play very demanding titles. As you can see from the results above they can deliver decent FPS on the tested titles and if you play allot of Esports or titles like CS:GO, Fortnite, APEX, or PUBG, these graphics cards will be suiting you well enough.
In the end, it all comes down to you. What do you like to play? If you are looking to play more demanding games like the latest AAA titles than the GTX 1660 Super or the RX 5500XT 8GB may be the graphics card you want to buy, but if you are not then there is no point in spending the extra dollars and get something like the GTX 1650 Super or the RX 580 8GB.
I know some of you may say: but what about future games? Can these cards handle future releases?
Choosing a gaming graphics card is always a challenge in our opinion as there is no definitive conclusion one can reach. The first thing you have to know that when we talk about budget graphics cards, these cards are exactly that, budget cards. They can deliver good enough performance but they do have limitations. As the gaming industry evolves, so does the demand for better hardware to run new games increases.
Sure, you might say that the RX 5500XT 8GB or the GTX 1660 super is enough for you right now, but 1 year later you might not be as pleased with the performance it delivers and you will find yourself in the situation of looking for something else, which means more money coming out of your pocket.
In our opinion, you are better off saving a few bucks now, wait a little more, and get something better like an RTX 2060 Super or an AMD Radeon 5600/5700 XT (of course if you are willing to wait and you really care about getting more performance on the long run).
