It has become very difficult to find cheap graphics cards. especially if we limit ourselves to the market at first handThat is, when we are looking for new products. This has a very simple explanation that I want to share with you to contextualize this guide a little before getting to the core.
The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant influence on the production of silicon wafers. Giants like TSMC have seen their manufacturing capabilities limited for much of this year, a scenario exacerbated by the almost simultaneous launches of new products that require large numbers of semiconductors:
- Xbox Series X Series S y PS5– You are using a next generation APU, GDDR6 memory and SSD drives.
- Ryzen 5000 processors: manufactured by TSMC using the 7 nm process.
- Radeon RX 6000 graphics cards: Use the GPUs, which were also manufactured in the 7 nm process by TSMC, and GDDR6 memory.
- RTX 30 series graphics cards– With GPUs that use Samsung’s 8nm process, plus GDDR6X and GDDR6 memory.
As we saw in this article, the AMD had to prioritize the wafers received in order to manufacture APUs Xbox Series X-Series S and PS5 as well as the CFO of NVIDIA have also confirmed this major supply problems.
The fourth quarter of the year was very eventful with the introduction of these new products, and all were affected by a shortage of components and semiconductors, which was further exacerbated by high demand and by the infamous presence of speculators involved in reselling, They have hoarded almost all of the stock to control prices at will and make money by taking advantage of the low supply and high demand.
On the other hand, both NVIDIA and AMD have stopped shipping new units of their Radeon RX 5000 and RTX 20 series has practically sold out the retail channel for midrange and high-end graphics cards. with few exceptions. Only the middle and lower middle ranges were spared, although prices increased significantly.
With that in mind, it’s easy to see why we say that buying cheap but powerful graphics cards for 1080p gaming has become almost impossible from major retailers, but fortunately We can find a point of sale in the used marketwhere prices are still quite stable.
I know that with the arrival of Cyberpunk 2077, many of our readers are Wait to refresh your PC to enjoy this title in good conditions. That is why I encouraged you to share this guide with you. There you will find a selection of cheap graphics cards that will allow you to play it in 1080p with ease, provided you adjust the graphics quality.
The prices you will see are a reasonable average based on the prices I’ve seen on major second-hand channels over the past two weeks. Obviously These can fluctuate, in fact some sellers raise the price, but paying a higher number is not a good ideaKeep that in mind.
Cheap and high-performance graphics cards for 1080p games: five recommendations
In order to create a simple and easy-to-interpret guide, I chose directly Five cheap graphics cards that we can easily find on the used market, and they still offer good 1080p performance in almost all cases.
They’re all cheap graphics cards, strictly speaking, which means I’ve fixed them a limit of less than 150 euros, and I wanted to group different models with different prices so that you could all find at least one option that would suit your budget, even if it’s quite low.
I understand that the concept of cheap graphics cards may not be the same for everyone, but I think it goes on a scale between 50 and 200 euros is very reasonable, And that’s in line with the idea that most of us have a cheap graphics card. Without further ado, let’s get into the matter, you can leave any questions in the comments.
1.-Radeon RX 560 with 4 GB for 50 euros
This graphics card fits what we can consider as low rangeBut thanks to the improvements at the driver level, the good DirectX 12 support and the 4 GB graphics memory it’s aged pretty well.
Their performance varies greatly depending on the gameas it gives a good experience even at 1080p and high quality in some cases. In the most demanding titles, we won’t have any problems playing with a Mix of medium and low settings, 1080p resolution and a stable 30 FPS.
One of the best cheap graphics cards we can find in 1080p right now if we are on a very limited budget and without a doubt A much more interesting option than the GTX 1050that has only 2 GB of graphics memory.
RX 560 4 GB technical data
- GCN architecture (Polaris 21 core at 14 nm).
- GPU a 1.175 MHz-1.275 MHz, modo normal y Turbo.
- 1,024 shaders.
- 64 structured units.
- 16 grid units.
- 128-bit bus.
- 4 GB GDDR5 with 7,000 MHz.
- 80 watt TDP. Requires a 350 watt, 18A power supply and a 6-pin connector.
And how does it work in Cyberpunk 2077? Very fair, in 1080p and low quality it has an average of 20-25 FPS.
2.-GeForce GTX 960 with 4 GB for 65 euros
It’s been a pretty old graphics card since it hit the market in 2015, but in its version with 4GB of graphics memory still performs pretty well In most cases.
Its price can fluctuate widely because of this The 4GB model was less popular at the time as the 2 GB, but the latter is losing steam due to the increasing consumption of graphics memory of the current games, so we must avoid it.
One of the cheap graphics cards most ignored but also one of the most interesting if we find it at a good price.
GTX 960 4 GB technical data
- Second generation Maxwell architecture (GM206 graphics core at 28 nm).
- 1,024 shaders.
- GPU a 1.127 MHz-1.178 MHz.
- 64 texture units.
- 32 grid units.
- 128-bit bus.
- 4 GB GDDR5 at 7 GHz.
- 120 watt TDP. Requires a 400 watt 20 A power supply and an additional 6-pin power connector.
And how does it work in Cyberpunk 2077? With 1080p, relatively stable averages of more than 30 FPS can be maintained with poor quality. If we move up to medium quality, we have around 22-25 FPS.
3.-GeForce GTX 970 for 85 euros
gender a major controversy at the time when it was discovered to use a very peculiar graphics memory configuration (see specifications) but the truth is it stays that way one of the best graphics cards that NVIDIA has so far released in the price-performance ratio.
This value was maintained throughout its arrival in the second-hand market, especially after the barrage of the GTX 1060 and RX 570 series units produced last year. This allowed the price to fall to a reasonable leveland made it one of the best cheap used graphics cards to play 1080p cheaply.
Performance is generally good enough to play almost anything 1080p and high quality fluent, although we have to be content with that in the most demanding titles 30 stable FPS.
GTX 970 4 GB technical data
- Second generation Maxwell architecture (GM204-200 core at 28 nm).
- 1,664 shaders.
- GPU a 1.051 MHz-1.178 MHz, modo normal y Turbo.
- 104 structured units.
- 56 grid units.
- 3.5 GB GDDR5 at 7 GHz on a 224-bit bus.
- 512 MB GDDR5 at 7 GHz on a 32-bit bus.
- 145 watt TDP Requires a 500 watt, 28 A power supply and two 6-pin connectors.
And how does it work in Cyberpunk 2077? It achieves stable averages of 30 FPS at 1080p and medium quality.
4.-GeForce GTX 1060 with 6 GB for 120 euros
It’s a model by and large Performance more or less on par with a GTX 980even though it has more graphics memoryand this gives you a clear advantage in some titles. This should also be reflected in a longer service life.
As many of our readers know, there is also a version of the GTX 1060 with 3 GB of graphics memory He doesn’t age well at allSo it is better to ignore it even if it is cheaper.
Of all the cheap graphics cards we’ve seen so far, this is the second most powerful. We can play almost anything with it 1080p and high or very high quality with good language proficiency.
6 GB GTX 1060 technical data
- Pascal architecture (GP106).
- 1,280 shaders.
- GPU at 1.506 MHz / 1.708 MHz.
- 80 texture units.
- 48 grid units.
- 192-bit bus.
- 6 GB more effective 8 GHz GDDR5.
- 120 watt TDP. It requires a 6-pin plug and a 20 A, 400 watt source.
And how does it work in Cyberpunk 2077? It sets the bar a little higher compared to the previous one and allows us to play it in 1080p and medium to high quality at 30-40 FPS which is also quite stable.
5.-Radeon RX 580 with 8 GB for 125 euros
As more than one of our readers guessed This is the most powerful of all the graphics cards we’ve seen in this article. In most cases, however, it’s a little more than the 6GB GTX 1060 The price is pretty high and it can be difficult to find for $ 125.
Personally and given the bubble that is currently in the graphics card market due to the stock issues I have indicated, I wouldn’t pay more than that number, I’d rather waiteven if he had to postpone enjoying a particular game to do so.
In terms of performance, this model can handle just about anything 1080p and very high quality with good language skills.
RX 580 8 GB technical data
- Polaris 20 graphics core.
- 2,304 shaders.
- GPU a 1.257 MHz-1.386 MHz.
- 144 structured units.
- 32 grid units.
- 256-bit bus.
- 8 GB GDDR5 effective at 8 GHz.
- 185 watt TDP. Requires an 8-pin connector. We need a source with 27A and 500 watts.
And how does it work in Cyberpunk 2077? It offers similar performance to the previous one.
