Many users will be taking advantage of the holiday season to upgrade their graphics cards, something totally understandable not only because of the dates but also because of the improvement experienced, in general, by the price of this component. It is true that prices have not yet normalized completely, but it is already possible to find options at much more reasonable prices than a few months ago, and this is being key for the market to “move” again.
Choosing your new graphics card is not going to be an easy decision. You need to consider your aspirations and your needs, as well as your computer configuration and the options you can get based on your budget. Once you are clear on all those graphics cards that fit your budget and your needs, you need to decide on one of them, and it is important to be careful when buying it, as it may be priced differently at certain retailers.
To help you make this complicated decision today I want to share with you one of our most popular guides updated to date, where we will review five graphics cards that aren’t worth buying and discover five alternatives that are. are an excellent choice. In each case I will explain clearly why such a graphics card is not worth buying, and why you should consider another model as an alternative option.
As usual, I will try to be as clear as possible, but if you have any doubts after reading this article, please feel free to contact me at any time. you can leave them in the comments and I will be happy to help you solve it. Without further ado, let’s get down to business.
Five graphics cards that aren’t worth the money.
1.-NVIDIA GeForce GT 730
This is an entry-level graphics card that still has a strong presence in numerous retailers despite all the time it has been around. It is available in two versions, one with GDDR3 memory and one with GDDR5 memory, and uses a GK208B graphics core, a revision of the Kepler architecture manufactured at the 28 nm node.
There is no doubt that it is a very economical solution, takes up little space, is cool and does not require any additional power supply, but it is a model that hit the market in 2014 and has not only become obsoletebut also offers extremely poor performance. With it you will not be able to play any current title smoothly, except those that are very undemanding.
What alternative is worthwhile? If you have a budget of less than €100, which is the level at which the GeForce GT 730 sits, you should ideally look directly at second-hand graphics cards such as the GeForce GTX 1060 and the Radeon RX 580, which can be found at prices between 70 and 110 euros, depending on the memory configuration. With them you will be able to play in 1080p without problems, adjusting the quality level to the requirements of each game.
2.-AMD Radeon RX 550
We find ourselves with a model that ranks far above the previous one, but its price is so high and its performance so low (in proportion) that it Directly it is not worth it. This model was released in 2017, uses the second-generation Polaris architecture and has good DirectX 12 support, but is unable to move current games smoothly unless we move in very low resolutions and minimum qualities.
To make it easier for you to buy, the Radeon RX 550 performs three times less than the Radeon RX 580 and is priced at 141 Euros.. For a little more we can find new graphics cards that perform much better, and if we pull the second hand market we will find superior options for less money, so forget about this model, it is a terrible choice.
What alternative is worth it? You have several options. If you want to pull from the second-hand market, you can go for a GeForce GTX 1660 6 GB for less than 150 euros.and you can also opt for the GeForce GTX 1070 8 GBwhich are also in the 150 euro range. On the AMD side, you have many second-hand options, such as the Radeon RX Vega 56 and the Radeon RX 5600 XTalthough the prices of both are a bit higher and it is difficult to find them for less than 160 euros.
3.-NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630
Could be an interesting option at the low end, but its price is not well adjusted and its value in terms of performance per euro invested is so bad that it is an option to avoid, in fact, the Radeon RX 6400 costs the same as the GeForce GTX 1630 and performs 50% betterso imagine how poorly positioned the NVIDIA model is at its current price (190-200 euros).
This graphics card uses the Turing architecture, is compact and has very low power consumption (75 watts), but lacks tensor cores and has no RT cores either, so it does not accelerate ray tracing and does not support DLSS. Its performance is so limited that ranks even below the 6 GB GeForce GTX 1060, and the 4 GB Radeon RX 570.. AMD’s solution could be bought a few years ago for less than 100 euros new, so I think nothing more needs to be said.
What alternative is worthwhile? You also have many options, but on the second-hand market the only one you should consider is the Radeon RX 6600, which is priced between €240 and €260. In exchange for those 40-60 euros more you’ll get a model with 8 GB of graphics memory that will performs almost four times better in games (on average).. Within the second-hand market you will also find more powerful graphics cards for less money, such as the 6 GB GeForce GTX 1660 and the 8 GB GeForce GTX 1070 for less than €150, the GeForce RTX 2060 for less than €200 and the Radeon RX 5700 for less than €200.
4.-AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT
It’s a graphics card that in terms of average performance is on par with a 6GB GeForce GTX 1060, and performs slightly less than an 8GB Radeon RX 580. Despite this, its price is still clearly inflated, since. around 240 eurosand for that money it doesn’t make any sense to buy it. Remember also that it is limited to a PCIe Gen4 x4 interface, which means that it will lose performance if you mount it on a PCIe Gen3 motherboard.
Strictly speaking the Radeon RX 6500 XT is not a bad graphics card, it defends itself quite well in 1080p, and its value would be interesting if it cost at most about 150 euros, but for 240 euros directly it has no place in the market, and indeed. it is stepped in price with the Radeon RX 6600a graphics card that has become available for 229 euros and that performs 70% better than that one.
Which alternative is worthwhile? In the new graphics card market the best choice is the. Radeon RX 6600a graphics card that’s plenty good at 1080p and performs quite well at 1440p. It offers excellent value for what it costs. The GeForce RTX 3050 is another interesting option for the value offered by DLSS and for its ray tracing performance, although it is more expensive and performs less well in rasterization than the Radeon RX 6600. In the second-hand market we have very attractive options, such as the ones we have mentioned in the previous three points.
5.-NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 12 GB
It’s a slightly upgraded version of the 6GB GeForce RTX 2060 that performs, broadly speaking, slightly less than the GeForce RTX 2060 Super. It offers a good enough performance to run games in 1080p and 1440p without problems, but its price is too high considering what we can find in the market today, as it is around the 360 euros.
In terms of raw power it is not a bad graphics card, but its price is not well adjusted and this becomes such a serious problem that in the end it is not worth taking into account. It steps directly on the toes of the GeForce RTX 3060, which is more efficient and has the advantage of a more advanced architecture, and is below other AMD models that offer superior value.
Which alternative is worth it? If we focus on the new graphics card market the. Radeon RX 6700 is undoubtedly one of the best alternatives we can find right now, since it costs 329 euros and performs almost the same as a GeForce RTX 3060 Ti. It is true that it loses in ray tracing and that it does not have DLSS, but it makes up for it with a much higher raw power in rasterization. If we look on the second-hand market it is more complicated to find attractive options because that Radeon RX 6700 offers a fantastic value. All in all, we could buy a GeForce RTX 3060 Ti for around 350 euros., and we would have the advantage of higher ray tracing performance and the value offered by DLSS.
Endnotes: Five graphics cards I would buy.
To round off this guide, and perfectly complement everything we have seen in the previous sections, I want to end by sharing with you a clear and concise list of. five graphics cards, new and second-hand, that are indeed a good buy. today within different price ranges, and that you should strongly consider when upgrading your PC.
For 1080p gaming on a very limited budget, about. 100 eurosI would directly buy a 8 GB Radeon RX 580 on the second hand market, as it is the best option we can find for that money in price-performance ratio. If we can spend a little more and we want to play with all the guarantees in 1080p I would go directly for one. GeForce GTX 1660 second hand for 150 euros (maximum).
If I wanted to play enjoy ray tracing and good performance even at 1440p I would opt for the. GeForce RTX 2060 6 GBbut I would buy it second hand, as it is available for less than 200 euros, and new it is difficult to go below 300 euros. To play in 1080p and 1440p with guarantees using a new graphics card I would have no doubt, I would go for the Radeon RX 6600which is around 240-260 euros.
Finally, for those who want to play in 1440p or even 4K smoothly. for little money the best option is the Radeon RX 6700which performs at the level of a GeForce RTX 2080 Super in rasterization, has 10 GB of graphics memory and costs 329 euros. For example, such graphics card moves above 50 FPS in Shadow of the Tomb Raider configured in 4K with maximum quality, and also maintains a good level of fluidity in other games Gears V and even in Red Dead Redemption 2. In other more demanding games, such as Cyberpunk 2077, we will have to reduce the quality level, but this is also fully viable in 4K with such graphics card.
Any of these five graphics cards is a good buy. as long as you can get them at the prices we have indicated.. If you have never bought a second-hand graphics card I recommend that you follow the indications we gave at the time in this guide. It is a few years old, but almost all the information it contains is still current and retains an indisputable value. In any case, the ideal is that you try to test the card, or that you resort to second-hand stores, because although their prices are usually a little higher, you can still buy a second-hand card. they compensate by offering a warranty.