The market for graphics cards is still in the midst of a a complicated standardization process which, unfortunately, is taking longer than we would like. The prices of many models are still inflated, and this makes it difficult to upgrade unless we are willing to make a significant investment, and even in the mid-range it is very difficult to find good options for less than 350 euros.
Precisely that budget, less than 350 euros, was for many years considered the “sweet spot” for the average consumer.This is a reality that has completely changed with the price increase in the graphics card sector. The mid-range once went up to over 500 euros, and even today it still easily hovers around 400 euros, with a few exceptions and occasional offers.
Fortunately it is not impossible to find a good graphics card for gaming for less than 350 euros.We just need to know where to look and which models are a good choice. I know that many of our readers have been wanting to upgrade their graphics card for a long time and have that level of budget, but have not yet dared to make a decision because they are afraid to make a mistake, or that the market will surprise them with a major change suddenly.
In this respect you have nothing to fear. The under €350 range is not going to suddenly change.Both NVIDIA and AMD have just launched their next-generation graphics cards, but they are limited to the high-end, and the mid-range models are still a long way off.
On the other hand, there is also nothing to guarantee that current mid-range graphics cards are going to drop in price when the next-generation mid-range ones arrive, something that already happened precisely with the high-end. Just look at the prices of the GeForce RTX 3090 and Radeon RX 6900 XT, despite the fact that their successors have been on the market for some time now.
With this I don’t mean that this is the best time to buy a graphics card, but it is true that within the mid-range we can find interesting options at reasonable prices, something that a few months ago was impossible. On the other hand, if we take into account the second-hand market our range of options improves enormously, and we will be able to find very powerful solutions at very interesting prices.
Best graphics cards for gaming for up to 100 euros.
Does not exist no worthwhile option on the first-hand market, i.e. there are no new graphics cards in that price range that are worth the money, since all we will find are the classic GeForce GT 1030 and lower models, whose performance is not even good enough to run current games in 1080p with low quality and good fluidity.
If you have a budget of 100 euros or less, ideally, you should go directly to the second-hand market. There you can find interesting options if you have patience and know how to negotiate. I, personally, would stay with the three models that I am going to indicate below.
GeForce GTX 970 with 4 GB
This is the best option if we have a very low budget, as it is still capable of delivering good performance in 1080p with medium to high qualities.even very high in older and less demanding games, and I’ve even seen it available with a starting price of only 60 euros on the second hand market, although it is normal to ask for a minimum of 70 euros for it. Don’t be fooled, it’s still a quite capable graphics card, a better option than the 3 GB GTX 1060, and it supports DirectX 12_1.
Specifications and average performance.
- Second-generation Maxwell architecture.
- 1,664 shaders.
- 104 texturing units.
- 56 raster units.
- 224-bit + 32-bit bus.
- 1,050 MHz-1,178 MHz GPU.
- 3.5 GB of GDDR5 on a 224-bit bus and 0.5 GB on a 32-bit bus, both at 7 GHz.
- Requires two 6-pin power connectors and a 500 watt supply.
- Good performance in 1080p with medium or even high qualities, depending on each particular game. In very demanding and current titles we will have to go down to medium-low or low quality.
4GB Radeon RX 580
We can easily find it for between 75 and 85 euros on the second-hand market. It is still able to offer a good performance at 1080p in most cases, and is a better choice than the 3GB GeForce GTX 1060, which usually costs the same as this one and not only performs worse, but also its configuration of only 3GB of memory limits it considerably in most current titles.
Specifications and average performance.
- Polaris 20 architecture.
- 2,304 shaders.
- 144 texturing units.
- 32 raster units.
- 256-bit bus.
- GPU at 1,257 MHz-1,266 MHz.
- 4 GB of GDDR5 at 7 GHz effective.
- Requires an 8-pin connector and a 500 watt power supply.
- Good 1080p performance at high to very high qualities in most cases. Medium to medium-low quality in very demanding titles.
8GB Radeon RX 580
It is a version of the previous one that doubles the amount of memory and has higher working frequencies, both in GPU and graphics memory. This makes it a bit more powerful, and also allows the use of higher graphics settings, especially in specific settings, such as texture quality. This is undoubtedly the best option if we have a budget of between 90 and 100 euros, as I have seen units available. from 95 euros.
Specifications and average performance.
- Polaris 20 architecture.
- 2,304 shaders.
- 144 texturing units.
- 32 raster units.
- 256-bit bus.
- GPU at 1,257 MHz-1,340 MHz.
- 8 GB of GDDR5 at 8 GHz effective.
- Requires an 8-pin connector and a 500 watt power supply.
- Good 1080p performance at high to very high qualities in most cases. Average quality in very demanding titles.
Best option at this budget level: in this case I have it very clear, I would invest a little more and go directly for the Radeon RX 580 8 GB, since the price difference compared to the other two options is very small and not only performs better, but also will have a longer life and allows access to graphics configurations that are not viable in graphics limited to 4 GB of memory.
Best graphics cards for gaming for up to 200 euros.
At this level we can already find some options that are really able to offer a good performance in 1080p, but prices are still too inflated on the first-hand market, and there is really nothing worthwhile. Therefore, the best thing to do if we have a maximum budget of 200 euros is to also look in the second-hand market. These are the best options available at the time of writing this guide.
GeForce RTX 2060 6 GB
The GeForce RTX 2060 is a graphics card that still has a lot of life left in it, and is capable of delivering. excellent performance at 1080p and performs well at 1440p.. It also has the advantage of supporting DLSS 2 technology and having cores for accelerating ray tracing. It is one of the best options for building a powerful gaming PC on a low budget, as it can be purchased on the second-hand market starting from the 160-175 eurosdepending on our luck.
Specifications and average performance.
- Turing Architecture.
- 1,920 shaders.
- GPU at 1,365 MHz-1,680 MHz.
- 120 texturing units.
- 48 raster units.
- 240 tenor cores for artificial intelligence.
- 30 RT cores for ray tracing.
- 192-bit bus.
- 6 GB of GDDR6 at 14 GHz.
- Requires an 8-pin connector and a 500 watt power supply.
- Excellent performance at 1080p and good performance at 1440p with very high qualities. Can improve performance thanks to DLSS 2, and accelerates ray tracing.
Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB
It is more powerful in rasterization than the previous one, in fact in raw power it surpasses even a GeForce RTX 2070, so it offers a perfect performance at 1080p and excellent at 1440p. (in most cases). It does not accelerate ray tracing and supports FSR 2, a rescaling technology that will also help us to improve performance, although it is not at the same level as NVIDIA’s DLSS 2. It can be found at from 180 euros.
Specifications and average performance.
- RDNA architecture (Navi 10 XT).
- 2,560 shaders.
- GPU at 1,605 MHz-1,905 MHz in normal and turbo mode.
- 160 texturing units.
- 64 raster units.
- 256-bit bus.
- 8 GB of GDDR6 at 14 GHz.
- Requires two power connectors, one 6-pin and one 8-pin, and a 600 watt power supply.
- Fantastic performance in 1080p at very high qualities, and excellent in 1440p also at maximum qualities. The FSR 2 can be useful if we keep it in ultra quality (1080p) or quality (1440p) mode, if we go down from there the loss of image quality will not compensate the performance improvement.
Best option at this budget level: is not an easy decision, because the Radeon RX 5700 XT is 16% more powerful but lacks dedicated ray tracing hardware, and although it supports FSR 2 the DLSS 2 is a superior technology. If your priority is raw power in rasterization and you don’t mind giving up ray tracing, choose the Radeon RX 5700 XT, otherwise go for the GeForce RTX 2060.
Best graphics cards for gaming for up to 350 euros.
At this level we already have some interesting option within the first-hand market, although the models that are placed in the range of less than 250 euros are stepped on with those we have seen in the previous section. For example, the Radeon RX 6600 can be purchased from 249 euros, but its performance is inferior to that of the Radeon RX 5700 XT.so we have to take it into account. The GeForce RTX 3050 can also be purchased for €279, but it performs less well than the 6GB GeForce RTX 2060 we just recommended.
With all this in mind, I’m going to focus on the higher end of this budget range, as it’s the only one where it makes sense to look at considering the two recommendations we’ve given you for under €200. These are the two best options for less than €350.
10 GB Radeon RX 6700
Undoubtedly the best option we can find within its price range, especially now that it’s available for €339.95. It is so powerful that with it we will be able to play even in 2160p with guarantees.provided that we adjust the quality level according to the requirements of each game, although the ideal levels for using this graphics card are 1080p and 1440p. It accelerates ray tracing and supports FSR 2, although its performance drops a lot with ray tracing enabled.
Specifications and average performance.
- RDNA2 architecture.
- 2,304 shaders
- GPU at 1,914 MHz-2,450 MHz.
- 144 texturing units.
- 64 raster units.
- 36 cores for accelerating ray tracing.
- 160-bit bus.
- 10 GB of GDDR6 memory at 16 GHz.
- 80 MB of infinite cache.
- Requires an 8-pin power connector and a 500 watt power supply.
- Perfect performance in 1080p with very high quality, fantastic in 1440p with very high quality and good in 2160p with high or medium qualities, depending on the demands of each game. We can activate FSR2 to improve performance.
12GB GeForce RTX 3060
On average it is 16% slower than the previous one, but it performs better in ray tracing and has the advantage of the DLSS 2. It offers perfect performance in 1080p, does very well in 1440p and can also handle games in 2160p with reduced graphics quality. Its ideal level is, as in the case of the previous model, 1080p and 1440p, although it is feasible to use it in 2160p with DLSS 2 in performance mode. We can buy it for 349.90 euros.
Specifications and average performance.
- Ampere Architecture.
- 3,584 shaders.
- GPU at 1,320 MHz-1,777 MHz.
- 112 texturing units.
- 48 raster units.
- 112 tensor cores.
- 28 RT cores.
- 12 GB of GDDR6 at 15 GHz.
- 192-bit bus.
- Requires an 8-pin connector and a 500 watt supply.
- Perfect performance at 1080p, excellent at 1440p and quite acceptable at 2160p. Holds up well with ray tracing, and DLSS 2 allows us to improve performance substantially.
Best option at this budget level: is a complicated decision, because the Radeon RX 6700 performs better in rasterization and costs less money, while the GeForce RTX 3060 performs less in rasterization but holds up better in ray tracing and supports DLSS 2. If ray tracing doesn’t keep you awake at night, you should choose the Radeon, otherwise the GeForce.
If you need to accompany your new graphics card with a processor for gaming and you have a maximum budget of 200 euros, don’t worry, we haven’t forgotten about you. Take a look at this guide and you will find the best options available on the market today. Any doubts? Leave them in the comments and we will help you solve them.
