Question Best GPU card for around $300 or under?

[Zephyr424]

Hi. I have an older, Strix 2270e gaming m/b and am wondering what would be the best card to purchase for around $300 - give or take, for a gaming card upgrade? The first consideration is obviously compatibility (PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16). The 2nd are stability and performance. The 3rd is all the rest - power consumption/noise etc. If there is an option for, say, a little more $ with an immense upside in performance, please share that as well. Thanks for any help you can provide.

 

[35below0]

Arc A750, but drivers are buggy. (isn't supported)

RX 6600 - ok choice for under $300
RTX 4060 - better but loses some of it's punch running PCIe 3.0 x16
RX 580 - not as powerful as the other two but costs less money and is still pretty decent.

If you could stretch your budget to RX 7800XT territory, you'd have a very good card, but one that is ~$500 and more powerfull than the rest of the system.
What's your PSU?

The best at $300 is the 4060. Consider the other two if you want to spend less money. Or Arc if you wanta have an adventure.

 

[NedSmelly]

Arc A750, but drivers are buggy.

RX 6600 - ok choice for under $300
RTX 4060 - better but loses some of it's punch running PCIe 3.0 x16
RX 580 - not as powerful as the other two but costs less money and is still pretty decent.

If you could stretch your budget to RX 7800XT territory, you'd have a very good card, but one that is ~$500 and more powerfull than the rest of the system.
What's your PSU?

The best at $300 is the 4060. Consider the other two if you want to spend less money. Or Arc if you wanta have an adventure.

Regarding ARC GPUs: I don't think the Z270 / 7th Gen Intel has Resizeable BAR.

RX6600 and RTX4060 will only use half of the PCIE x16 3.0 lanes in the slot. Which may or may not be an issue, depending on what you're doing with it.

I'd consider the used market for 2070-2080, 3060/3060Ti/3070, and Radeon RDNA2 cards (6700 and above). Even the 2060 Super and 2070 Super are really good if priced well, as they are DLSS compatible.

 

[Zerk2012]

Hi. I have an older, Strix 2270e gaming m/b and am wondering what would be the best card to purchase for around $300 - give or take, for a gaming card upgrade? The first consideration is obviously compatibility (PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16). The 2nd are stability and performance. The 3rd is all the rest - power consumption/noise etc. If there is an option for, say, a little more $ with an immense upside in performance, please share that as well. Thanks for any help you can provide.

RX 6750XT for 330, has almost no performance drop going to PCI-E 3.0

EDIT I would not consider a used card at all to many scammers

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/pk...0-xt-12-gb-video-card-axrx-6750-xt-12gbd6-3dh

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wi9_v43xcXs

 

[35below0]

Regarding ARC GPUs: I don't think the Z270 / 7th Gen Intel has Resizeable BAR.

Good catch

RX6600 and RTX4060 will only use half of the PCIE x16 3.0 lanes in the slot. Which may or may not be an issue, depending on what you're doing with it.

Yes, it's true. The 4060 is latest gen and (relatively) powerful, even at x8. I believe there is nothing better for $300. But like you say, being limited to PCIe 3.0 x8 doesn't exactly make full use of it.
It is also not very power hungry, for what it's worth.

I'd consider the used market for 2070-2080, 3060/3060Ti/3070, and Radeon RDNA2 cards (6700 and above). Even the 2060 Super and 2070 Super are really good if priced well, as they are DLSS compatible.

I wouldn't want used, but it's not my money...
With luck, i would want a tier higher for $300 if it's used. But then again, the rest of the system is old so...

 

[NedSmelly]

I wouldn't want used, but it's not my money...
With luck, i would want a tier higher for $300 if it's used. But then again, the rest of the system is old so...

Indeed it's somewhat pot luck. I recently got a used 2060 Super because it was incredibly cheap (USD$120 equivalent) - and performance was only 10-15% slower than a 3060. Nothing new came close in that price, and it was for a PCIe 3.0 system. But once it's hitting the USD$300-400 mark, one might as well buy new. Depends on supply in the local market though, and how risk-averse the OP is.

 

[Math Geek]

what card are you using now?

may as well ask to be sure what is being suggested is even an upgrade worth the cost.

your psu is also a very high consideration. is the psu as old as the rest of the system? what model is it? very likely you'll want to upgrade that as well as the gpu which changes the budget allotment a lot.

 

[Zephyr424]

Arc A750, but drivers are buggy.

RX 6600 - ok choice for under $300
RTX 4060 - better but loses some of it's punch running PCIe 3.0 x16
RX 580 - not as powerful as the other two but costs less money and is still pretty decent.

If you could stretch your budget to RX 7800XT territory, you'd have a very good card, but one that is ~$500 and more powerfull than the rest of the system.
What's your PSU?

The best at $300 is the 4060. Consider the other two if you want to spend less money. Or Arc if you wanta have an adventure.

Thanks for the info. The PSU is a Seasonic Focus Platinum 750W

 

[Zephyr424]

Regarding ARC GPUs: I don't think the Z270 / 7th Gen Intel has Resizeable BAR.

RX6600 and RTX4060 will only use half of the PCIE x16 3.0 lanes in the slot. Which may or may not be an issue, depending on what you're doing with it.

I'd consider the used market for 2070-2080, 3060/3060Ti/3070, and Radeon RDNA2 cards (6700 and above). Even the 2060 Super and 2070 Super are really good if priced well, as they are DLSS compatible.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[Zephyr424]

what card are you using now?

may as well ask to be sure what is being suggested is even an upgrade worth the cost.

your psu is also a very high consideration. is the psu as old as the rest of the system? what model is it? very likely you'll want to upgrade that as well as the gpu which changes the budget allotment a lot.

I have a Nvidia GeForce 1080 GTX 1080 now.

 

[Joseph_138]

RX 7600, probably.

 

[Zephyr424]

How would an older, higher-end card like this (from 2017):

AORUS GeForce® GTX 1080 Ti Xtreme Edition 11G

https://www.gigabyte.com/Graphics-Card/GV-N108TAORUS-X-11GD#kf

While playing video games, compare with a newer, lower-end card like this (from 2021):

AORUS GeForce RTX™ 3060 Ti ELITE 8G​

https://www.gigabyte.com/Graphics-Card/GV-N306TAORUS-E-8GD-rev-20/sp#sp

The core clock speeds are similar. GDDR5X vs GDDR6. 11Gb integrated memory vs 8Gb on the newer card. The problem I'm having right now on my current card is that the integrated memory maxes out when playing games like Red Dead Online. Will the memory on the newer card still be insufficient? Or will the faster memory etc. make up for it?

 

[Math Geek]

check out this handy chart. ranks the cards so you can see what is relatively similar to what.

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gpu-hierarchy,4388.html

a 1080 ti is similar to a 6600. while a 3060ti is about a 6700/7600. keep that list bookmarked as you search. it'll come in very handy to you over and over again as you compare and contrast

an upgrade is worth it if it moves you up the list a good bit. going from a 1080 to a 1080 ti would not be worth it at all. a 6700 or 6700xt (3060/3060 ti range) would be the lowest i'd consider an actual upgrade worth the money.