Question Good Graphics Cards for £300 - £500?

[Oasis Curator]

Looking at nvidia as I'll be jumping into bed with Intel on my next build.
I'm looking at a total system rebuild from the MAIN PC in my signature, but looking at spending a bit more on a graphics card this time around.

Not sure what my SSD is (PCIe 4 or not), and not sure if I'd need some new ram or not. Also not sure on the motherboard as yet (suggestions welcome), but total budget is around £1000, so wanted some recommendations so I can build the system around that card. The processor is likely to be an i7 as I don't think I'd need the power of an i9, so can save some money there.

Thank you for your assisstance.

 

[bmockeg]

Looking at nvidia as I'll be jumping into bed with Intel on my next build.
I'm looking at a total system rebuild from the MAIN PC in my signature, but looking at spending a bit more on a graphics card this time around.

Not sure what my SSD is (PCIe 4 or not), and not sure if I'd need some new ram or not. Also not sure on the motherboard as yet (suggestions welcome), but total budget is around £1000, so wanted some recommendations so I can build the system around that card. The processor is likely to be an i7 as I don't think I'd need the power of an i9, so can save some money there.

Thank you for your assisstance.

You'll get much better performance and value with AMD, they work with intel just fine.

Nvidia you're looking at 3060 to 3070
AMD 6650XT under $300 to 6800xt at $550

 

[Oasis Curator]

Thanks for the pointers.

Hmm, I did this last time (went with AMD) but then a few months after, it seems nvidia was where it was at. More so is when I was watching some "build it" videos of Planet Zoo and the guy making them pressed a couple of keys and BOOM, all the colours changed and came more alive than ever. Nvidia Freesytle I think it's called? I don't think AMD have that feature.

It's funny as I always seem to be on the other foot: Nikon cameras were top in all the charts, yet everyone I saw on forums has Canon. A model railway controller is clearly better than the rest and I got it as it met my needs, yet everyone seems to use another type (although price could be the contender here).

 

[bmockeg]

Thanks for the pointers.

Hmm, I did this last time (went with AMD) but then a few months after, it seems nvidia was where it was at. More so is when I was watching some "build it" videos of Planet Zoo and the guy making them pressed a couple of keys and BOOM, all the colours changed and came more alive than ever. Nvidia Freesytle I think it's called? I don't think AMD have that feature.

It's funny as I always seem to be on the other foot: Nikon cameras were top in all the charts, yet everyone I saw on forums has Canon. A model railway controller is clearly better than the rest and I got it as it met my needs, yet everyone seems to use another type (although price could be the contender here).

I’ve used both AMD and NVIDIA, even recently. 3060 through 3080 and 6600, 6700xt, 6900xt. NVIDIA had almost no competition for years. This generation is the most competitive maybe ever for the two, but NVIDIA owns the mindshare due to being at the top for so long. I was using a 3080 12g and am currently using a 6900xt and I have not had any issues with either brand. I advise to get the best card you can for the price.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

My last couple of cards have been amd no major issues except one card that I had to return that might have been defective. But the replacement was great after that. My current 6700xt is pretty decent.

 

[Oasis Curator]

Thanks for the pointers.

Still not sure on AMD - more so as a friend was playing a game using nvidia Freesync and the colours looked amazing compared with my washed out look.
Not sure ATi has anything like that?
But also now upping the budget to £500 - £600 but even at that price point, it seems the difference between both companies isn't that much.

 

[Corwin65]

Freesync is an AMD product - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeSync

 

[ohio_buckeye]

Yes freesync is an amd product as the above poster stated. Before freesync you had nvidias proprietary gsync. Same concept but anyway. That said, I personally think colors on amd cards actually look better personally. Nvidia does ray tracing better so I’ll give them that but right now how much ray tracing are you going to do on mid range cards? A lot of times ray tracing can do a bit of a performance hit.