How to Choose the Best Graphics Card for Your Budget?

A comprehensive guide to choosing the right graphics card

For gaming enthusiasts, choosing the right graphics card is crucial because if the graphics card lacks the necessary power to handle gamers' preferred games or resolutions, they may encounter lag, stuttering, or an inability to run games at desired settings. Moreover, a mismatched graphics card may not effectively leverage the capabilities of their system and reduce the overall performance. In this article, we will discuss the factors you should consider while choosing the best graphics card for your budget.

Choosing the right card manufacturer:

There are three companies that are leading the graphics card market i.e., Nvidia, AMD, and Intel. Nvidia, among these card manufacturers, is known for its consistent innovation and GPU lineup. They are praised for superior GPU performance and features like ray tracing and DLSS. They offer budget-friendly graphics cards as well as premium models such as the RTX 40-series.

AMD, on the other hand, is a rising competitor of Nvidia. The graphics cards they offer are budget-friendly and they focus more on performance per dollar and power efficiency. The latest AMD generation, the RX 7000 series, provides viable alternatives at various price points.

Intel, compared to Nvidia and AMD, is new to the graphics card market. They mostly target budget-conscious consumers and provide competitive pricing and performance through its Arc Alchemist lineup.

Choosing gaming resolution:

Choosing the right gaming resolution is equally important as choosing the manufacturer in GPU selection. For casual use, 1080p is a better choice as it offers a cost-effective solution. Nvidia RTX 3060 or AMD RX 7600 are suitable for handling tasks and applications at this resolution. Gamers seeking a middle ground can opt for 1440p, where options like Nvidia RTX 4070 Ti, AMD RX 6700 XT, or Intel Arc A770 provide commendable performance. For gaming enthusiasts who want peak gaming experience can opt for 4K. High-end GPUs such as the Nvidia RTX 4090 or AMD RX 7900 XT are well-suited for them.

Budget allocation:

Budget is another crucial factor while choosing the right graphics card. In the sub-$300 category, choices like the Nvidia RTX 3060, upcoming RTX 4060, AMD RX 6600, RX 6600 XT, RX 7600, or Intel Arc A750 and A770 cater to budget-conscious consumers. These options provide 1080p gaming experience. Gamers looking for graphics cards under $1000 can get their hands into more powerful GPUs. Graphics Card under $1000 includes Nvidia RTX 4070, RTX 4070 Ti, AMD RX 6700 XT, RX 6800 XT, and Intel Arc A770 for improved performance at higher resolutions. For those with budgets surpassing $1000, options like the Nvidia RTX 4080 or RTX 4090 present themselves. These GPUs offer top-tier performance for demanding gaming scenarios.

Ensuring Power Supply Compatibility:

It is necessary to ensure the compatibility of the power supply (PSU) with GPU's power requirements as adequate power supply not only ensures optimal performance but also lays the foundation for future upgrades. Each graphics card (GPU) typically comes with specific power consumption recommendations, and these are referred to as either "total graphics power" (TGP) for Nvidia or "total board power" (TBP) for AMD. Selecting a PSU with a higher wattage than initially required offers a margin for future expansion.

Right VRAM Capacity:

The Video Random Access Memory (VRAM) capacity is also a crucial factor for gamers looking to future-proof their systems. VRAM is responsible for storing and quickly accessing data related to graphics. This plays a pivotal role in rendering high-resolution images, videos, and 3D graphics. These days games are increasingly demanding higher VRAM, which makes it imperative to choose GPUs with ample capacity. While more VRAM generally implies better performance, the choice is not as straightforward anymore. Games like Cyberpunk 2077 already require 12GB of VRAM for optimal performance. This implies that it is important to consider 12GB or more to future-proof gaming setups.