Many users will take advantage of the Christmas season to upgrade your graphics cards, something totally understandable not only because of the dates but also because of the improvement that the price of this component has experienced in general. It is true that prices have not yet fully normalized, 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 It will not be an easy decision. You must take into account your aspirations and your needs, in addition to the configuration of your equipment and the options that you can get based on your budget. Once you are clear about all those graphics cards that fit your budget and your needs, you should opt for one of them, and it is important that you be careful when buying it, since its price may differ in certain retailers.
To help you make this complicated decision, today I want to share with you one of our most popular guides updated today, where we will review five graphics cards that are not worth buying and we will discover five alternatives that are they are an excellent choice. In each case I will explain clearly why said graphics card is not worth it, 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 questions after reading the article you can leave it 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 are not worth it
1.-NVIDIA GeForce GT 730
It’s an entry-level graphics card that still has a huge presence at numerous retailers despite all the time it has under its belt. 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 fabricated on the 28nm node.
There is no doubt that it is a very economical solution, it takes up little space, it is cool and it does not require any type of additional power supply, but it is a model that hit the market in 2014 and that has not only outdatedbut also offers extremely poor performance. With it you will not be able to play any current title smoothly, except for those that are very undemanding.
What alternative is worth it? If you have a budget of less than 100 euros, which is the level at which the GeForce GT 730 is located, the ideal is that you look directly second-hand graphics cards like 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 can play in 1080p without problems, adjusting the quality level to the demands of each game.
2.-AMD Radeon RX 550
We find a model that is well above the previous one, but its price is so high and its performance so low (in proportion) that it’s just not worth it. This model was released in 2017, uses the second-generation Polaris architecture and has good DirectX 12 support, but it is unable to move current games smoothly unless we move at very low resolutions and minimum qualities.
So that you have it easier when buying, 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 go to 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 the second-hand market you can go for one GeForce GTX 1660 6 GB for less than 150 eurosand you can also choose the GeForce GTX 1070 8GB, which are also around the range of 150 euros. On the AMD side you have many second-hand options, such as Radeon RX Vega 56 and the Radeon RX 5600 XTalthough the prices of both are a little higher and it is difficult to find them for less than 160 euros.
3.-NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630
It could be an interesting option within the low range, 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 yields 50% moreso imagine how badly the NVIDIA model positions itself at its current price (190-200 euros).
This graphics card uses the Turing architecture, is compact and has a very low consumption (75 watts), but it lacks tensor cores and it does not have RT cores either, so it does not accelerate ray tracing or 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 worth it? You also have many options, but in the used market the only one you should consider is the Radeon RX 6600, which is priced between 240 and 260 euros. In exchange for those 40-60 euros more, you will get a model with 8 GB of graphics memory that performs almost four times more in games (on average). Within the second-hand market you will also find more powerful graphics cards and for less money, such as the GeForce GTX 1660 6 GB and the GeForce GTX 1070 8 GB for less than 150 euros, the GeForce RTX 2060 for less than 200 euros and the Radeon RX 5700 for less than 200 euros.
4.-AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT
It is a graphics card that in terms of average performance is at the level of a 6 GB GeForce GTX 1060, and that performs a little less than an 8 GB Radeon RX 580. Despite this, its price is still clearly inflated, since around 240 euros, and for that money they do not make any sense to buy it. Also remember 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.
In a strict sense, the Radeon RX 6500 XT is not a bad graphics card, it defends itself quite well at 1080p, and its value would be interesting if it cost a maximum of around 150 euros, but for 240 euros it directly has no place on the market, and in fact it steps on price with the Radeon RX 6600a graphics card that has become available for 229 euros and that yields 70% more than that one.
What alternative is worth it? In the new graphics card market the best option is the Radeon RX 6600, a graphics card that is more than enough in 1080p and that behaves quite well in 1440p. It offers excellent value for money. The GeForce RTX 3050 is another interesting option due to the value offered by DLSS and its performance in ray tracing, although it is more expensive and performs less in rasterization than the Radeon RX 6600. In the second-hand market we have very attractive options, such as the ones that we have named in the three previous points.
5.-NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 12 GB
It is a slightly improved version of the 6 GB GeForce RTX 2060 that performs, in general, slightly less than the GeForce RTX 2060 Super. It offers a good enough performance to move games in 1080p and 1440p without problems, but its price is too high considering what we can find in the market today, since it is around 360 euro.
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 it is not worth considering in the end. It sits squarely with the GeForce RTX 3060, which is more efficient and has the advantage of more advanced architecture, and falls short of other AMD models that offer superior value.
What alternative is worth it? If we focus on the new graphics card market, the Radeon RX 6700 It is, without a doubt, one of the best alternatives that 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. Looking on the used market it’s harder to find attractive options because that Radeon RX 6700 offers fantastic value. Still, we could get a GeForce RTX 3060 Ti for about 350 eurosand we would have the advantage of having the higher performance in ray tracing and the value that DLSS offers.
End Notes: Five Graphics Cards I’d Buy
To round off this guide, and to 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 used, that are a good buy Today within different price ranges, and that you should take into account when upgrading your PC.
To play 1080p on a very limited budget, a few 100 eurosI would buy one directly Radeon RX 580 8GB in the second-hand market, since it is the best option that we can find for that money in relation to price-performance. 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 by 150 euros (maximum).
If I wanted to game enjoy ray tracing and good performance even at 1440p I would go for the GeForce RTX 2060 6GBbut I would buy it second hand, since it is available for less than 200 euro, and new it is difficult for it to fall 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 rounds the 240-260 euro.
Finally, for those who want 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 euro. For example, said graphics card moves above 50 FPS in Shadow of the Tomb Raider set to 4K at maximum quality, and also maintains a good level of fluidity in other Gears V games and even Red Dead Redemption 2. In others For more demanding ones, like Cyberpunk 2077, we will have to lower the quality level, but this is also fully viable in 4K with said graphics card.
Any of those 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 instructions that 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 of indisputable value. In any case, the ideal is that you try to try the card, or that you resort to second-hand stores, since although their prices are usually a little higher They make up for it by offering a guarantee.
