The graphics card sector is still quite turbulent, and the normalization process is taking much longer than expected, and prices have not yet finished returning to normal. With everything, already we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunneland this has made more and more users start to consider buying a new graphics card.
However, after so much time stuck in a market with inflated prices and without being able to update our buying guides because there was no point in doing itSince it wasn’t a good time to buy and I’m not going to recommend something that costs two or three times its recommended price, it’s normal to find yourself lost when we have to start reviewing the offers of the main retailers.
On the other hand, the concurrence of different generations and ranges of graphics cards only complicates things. Choose our new graphics card well can be very complicated, this was a topic that we touched on at the time when we updated one of our most popular guides. Today I want to be more specific, and I am going to share with you three graphics cards that we should not buy, and six alternatives that would be a good alternative, although always keeping in mind that their prices have not yet been normalized.
As always, if you have any questions you can leave it in the comments and I will be happy to help you solve it. I remind you that, if everything goes according to plan, it is likely that in one or two months the price of graphics cards will already has returned almost completely to its recommended levelsso if you can wait a little longer before buying it would be ideal, without a doubt.
Three graphics cards to avoid
Radeon RX 6500 XT: The worst of its generation
This graphics card must be recognized as the worst of its generation, and yes, it has done more than enough to get that rating. The Radeon RX 6500 XT is a graphics card that should be mid-range and that would have to compete with the GeForce RTX 3050, but in the end it has been left in a position that is very difficult to describe, and more typical of a model of mid-low range.
Why is it a graphics card to avoid?
Well, it’s very simple, because it is a model that is heavily covered and trimmed, it only has 4 GB of graphics memory and has not been able to outperform its predecessorthe Radeon RX 5500 XT 4 GB, in fact it performs much better when used in systems with PCIE Gen3 connectors.
The Radeon RX 6500 XT has not lived up to the expectations it has generated. It is a new generation product with lower performance than its previous generation equivalent, and on top of that it is limited to PCIE Gen4 x4, which means that, when installed on a PCIE Gen3 x16 port, work in x4 mode and lose a lot of performance.
It is true that it is one of the graphics cards that is closest to its recommended price, since we can get hold of it for about 232 euros, but it’s a bad investment. It’s better to save a bit more and buy a higher model outright, like the Radeon RX 6600, which has twice the graphics memory and performs between 70% and 111% more, depending on the resolution used.
Recommended alternative: the Radeon RX 6600 if you want to choose an AMD graphics solution (available from 389 euros), or the GeForce RTX 3050 (available from 376.89 euros).
GeForce RTX 2060 with 12 GB: A model without sense
The shortage of graphics cards led to the big players in the sector to make some questionable launches, and the GeForce RTX 2060 12 GB was one of them. Its specifications are similar to those of the GeForce RTX 2060 Super, but it has a 192-bit memory bus, compared to its 256-bit one, and it comes with 12 GB of graphics memory. Its performance is slightly lower to that of the GeForce RTX 2060 Super.
Why is it a graphics card to avoid?
Not only does the GeForce RTX 2060 12GB not offer a significant performance improvement over the GeForce RTX 2060 6GB, but it also It has such a high price that it is directly stepped on with the GeForce RTX 3060, a graphics card that is more powerful in rasterization, and that surpasses it even more in ray tracing. this graphics card It has a starting price of 480 eurosan amount that would allow us to buy a more powerful and new generation graphics card.
It is true that the GeForce RTX 2060 12 GB performs well in gamesand that it can move anything in 1080p and 1440p, but it’s an unlucky model because it has not been known to square in terms of price, and this has relegated it to a position of total irrelevance. Buying this graphics card at the price at which it is available right now is a manual error, so don’t fall for it.
If this graphics card had been placed at a lower price level than the GeForce RTX 3060 yes that would have been an interesting option, but unfortunately it has not been like that. However, we are dealing with a model that is only a purchase to avoid because it has a very poorly adjusted price, which means that if it falls below 300 euros in the future, it could be a solution to consider.
Recommended alternative: If you want to opt for an NVIDIA graphics solution, the best alternative would be the GeForce RTX 3060, which also has 12 GB of GDDR6 graphics memory and can be purchased from €429.95. In case you prefer an AMD graphics card, the Radeon RX 6600 XT would be the closest option, since it can be purchased from 472.05 euros. It’s more powerful in rasterization than the RTX 3060, but it’s also more expensive, performs worse in ray tracing, and lacks the value that DLSS offers, so keep that in mind.
GeForce RTX 3090 Ti: It is the most powerful, but it is too expensive
As a lover of technology, I must admit that I love graphics cards, and that top-of-the-range models I think they are a real “candy”. However, the little difference in performance that they usually offer compared to high-end models and their prohibitive prices make them, in most cases, aa bad investment from the perspective of return per euro invested. The GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is, without a doubt, the maximum exponent of this in the present generation.
Why is it a graphics card to avoid?
The GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is a purchase we should avoid because it only beats the GeForce RTX 3090 by 8% on average, but it is, at the very least, between 400 and 500 euros more expensive than that. Obviously, it is not worth paying that difference to get an average improvement of only 8%, although I understand that those users who want to have the most powerful at all costs will not see a problem in this argument that I have just given you.
In the end, it is what I have said on other occasions, each user is different, and those who can afford to spend 2,000 or 3,000 euros on a graphics card will do so even if the difference in performance compared to the previous model is minimal. You just have to see that the stock of the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is practically sold out to realize it.
Personally, I think the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti has been a brute force demonstration by NVIDIA, a blow of authority on the table with which the green giant has made it clear that it has won the current generation war in terms of performance, and applied to all fronts (rasterization and ray tracing). However, this does not change the fact that within the NVIDIA catalog there are much more interesting graphics cards in price-performance ratio, even if we want to prioritize power.
Recommended alternative: in this case, I think the ideal would be a GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, since it is a graphics card that is only 8% slower, on average, than the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti, and yet it costs half. We can get it from 1,449 euros.
Its performance is excellent, even in 4K, and it holds up very well when activating ray tracing, so it is the best option that exists right now within the high range. The Radeon RX 6900 XT could be an option if you prefer AMD, since we can buy it from 1,396.78 euros, but you should keep in mind that performs up to half less than the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti in ray tracingand what is 6% slower in rasterization.
Is it a good time to buy graphics cards?
I feel totally honest, no, it’s still not a good time, but of course the situation is much better than it was a month ago, and now it is possible to find some graphics cards at really reasonable prices. For example, the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti has a minimum recommended price, in its Founders Edition version, of 1,269 euros, and the version that we have linked to when pointing it out as a recommended alternative to the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti costs 1,449 euros. It is an acceptable price difference, especially considering that it is not a model with a basic finish.
As I told you at the beginning of this guide, if everything goes according to plan, the price of graphics cards should continue to drop until it normalizes between the end of April and the middle of May, approximately. However, we are talking about a possibility, and therefore it may be that in the end the prices do not finish normalizing on those dates either, or even a minor rebound. It wouldn’t be the first time, actually.
On the other hand, it is true that the new generation of graphics cards is getting closer, but we must take this very carefully. That the GeForce RTX 40 and the Radeon RX 7000 will arrive between the third and fourth quarters does not mean that the best thing is to wait, without more. It is possible that these also suffer the consequences of relatively low availability, and that they are also affected by speculation and scalping. If this happens, it is clear that it will be impossible to buy them at their recommended price.
However, if you decide to wait for the new generation of graphics cards, I allow myself to give you a piece of advice, and that is to try to reserve a unit as soon as possible.. Some of our readers did so when the GeForce RTX 30 was announced, and thanks to that they were able to get, for example, a GeForce RTX 3060 Ti for €475, a GeForce RTX 3070 for €550 and a GeForce RTX 3080 for less than €800. , all with custom designs (they weren’t the NVIDIA FE versions). It goes without saying that they made an excellent investment, since this happened at the end of 2020.
Once again I am honest with you, and I believe that speculators they have found a round business in the purchase and resale at inflated prices of graphics cards, and that they are not going to miss the opportunity to earn a lot of money again by doing the same with the new generation graphics cards. However, there is one thing that we have not yet taken into account, and that is what will happen on the second-hand market.
It may be that, with the arrival of new generation graphics cards, there will be a massive arrival of graphics cards GeForce RTX 30 and Radeon RX 6000 to the second-hand marketsomething that could have a very positive impact even on the prices of new models, and that would give many users the opportunity to get a powerful graphics card for a relatively small investment.
If you are concerned about the useful life of those graphics cards, I tell you that you can rest easy, after all Xbox Series X and PS5 have already shown that their GPUs are more or less at the level of an RTX 2060 if we combine rasterization and ray tracing , so even with a 12GB GeForce RTX 3060 you should be able to last pretty much the entire lifecycle of this new generation of consoles.
