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What are the best GPUs for gaming under $300?

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Dec 29, 2021

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Here’s the Deal

5 Options Considered

Best GPUs for gaming under $300	Price	Release Date	Memory Type
63 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB	$249.99	Jul 19th, 2016	GDDR5
63 AMD Radeon RX 480	$199	Jun 29th, 2016	GDDR5
-- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB	-	Jul 19th, 2016	GDDR5
-- Palit GTX 1050 Ti 4GB	$245	-	-
-- AMD Radeon RX 470	-	Aug 4th, 2016	GDDR5

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB

Top Pro

Outperforms AMD's RX 480

The GTX 1060 can be seen as NVIDIA's direct competitor to the AMD RX 480, with both cards offering similar price points. The GTX 1060 outperforms the RX 480 in most gaming titles, except for those that are optimized for AMD's Graphics Core Next platform, such as Hitman or Ashes of the Singularity. In most other titles however, such as Battlefield 4, GTA V, Metro: Last Light, Rise of The Tomb Raider, The Division and others, the GTX 1060 outperforms its competition. The average performance increase over the RX 480 is 13,5%. See More

Top Con

Lacks support for SLI

The GTX 1060 does not offer support for SLI - short for Scalable Link Interface - which allows users to install multiple identical graphics cards in order to gain performance. In other words, you can't connect two or more GTX 1060's and run a dual- or multiple-GPU solution which is very remarkable for mid-range graphics cards. See More

Specs

Release Date:Jul 19th, 2016

Memory Type:GDDR5

Memory Size:6 GB

Memory Clock:2002 Mhz

Top Pro

Excellent 1080p and VR performance, suitable for 1440p

The GTX 1060 performs extremely well in 1080 (Full HD) gaming situations, often providing a very playable framerate with maximum fidelity settings. For example, the average FPS in Battlefield 4 under the Ultra Preset is 97.5. In Grand Theft Auto V under very high settings, the card is able to reach an average FPS of 115, which is remarkable for a mid-range graphics card. The GPU also does well in games that are optimized for AMD's architecture such as Ashes of the Singularity, where the GTX 1060 is able to achieve a result of 46 FPS under the Extreme Preset. In short, this GPU performs excellently in demanding gaming situations in 1080p and offers the player a good framerates coupled with maximum graphic settings. For people using a slightly higher resolution such as 1440p (2560 x 1440 pixels), the GTX 1060 also does quite well. When looking back at the Battlefield 4 benchmarks, the GPU handles 1440p and Ultra very well with an average framerate of 62 frames per second. The same can be said for Grand Theft Auto V at 82.5 average FPS and the performance difference in Ashes of the Singularity is quite small at 40 FPS under extreme settings. In terms of performance compared to NVIDIA's previous generation card, the GTX 1060 performs slightly worse than a GTX 980 and floats between the 970 and 980. Compared to the mid-range GTX 960 however, the performance improvement is over 70%. This MSI OC edition is also slightly overclocked with a boost of 40 MHz on the base clock, which will result in slightly better performance as well. In terms of VR performance, the GTX 1060 6 GB scores 7.9 points in the relative SteamVR Performance Benchmark, which is firmly above the 'VR Capable' rating that's given to scores above 6.0. The VR Capable rating implies a steady framerate of at least 90 frames per second in an average VR-situation. See More

Top Con

Disappointing performance improvements when using Vulkan

Vulkan is a graphical API that allows developers to communicate better with the GPU, which in theory should result to performance improvements compared to the more standard DirectX 12 or OpenGL API's. The GTX 1060 doesn't do particularly better in Vulkan however, and the difference with the standard OpenGL is very minimal. Doom is one of the first (and only) titles with support for Vulkan and serves as a good benchmark for OpenGL vs Vulkan performance. Using Ultra settings and a 1080p resolution, the GTX 1060 is able to achieve an average framerate of 101.3 FPS in OpenGL. When tested in Vulkan, the performance difference is unnoticeable at 101.5 FPS, a very slight increase. In 1440p resolution, results for OpenGL are 68.3 FPS, while Vulkan only provides a small performance boost to 69.3 average frames per second. AMD's new Polaris-architecture graphics cards are significantly better optimized for Vulkan compared to the GTX 1060 and other NVIDIA Pascal-based GPU's. For example, the AMD Radeon RX 480 performs significantly better in Vulkan, with 1080p results of 85 FPS for OpenGL and 111 FPS in Vulkan, a 30.59% increase. See More

Top Pro

Consumes little power for its performance

Power consumption levels of the GTX 1060 are very good. While the power consumption is somewhat higher than the previous-generation GTX 960 in some gaming circumstances - the new 1060 is the fastest graphics card on the market with a limited maximum consumption of 120 watts. In an idle situation, the GTX 1060 only uses about 9 watts of power - almost half of the amount a RX 480 requires at 16 watts. When looking at intensive full load scenario's such as a Furmark test, the maximum power consumption measured for the GTX 1060 is around 122 watts - a whopping 44 watts less than AMD's RX 480. See More

Top Pro

Can handle overclocks well

By overclocking your graphics card, you increase the clock speeds of the chip and memory to gain even more performance. The GTX 1060 handles overclocks well, relatively high boosts of over 200 MHz for both the GPU and memory clock speeds aren't uncommon without the use of special cooling solutions. In this case, an overclock of 229 MHz on the GPU and 380 MHz on the memory result in a 14% better performance in Battlefield 3, in 1440p resolution. See More

Top Pro

Offers exclusive features such as Ansel and Simultaneous multi-projection

The GTX 1060 and other Pascal-based GPU's from NVIDIA offer a couple of exclusive features that aren't available on previous-generation graphics cards or current GPU's made by AMD. Taking advantage of the new GPU architecture, NVIDIA has introduced a feature called simultaneous multi-projection. It allows developers of games and applications to improve performance when rendering multiple viewports of the same image. This is particularly useful when using a multi-monitor setup or in virtual reality where two images are required, one for each eye. Simultaneous multi-projection allows up to 16 different viewpoints and only requires calculating the geometry of a scene once. In compatible games, users of multi-screen setups can calibrate this experience so that distortion no longer occurs. Virtual reality games can use SMP to improve performance, although developers will specifically need to implement this feature in their games. Ansel is another feature that is exclusive to NVIDIA's Pascal-based graphics cards. Ansel can be described as a very extensive 'photomode', where you can capture massive in-game screenshots of several gigapixels or capture images in 360 degrees. The player is also able to use filters, adjust camera positions, take HDR-images and share them via the built-in software. See More

Top Pro

Adequate amount of VRAM available

The GTX 1060 comes with 6 gigabytes of VRAM memory, which puts this GPU directly between other mid-range cards with 4 or 8 gigabytes of memory. Lots of video RAM isn't particularly useful in current games, but future titles will most likely take advantage of larger amounts of video memory. 6 GB is considered a sweet spot and the two extra gigabytes compared to the more standard 4 GB makes the card a bit more future proof. See More

AMD Radeon RX 480

Top Pro

Excellent performance for the price

Price/performance wise, The RX 480 is an excellent graphics card. It performs better than previous generation high-end GPU's such as the GTX 980 and is suited for high-quality 1080p and 1440p gaming. In some situations, the RX 480 can even handle games in 4K-resolution, albeit with lower graphical settings. In Rise of the Tomb Raider on 'Very High' quality mode and all other graphical settings set to maximum, the RX 480 achieves an average framerate of 63 FPS in 1080p, 44 frames per second in 1440p and 23 FPS when playing in 4K resolution. Similar results can be seen in benchmarks for Hitman: an average FPS of 75 in 1080p, a very fluent 57 FPS in 1440p and 31 frames per second in 4K. Both Rise of The Tomb Raider and Hitman are DirectX 12 compatible games and can be considered as quite intensive to run. AMD's card also performs excellently in older titles such as Grand Theft Auto V: 84 FPS, 59 FPS and 30 FPS for 1080p, 1440p and 4K, respectively. In Alien Isolation, results of 137 FPS for Full HD, 83 FPS for 1440p and 35 FPS for 4K are achieved. All graphical settings were set to maximum. In short, the RX 480 is ideal for high-fidelity gaming in 1080p and 1440p and often provides the player with a stable framerate of above 60 frames per second with all graphical settings and eyecandy set to the maximum. Gaming in 4K isn't as fluent, but performance can be improved by using less intensive settings. See More

Top Con

Prices inflated and availability low due to mining craze

As of the late spring of 2017, a new cryptocurrency mining boom (ethereum) has greatly increased demand for the higher-end 400 and 500 series RX cards, especially since miners tend to snap up multiple cards. This has led to low stocks and greatly inflated prices. See More

Specs

Release Date:Jun 29th, 2016

Memory Type:GDDR5

Memory Size:8 GB

Memory Clock:2000 MHz

Top Pro

Low power consumption

The AMD RX 480 can be powered via a single 6-pin PCIe power connector with a maximum energy consumption of 150 watts. A single connector not only ensures a low energy consumption, but is also ideal for power supplies with a limited amount of wattage and/or 6-pin connectors. See More

Top Con

Superseded by the RX 580

The RX 580 is essentially a reworked 480, but can perform about 9-10% better, on average. Considering the similar MSRP and what will be a shrinking stock of the 480, a 580 might be a better buy. See More

Top Pro

Some 4 GB version cards can be upgraded to 8 GB with a new BIOS

AMD has chosen to provide all reference RX 480 cards with 8 gigabytes of video memory, even on the cheaper models which are specified for 4 GB only. This applies to the reference cards and most third party RX 480 chips as well - the decision to implement 8 GB regardless of the RX 480 edition was made for performance reasons. A tool has been posted online called ATIFlash, which allows users to edit the BIOS of a '4 GB' RX 480. A BIOS file of the 8 GB card is also available via the same link. It is however only recommended for enthusiast tweakers and is at your own risk. It's also necessary to check if you indeed are using a card with the extra memory, as it's possible newer batches of the RX 480 will effectively limit physical memory to 4 GB. However, this is an easy and especially inexpensive method of upgrading a RX 480 4 GB to a RX 480 8 GB card. See More

Top Con

Power distribution raises some concerns

When the RX 480 cards were released, there was an issue where the GPU would draw too much power from the motherboard's PCIe slot, exceeding the 75W limit. This could lead to instability or permanent damage. AMD has somewhat resolved this issue by re-distributing power usage to the 6-pin connector, which is more capable of handling larger amounts of power than specified. Although this update prevents motherboard damage, the RX 480 still draws more power than stated in the thermal design point (TDP). Users can choose to underclock the GPU to stay completely within the power limits, although this will lead to a minor performance decrease. This setting is turned off by default. See More

Top Pro

Asynchronous shaders improve performance in recent games and VR

The RX 480 offers concurrent/parallel CPU to GPU communication in DirectX 12, Mantle and Vulkan with asynchronous shaders for the stream processors. Asynchronous shaders allow the developers of games to maximize the potential of AMD's new Polaris architecture and this technology is used to optimize DX12, Mantle and Vulkan performance in recently released compatible games. In short, developers can now use multiple task queues and split up GPU power across multiple tasks at the same time. This also works well in virtual reality situations, where head tracking is required. Latency (delay between the images that appear on the display) and stuttering can be reduced by using asynchronous shading. This is reflected in the SteamVR Performance Test, where the RX 480 is given the 'VR Ready' label, indicating that the card is able to maintain a minimum framerate of 90 FPS at all times in an average virtual reality game. See More

Top Con

Limited overclocking potential

AMD has made it a bit harder to overclock the RX 480, as you can no longer adjust the voltage or clockspeed manually. Overclocking potential is disappointing, as the RX 480 does't appear to be stable at slightly higher clockspeeds. For example, a slight base clockspeed increase of 6.5% already caused artifacts and crashes. However, the video memory can be overclocked at maximum speed without many issues. See More

Top Pro

Two RX480 cards are a decent alternative for a single GTX 1080

The GTX 1080 is the second fastest grpahics card by NVIDIA and comes with a price tag of over $600. Two Radeon RX 480 cards configured in a CrossFire-setup perform similarly to a single GTX 1080, but with a much lower combined price tag of around $400. In Ashes of the Singularity, performance is identical with an average framerate of 55 FPS. In most other gaming situations, the two RX 480 cards are a tad slower than a GTX 1060. The dual RX 480's score 16,763 3DMark Firestrike Benchmark points, while the GTX 1080 achieves a result of 17,671 - a five percent increase. In Metro Last Light, two RX 480's are capable of achieving an average framerate of 131 FPS for 1080p, 89 FPS for 1440p and 43 FPS for 4K, respectively. Results for the GTX 1080 are 156 FPS (1080p), 98 FPS (1440p) and 45 FPS (4K). While a single GTX 1080 is still somewhat faster than two Radeon RX480 cards configured in CrossFire, the performance difference can be described as minimal and similar performance can be achieved for a much lower price point. It is worth noting however that not all games support multi-GPU's setups (well), which can lead to marginable performance gains for the second card. This setup also requires more power compared to a single 1080. See More

Top Pro

Great performance improvements in Vulkan-compatible games

When using Vulkan, a graphical API that allows developers to better communicate with the GPU, the RX 480 can achieve great performance improvements compared to the more standard DirectX 12 or OpenGL API's. Some recent games offer support for Vulkan, such as Doom, Dota 2 and Ashes of The Singularity. When playing Doom in 4K, the RX 480 is able to achieve an average framerate of 26 FPS in OpenGL, while Vulkan performance is significantly better at 35 frames per second. Similar results are seen when playing at a lower 1440p or 1080p resolution: 51 FPS (OpenGL) and 69 FPS (Vulkan) and 78 FPS (OpenGL) and 110 FPS (Vulkan), respectively. While NVIDIA's new Pascal architecture is also compatible with the Vulkan API, the AMD RX series benefit greatly from it. In fact, the GTX 1060 which is considered the direct competitor of the RX 480 and is faster than the RX 480 in terms of raw power, does not benefit from using Vulkan at all. Because of this, the RX 480 is still significantly faster as seen in these benchmarks. See More

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB

Top Pro

Consumes little power for its performance

Power consumption levels of the GTX 1060 are very good. While the power consumption is somewhat higher than the previous-generation GTX 960 in some gaming circumstances - the new 1060 is the fastest graphics card on the market with a limited maximum consumption of 120 watts. In an idle situation, the GTX 1060 only uses about 9 watts of power - almost half of the amount a RX 480 requires at 16 watts. When looking at intensive full load scenario's such as a Furmark test, the maximum power consumption measured for the GTX 1060 is around 122 watts - a whopping 44 watts less than AMD's RX 480. The power consumption difference between the GTX 1060 3GB and 6GB is negligible, although the 3GB-version surprisingly consumes around 4 watts more power under load. See More

Top Con

Less ideal for use with high-quality texture settings, not futureproof

Three gigabytes of video memory suffices for most gaming situations in 1080p, but the 3GB version of the GTX 1060 might hit limitations when using high-quality texture packs or when using high-resolution texture options (such as gaming in 4K). Multisample anti-aliasing is also quite memory intensive and is less ideal for use with this version of the GTX 1060. Although the lower memory might not form a major issue nowadays, future titles will require more and more video memory in order to run decently. See More

Specs

Release Date:Jul 19th, 2016

Memory Size:3 GB

Memory Type:GDDR5

Memory Clock:2002 MHz

Top Pro

Excellent 1080p performance, suitable for 1440p

The GTX 1060 (3 GB) performs extremely well in 1080 (Full HD) gaming situations, often providing a very playable framerate with maximum fidelity settings. For example, the average FPS in Rise of The Tomb Raider (maximum settings) is a very smooth 70 frames per second and the card scores 52 average frames per second in Hitman. The 3 GB GTX 1060 also does well in Tom Clancy's The Division, where it achieves a result of 58 average frames per second with maximum detail. Gaming in 1440p is also a possibility with the horse power the GTX 1060 3 GB provides. In Rise of the Tomb Raider, Hitman and The Division - all with maximum settings, the card is able to achieve average framerates of 46, 37 and 41, respectively. Performance can further be improved by toning down the details a bit. When comparing the GTX 1060 3 GB to its bigger 6 GB version with 10% more CUDA cores, a performance decrease is noticeable. In the same benchmarks, the larger 6 GB version has an advantage of 8 FPS in Rise of The Tomb Raider, 13 FPS in Hitman and 4 FPS in The Division, all measured in 1080p. See More

Top Con

Lacks support for SLI

The GTX 1060 does not offer support for SLI - short for Scalable Link Interface - which allows users to install multiple identical graphics cards in order to gain performance. In other words, you can't connect two or more GTX 1060's and run a dual- or multiple-GPU solution which is very remarkable for mid-range graphics cards. See More

Top Pro

Offers exclusive features such as Ansel and Simultaneous multi-projection

The GTX 1060 and other Pascal-based GPU's from NVIDIA offer a couple of exclusive features that aren't available on previous-generation graphics cards or current GPU's made by AMD. Taking advantage of the new GPU architecture, NVIDIA has introduced a feature called simultaneous multi-projection. It allows developers of games and applications to improve performance when rendering multiple viewports of the same image. This is particularly useful when using a multi-monitor setup or in virtual reality where two images are required, one for each eye. Simultaneous multi-projection allows up to 16 different viewpoints and only requires calculating the geometry of a scene once. In compatible games, users of multi-screen setups can calibrate this experience so that distortion no longer occurs. Virtual reality games can use SMP to improve performance, although developers will specifically need to implement this feature in their games. Ansel is another feature that is exclusive to NVIDIA's Pascal-based graphics cards. Ansel can be described as a very extensive 'photomode', where you can capture massive in-game screenshots of several gigapixels or capture images in 360 degrees. The player is also able to use filters, adjust camera positions, take HDR-images and share them via the built-in software. See More

Top Con

Disappointing performance improvements when using Vulkan

Vulkan is a graphical API that allows developers to communicate better with the GPU, which in theory should result to performance improvements compared to the more standard DirectX 12 or OpenGL API's. The GTX 1060 doesn't do particularly better in Vulkan however, and the difference with the standard OpenGL is very minimal. Doom is one of the first (and only) titles with support for Vulkan and serves as a good benchmark for OpenGL vs Vulkan performance. Using Ultra settings and a 1080p resolution, the GTX 1060 3 GB is able to achieve an average framerate of 103 FPS and 65 FPS when tested in 1440p. When using Vulkan, performance improvements are not substantial with 109 FPS (+5,5%) and 71 FPS (+8,5%). AMD's new Polaris-architecture graphics cards are significantly better optimized for Vulkan compared to the GTX 1060 and other NVIDIA Pascal-based GPU's. For example, the AMD Radeon RX 480 performs significantly better in Vulkan, with 1080p results of 85 FPS for OpenGL and 111 FPS in Vulkan, a 30.59% increase. See More

Top Pro

Can handle overclocks well

By overclocking your graphics card, you increase the clock speeds of the chip and memory to gain even more performance. The GTX 1060 handles overclocks well, relatively high boosts of over 200 MHz for both the GPU and memory clock speeds aren't uncommon without the use of special cooling solutions. In this case, an overclock of 229 MHz on the GPU and 380 MHz on the memory result in a 14% better performance in Battlefield 3, in 1440p resolution. See More

AMD Radeon RX 470

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Top Pro

Ideal for 1080p gaming

The RX 470 performs extremely well in recent games when played in Full HD resolution and with the highest possible graphical settings. For example, the RX 470 is able to achieve an average framerate of 117 fps in DOOM. The card also manages to get a very fluid 68 fps in Fallout 4 and even more intensive games such as Hitman perform well with the RX 470, averaging at 67 frames per second. In short, the RX 470 is ideal for playing games with a fluent framerate in 1080p. When gaming on a higher resolution of 1440p (2560 x 1440 pixels), performance on the RX 470 is often a hit or miss. Some more optimized games such as Dirt Rally (52 fps) or DOOM (77 fps). However, some other games will struggle to deliver a fluent gameplay experience. The average 1440p framerate in both The Division and Rise of The Tomb Raider for example hovers around the 45 fps mark, although a higher framerate can be achieved if graphical settings are toned down. See More

Top Con

Mediocre performance-per-watt ratio

The RX 470 uses AMD's new Polaris 10 architecture and is more efficient than previous-generation GPU's, but the performance-per-watt ratio remains somewhat mediocre. The TDP (thermal design point and maximum power consumption) of the RX 470 chip is measured at 125W. The more expensive GTX 1060 by NVIDIA heavily outperforms the RX 470 but still manages to achieve the same levels of power consumption. Efficiency-wise, the Radeon RX 470 doesn't impress. See More

Specs

Release Date:Aug 4th, 2016

Memory Type:GDDR5

Memory Size:4 GB

Memory Clock:1650 MHz

Top Pro

Great performance improvements in Vulkan-compatible games

When using Vulkan, a graphical API that allows developers to better communicate with the GPU, the RX 470 can achieve great performance improvements compared to the more standard DirectX 12 or OpenGL API's. Some recent games offer support for Vulkan, such as Doom, Dota 2 and Ashes of The Singularity. When playing Doom under the standard OpenGL in Ultra Settings and 1080p resolution, the RX470 is able to achieve an average framerate of 84.2 FPS. When using Vulkan however, the same RX 470 performs significantly better with an average result of 101.5 frames per second, a 20.5% performance increase. While NVIDIA's new Pascal architecture is also compatible with the Vulkan API, the AMD RX series benefit more greatly from it. In the same benchmarks, results for the competing GTX 1060 were also provided, where the performance improvement under Vulkan was only 6%. See More

Top Con

Very minimal price difference with RX 480

The RX 470 is positioned slightly under the RX 480 by AMD, but the price difference between these two GPU's is very minimal. Both GPU's hover slightly above the $200 mark, which gives users little reason to purchase a RX 470 instead of a faster RX 480. See More

Top Pro

Asynchronous shaders improve performance in recent games

The RX 470 offers concurrent/parallel CPU to GPU communication in DirectX 12, Mantle and Vulkan with asynchronous shaders for the stream processors. Asynchronous shaders allow the developers of games to maximize the potential of AMD's new Polaris architecture and this technology is used to optimize DX12, Mantle and Vulkan performance in recently released compatible games. In short, developers can now use multiple task queues and split up GPU power across multiple tasks at the same time. This also works well in virtual reality situations, where head tracking is required. Latency (delay between the images that appear on the display) and stuttering can be reduced by using asynchronous shading. Although the RX 470 lacks the overall computing power to render VR games comfortably, the card has been given the 'VR Capable' rating by SteamVR, which implies a stable framerate of over 90 frames per second but not at the level that's recommended for smooth VR experiences. See More

Top Con

Limited overclocking potential

The RX 470 has limited overclocking potential as AMD has decided to cap the maximum memory bandwidth at 1850 MHz. Although GPU clockspeed increases of 10 - 15% aren't uncommon up to 1355 MHz, differences in games are less noticeable because the card tends to struggle with this maximum speed. If AMD had allowed further clockspeed increases of the memory, the RX 470 would be better suited for overclocking. See More

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