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The current-gen GPUs competing for your $300 budget in early 2025 are the following:
- Nvidia: GeForce RTX 4060 (8 GB)
- AMD: Radeon RX 7600 (8 GB)
- Intel: Arc B580 (12 GB)
Picking the right one is a bit harder and depends on your preferences. In terms of raw performance, the Radeon RX 7600 and GeForce RTX 4060 are evenly matched, but Intel’s new Battlemage GPU is a surprisingly strong challenger with more VRAM and a very appealing price tag. Keep reading for a full rundown of the pros and cons of each, and other important considerations.
NVIDIA Vs. AMD Vs. Intel Under $300
Nvidia has just launched the first high-end RTX 5000-series GPUs and AMD has announced the first RX 9000-series cards. However, more affordable cards around $300 from these new architectures are still months away. The Intel Arc B580, on the other hand, arrived in January of 2025 as part of the all-new Battlemage lineup.
Last update on 2025-04-27 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
In raw rasterization performance, the Radeon RX 7600 and and GeForce RTX 4060 are practically equals, but the Nvidia GPU is significantly better at ray tracing.
As for the Intel alternative, the Arc B580 offers about the same ray-tracing performance as the RTX 4060 at 1080p but is also slightly faster overall.
Relative Gaming Performance with Current $300 GPUs
To put the current mainstream cards into perspective, here is an indication of how they perform (no ray tracing enabled):
The RTX 4060 and RX 7600 are very evenly matched in Futuremark’s Time Spy benchmark, and this reflects their average performance in actual games (with ray tracing disabled). Intel’s Arc B580 is however not as fast in real games as this benchmark score implies but still in the lead by about 5-10%.
Relative Ray-Tracing Performance
Once you enable ray tracing in titles that support it, the chart is usually shuffled in favor of Nvidia cards.
The 3DMark Port Royal benchmark is again overly generous with the Intel GPU, but the Battlemage generation has improved a great deal compared to the previous generation and will occasionally outperform even the RTX 4060.
What About DLSS & FSR Resolution Scaling?
Frame rates at native resolutions are still a determining factor, but upscaling features like Nvidia’s DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) and AMD’s FSR (FidelityFX Super Resolution) have also become increasingly useful and important. Intel also offers a similar solution known as XeSS (Xe Super Sampling).
Nvidia only offers DLSS with its RTX GPU lineup, whereas AMD and Intel’s alternatives work with all graphics cards. Older Nvidia GTX cards can instead benefit from NIS upscaling, a similar but less sophisticated alternative. Any of these technologies is useful for upscaling to higher resolutions, but Nvidia is arguably still in the lead:
Buy Now or Wait?
Upgrading your graphics card is nearly always the most cost-effective way to revive your existing gaming PC. But even early adopters rarely upgrade more often than once every one or two generations. That translates to about once every 2–4 years (or when the latest AAA titles start to feel sluggish).
Another valid reason to postpone a GPU purchase is to time one of the major generational releases.
In early 2025, Nvidia has released the high-end GeForce RTX 5090 and 5080 (Blackwell) cards and AMD has announced the Radeon RX 9070 (RDNA 4).
Their mainstream counterparts are still several months away, but it’s something to keep in mind when shopping for a new card today.
The Best GPU Under $300: Intel Arc B580
Intel’s first Arc A-series cards were launched in mid-2022 to high expectations that they mostly failed to meet. Not only were the cards slower than expected with the launch drivers – they were practically nowhere to be found across North America or Europe. And if you managed to locate an Arc graphics card, it would not be priced competitively compared to the tried-and-tested alternatives from AMD and Nvidia.
Things have changed in 2025 thanks to the all-new Battlemage generation. The Arc B580 in particular is very competitively priced at its starting MSRP of $250, which makes it a price/performance leader. Intel has also made great strides in terms of timely releases of game-ready drivers.
Note that Resizable BAR (ReBAR) support is critical for the Intel Arc GPUs to perform well. This feature is normally available in systems based on 10th-gen Intel Core/AMD Ryzen 3000-series or later. Read more here.
Shopping links:
Best Nvidia GPU Under $300: GeForce RTX 4060
Graphics cards based on Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 4060 GPU were released on 29 June 2023 – about a month after its main AMD competitor, the Radeon RX 7600. There is no Founders Edition reference model of the RTX 4060, but several dual-fan cards from Nvidia’s AIB (add-in board) partners have historically been available at the promised $299 MSRP.
In average gaming performance, the RTX 4060 is not necessarily faster than the RX 7600 but is significantly faster with ray tracing turned on. Compared to previous-gen cards, it sits between the RTX 3060 and RTX 3060 Ti, but due to the limited memory (VRAM) configuration, the lead narrows when you turn up the resolution from 1080p to 1440p or 4K.
Nvidia’s arguably superior software stack gives it an edge compared to the competition. On the downside, it’s usually more expensive than the Arc B580 while also being slightly slower on average .
Shopping links:
Best AMD GPU Under $300: Radeon RX 7600
AMD released the Radeon RX 7600 GPU on May 25, 2023, and immediately reduced its MSRP from an original $299 to $269, which is also reflected in most third-party cards from AMD’s board partners. The name implies that this is a successor to the Radeon RX 6600 non-XT, but it is more technically similar to the RX 6600 XT and RX 6650 XT.
Being based on the new RDNA 3 architecture, it is also faster than all of the RX 6600-series cards and only slightly slower than the RX 6700 XT. Compared to its Nvidia counterparts, it is comparable to the RTX 4060 and usually faster than the RTX 3060.
Much like the RTX 4060, the RX 7600 is limited by its 8GB of VRAM and 128-bit memory bus, meaning that both cards perform best at 1080p without upscaling. At this resolution, the card is still fast enough for high refresh-rate gaming (120+ FPS) in many esports titles and 60+ FPS in more demanding single-player titles.
Shopping links:
RTX 4060 vs. RX 7600: Very Similar Performance
With ray-tracing turned off, Nvidia and AMD’s mainstream cards are very evenly matched in this generation, even if the Nvidia GPU is more power-efficient.
Previous-Gen/Used Graphics Cards
If you want to get the best possible price/performance from your GPU purchase, you may also want to take a look at previous-gen cards and the used market. With some luck, you may be able to find older mid-range GPUs such as AMD’s RX 6800 XT, or Nvidia’s GTX 3070 Ti for less than $300.
Option #1: GeForce RTX 2060
When the pandemic-related shortages were at their worst, Nvidia opted to alleviate the issues by reintroducing the previous-gen GeForce RTX 2060. As the supply chain woes have subsided, there has been a surplus of these popular mid-range graphics cards on the market.
Although the newer RTX 3050 is more efficient, the RTX 2060 remains faster. The RTX 2060’s direct successor, the RTX 3060, is of course faster still but also more expensive.
Note that there are two versions of the desktop RTX 2060: one with 6 GB of VRAM and a newer model with 12 GB. The original 6 GB configuration is usually far more affordable and the frame rate advantage with the 12GB model varies between none at all and less than 10%.
Option #2: Radeon RX 5600 XT
AMD’s Radeon RX 5600 XT GPU was launched in 2020 and is based on the first-gen Navi (RDNA) architecture, replacing the much less efficient Vega and Polaris architectures. This GPU was initially intended to compete with Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1660 Ti. But then Nvidia suddenly lowered the price on its faster, ray tracing-enabled GeForce RTX 2060 to compete directly with the RX 5600 XT.
This in turn prompted AMD to improve the specs of the 5600 XT to help it stay competitive. As a result, the RX 5600 XT is almost as fast as the RX 5700 – and considerably faster on average than the GTX 1660 Ti that it was originally meant to compete with.
Now with similar performance as the GeForce RTX 2060, the RX 5600 XT stands out as one of the most attractive graphics cards in the mid-range segment from earlier generations. What you likely want to check before buying is that you get a card with the best specs, mainly faster VRAM that runs at an effective 14 Gbps instead of 12 Gbps.
RX 5600 XT Vs. RTX 2060 Vs. RX 5700
Here’s a video from the web comparing actual performance in a number of games including Battlefield V, Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, Metro: Exodus, and others. What makes this particularly interesting is that the resolution is 1440p, instead of the 1080p resolution that these graphics cards are intended to target.
Wrapping Up
In early 2025, the $300 price point offers no surprises from Nvidia or AMD, but Intel’s Arc lineup has become far more interesting. The Arc A580 is one of the best GPUs to date from a price/performance perspective.
Nevertheless, if you are aiming for $300, Nvidia’s RTX 4060 is still a safe choice considering Nvidia’s steady stream of driver updates and overall feature set. The RX 7600 is also a solid GPU but is more likely to be replaced soon by better RDNA 4 alternatives.
CPU Pairing and PSU Requirements
To get the most out of your new mid-range GPU, the rest of your PC build should correspond reasonably well to your choice of video card. However, in terms of gaming performance, you won’t gain much by opting for an expensive high-end CPU.
In my view, a good baseline CPU pairing is the AMD Ryzen 5 3600X/5600X or an Intel Core i5-12600K/13600K. When building a new system, a Ryzen 5 7600 and B650 motherboard combo is arguably a great choice. For tighter budgets, AMD’s AM4 platform (like a 5600X3D and B550 board) is excellent value.
You may need a better CPU for other reasons than gaming, but in terms of frame rates, you will get diminishing returns beyond what you get from any of the latest mid-range processors. If the goal is to have your games run more smoothly, your budget will make more of a difference when focused on a faster GPU.
As for the power supply (PSU), AMD recommends a 550 W PSU minimum for the RX 7600. The TDP (Thermal Design Power) is however only 165 W and taking other mid-range components into account, a 450W PSU should be more than enough. Any such power supply on the market will provide you with the single 8-pin PCIe power connector that you need to hook up your GPU. Nvidia’s RTX 4060 is more frugal and the minimum PSU recommendation is only 300 W.
For smaller or larger budgets, check out our guides to the best GPUs under $200 or under $500.
Hi, I was thinking on buying the Arc A770 or the RTX 4060 my main use is going to be for ML which would you recomend more? Also would you reconed paring it with a Ryzen 7 5800x or Ryzen 5 7600x? If im buying a dedicated GPU does having an iGPU matter?
Hi Massimiliano, that’s a hugely interesting question. When just looking at compute performance, the A770 should be faster. But thanks to the Tensor cores (and possibly other factors), Nvidia GPUs perform way better in e.g. Stable Diffusion (https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/stable-diffusion-benchmarks). Developer preference and optimizations for Nvidia also makes it easier in general to get up and running with RTX cards.
Unless I had a highly specific use case where Intel is known to perform well, I would personally go with Nvidia even if it has 50% less VRAM. The choice of CPU (or iGPU) should have little to no effect on these types of GPU workloads.
I made the mistake of buying a 3050 in a laptop. I now see my mistake as the lifespan is shortened a lot by this limiting GPU. Since you cannot upgrade a laptop in any significant way you’re stuck with an earlier end of life. Even mid-range gaming is not affordable in my opinion. But if you go that route don’t get caught up in buying a laptop. Go with an affordable desktop you can at least upgrade and extend out its life better than a laptop. I certainly won’t buy a laptop for gaming again. You need some deep pockets to keep upgrading to next gen laptop hardware.
As someone looking to spend £200 max (the actual price most people spend on a GPU), I find the vast majority of cards which would have been released at that price a year ago are now priced at double this.
So we end up with the only new “mid-range” card the 6600xt being released pretending its a “high-end” card, so it can justify a ludicrous mark up. Its not worth MSRP, let alone the “because its 2021 lets add another 50%” issue.
So what is there for folks to buy at £200? Because I’m quite simply refusing to spend that on a second hand 3-4 year old card that’ll be outdated within 12 months.
Finding a mid-range card at a normal mid-range price is still nearly impossible, unfortunately. The miner-created shortage a few years ago was nothing compared to today’s market.
Availability has improved, but as you mentioned, prices are still extremely inflated. And there is so much pent-up demand now that this could go on for quite some time.
I’ve managed to buy a couple of cards in the past year at somewhat reasonable prices (but still far from normal) by pre-ordering. Had to wait for 2-3 months each time though…
Need a new vid card but prices are out of hand dam bitcoin miners
Hey thx in advance Mr Jesper Berg
the guide is good , anyway do you have any relation with håkan berg the king of birds ?
Hey Pand, thanks! Haha, no I hadn’t even heard of this King of birds, so I had to look him up. A fun guy. His comedic use of Wittgenstein’s duck-rabbit makes me wish I was related 🙂
Could someone tell me the best build on a say 900-1000$ budget for a pc, monitor, keyboard, mouse thanks would be helpful
Thank you for this great article! I haven’t been able to locate the EVGA 2060 KO in Canada for my new build, so all the info here has been a huge help on figuring out a replacement. Thanks!!!
Hey Japser. I’m currently building my first gaming pc and having an issue with finding correctly advertised GPUs. The prices in your article was updated 12 days ago, but none of prices listed here reflect the actual prices. Some of the links you’ve shared take us to either site where the item is $150 to almost 2x the MSRP price you gave us. My question is, why are computer parts or accessories price points so unstable?
this is exactly the article I was looking for! Well put-together and extremely helpful, I’ll definitely be looking at a 5600xt for my current build. Your other article on choosing a 5600xt is also great
Thanks a lot! Glad that it helped 🙂
Hi Jesper!
I’m currently trying to figure out which graphics card is the best fit for my build for 200-300$. I was thinking about the gtx 1660 super but not sure if it’s too much or too little, I’m not really an expert 🙂
My current build has:
gtx1050 2 or 3 gb
ryzen7 1800x
asus b350-plus
16gb crucial ram
not sure about the power suply
I mostly play cs:go and want a card that can give me at least 200fps in every map at relatively low resolution but I’m buying mafia and also play gtaV sometimes so was wondering what was the best fit for me.
I also have 2 monitors (the one I play is 144hz) not sure if that makes any difference in the matter.
Thought you had great advice for the other people so maybe you can help me out.
Hey Seb!
The 1660S is my personal favorite from the current crop of mid-range cards. It’s almost as fast as the 1660 Ti, but usually much cheaper. By itself, this GPU will be able to give you a 200+ fps average in CS:GO, but CS:GO is also one of the older and less demanding games where your CPUs single-core performance (1st-gen Ryzen’s main weakness) might become a bottleneck, particularly at low resolutions.
I still have no doubts whatsoever that you can go above a 144fps average at 1080p to match your monitor. Mafia Definitive and GTA V will also run well. Not at such high frame rates but at least 60+ fps (more at lower settings, of course).
Thanks for the feedback and I will probably buy the 1660s when I can find one in sale. I also asked the same thing in the under 200$ guide so you can just ignore it :).
Also would you recommend any particular 1660s or are they all pretty much the same? Don’t really get why they have such difference in prices if they are the same model.
Sounds like a great plan, best of luck!
My personal preference when choosing a card (any GPU) is to go with a larger cooler if it fits and the price difference is minimal. They usually run cool and with less noise (though the 1660S TDP is only 125W, so no cooler will be taxed too hard). All 1660S cards use the manufacturers’ standard coolers, so there should be few surprises.
And I agree with you in questioning the large price differences. A small premium might be fine in my view if you get better cooling. But just a slight factory overclock, as is often the case, has never been much of a selling point.
Hi Jesper,
I consider myself to be the typical 60fps 1080p gamer when time allows, so these mid range cards are obviously the sweet spot. I don’t follow hardware or gfx card price movements as I generally just upgrade and forget about it.
I’m looking to upgrade and only recently became aware that Nvidia is soon to release the RTX 3000 series and AMD are doing something similar with their Big Navi cards. Historically do such releases have any downward pressure on mid range cards like those discussed in the above article, or is it more like a two speed economy with the impact largely resigned to those who want to game at 1440 or 4K?
tldr; should everyone be holding off from buying a new graphics card right now?
Grant,
From, what I have seen, yes, 4k and 1440 it is like a Corvette vs a Ferrari. Both are greater, just that one is greaterer.
Hi Grant,
That is a very good question. High-end releases typically don’t affect current mid-range card prices by much or at all in the short term. But the RTX 3060 is also likely to arrive soon (sooner than RTX 2060 did by comparison). It could also be aggressively priced if needed to undercut what AMD releases in the same performance bracket (Navi 22).
In that case, this should definitely put some downward pressure on the current mid-range cards in the relatively near future. But those are many ifs and buts, of course.